Today, we headed out of Izmir by bus in the morning to check out Ephesus. After about an hour and a half, we arrived to the main bus station in Selcuk, to then change to a dolmush van to Ephesus. Just after about 10 minutes, we arrived at the gates and started our tour of the amazing ruins left at Ephesus.
While I’ve seen a lot of Roman ruins by this point, these were quite impressive. Amazingly built in 10th century BC, this is a remarkable remaining site of amazing architecture and buildings, this society impressed all people by its amazing structures, precision buildings, and amazing infrastructure.
It was a hot day, but we went through the entire city walking along the streets seeing the sewage system, Roman baths, the Library of Celsus, and all the administrative office type buildings. The layout is so amazing to see how they designed cities that were completely functional and similar to how we live today.
After a full day checking out the ruins, we got on our bus a little earlier to head to Pamukkale a little earlier so we could get settled. Arriving in Pamukkale was amazingly efficient despite having to change buses a few times. We were dropped off near the village center, and we walked around to find our hotel which was a little hard to find, but we finally found it. We checked in by seeing my name on a key at the front desk. So we got into our room and settled in and went out front to relax by the pool.
This little town was really cute, and as soon as we started walking, we saw the huge puffs of calcium clouds on the mountain towering over the village. It looks like the entrance into a snow ski resort with snow everywhere. We got a good dinner enjoying the weather and people watching at this backyard type venue. We had a lot of great food, and then walked around in the evening exploring this little village.
The next morning, we got up and got ready to go to the calcium pools for the day. We hiked up the mountain and at the point of where the calcium starts, you take off your shoes and walk through the waters up the hill. They are all terraced down the hill, and the water was coolish/warm, and supposedly has some medicinal qualities to it. We went in a few pools at the bottom, and continued our way to the top to enjoy the view looking down from the mountain.
Once at the top, we had fun watching all the Russians make the most ridiculous sexual poses in front of these calcium clouds which we’d been warned about before. It was absolutely hilarious to see all these selfies and poses happen.
At the top, we got another great view of the village below, and all the beautiful cool blue colored travines. At the top, an old pool still exists with fallen statues in the clear blue spring waters. It was expensive to get in, and completely flooded by the Russians, so we continued up to the ruins of the arena/stadium for yet another great view of the vast landscape below. Again, I was impressed by the scale at which these buildings and stadiums were built so long ago. It’s truly awe-inspiring.
We then took our time leaving the park by hitting up the calcium baths and doused ourselves in calcium sands like I did at the Dead Sea. It was funny to get muddied up and hopefully it works to heal whatever :)
We then got back into town and relaxed for the evening over a good meal and rested from the day.
The next morning, I headed out for Kusadasi and Robert was heading back to Istanbul to see the city before going back to Texas.
