Day 5, Tuesday 13 May
Last night I was a complete zombie after having been up since 3:15am. I really wasn't functioning properly at all, so only typed up a blog entry and recharged a few things, didn't download any photos, so had to do that this morning. Didn't have time to finish copying everything to usb sticks though. I think I slept reasonably well though, and didn't get woken up by the 4:45am call to prayer.
Didn't eat too much breakfast (there was a *huge* spread of food again, but strangely not all that much really appealed).
Our first stop of the day was Laodicea, an ancient town that has only been excavated in the past ten years. We strolled down colonnaded streets, visited the temple, was impressed with theatres that have basically been untouched since they were uncovered and peeked in at the church and mosaics etc that they've been gradually unearthing. Very cool place.
East Byzantine Gate at Laodicea
The Syria street in Laodicea
The Syria street in Laodicea
Temple in Laodicea
Temple in Laodicea
Our tour guide Selim Akin in the temple in Laodicea
Group photo at Laodicea
Looking into the excavations protected by a glass roof
Ruins at Laodicea
Ruins at Laodicea
Lizard in Laodicea
Excavations in Laodicea
The Syria street in Laodicea
West theatre in Laodicea
Colonnaded street in Laodicea
North theatre in Laodicea
North theatre in Laodicea
Ruins at Laodicea
Restoration works at Laodicea
View along the street from the temple to the north theatre
Photo by Mum
Restoration works at Laodicea
Then we headed off on a longish drive through some very pretty countryside, and kept passing/being passed by a friendly truckie who waved and smiled back when I had waved earlier, which was pretty fun.
View of the pretty countryside near Cankurtaran
Small dam and countryside near Akyar
We had lunch in another restaurant much like the one yesterday and in fact had the same choice of four dishes for lunch. So I had the mushrooms this time. There was this old guy there playing some sort of lute/guitar thing, and he had a rainbow lorikeet that would sing and dance to the music he was playing. He put it on the back of a chair, so I picked it up.. super cool! :)
Me with a rainbow lorikeet at lunch
Photo by Mum
Then we went to Aphrodisias, another recently excavated ancient city. This one was a bit more up and down which afforded some great views of the place. I really liked the stadium, which aside from having been dug down, is intact from its original condition, they haven't done any restoration work with it at all. Totally amazing.
Sarcophagi at Aphrodisias
Sarcophagi at Aphrodisias
Sebasteion at Aphrodisias
Stonework at Aphrodisias
Ruins at Aphrodisias
South agora at Aphrodisias
South agora at Aphrodisias
Theatre at Aphrodisias
Theatre at Aphrodisias
South agora at Aphrodisias
Bruce at Aphrodisias
Courtyard at Aphrodisias
Ruins at Aphrodisias
Bouleuterion at Aphrodisias
Temple of Aphrodite
Temple of Aphrodite
Stadium at Aphrodisias
Stadium at Aphrodisias
Tetrapilon at Aphrodisias
Stonework at Aphrodisias Museum
Sebasteion reliefs at Aphrodisias Museum
Bellerophon statue at Aphrodisias Museum
Then another long drive (three hours all up). Had a pitstop in the middle at a servo/bazaar which had chickies and a public pool out the back. Random. The bus also got a wash.
Reservoir on Dandalas Stream near Güzelköy
Kuşadası Castle from the coach
Yılancı Burnu from the coach near the hotel
Our hotel is on the Aegean Sea and has a wonderful outlook over the sea. I was soooo happy to finally get a room with a view :):):) Couldn't work the safe though and had to get the staff to reset it (pretty much everything else had the same problem too). There was no friendly hotel guide either, so didn't even know the number for reception, but wasn't too hard to figure out. Couldn't get the wifi to work before dinner either, but it was working afterwards.
Lovely setting at Carina Hotel
Had some super tasty lamb kebab meat with dinner then came up to download photos and blog. Feel all hot and stinky, might have a shower before bed.
Other notes from today ..
My pedometer is basically dead. It recorded a bit over two thousand steps today but I did much more. I did some tests with it and it's definitely not recording properly. I think I might have killed it getting off the plane in Istanbul when it got knocked off and dropped onto the tarmac. It seemingly records on one plane but not another, so maybe I damaged its innards.
I also think I'm getting the bug that has been going around the group for two weeks. Poop.