Wanderlust

(In advance, the formatting with the photos is super wonky. I got tired of trying to fix it. Sorry.)

(PS - you suck, Blogger. Go home.)


This weekend, I had the opportunity to travel around Turkey a bit with the Exchange Student Network, so I did, and I’m so glad I did! Our schedule was pretty packed, we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, it was a little unorganized, and we spent hours and hours on a bus, but it was such a wonderful trip.

We left around 11pm on Thursday night and headed towards Pamukkale – an area in Turkey known for its hot springs. We drove straight through the night and after some restless bus sleep, we got there in the morning Friday. I had been wanting to visit these hot springs ever since my sister-in-law showed them to me, so I had big expectations. We entered the area and started our tour along the hot springs and I was feeling pretty disappointed at first. I had googled the area and had seen pictures of people sitting in the springs like a hot tub, surrounded on all sides by gorgeous, full hot springs. I was expecting deep hot springs, but as we walked along them, none of them were filled with water and I was feeling cheated, thinking I wouldn’t get the chance to even step foot in the famous Pamukkale hot springs. It turns out that there are three main areas throughout the vast span of the hot springs, and each day, they use pipes to move the water to different areas. Though the large salt flats looked really incredible without water, I had been looking forward to lounging in the water, so when our tour guide turned down the path to a section that was filled with the warm water, I was so thrilled.

The hot springs were everything I could’ve asked for. It was breathtaking to be there. We were up high in the hills of Pamukkale and could look out onto the other hot springs below us and onto the gorgeous mountains in front of us. We were in a fairly shallow area of the hot springs, so we left our shoes, rolled up our jeans and wandered down through them. The floor of the hot springs was rough and the water felt wonderful. We had a little over an hour to move through the hot springs and explore and it was just as wonderful as I had anticipated. I could keep rambling about it, but I won’t do it justice. My photos won’t, either, but they’re better than my words at least.

After the springs, we got to tour through some other great sights in Hierapolis Pamukkale. We saw the beautiful antic pool as well as the ruins of an incredible amphitheater. We had a lot of fun just running around in the warm sun, taking in the ruins and climbing on them (is that disrespectful?). We also visited the Kirmizi Su/Karahayit Village that had some smaller hot springs and souvenir shops and actual chickens   (I spent too much time researching the plural form of “chicken”) crossing the road.

We then had quite the bus ride to our hotel, which truly was 4-star (although the “wifi” was not). We had an awesome buffet dinner and I roomed with my girl, Laura. It was such a pleasure getting to know her and learning a little bit about Holland.

Our hotel was not even a 5-minute walk from the beach and though it was small and a little run down, it was so wonderful to be by the water with new friends and old friends. I just couldn’t help but feel so lucky. My face had some sun from earlier, my feet were worn out from all the places they had been, and I was surrounded by silly conversation.

       

Streets of Ephesus

On day two, we went on a tour through Ephesus, which honestly was a little underwhelming. It could have been because we didn’t have a great tour guide and were with a large group, but I felt like there wasn’t enough to see to fill up our 2 hours (keep in mind, this is 2 hours Turkish time, so it was probably closer to 3 hours) there. I don’t feel like I learned a whole lot of the history of Ephesus from our tour guide, and a whole lot of the time was spent just waiting for the rest of our group to catch up so we could move on. As we got towards the end of the trail through Ephesus, there was a lot more to see, though, and the ruins were really beautiful.

Almost our whole group

The Library in Ephesus

         

"Wall of Wishes"

Virgin Mary's House

During day two, we also saw the Virgin Mary house, and I drank holy water. I felt #blessed (sorry). That evening, we stopped along the coast to grab food and shop for an hour and a half. Kevin and I ended up grabbing a waffle, which is the most delicious treat and I’m determined to bring it back to America. It’s a waffle (duh) that’s warm and covered in any combination of yummy toppings (chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, strawberries, bananas, kiwi, chocolate chips… just to name a few) and then it’s folded taco-style. YUM. Anyways… We grabbed a waffle and we were right near the water. We saw the sun set as men fished in front of us and we talked about books and it was so, so good.

We also took a bus ride to the stunning şirince village. This was arguably my favorite part of the trip. The tiny village was filled with vendors selling various spices, scarves, fake prada purses and wallets, soaps, wines, pottery, and basically everything else you could possibly think of.  It didn’t even feel like we were in Turkey anymore. şirince felt very exotic and unique. We stopped at a wine tasting and I tried pomegranate wine (it was very sweet and delicious!). After walking all through the shops and meeting a man who sold a ring to Brad Pitt in the film Troy (he was pretty nonchalant about it, but in a way where you could tell he mentioned it to approximately everyone who ever came into his shop), we got some ice cream and went to check out the view of the very Tuscan-feeling village around us. We decided to climb one of the hills near the village and we had the most amazing view. It was just breathtaking. We sat on the grass, bathed in warm sunlight, and looked out onto the mountains and valleys filled with rows of grape vines and red-roofed houses. It was so lovely. We laughed about stupid things and I picked flowers while the boys threw rocks and

kids rustled in the bushes behind us. Again, my words really don’t do the scene any justice, but as if it wasn’t gorgeous enough, there were horses near us and the weather could not have been more perfect. şirince is the kind of village I pictured when I thought about traveling and studying abroad, it was just incredible. Looking at the red-roofed homes from the hill, it almost felt a little like what I imagine Italy might feel like, and it also felt like we went back in time just a little bit. It was so picturesque and the ice cream cone in my hand didn’t hurt, either. I could’ve stayed on that hill all day, I think.

On our last day, Izmir was rainy and chilly, but a few of us still ventured to the beach after breakfast and before we had to leave. I just marveled at the waves and decided right then and there that I will live by water someday. There’s something so captivating about water and waves. I could watch them roll in forever. We checked out of the hotel and spent some time in the main part of Izmir city. It is a tourist town and we were there during the off-season, so it didn’t quite feel like all it was cracked up to be, but Ashton, Kevin and I still had a great time. We found a restaurant called Baks and we managed to eat lunch for cheap (which is quite the accomplishment for the swanky area we were in). It was really nice, we took our time eating and drank Salep while it rained. Salep is a warm drink they have in Turkey that’s sweet and thick and silky. It’s almost like a sweet, warm, thicker version of milk that they sprinkle cinnamon on. Its closest American comparison would probably be a Chai tea latte, but salep is much sweeter. We had plenty of time, and Turks serve their drinks very hot, so you’re forced to take your time letting it cool and sipping it and just being with the people you’re with. We talked about our families, and the games we played as kids, and the Beatles before starting the long bus ride back to Istanbul.

It was really so fun to leave Istanbul for a little bit and to see so many new, exciting things and adventure a bit. But it was also really good to get back and to feel the familiarity of my small radius in this city. To know the streets and sounds and restaurants, to feel the wind wisp my hair away in soft circles around my face, to brush shoulders as I pass people on the narrow sidewalks, and to hear cars honking their horns at one another every few minutes. Walking to class today, I realized it’s going to be so hard to leave this place; Istanbul has been different from how I imagined it in almost every way possible, and there’s a lot of beauty in having your expectations completely changed.

It was so comforting to be back in Istanbul, and that caught me off guard. I miss all my people back home, of course, but it feels a lot more like nostalgia than it does homesickness. Being here is a lot like I feel about being at K-State – it’s not my childhood home, but it is home, too. Now, I just have a third, equally lovely home in Istanbul. And I’m more than ok with that.