Pamukkale

In the middle of Turkey lies one of the strangest sites in the world (and now one of my top 10 favorite things I have ever seen), and that is Pamukkale. In Turkish, it means "cotton castle", and literally looks like a mountain of snow from far away. As you get closer however, and you realize it is 90 degrees outside, you can see the water running down from the top and the pools of water that have been formed.

(Top)-Pamukkale, awaiting a huge storm (we have bad luck with weather!)

(Bottom)- Entrance to site. It actually is very slippery!

We arrived via a city nearby called Denizli, and stayed at a nice family-run hostel the night before visiting the site. From there (as it was raining again!) we ate a home-cooked dinner and watched from a fuzzy old TV screen the USA try its hardest to beat England in the World Cup. Most everyone else thought we were Australian or British and were confused on why we were routing for the USA. American is always the last guess people have for us- some have said I am Turkish before thinking I am American!

The following morning we headed out to visit Pamukkale and the ancient ruins of Hierapolis. After entering, you reach a point where the stone of the mountain becomes pure white and your shoes have to come off- the surprise to us was that you have to walk up through it barefoot! The white hardened surface, actually calcium carbonate, covers the whole area of the site and it is said there are hot springs as well. Though it looks soft, it is actually really hard and feels like smooth rock. Water flows down the whole way and visitors get to walk through the pools to move higher in the site. It is a strange and unique experience just to walk up the mountain, taking in the scenic view and beautiful formations from the calcium and water. (Unfortunately, there are also tourists half naked in speedos and bikinis taking ridiculous pictures, which kinds of ruins the unique historic feel.) Pamukkale was definitely the best thing we have seen in Turkey so far.

After we toured Hierapolis, an ancient Greek city and UNESCO World Heritage Site that sits atop Pamukkale. However, not much remains intact except for the Theater and ruins stored in the museum. Someone had recommended we travel 5km west to see the "Red Water Source" where it is said you can go swimming. To us it sounded interesting, so we walked the 5km in the dead afternoon heat, only to find after much searching that it was only a small hot spring. You definitely could not swim in it, as it was pretty small and the water near boiling temperature!

Our next and final stop was Antalya, and again we packed our stuff, got on a Dolmus (minibus) to Denizli and another bus to Antalya. Here we also planned to Couchsurf and..... finally! our host came through. We navigated our way through this new city to meet him and finally arrived at his big, new, modern apartment (with 2 big beds for us to sleep in!)

Touring Istanbul

There is a lot to see in Istanbul and a large area to cover, but the day after we arrived Marissa and I braved the rain and headed a few streets over from our hostel to the Blue Mosque. Stunningly beautiful from the outside, the Blue Mosque is equally as breathtaking from the inside. It was built in the early 17^th century and its called the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles on the walls inside. It is still a functioning public mosque, and tourists can only enter through a separate entrance between prayer times.

Tourists also have to dress appropriately, which for women means loose pants or a skirt and a shirt that covers your shoulders and arms fully. They also require you to put a scarf over your head, out of respect. Marissa only had to put on a sweater and scarf, but apparently my t-shirt and leggings were not appropriate, and I had to put fabric over my legs, a sweater, and a scarf. A good note- though leggings cover you, they are not a good thing to wear in the Middle East as they are a little too form-fitting it seems.

Inside of the Blue Mosque the best thing to do is look up-there is beautiful Arabic calligraphy all over the ceiling. Also, the light coming in from the stained-glass windows brings all kinds of amazing colors into the mosque. I have always been a fan of Islamic architecture, and the Blue Mosque offers exceptional highlights of it. We had to just stop and look around for a few minutes, it requires a little time for your eyes to be able to take it all in!

After the Blue Mosque we headed next door to the Aya Sofia, or Hagia Sofia. There is some debate about which is nicer, but our vote was the outside of the Blue Mosque is best, but the inside of the Aya Sofia is truly unique. It was once a church, then transformed into a mosque, and now stands as a museum. Here it was amazing to see the mix of Muslim and Christian influences, as in the front of the building there is tiling of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, but below sits the minbar (or pulpit in a mosque) and mihrab (indicates direction of prayer, to Mecca), mixed with other essential parts of the mosque as well. The six huge circles in gold and black, each with a holy name in Islam, stand out among anything else though. They are what captured my attention as they are so beautiful, and I think became my favorite part.

In the afternoon we decided to venture to the Grand Bazaar only to have a look around, although not buying anything is pretty difficult among the hundreds of stands selling neat souvenirs. After a while it all seems to look the same, and we eventually left with only a few things, and decided it was better to spend our money on some delicious Turkish pastries.

Me in front of the Blue Mosque

Inside of the Aya Sofia- on the top is the mosaic of the Virgin and on each side sits a holy name in Islam: Allah (God) on the right, and Mohammed (the Prophet) on the left.

Turkey: The Beginning

Having now spent a full week in Turkey, I have decided to start a blog of my summer travels (and hopefully those to come as well). In just these seven days I have had some stories and adventures that I feel are definitely worth sharing.

I am traveling around the Middle East this summer with my friend Marissa Johnson. We met almost 3 years ago while studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain, and found ourselves back in Spain again this past year teaching English, myself in Malaga and Marissa in Granada. As our jobs finished and the summer was about to begin, we were both ready to leave Europe and travel to a new part of the world. Our itinerary is: Turkey, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Egypt.

Currently we are in Antalya, a city on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, but first I'll back up and talk about what we have seen and been through in the days leading up to now...