Antalya-Pammukale

We lie in bed enjoying the aircon, trying to decide which way we want to go today. Pammukale or Olympus... It's a tough decision and we agonise over it, throwing the pro's and cons back and forth like a tennis match. I am worried that we will end up in a resort, just another beach with rows and rows of umbrellas, and weather too hot to do anything but lie on the beach. Not that that's all bad mind you, but feeling like that's all we've done for days makes you feel like you should be moving on.

Eventually we make the call. Pammukale here we come.

We get a shuttle to the Otogar and board our bus only twenty minutes later. Boy is this a nicer bus than our overnight one! There's wifi, electricity to charge your devices, and as soon as we drive off they bring us all an ice cream, quickly followed by a drink and snack! Luxury. None of the movies or TV shows are in English, but who cares. I work on the blog and skim photo's while Willy reads his book taking time to peer out the window at the hilly, rocky, pale desert and odd patch of trees.

At Denzili we navigate the bus station and find our mini bus which takes us out to Pamukkale. We arrive it the late afternoon and before we can find accomodation we get picked up by some random (but very nice) guy. Fortunately neither of us lose a kidney and we arrive at our hotel unscathed - although his 400 meters turns out to be more like a ten minute walk. We are shown the room, it smells like soap, is spotlessly clean, and has aircon! There is also a pool, also spotless, and a restaurant on site - best of all there's a laundry service!!! So we are winning at this stage.

We are invited down to join our hosts for a welcome drink, as this is Turkey, that drink is obviously tea. It's really good, we are developing a slight addiction to fruit teas right now, and we wing a conversation re the All Blacks. This is the second time that we have heard that Kiwi tourists are dropping off, I wonder if it's because it's too close to Syria, whether Turkey is no longer the "it" place with Kiwis preferring to hit up new hot spots like Croatia, or whether there are other factors at play. I love Turkey, I am forever grateful that we included it in our itinerary.

We have a swim then wander into town just in time to catch the sunset and check out the pools. The limestone covered hills are insanely beautiful, you just can't do the justice through a lens. It looks for all intents and purposes that the hills are covered in snow, it is totally surreal. We are going to enter the park tomorrow - I am so excited!

After wandering back to the hotel we order some dinner, it's a family run operation and mum cooks us the most incredible feed. We go to bed happy, full, and excited for tomorrow.