Turkey, Bodrom - Pamukkale

To go from Santorini to Turkey we decided to take a ferry. Our previous ferry experiences (insert derogatory gay joke here) was the Blue & Gold fleet in San Francisco Bay and some other small domestic ferries. What we got was a cruise ship like experience. The ride from Santorini to Kos, a Greek island close to Turkey, was only 3 hours but we (Lara and I) had our own cabin with bathroom and shower. In the common area of the ferry was a movie theatre and several bars including a nice outdoor sitting area. Since we had a long day ahead of us we decided to catch some sleep.

We arrived at Kos at 6am and we had made arrangements to take a ferry from Kos (Greece) to Bodrom (Turkey) at 4pm. Upon arriving in Bodrom we would rent a car and drive 3+ hours to Pamukkale. When we actually arrived in Kos we walked around the waterfront and realized there were 2 dozen boats that all advertised that they do Turkey excursions to Bodrom at 9am. We signed up for one of these guys and headed out at 9am.

The ride from Kos to Bodrom was definitely not the cruise ship like experience we had just had from Santorini to Kos. The boat was the ferry like experience we were expecting including high winds and rough waters. When we crossed the maritime border halfway in our trip the boat lowers the Greek flag and raises the Turkish flag. We're not sure why they do this, but we took a picture of us showing 7, the number of countries we had now visited on our journey.

The border crossing in Turkey went smoothly, but since we had made plans to arrive in Turkey at 5pm and we had arrived at 10am, we had to wait a bit until our rental car arrived. We waited for the car to arrive at the Bodrom marina. At 12pm sharp the call to prayer went out. Hearing the mosques all around us make the call to prayer was a quick reminder that we're in a Muslim country. It was also the first time any of us had witnessed a call to prayer. Of course it wasn't so much a call to prayer has just a guy chanting over a loud speaker. Nothing changed or occurred in this bustling town during or after the call.

The drive from Bodrom to Pamukkale was 4 hours of the craziest driving I had ever experienced. Lara's dad, Mike, was our driver and did a great job. The German Autobahn has nothing on Turkey's roads. The quality of the roads isn't that great and the drivers fly on them. 80km speed limit on a winding two lane mountain road, people were flying by us at 120km in a no passing lane. The drive was a little crazy, but totally amazing. This was the first time that we got away from cities and towns because we had been travelling via train exclusively. We were able to see small villages and stop at road side stores. Even going to the bathroom was an experience. Of course the worst experience was filling up the gas tank.... $135 to fill up a small SUV gas tank. Ouch.

The next morning we went to Pamukkale. Pamukkale is a small town in the southwest/south central area of Turkey. It has natural warm springs with a very high mineral content. Because of this, the hillsides of Pamukkale are white from the calcium deposits that have been built up over the millenia. Pamukkale was once a large Roman colony, built for the warm springs. The real reason we came here though is because Lara wrote a report on Turkey in grade school and ever since she has wanted to visit Pamukkale. Pamukkale is very cool. We zipped through the 'junkyard' of the old Roman colony and then went to the hot pools. There is a large pool that has been built around some Roman ruins so that you can swim in the Roman ruins. I passed it up, but Lara and her mom could no resist. I have to admit it looked very cool.

One thing we noticed upon arriving in Turkey was the near complete disappearance of American tourists. Taking the place of American tourists in Pamukkale were Russian tourists who absolutely loved the hot springs and took more glamor shots than Japanese tourists, amazing.

After the hot springs we ventured out and explored the white hillsides. From a short distance the hillsides appear to be covered in snow and ice. In reality they are just white from the calcium and are very smooth. The water that flows over the area is also very warm. It was a completely unique place.