Pamukkale, Turkey

The overnight bus from Goreme to Pamukkale arrived at around 530am after a short transfer on a shuttle bus from Denizli. We waited in the bus company’s office about half an hour, before walking 5 to 10 minutes to our accommodation, Hotel Dort Mevsim. Breakfast wasn’t until 8am, and after this, we lazed about the pool, watching the hot air balloons before checking in.

Yet again, we were tired from the overnight bus, so we didn’t do too much today except chilling by the pool and in the airconditioned room. We walked into the town of Pamukkale in the mid afternoon for lunch, to enquire about buses to Istanbul and to have a look over the Pamukkale Natural Park. Mitch went into the Natural Park which included the ancient Roman ruins during the afternoon, and we all booked the hot air balloon ride for the following morning through the hotel. We had dinner at the hotel which was great, we had fresh sunflower seeds straight from the sunflower and shared a delicious bottle of red. 

The next morning, we woke up at 5am to be ready for a 540am pick up for the hot air balloons. After the 5 minute drive to the starting location, Mitch boarded a different hot air balloon than us and was first in the air. From here he went up 2km, while the rest of us ascended then descended low over the Natural Park. It was an unbelievable morning and the views of the landscape and sunrise were amazing. After a final ascent from the valley, we landed and were greeted with a glass of champagne before getting a lift back to the hotel for breakfast.

During the day, we again lazed by the pool and caught up on some sleep, before Ben and Mitch headed into town to book the bus to Istanbul and have a burger for lunch at Fenomen Burger House, which was awesome. Kristy had lunch at the hotel, and around 445pm, we headed to the Natural Park to explore the Roman ruins and watch sunset with a bottle of wine. We first climbed the white travertine terraces with numerous pools, before walking through the ancient Roman ruins which included an ancient pool with fallen ruins within it, the Hierapolis amphitheatre and the Northern Byzantine gate. We ended the day with an amazing sunset over the pools and a bottle of red wine. It was such an unreal way to end a fantastic day.

On the way home, we stopped at the same burger place as lunch and Ben and Mitch had to head back into town to get some cash to pay the outstanding balance at the hotel.

The following day, we caught the 930am bus from Denizli to Istanbul. After breakfast at the hotel at 745am, we caught the 30 minute cheap local bus to Denizli getting there around 9am. The bus trip to Istanbul was a long one, and we arrived back at the Sultan Hostel and Guesthouse in Istanbul at around 8-9pm after getting a taxi from the bus terminal. The friendly man from the next door restaurant, Babylonia garden and terrace, remembered us from our previous visit, so we thought we better give him our business and had a great dinner and bottle of wine here. Following this, Mitch went to bed, and Kristy and Ben did some final souvenir shopping and enjoyed a Shisha and tea on one of the rooftop bars before getting to bed around 1am.

We were up at 5am the following morning to get a taxi to airport at around 545-6am. We arrived at the airport at 7am and as our flight was not until 11am, we enjoyed breakfast and relaxing until we boarded our flight to Oslo, Norway.