Walked to the mausoleum today...honestly, not a ton to report...none of the statues remain and only bits of some of the marble pillars are strewn about. You can walk through parts of what used to be the burial chambers (pretty cool) and there's a video (in English) about the structure and Bodrum's history (about 10 minutes) theres also a timeline telling the story of the mausoleum: who built it, the purpose, and how they came up with the drawings of what it was believed to look like. Alexander the Great was so impressed at it's grander that it was left standing after he took the city of Bodrum (then called Halicarnasus.) we went back to the hotel, cranked on the AC, I mentioned it's melt yer face off warm here, right?...drank some water, and headed out to find the gates of the city. These, no charge to see.(again, go figure) you can actually climb to the top of the tower (of course I did) there's a few grave sites nearby (Roman) apparently it was custom to bury soldiers outside the city, but near the entrance so they would be remembered by the citizens. A very high end hotel is next to the old burial grounds...so once again, here we are checking out the history, taking pictures of mosaics, meanwhile in the background of the shot...dude sunning himself by the pool....odd, and in my personal opinion, pretty high creepy factor having your hotel pool next to a burial ground...wonder if they have any hauntings...once again, the non paid for antiquities won out on more interesting to look at...though for coolness factor, gotta give it to seeing a wonder of the world. Walked to Gumbet (next town/bay over from Bodrum) hung out by the beach, and inadvertently, became part of a foam party, nice one. I sometimes wonder if people really get the lyrics, (lots of American pop hits are played...) heck, sometimes I don't know what the lyrics say, and it's my native language...makes me wonder, would Rihanna, S&M, be blasted if anyone had a clue what it was really about...for being a Muslim country, sure were a lot of topless peeps on the beach, no full nudity (that I noticed). We were contemplating a cab back...(again, heat, melt, ick) but as twilight came, the temp dropped, and we walked back. Changed (again) and headed back to the Bodrum pier area...man this place comes alive at night! We ate around midnight, every store and restaurant was open, people everywhere...many of the clubs here, don't open until midnight, and stay open till 5 or 6am. There was a guy making glass Nazars (evil eye ward off talisman) across from the place we were eating, cool free entertainment seeing glass melted and shaped. Fresh oj here is awesome, as is the Turkish tea and coffee (offered after every meal, yay) we were considering going out, but mom was pretty over it, so headed back to the hotel (or "otel" as it's spelled here) around 1:30am and called it a night.
Quotes:
“The open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself.” – William Least Heat Moon
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley
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