Chester here, reporting on the second half of our Turkish adventures and also second half of our trip! We haven't booked tickets back home yet, but it is looking like we will spend the last weeks of our trip in India then be back in California by the second week in November. As such, the middle of August is where we pass the fifty percent mark and start being closer to the end than the start of this long journey.
We decided the best way to see what western Turkey had to offer would be with our own wheels, so we rented a car for six days and drove it from Antalya to Izmir. This was quite a distance and involved a lot more hours in the car than we had done in either Italy or Slovenia. The overriding theme of the week would be ruins of which Turkey has many. We also explored some small towns and beaches, all of which I cover below before wrapping up with some thoughts and feelings.
Termessos
After picking up the car in Antalya, we headed northwest and climbed into the mountains to Termessos, a ruin I was particularly drawn to based on a description stumbled across in Lonely Planet:
"Hidden high in a rugged mountain valley lies the ruined but still massive ancient city of Termessos. Neither Greek nor Lycian, the inhabitants were Pisidian, fierce and prone to warring. They successfully fought off Alexander the Great in 333 BC, and the Romans (perhaps wisely) accepted Termessos’ wishes to remain independent and an ally in 70 BC."
Fierce independent mountain kingdom that gave the finger to Alexander the Great? Sign me up! Nikita was a little less enthusiastic for the cause, but was a good sport and pushed past the initial uphill climb from the parking lot with me to explore. Luckily the weather was a little cooler up in the mountains, and as we made our way through the forest we began to see chunks of walls and buildings that had once been Termessos. The big payoff though was undoubtedly the theater though, sitting in a small bowl with a dramatic backdrop of mountains descending to the coast.
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| Looking one way, wow! |
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| Looking the other way, wow! |
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| Walls in the forest |
This dramatic combination of the ancient and the natural was fantastic and made Termessos one of my favorite stops in Turkey. If you ever happen to be around Antalya I would highly recommend making the climb up there.
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| The approach to Termessos |
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| Me pointing at a cool rock, which is in fact the top of a column. |
Pamukkale and Hieropolis
Pamukkale is a geothermal area about 80 miles inland from the Turkish coast that draws millions of tourists each year. Translating to "Cotton Castle", tourist pamphlets show snow-white terraces with pools of aquamarine water, a serene haven and geological wonder.
Unfortunately, the Cotton Castle was a letdown for us. Perhaps it was the season, but the white terraces formation were largely dry and a bit dirty looking. The pools that were filled and open to wading were filled before 8AM with people jostling for the perfect Instagram shot and the pools were clouded from all the feet that were wading in them. Perhaps we are spoiled on geothermal features as we visited Yellowstone just last year, but we found Pamukkale to be lacking in comparison to its hype. Oh well.
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| Pa-meh-kale |
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| Dry as. |
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| Some of the pools where wading was not allowed. |
Luckily, in Turkey you are never far from a ruin, and in the case of Pamukkale, there is the ancient city of Hieropolis right next to it. You are able to explore both on the same ticket, so explore we did. Hieropolis served as sort of a Florida retirement home of the ancient world, drawing retirees from around the Greek and Roman world to thermal baths for a few years of ease before crossing the river Styx.
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| Nikita at the gates of Justinian |
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| The massive amphitheater |
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| I don't know what this is, but Nikita took a great picture of it! |
Speaking of the river Styx, one of my favorite things at Hieropolis was the Ploutonion. This was a site for the worship of Pluto, god of the underworld. It was located at Hieropolis because of the same geothermal openings that bring warm water to the baths also emit sulfurous fumes that evoke the underworld, hence a ritual center was built on top where rites such as animal sacrifice (via sulfurous fume suffocation) would take place. Pretty brutal!
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| The Ploutonion |
While Pamukkale was a bit of a disappointment, Hieropolis was cool enough to justify the trip so we were glad we got to see it as well.
Ephesus
The crown jewel of ruins in Turkey, Ephesus was the capital of Roman Asia and a bustling trading port during Roman times. Today, the well-preserved ruins are still bustling with people who arrive by boat, but those boats just happen to be cruise ships and most of the coast around this region is oriented around tours of the ancient city.
