Day 4: Minoring in Asia Anatolia !
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Moving the Campaign to Anatolia
Mike and Bone rose just a little fuzzy from the beerfest the night before, but a little water and Turkish coffee cleared the fuzz like a razor to face! Packing up and out the Bone were going to go "west young man" on the south side of the Bosporus, the Asian part of Turkey also know as Anatolia, but first Bone wanted to check out the World War I Museum in the Town of Gallipoli.
"Good Freakin' Grief! Whatta Waste of Time"
Bone wanted to check out the World War I Museum in the town of Gallipoli about 5 south of the Hotel. In every WWI site in Belgium and France, there was a modern museum with great displays and information. This museum was not any of that. It was an old house that had been converted. Since Museum did not open till 9:00, the Boys headed down around 8:40 and waited ,,, till 9:15 ,,,, till 9:30 ,,,, when they decided this was a waste of an hour!!
Fortunately, they did not need to drive an half hour back to the first ferry site, since there was a ferry in Gallipolis, with that they bid adieu to the fascinating Dardanelles Peninsula, boarded the next ferry, and headed into Asia Minor or as it is called Anatolia.
Ambling through Anatolia
Anatolia (from Greek "east"), also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in West Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. People have inhabited Anatolia back to the Paleolithic Age. The Hattians, Hurrians, Assyrians, Hittites (the Trojans?), Greeks and Romans have all traipsed, travelled, and trampled, on this ground for the past 6,000 years! Mike and Bone were simply the latest invasion!
As Mike and Bone ambled along they realized one of their concerns on the trip was flat out wrong, and that was bad and dangerous roads in the Heartland of Turkey. What they found was new, convenient freeways everywhere with Service Centers every 1/2 hour with "strange" Turkish shops like Burger King, McDonalds, Starbucks and ok yeah, a Shish Kebab chain! The Boys were heading to a very cool archeological Greco-Roman site with an amazing geological environment known in Turkish as Pamukkale.
The Path to Pamukkale
It was a couple hour trip where Mike and Bone tooled west away from the coast and into the heartland that was a heck of a lot hotter in the interior than on the coast. As they drove they noticed the terrain moved from hilly to mountainous; lush with trees to semi-arid, giving the Boys a good feel for what was in Turkey!
Finally, around 3:30 Mike and Bone saw signs for Pamukkale and started to come upon a very poor village, they did see signs (in English!) for a 5-Star Resort which immediately got the Boy's attentions since they did not know how many options they had if they had any availability
A 5-Star Turkish is Probably a 3-Star in the US!
The good news was they had availability! The bad news is, it was closer to a Motel than a Hotel ! But beggars can't be choosers! So One Room, two beds then the Boys decided to cool themselves internally and externally.
Internally with a open bar that served pretty good local beers, and externally with a fairly nice pool to jump into! Soon Mike and Bone were soaking the sun and suds, getting out only to get more beers.
The Cotton Hills of Calcium !
They enjoyed this until it cooled a bit around 6:30 and thought to check out one of the major reasons for the trip to Pamukkale, because it is self-identified as the "8th Wonder of the World!" Pamukkale home to the largest and finest example of elaborate calcium formation in the world! According to ancient tradition, the waters contain natural healing powers.
The Boys could see the "Cotton Castle" from the Hotel, (in fact Pamukkale is Turkish for Cotton Castle.) and Decided to check it out before the Hotel Dinner Buffet. They got to the entrance only to be denied, it closes at 5:30 and was fenced in with security cops with guns, not worth trying to sneak in, especially since they were going to spend the whole morning there the next day! Anyways the beers made them hungry and their Turkish Gourmet Buffet was ready!
A Gourmet Buffet! (sort of )
