Sunday, February 20, 2011

Thursday In Pamukkale, With Russian Friends

The landscape at Pamukkale looks like snow or cotton but is actually mineral deposits. There was a civilization here with large marble quarries.  It was destroyed once by an earthquake in about 150 BC and rebuilt by the Romans in AD.  However it was abandoned after it was destroyed by another earthquake not that long after. There are also lovely hot springs that don't smell like rotten eggs.


Like the other Roman cities there is a large theater where the gladiators fought. This theater which only sat 10,000 is very well preserved.
We drove from Kusadasi our base in the Izmir region for three hours to Pamukkale which translates as cotton castle. On the way I met a Russian couple.  Both were very attractive. I thought they were together. It turns out they were together but father and daughter. He now lives in California and is a physicist professor at Stanford. She is a researcher living in Amman Jordan. She worked in Boston for a while. Her English was so good I thought she was American. Her father said she was so good with languages because she is also a musician. We didn't solve the problems of the world but we discussed them, especially the Middle East. They are sophisticated Muscovites and citizens of the world.  Not like the Russians I met in Pattaya Beach Thailand who looked like fat Americans from the Midwest.  In fact there are quite a few Russians that I have seen traveling who seem like European city folk.

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