Today I was bright eyed and bushy tailed while everyone else was feeling absolutely rubbish! To start the day we headed to the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (which later became a Roman City).
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - no need to guess why - I thought it didn’t get better than the ruins of Pergamum but I was happily mistaken - I can’t even describe how breath taking this place was, walking around what was once and actual city that the ancient Greeks and Romans walked through thousands of years ago - how do you comprehend it? Its one of the biggest must-sees of the tour thats for sure! You’ll see in one of the photos above what they used to use for toilets - not alot of privacy! It was 28 degrees when we were walking through here so an ice cream was needed before we boarded the bus to continue on our way to Pamukkale!
On the way, we stopped at a leather good factory where they put on a mini fashion show - out of everyone I got pulled up, taken back stage, dressed in a leather coat and sunnies and made to walk down the runway... was all good fun though! Then we stopped at an incredible carpet making company - the workmanship that goes into one carpet was remarkable. It can take 9 months to make just one square meter of carpet by hand and we got to see such talented women creating a piece of carpet each, one knot at a time. Of course I was in my element photographing every piece of carpet - the designs were so inspiring! Then we all got given apple tea and they rolled out carpet upon carpet for us to see. The building was huge and as you walk down the corridor there is room after room after room each with an individual business selling carpet - it was really something else! Everywhere you go in Turkey there seems to be carpet especially at markets like the Grand Bazaar - being a tourist I’m not sure how we are meant to buy it and carry it through customs!!
On the way, we stopped at a leather good factory where they put on a mini fashion show - out of everyone I got pulled up, taken back stage, dressed in a leather coat and sunnies and made to walk down the runway... was all good fun though! Then we stopped at an incredible carpet making company - the workmanship that goes into one carpet was remarkable. It can take 9 months to make just one square meter of carpet by hand and we got to see such talented women creating a piece of carpet each, one knot at a time. Of course I was in my element photographing every piece of carpet - the designs were so inspiring! Then we all got given apple tea and they rolled out carpet upon carpet for us to see. The building was huge and as you walk down the corridor there is room after room after room each with an individual business selling carpet - it was really something else! Everywhere you go in Turkey there seems to be carpet especially at markets like the Grand Bazaar - being a tourist I’m not sure how we are meant to buy it and carry it through customs!!
To finish the day we headed to Pamukkale which is famous for its unique cascades of natural mineral rich pools - it was so beautiful. When I saw this on the brochure before booking I thought it was snow! Its an incredible mountain like area of white rock and the water is so fresh, clear and warm. It went down layer by layer - everyone has to take there shoes off before stepping onto it so you have to be careful walking barefoot down the layers and in the water but wow it was so cool!!! Highly recommend! We then headed to our hotel where there were hot thermal pools and all chilled out and relaxed. I was out like a light that night and didn’t wake up till 6am when we had to get up and get ready for our 11 hour bus ride back to Istanbul which actually went quite quickly as we were watching movies and sleeping most of the way. An ice cream fight with one of the Aussie boys at lunch ended with me in a puddle of water and mud so I spent the last half of the bus trip soaked and I had to sing again for being last on the bus which wasn't fair! I survived though - thanks to my fair share of experiences growing up with an older brother - having my clothes ruined by mud and sitting in dampness for a few hours wasn't the worst thing that I have had to endure in my lifetime! Love you Greig!
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