[Editor's Note: Many words contained herein are not, in
fact, actual words. I'm on vacation.]
This was the first day we weren't graced with a chanting
imam in the wee hours of the morning (one of the cultural downsides of resort
living, I suppose).
Becca was awake at 2:45 am. She woke up at 4 am and
couldn't get back to sleep yesterday. Since she was up, I was up. At 3:54 am my
Twitter feed contained a tweet which said, "JUST IN: A 6.7 magnitude
earthquake hit near the southwestern coast of Turkey. A small tsunami
reported." Beings that we'd planned on driving down the coastline to that
very place (more specifically, to nearby Akyaka) in roughly two days--we needed
to adapt.
First, we reached out to family and friends letting them
know all was well as far as we were concerned.
Fittingly, Uncle Nick responded, "Darwin said that it wasn't the
strongest or fastest species that survived, but the most adaptable. Think like a cockroach."
Despite the early morning hour, I researched the
cancellation policy on our accommodation reservation in Akyaka while Becca
targeted Pamukkale as an alternative locale for spending the day/night we'd
slotted Akyaka in. Pamukkale is known
for its collection of saltwater hot springs and the salt laden structures
creating the pools. We'd hoped to visit
Pamukkale when planning out our trip, but when the going got tough
logistically, we cut bait on the idea.
Frankly, Akyaka was merely inserted in the itinerary as a
midpoint to break up the heavy driving load we'd otherwise face on Sunday, July
23rd--not as something truly calling out to us.
Not to sound too cold or unfeeling, but the earthquake
provided us the motivation we'd lacked prior to make Pamukkale--something we
truly wanted to do--happen.
We sent a 4 am email inquiry to our top choice
accommodation in Pamukkale (chosen for its top-notch farm-to-table restaurant
[as the owners of the hotel are a family of farmers]). Ultimately, we heard back in the positive
(complete contents of the received response: "hi thanks four mail see you
suun" [sic throughout]) so we cancelled our reservations in Akyaka
(without penalty, thankfully).
While we no doubt feel for those impacted negatively by
the occurrence--taking the narrow view within just the context of our
trip--adapting to this occurrence only served to strengthen our itinerary at
the low cost of an additional hour or two of driving.
Sometime around 10 am we mustered the energy necessary to
order room service. Indeed, the times had changed in how we were living on this
trip! We ordered a "Turkish
Breakfast" platter with mostly the same offerings we'd described enjoying
for breakfast on other days. Dried figs and walnuts, Turkish bagels and a goat
cheese rendition of cream cheese among some other new pastries were lovely
additions. Another new item was menemen--a sort of egg scramble with peppers
and onion and cheese. While it sounds pretty standard to United Statesian
breakfast fare, it tasted rather different. It was really flavorful and moister
than it'd be prepared in the States. Lastly, but far from leastly, the coffee
was a deep, dark hole I was pleased to dive into.
Much (all?) of the first half of the day was spent
chillaxing to the max--either eating and sipping on tea and coffee or sitting
on the balcony overlooking the Aegean Sea or laying in bed writing and
researching Ephesus, a major ancient Roman trading port and one of the largest
cities in the eastern Roman Empire. We planned to visit Ephesus on day six of
our trip (the next day), since it's a short bus ride away from Kusadasi.
The rest of the afternoon, once the sun burned off the
morning clouds, the pattern was: jump in the Aegean Sea and swim/float; get out
and rinse the salty water out of our eyes, noses and mouths; quick step on the
hot wooden deck back to our chaise lounges so as not to burn our feet; lay on
our back side until fully cooked, then flip to the other until fully cooked;
then jump back into the Aegean. It was a vicious cycle lasting hours, broken
only when we went up to inquire of the guest relations gal the logistics of our
Ephesus plan for the next day and when we stopped by the upper deck bar for some
flash fried calamari with yoghurt-y tartar-like sauce and beverages and respite
from the direct, hot sunlight.
After going back down to the deck for a bit more sun and
fun time by the Sea we retired to our room to get cleaned up, get a dose of AC,
and rest a bit. We'd decided to leave
the seemingly hermetically-sealed environment that was our resort in Kusadasi
and venture into the greater city for dinner and general exploration.
We walked and walked. The heart of the downtown is a
bustling waterfront corridor. Cars and scooters whizzed by as pedestrians
chattered and walked out in front of those vehicles. Bikes and rollerbladers
weaved in and out of the moving masses and, more often than seemed appropriate,
a scooter would barrel up a sidewalk chock full of pedestrians like a fish
violently swimming upstream.
Eventually we got where we were going--Hasan Kolcuogluk
Kebab. We'd been led to believe that a fixed price multi-course meal was the
way to go by our guide book. Sweet
Peter, Paul, and Mary it was! It was one of the best decisions and investments
I've ever made. Finally, the mezes kept
coming and coming and it was all killer and no filler. There were upward of
eight different items in the first wave alone. Then beautifully spiced beef
liver, a spiced lamb empanada-type pastry, and dolma with lamb. Then a massive
kebab with many meats--chicken legs, beyti (seasoned beef and lamb wrapped in
lavash), and spare rib--as well as peppers and tomatoes, served over lahmacun. Then fresh fruit and ground pistachio and
sweet cheese desserts followed that. It
was a seemingly endless onslaught of food.
We were in our bunker and attempting to get up over the top and power
through, but in the end we could not eat it all. But we did our damnedest and we held our
heads high in the end. It pains me to see any measure of wasted food, but our
efforts were Herculean. It was a hard and beautifully delicious fight to the
finish.
By the time we finished eating, I felt the urge to
sneeze, but I was so full that I legitimately thought I might vomit if I
sneezed. In the end, that meal cost 134
Turkish Lira. I think that's roughly $44.
Mind you, this is an upscale restaurant and they served more food than
four people probably could've eaten and it was all delicious in every
aspect.
The prices here are stunningly low for the most part. Our
hotel in Pamukkale (our next stop) will be €30 ($45-ish?). It's lovely. We're living large at relatively low
prices. The resort I've mentioned
throughout? The one in which we're living
like we're much more fancy and important folk than we really are? $100 a night.
For context, that is less per night than the decrepit and diseased
shit-hole we stayed in by the SeaTac airport in which we thought we were going
to die the night before we flew to Turkey.
Truly amazing.
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