Lycia - The following day we took a boat ride to Iztuzu beach where we saw a Loggerhead Sea Turtle and blue crab. The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is an endangered species, and our guides had to throw in blue crab as bait in order to get it to surface. We saw one a few times but very briefly; not enough time to snap a picture!
Iztuzu is a narrow spit of land that has the Mediterranean on one side and the Dalyan river on the other. Some people in our group were brave enough to swim in the chilly water but we just dipped our toes in... we certainly got a taste of what European swimsuits are like!
Ephesus - Next we visited Ephesus which was an ancient Greek city and then later a major Roman city. It too was destroyed by an earthquake in 614AD and is now being restored. It was incredible. There was so much history in the rubble and it was hard to imagine that it was once a huge, flourishing city.
Below are a few of the many snapshots we took while we were there:
- Top Right Photo - These are actually toilets from the communal men's restroom. Because the toilets were made of marble, the masters used to make their slaves sit on it to warm them up before they were used... yikes! Woman were also in the restroom to sing to the men so there would be entertainment. Sounds like two terrible jobs to me!
- Middle Photo - This is the entrance to the Library of Celsus. It was once the third largest library and held 12,000 scrolls but they were all destroyed by fire when the earthquake struck. There's a few sculptures and Greek writings on the outside that of course Aaron could read (Fraternity life taught him well!)
- Bottom Left Photo - Ephesus used to be a city next to the sea. It had a huge port which led to many sailors coming into the city to drink and have fun. This carving which was on a walkway leading into the city shows a foot, woman's head and a heart; it was a sign that showed the direction to one of the cities brothels!
- Bottom Right Photo - This was the theater seating 25,000. In it there were performances and during the Roman period, Gladiator fights. There's actually a huge Gladiator graveyard in Ephesus too which is how they know there were fights here.
Right as we were finishing our tour at Ephesus a thunder storm suddenly hit. Dark clouds and huge drops of rain rolled in quickly. Aaron and I had no jackets or umbrellas, so we ran for cover under one of the archways along with another crowd of people. We all packed in like sardines under the small arch. Once we had squished in, we realized that we were with an entirely different tour group speaking a foreign language; talk about the odd people out! We were awkwardly right in the middle of the group, but couldn't move. We stood laughing and asking "is this really happening?" for about 10 minutes while the clouds passed watching people walk by drenched from head to toe. When we were ready to leave, it was nearly impossible to squeeze out. It is one of my favorite memories from our trip : )
Pamukkale and Hierapolis - These cotton castles are natural hot springs made from terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. Pamukkale means "cotton castles" and Hierapolis is the ancient city that was built just above it. We waded around in the water for a while and traveled down the different pools. In order to preserve the minerals, you can't wear your shoes in! I kept thinking that it was snow and I expected the water to be cold, but it was actually pretty warm.
We also walked to the Hierapolis theater which overlooked the Pamukkale and went inside a museum with ancient artifacts, sculptures and tombs. The museum was built inside an old Turkish bath. I love Greek mythology so I really enjoyed seeing the sculptures and marble carving depicting the Greek Gods, Goddesses and myths.
Turkish Carpet-Making, Jewelry and Leather Shop - On the last few days of our trip, we visited a few factories and shops along the way to Antalya.
The Turkish Carpet-Making factory was really cool. We watched Turkish women make the carpets (top left photo); it can sometimes take up to a year to finish a carpet depending on the size! And we unexpectedly came home with a Turkish carpet of our own : ) We haggled until we got half price and it was our one souvenir from the trip which we love. But when we were buying it, the woman charged us euros instead of pounds and then wanted to charge us the remaining amount in pounds. She did not realize who she was talking to! Aaron jumped in about the rate that HSBC would give us to convert our pounds to euro and that we would ultimately be paying more for her mistake... basically only things that someone working in foreign currency would know. In the end we got a little more knocked off the price and I was pretty glad to have him with me because I would've just said, "yeah, sure. That's fine!"
The Leather Shop was a different story. Who knew leather was so expensive? We saw a fashion show and then they called two people up from our group to model some of the jackets... I'll give you one guess as to who was called up?!?! Yes, Aaron and I were Turkish models. I swear that they picked the most hideous leather jackets to put us in though! There is photographic proof but I will not be putting any up here : )
Antalya - This was the city we flew into and left out of. In the collage above, the top right photo is a picture of the city and the bottom left photo is a picture of Hadrian's Gate built in 130 AD. We walked around and also visited a waterfall which was gorgeous. The coast was amazing - blueish/turquoise, clear water.
All in all, a great trip to celebrate 6 months of marriage. But it is good to be home : )
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