Cruising

Real quick post, as I am now operating on the principle that short frequent posts are better than nothing at all.
We are currently docked in the harbor town of Kas (still in Turkey) and on the second day of our Mediterranean gület cruise. The water is impossibly blue and clear, the sun bright, and not a cloud in the sky. If you are thinking "gosh, I'm jealous", well, you should be.
I am sitting in the internet and the captain of our boat has just come in and given me an ayran drink to try for the first time. It is a Turkish drink of plain yogurt, water and salt. The Turkish swear by it for feeling better in hot weather, but as far as I am concerned, the jury is still out.
More from my next stop. Basically the last 48 hours have been spent laying in the sun.

Jive Turkey

Turkey is fabulous. I would reccommend it highly as a vacation spot. A lot of the landscape along the western (Aegean) coast has been reminding Laurel and I of northern California. We are now in a small town called Pamukkale where the major attraction is the Tavertine Pools that line the hillside. It is a bizarre calcium formation which creates an other-worldly feel that looks frozen and icy but the temperature outside is a solid 85 degrees and you are required to walk barefoot so as not to damage the environment. We will spend the day here swimming amoungst the to fallen pillars and ruins of Heiropolis before heading out this afternoon to the town of Köyceðýz (another word I cannot pronounce no matter how hard I try) further south and toward the water. It sounds like there is some sort of famous booze cruise that departs from there ... we'll see about that.

On the way here we had the opportunity to stop off at Gallipoli to tour the ANZAC battle sites of World War I (much more signýfýcant to the Aussies and Kiwis, but nonetheless interesting). We also stopped to see the ruins of the ancient city of Troy and the ruins of Ephesus which were pretty spectacular.

Ok -- time for a dip! I'm off to Heiropolis.