02/21/19
We met up with the rest of the group at 730AM at a nearby hotel. From Kusadasi, we drove 3 hours to Pamukkale. We drove through a few towns such as Nazili where the average age of life expectancy is 88 years old with oldest being 100. There are no fumes and mountains all around with sustenance being natural nuts. Pamukkale translated in Turkish means Cotton Castle.
When we arrived at the ancient city of Hierapolis, Guray walked us through to show us the theatre, Hades Gate and eventually brought us to Cleopatra’s Ancient Pools. The government protects Cleopatra’s bath. The entry fee to enter the baths are 50TL with a 10TL for lockers and do not include towels. Cleopatra’s bath. The natural waters come from Cleopatra’s bath (36°C) filled with mineral-rich thermal waters that flow down into the white calcium carbonate travertine terraces.
Guray gave us 1.5 hours to roam the terraces. Depending on the week, they choose which portion of the travertine terraces the water will flow to. There are no shoes allowed. The ground is full of so much textures and can be abrasive to walk on at certain points. Be aware that there are patches that are slippery! It was absolutely a perfect day with temperatures reaching 16°C and we finally could soak in some sun. The actual terraces are filled with mineral riched waters but also freezing cold. There is a hot stream of water that flows down which is flowing with the same water coming from the thermal pools of Cleopatra’s Pool.
Our plan was to walk down as far as we could then take photos as we went back up. We decided half way through to not walk all the way down because we would lose the effect of the terraces and it was just so beautiful in every direction so we didn’t need to go further. The sun was out shiny so at certain points we didn’t know if are photos were over exposed or not.
We took our time on these terraces but the path back to the buses is something you should try to take a moment to see. The view from above is different and you can see it all. We went directly to lunch and afterwards like all the other tours, we stopped by a jewelry store.
We got transported to the tour office and since we had time, we went nearby to have a coffee and tea break with Danee and Paolo. The ride to Denizli airport seemed so long but we all fell asleep. Into the airport we went and we all took time apart to just disconnect and connect to social media. A 45-minute flight later and back in Istanbul. Our tour company had arranged rides back to our hotels and it just so happened Danee and Paolo were riding with us back to Sultanahmet/Ortakoy area. Allegra their daughter has a lot of emotion and doesn’t like to say goodbye. We said our goodbyes and our hearts broke when she said “ I don’t want my friends to leave” and tears came rolling down her cheeks. She blew us a kiss and off they went.
Prior this trip, I applied for this travel experiment called Yuujou. It started as an idea to see if we would be able to travel the world from Berlin to Tokyo in 100 days but only travelling through friends of friends. A week before this Turkey trip, I was the first to make it to the Top 10 out of 30,000 applicants in 167 countries (which is still wild to me). Since then, I have many people within the Yuujou community that have been following me on social media. While I am travelling, I tend to post daily on social media (since all the information is fresh – helps me keep organized). I had chatted with another person who lives in Turkey but in another town too far away from Istanbul or the other towns we visited. I did get a message from another Yuujou applicant name Jidechukwu (Jide) and he wanted to meet up if we had time. I had messaged him and originally planned to meet up Friday but we had time Thursday night so we arranged to meet when we arrived back to Istanbul.
Now, back to the night we returned to Istanbul from Pamukkale. We met with Jide for a late dinner. We had taken the tram to the Taksim Square area for a late dinner but by the time we had made it to that area, the restaurant decided to close early so on the metro we went. We arrived at Pehlivan, which was a 24/7 restaurant. You can pick what items you want and just ring it up. They had employees who even carried our food upstairs for us. Jide is originally from Ebu, Nigeria and was a Computer Engineer. He moved to Istanbul about 2 years ago and now is working in the Immigration protocols industry. We ended up talking until 230AM about a whole bunch of things including yoga, football and the correct pronunciation of hippopotamus. It’s a strange but wonderful connection that Yuujou has been able to do and the actual journey for Yuujou hadn’t even begun yet. The Yuujou adventure will take place starting March 31st – with a 2 week workshop in Berlin and the official start date will be April 11th, 2019 – July 20th, 2019. Two teams of 3 will split up (one goes East and the other West) starting in Berlin in hopes of meeting the other team in Tokyo in 100 days. Watch the adventure as it unfolds! YUUJOU
