Spring Break!

For spring break, I went with a group on a tour of south western Turkey. The group included Ethan, Fiona, Emma, Nicole, and Andrew from the US, Zehra and Angel from Singapore, and Barlas from Turkey. As with fall break last semester, this was such a fantastic group of people and the best part really was hanging out with them, which is saying something cause the rest of the trip was incredible as well.

I missed a day at Pergamum and met up with the group in Selçuk, near Izmir, where we saw Ephesus. This was an ancient Greek city that later became Roman. This place is old. Like, really old. We're talking centuries B.C. What's so amazing is how good it looks despite its age. What's left is really beautiful, columns, capitals, mosaics, facades.... It was really stunning how well preserved it is.

This one's for you, Therese:

This is the facade to the library (?), probably my favorite part:

Here's the amphitheater:

Also, in Selçuk we were lured into a rug shop that had really beautiful works. The owner of course was pretty eager that we get something, but seemed content with just showing us his wares since all that is expensive. Here was one of my favorites:

In the hotel in Selçuk there weren't many other guests besides us, but at breakfast a couple boys our age were at the next table. I couldn't tell what language they were speaking and I was dying of curiosity. Every once in a while it would sound like Spanish, which really threw me off cause that's one I should recognize. Finally I asked them and it turned out they were BASQUE!!!!! And they were SPEAKING BASQUE!!!!!!!!! I was excited beyond expression. I basked in their Basqueness. I've never met Basque people my age, and certainly not people who had grown up learning the language. I floated for the rest of the day.

After Selçuk we took a bus to Pamukkale. This is one of the places that I remember my mom talking about since I was very young, so it was really really special for me to be able to actually go and see it. And, of course, it was mind-blowing. Pamukkale has two really cool things: a necropolis (think fancy Roman graveyard) and huge hill of calcium bicarbonate. There are pools in the hill that fill up with water that varies from warm to cool. Here's us walking up:

And here's a view of the necropolis:

We ran around and climbed on the tombs for a bit :).

Next we went to Aphrodisias, an ancient Greek city in honor of the goddess Aphrodite. The ruins here were amazing as well. Here's part of Aphrodite's Temple:

There were a whole bunch of other sites as well, including a massive stadium incredibly intact. It was so cool to sit on the seats and imagine who was sitting in that exact spot thousands of years ago and what they were watching. We enacted gladiator fights and olympic games in the field :D

Next we went to Fethiye. As usual, I didn't know anything about this place before going and was more than pleasantly stunned. Here wasn't so much about ancient ruins as it was about gorgeous nature. We took a hike starting off at a ghost town that had belonged to Greek Turks who were forced to emigrate to Greece during the Population Exchange of 1923:

The rest of the hike over the mountain and to the Mediterranean Sea was gorgeous. The vegetation made me feel like I was back in California (a lot of pines and warm weather :D), but then cresting the hill the sea appeared in colors I've only ever associated with the tropics. It's really hard to tell in these photos cause Blogger seems to post them rather washed out, but you get the idea:

Here we picnicked on the beach and swam, despite the fact that by this point the sunny weather had turned gray and slightly chilly. I also ran into a couple of my friends from Oxy!! I had seen them briefly in Istanbul before heading south, but hadn't realized that they were going to the same place. That was really really nice.

The next day we took a hike into Butterfly Valley. Usually, people get here by boat, since the valley is lined by vertical (actually, though) cliffs that even cut off the beach. Instead, we decided to take the vertical-cliff route. Asking locals how to get there or for advice, most of them advised not to try this hike, to the extent that two of our group opted out. The rest of us were game, though. Amazingly, Angel even climbed down in cute flats since none of us had realized we would need to bring serious hiking boots on the trip. It was definitely difficult. There were many sections that were so steep, ropes had been tied along them, without which I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been possible. Also, the rocks at these places were slippery in the humid climate. But it really wasn't as difficult as I, at least, was afraid, and a couple in our group were experienced hikers so it was all good. Ultimately, it was incredibly rewarding and definitely a good bonding experience. And of course the valley itself was beautiful. At the bottom we first headed to the back of the valley where there was a waterfall, which of course we climbed. Then we had a picnic on the beach and headed back up, at which point it was raining :P So glad I go to the gym every once in a while.

Our next destination was Olympos. The hostel where we stayed while here was really neat, super hippy. It's actually referred to as the tree-houses, even though only the "princess suite" is in an actual tree. There was a fire pit in the middle of the camp with Ottoman-style cushioned seating areas around. The surrounding nature was beautiful, including a creek that passed right next to the property. Actually, the highlight of this part of the trip was probably just sitting in this area at night, playing the guitar and singing along to songs on the computer. Sort of technologically advanced hippies. Something we did do while here was go to the Chimera. This is a hill where natural gas leaks at various points and burns. Apparently ancient people interpreted the fires as a monster with a lion's body, a snake's tail, and a goat's head (chimera). We only saw it during the day, but it was still pretty cool. Here's Ethan dancing at one of the fires:

Our last stop was Antalya, a town famous for its warm beaches. At this point we were all pretty exhausted, so we took it pretty easy. We walked through the big bazaar, bought some cheap knock-off goods, ate some delicious lahmacun (bread with minced meat on top),.... We also spur of the moment took a boat tour (Emma and Fiona):

Angel and Zehra are good friends with a Koc student who lives in Antalya, so she took us out to dinner on our last night. It was really a delicious, semi-fancy dinner. Afterwards Angel Zehra and I went out clubbing :DD

The next day we had a little bit of trouble with the bus service home, but figured it out eventually and spent the following 8 or 9 hours traveling. Fortunately, Turks take bus travel seriously. It was comfortable, we could charge our iPods, and we were constantly served cookies and refreshments. We came home really tired, but it was a fantastic trip :D