Our last stop is Selcuk and we say farewell to Turkey

We travel 4 hours today to a place called Pamukkale. I have been looking forward to this as it's the town with the natural phenomena of the white travertines and the ancient city of Hierapolis. We head up the hill where we all have to remove our shoes and roll up our pants and you can't bear to take off your sunglasses. The water is so lovely and warm on your feet. The travertines are a little wrinkled as you walk. Ozan warns us not to stand on the brown parts as it's slippery. The thermal pools up the hill are quite healing and it's seems full of Russians. Oh my goodness some of these European women like a pose, and now they are in very skimpy bikinis posing for their lovers like kittens!! I didn't see the brown spot as I went near the ledge of one of these pools and my legs went completely from underneath me, and next minute I'm fully sitting in the pool, camera and all. Ozan very quickly comes to my rescue. I'm now not looking very glamorous with a wet crotch. We make our way to the top and I hear that Mum has face planted into the pool, camera and all. Her camera didn't have the case on it and it's not looking good. We put a bandaid on Mum's leg, as she has given it a decent knock. We see all the people swimming in the healing pool, and it has all these ruins in the water - a few columns here and there. It's very crowded but Keith and Trevor give it a go. We walk to see this huge theatre and they are doing work to restore it. We make our way down and then make our way to Selcuk by night. We eat out, and the town, which has a population of 29,000, has a nice feel. We are told that the markets are on in the morning - hello shopping. Mum, Booka and I go shopping, and Booka lasts about 10 minutes, so we agree to meet her later. Mum and I enjoy the sights and especially the fresh fruit and veggies, and we purchase fresh nuts and figs and bananas. All the cheeses are amazing. This town is where there is a belief that St John brought the Virgin Mary back to die. Booka, Kerry, Keith and Kellie and I go to visit to her house. Mum and I enjoy a vist to the Ephesus museum, and I must say I think I have had enough of the museums now. This afternoon was great, as we go to this local town called Sirince, and the group tries some local fruit wines (word was, they weren't nice at all). I buy some olive oil products and a guy tells me where to go to get a great Turkish coffee. We then drive down to Ephesus and this is another highlight. It's so huge and so much is preserved but some is just well done replicas. As Ozan is telling us all the history, someone spots a snake in the distant and my girl is on full alert. We visit at about 4pm as most of the crowds are gone and the light is hitting the top of the ruins. We go down to the old toilets and they have a row of these holes dug out in marble like a communal sit. Of course we all sit and Ozan snaps a shot of us straining!! They have the hugest theatre and the last person to play with amplifiers was Sting in the 90's. They don't allow it now, as they are trying to preserve it. Tub quotes some middle English classic and it's terrific. We walk another half hour past Ephesus. We eat at a local restaurant that makes Gozlemes and then we head home as we have to get up at 6.00 am as we fly back to Istanbul.  We check back into our hotel and I dump my huge bag of laundry to be done. Mum and Booka visit the Topkapi place and I decide to take a Nanna nap. Tonight is our farewell dinner and it was superb, as we catch a ferry to the Asian side of Turkey, and we go to this fabulous restaurant that serves Southern Turkish food, and we enjoy artichokes cooked in a light milk, and vines rolled in rice and cheese. The desserts were amazing - pumpkin, olives, figs and walnuts that are all caramelised with clotted cream. We end up back at the hotel and we say our goodbyes and our appreciation to Ozan who has been so fabulous - a beautiful, gentle soul who really looked after us and showed us the real Turkey. We have our last breakfast together and we go shopping at the Bazaar. We all eat together that night, which is a lovely way to end the trip. Booka and I depart early the next day as we are flying to Greece. We go and say goodbye to Mum, which feels so strange as she is going to back to Sydney tonight. We get a lift to the airport and I cry as I will miss Mum.