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| All the volunteers on our day off - Black Sea, Kerpe |
Well after a week at Nar Eğitim ve Danışmanlık, I was completely rejuvenated - in terms of health, inspiration and happiness. I found everything I could've ever asked for and maybe even got a little more. It is a wonderful place with amazing people and I would really like to one day go back, during the spring/summer to see the place in full bloom!
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| Konak, Izmir |
And what an amazing journey this is becoming! I continued making my way down to the southwest region of Turkey with a Chilean friend I met on the farm named Daphne. By chance, we ended up being the perfect travel buddies and in the end, pretty great friends as well :) We made it down to Izmir, where we met two other friends from the farm and I had my first couch surfing experience. I was pretty skeptical of this couch surfing idea, but quickly came to learn how great of a thing it can be - as long as you are careful, of course. Our host in Izmir, Heval, was great and we learned how to cook some delicious Turkish foods, and enjoyed good company and conversation. One of my favorite things is getting a small group of people from all over the world (in this case: Turkey, Chile, Syria, Canada and the States were involved) around a table with a couple beers, you truly can learn so much.
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| Yahya, me, Gina, Daphne & Heval |
The five of us ventured to Selçuk by train, to explore the ancient city of Ephesus. It began rainy but quickly cleared up to be a beautiful day. Ephesus is one of the greatest ruined cities in the western world, beginning as a Greek city in 1000 BC, it was later a Roman city and played an important role in the spreading of Christianity. My favorite part of Ephesus was the theatre - picturesque and almost haunting, as I tried to imagine the hundreds of empty seats filled with people and the noises of entertainment echoing throughout the perfectly constructed acoustics of the building. The Celsus Library is the most well known structure in the site, and was equally as impressive. We spent the whole day leisurely exploring, taking our time before making our way back to Izmir for the night.
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| Celsus Library, Ephesus |
From there, our friends from the farm, Yahya and Gina, had to return to Istanbul so Daphne and I made our way south to Denizli. There we would spend the next three days, exploring Pamukkale and Hierapolis. One word could sum it up easily - breathtaking. Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site of hot springs and travertines. The terraces form when water from the hot springs lose carbon dioxide as it runs down the slopes, leaving deposits of the calcium carbonate (occurring naturally as limestone). It is a very incredible place, one where I could easily spend days upon days photographing. You take your shoes off, in an effort to not cause damage, as most of the terraces have now been closed off to visitors because of the damage that has already been done.
Once you walk up Pamukkale, you reach Hierapolis - an ancient Greco-Roman city in Phrygia. It's name means "sacred city," and was believed by the ancients to have been founded by the god Apollo. The hot springs were believed to have healing properties, and people came to the city to bathe in the rich mineral waters in order to cure various ailments. There is the Sacred Pool, which is warmed by hot springs and littered with underwater fragments of ancient marble columns. But again, I think the theatre was my favorite part of this ancient site as well - there is just something about them. We spent two whole days exploring these two sites, taking our time and enjoying all they had to offer. In the hostel we stayed at we met two girls from Alaska who were great - we ended up having dinner with them a couple times and making the best of the ghost town of a place that Pamukkale is during the off season.
So, after our ventures south to see some really incredible stuff, we have returned to Izmir and are staying with a new couch surfing host, Gulsah. Daphne is heading to Israel today so we must sadly part ways, and I will continue my travel north - where I will eventually (finally) find myself in Çanakkale, where I will work on the olive farm that I originally planned on in the beginning of my trip. Along the way, I will hopefully take a ferry to the Grecian island Chios, see the ancient ruins of Purgamum, visit the city of Troy and enjoy whatever else happens upon my path!
And what an amazing journey this is becoming! I continued making my way down to the southwest region of Turkey with a Chilean friend I met on the farm named Daphne. By chance, we ended up being the perfect travel buddies and in the end, pretty great friends as well :) We made it down to Izmir, where we met two other friends from the farm and I had my first couch surfing experience. I was pretty skeptical of this couch surfing idea, but quickly came to learn how great of a thing it can be - as long as you are careful, of course. Our host in Izmir, Heval, was great and we learned how to cook some delicious Turkish foods, and enjoyed good company and conversation. One of my favorite things is getting a small group of people from all over the world (in this case: Turkey, Chile, Syria, Canada and the States were involved) around a table with a couple beers, you truly can learn so much.
The five of us ventured to Selçuk by train, to explore the ancient city of Ephesus. It began rainy but quickly cleared up to be a beautiful day. Ephesus is one of the greatest ruined cities in the western world, beginning as a Greek city in 1000 BC, it was later a Roman city and played an important role in the spreading of Christianity. My favorite part of Ephesus was the theatre - picturesque and almost haunting, as I tried to imagine the hundreds of empty seats filled with people and the noises of entertainment echoing throughout the perfectly constructed acoustics of the building. The Celsus Library is the most well known structure in the site, and was equally as impressive. We spent the whole day leisurely exploring, taking our time before making our way back to Izmir for the night.
From there, our friends from the farm, Yahya and Gina, had to return to Istanbul so Daphne and I made our way south to Denizli. There we would spend the next three days, exploring Pamukkale and Hierapolis. One word could sum it up easily - breathtaking. Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site of hot springs and travertines. The terraces form when water from the hot springs lose carbon dioxide as it runs down the slopes, leaving deposits of the calcium carbonate (occurring naturally as limestone). It is a very incredible place, one where I could easily spend days upon days photographing. You take your shoes off, in an effort to not cause damage, as most of the terraces have now been closed off to visitors because of the damage that has already been done.
Once you walk up Pamukkale, you reach Hierapolis - an ancient Greco-Roman city in Phrygia. It's name means "sacred city," and was believed by the ancients to have been founded by the god Apollo. The hot springs were believed to have healing properties, and people came to the city to bathe in the rich mineral waters in order to cure various ailments. There is the Sacred Pool, which is warmed by hot springs and littered with underwater fragments of ancient marble columns. But again, I think the theatre was my favorite part of this ancient site as well - there is just something about them. We spent two whole days exploring these two sites, taking our time and enjoying all they had to offer. In the hostel we stayed at we met two girls from Alaska who were great - we ended up having dinner with them a couple times and making the best of the ghost town of a place that Pamukkale is during the off season.
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