February 19

This morning we left the hotel, with bags all packed, at 8:30. Just a side note about the bus – people (myself included) have been getting on the bus about 15 mins early to get the seat they want. There is definite strategy to ensure that you get a row to yourself. It’s a tricky game, but one I am trying to master. There is very little leg room on the bus, and I tend to stretch out into the aisle.
We drove a little over two hours to the museum Burdur museum, which houses the best finds from the ancient city of Sagalassos, which we were visiting next. This was a well laid out museum, with plenty of information provided, but the lights were motion sensitive, and turned off after about 15 seconds of no movement. This would have been fine if I were just passing through the museum, but we have to (or should) take notes on the exhibited items, so here, every time I started to take notes, the lights would shut off. That got annoying fairly quickly.
We grabbed lunch in town at a decent place just around the corner. There was a Burger King across the street with better restrooms. In Turkey, there are Turkish toilets. These are just holes in the ground. Honestly, they are porcelain basins in the floor of the restroom. I don’t understand why this design would have ever been approved or constructed, and then why anyone would ever use it. Usually, there is also a typical style toilet, but not here. Needless to say, we went to the Burger King to use a more traditional one. We ran into Jensen and Trent who were having trouble ordering. They asked for the receipt and got two chai teas. Jensen then ordered a vanilla milkshake and was puzzled when the tab was 6 lira. The question was answered when he got a tray with 3 milkshakes on it.
The plan was to go up the mountain to the ancient city of Sagalassos. This city is 1400m above sea level, and, before we headed to lunch, the roads were being cleared of the freshly fallen snow. The snow plows had finished by the end of lunch, so we slowly headed up the mountain. It was a beautiful drive. It snowed about 4 or 5 inches, and when we finally got to the city, very little could be seen. It was still a great day, though. We had several snowball fights, one particularly good one occurred in the fountain house. The archaeologists had completely restored it, including the running water. But, as we were leaving, the first half of the group to leave the fountain house (which was a few steps down from ground level) turned on the rest of us and launched snowballs. Krentz commented joined the fight, as did Gulin. She threw the snowballs from the top of the fountain house, right onto our heads. The site was closed, but Gulin worked her magic and convinced the site workers that we were archaeological students. I don’t think we did a very good job of convincing them.
We only got to see three structures. The snow started falling again, and we had to make sure the bus would be able to make it down the mountain. We did get to see the most noteworthy feature of the site: the Nymphaea. This was originally a Greek fountain house, but had been reconstructed into the Roman style, which opened up the water to reflect the architecture. The archaeologists found it with only 15 percent in ruins. It is one of the best preserved buildings found yet.
We got back on the bus, wet and happy. It took another hour and a half to drive to the hotel, which also includes dinner. I am in a triple, but the room is very spacious. I actually scored the room’s double bed. The dinner was buffet style and just as good as last night’s dinner.
Krentz is pushing the schedule an hour back, so we don’t leave the hotel till 9:30 am! What a treat. Depending on the weather in the morning we are either going to a museum or to some sites. I’ll let you know what we do.