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| Library of Celsus |
Seeking to avoid the midday crowds and heat, we arrived at 8AM, which worked like a charm. The city was not empty, but we were able to explore freely and ogle at the magnificent Library of Celsus without much distraction. We did a loop up the sloping main avenue of the city and explored the higher reaches with many temples and the small theater. One point of frustration was the larger main amphitheater was closed for restoration, but that is just the way it is sometimes.
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| Looking down the main avenue with a sleepy pup. |
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| Cool carvings. |
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| Rhapsodizing in the theater. |
We ended around 10AM, just as it was really starting to heat up and tour buses from cruises started unloading in the parking lot. One thing we did before leaving was the "Ephesus Experience Museum", a sort of 3D theater walkthrough thing, very new and shiny. It was cool, but was sort of an odd juxtaposition to some of the other more rundown parts of the museum outside.
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| Saying hello to a permanent resident. |
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| Reconstructed shrines at Ephesus |
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| The experience museum experience. |
Dilek National Park
Alas, it was not all ruins all week. We had to sleep, and as mandatory on the Mediterranean in summer, spend at least one day at the beach. Around Ephesus, we did both these things at Dilek National Park. Our accommodation was a bit off the beaten path in an old Greek town called Doğanbey, a charming village of stone houses with a distant sea view.
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| Doğanbey |
We spent a day on the other side of the peninsula at a rustic beach and also a lovely evening at a small village of fish restaurants. While there were plenty of Turkish tourists in these spots, it was clear that we were in some areas that saw less English speakers than most other places we had been in Turkey or elsewhere.
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| Scene on the beach. Rustic is relative here I suppose. |
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| Boats in the breeze. |
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| Wine and a lot of wind. |
Alaçati and Urla Peninsula
The last spot we visited on this leg was Alaçati which I found through some determined Googling for less touristy spots on the Turkish coast. About 45 minutes from the major city of Izmir, Alaçati is not much on the international tourist radar as it lacks a cruise port or beach resorts, but it is an absolutely buzzing weekend destination for Turks.
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| Busy evening streets. |
We spent two nights here, both evenings spent exploring, shopping (Nikita bought four pairs of earrings, a necklace, and a dress) and people-watching on the busy streets of Alaçati, which was also formerly Greek. On our free day, we explored a bit around the peninsula finding a lovely beach and doing some wine tasting, though the amount of dirt roads was a bit limiting in our rental car.
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| The coastline on the Urla Peninsula |
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| Toasting to Turkish wine |
Projections and Reflections
This week was a funny one for us as it largely came about from a planning error we made and have written about previously. Long story short, Turkey was not on either of our list of desired destinations, but we needed to spend more time out of the EU and Turkey emerged as the best option. As we had a certain number of days to fill, we did our research and came up with largely we ended up doing in this week. The thing is, at times it did feel like we were just filling time. Days were definitely a little overly padded with time, and we found ourselves not particularly drawn to either more ruins or more beaches; Nikita was also battling a bad cough. Small problems to be sure, but definitely a defining quality of the week.
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| On the way to Pamukkale... |
More generally though, Nikita and I found ourselves discussing our general ambivalence towards Turkey on our many long drives. It was hard to put into words exactly, but something about Turkey did not quite click with us as much as other countries. One reason this could be is the occasional overly aggressive sales tactics encountered in stores that makes you feel more like a mark than a customer. This extends to the government as well, which charges somewhat ridiculous prices for entry to ruins (Ephesus for example is 40€, for comparison the Coliseum complex in Rome is 18€). Understandable to a degree to make money of foreign tourists, but does leave a bad taste in your mouth at a certain point.
That said, there were some things we did like, no ambivalence: the wonderful breakfasts, dinners of kebabs and mezze, and the dozens of friendly stray cats and dogs we saw in every stop. Turkey is a huge country both geographically and demographically (85 million!) and to make any kind of country-wide objective judgement with our three weeks of experience would be silly.
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| Seriously, amazing breakfasts. |
Besides - we aren't even done with Turkey yet. We still have one more location that we are very excited to visit before we hop to Greece. Nikita will be writing about that one, so keep your eyes peeled!
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