YouTube travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting a visit to Pamukkale (the ‘Cotton Castle’) in southwestern Turkey. The couple arrive at sunrise, wait for gates to open, walk the white mineral terraces and pools (shoes off), and then hike to nearby ancient Roman ruins including a well-preserved amphitheater. The video includes a sponsorship read for Audible (free 30-day trial and audiobook offer) and ends with their favorite adventure book recommendation: 'The River of Doubt / Roosevelt's Darkest Journey' by Candice Millard. The creators note they lost some footage but supplement the vlog with photos and Instagram stories.
Chapters
He's had the mineral water washing over him too.
Calcium deposits have made him all white.
You look like a polar bear.
Before we dive into today's video, we wanted to say a huge thank you to Audible for sponsoring another episode. We love listening to audiobooks while we travel and Audible has the world's largest.
Selection, which is why we're super excited to let you know that you can get a free 30 day trial including a free audiobook if you go to audible.comkarennate or you can text Karen Nate to 500 500.
And if you stick around to the end of this video, we are going to give you a recommendation for our favorite adventure book of all time.
But first let's go to Pamukkale.
We have done it again. We are up with the sunrise. Who are we?
We are currently in second southwestern Turkey.
In a small town called Pamukkale. Because today we are exploring the Cotton Castle.
The gate opens at 6:30 so we're going to try to be the first ones there because we've really enjoyed doing that lately. Being the only people at places.
It's so cool having an incredible place all to yourselves.
We're.
But we are definitely the first ones here. And that is because the guy that works at our hotel who told us that it opened at 6:30. What's wrong? It opens at 7.
So we have some time to kill and nothing's open. We're in this tiny town with the.
Sun is starting to come up over the Cotton Castle. It looks absolutely beautiful.
It's about 7:05. Apparently the guy who sells tickets is late this morning.
This nice man gave Kara a chair.
7:20.
And the guy who sells the ticket still hasn't showed up yet.
Apparently it doesn't open until 8.
This helps a little bit.
Thank you.
The security guard felt bad for us so we showed up at 6:30 and we've been waiting for almost an hour and a half.
He brought his tea.
So sweet.
Still really hot.
Yep.
I'm not going to be able to taste anything for the rest of the day.
So hot. Y.
Still waiting.
Good morning.
Two please.
And small money please.
Not have one.
This is 70L.
Thank you.
Yay.
We are officially in at 8:05. About an hour and a half later than we thought.
But we are first.
We're first. The sun has risen. It's looking beautiful.
Shoes off.
First steps.
This is cool.
The water is like slightly warm and the rocks aren't near as slick as they look.
They're like super chalky like clay.
It's like coming off on my toes.
Yeah, I kind of love it.
Wow.
So the reason that we decided to get here so early in the first place is that we had heard that most people don't come and stay in Pamukkale. Instead, they come on day trips from, like, Izmir or Ephesus. So most of the big tour buses don't arrive till 9:30, so we thought we could get here early and avoid the crowds.
Little too early, apparently.
There's two entrances, though. There's a top entrance and a bottom entrance. The top entrance is where the tour buses drop off, and then the bottom entrance is where you can, like, come in from town. Seems like the tour buses are already here. From the top entrance. I just see a ton of people funneling down.
Oh, this feels so weird.
Oh, this is satisfying.
It's like play doh.
Your feet are way prettier than mine.
It feels so good.
This is so beautiful. All of this white is the Cotton Castle. And I'm assuming they called it that because it looks like a giant castle made of cotton. This water is really cold. This one thing.
This place is so photogenic. It's like everywhere I look. I need to take a photo in every angle.
I love it.
We're really sorry that we're doing this to you again. You may remember, not too long ago, we had a hard drive malfunction and we lost a bunch of videos. And unfortunately, it included the rest of today's vlog.
However, we did take over 500 pictures.
And of course, Kara was doing her Instagram stories. So we'll use those to fill you in on the second half of our day.
We just took a little dip in our own private pool. We heard that the minerals are really good.
I am so sad that we lost this folder because this was seriously my favorite day in Turkey. Because after we explored the Cotton Castle, we headed up the mountain to explore some ancient Roman ruins. Next on the agenda is this ancient Roman graveyard. This used to have a coffin in it. I'm totally making that up, but that's what it looks like. And nobody's here. If you are thinking about coming to Turkey, you should come. It has been confirmed.
They are tombs.
Everything that we saw was super impressive. But without a doubt, my favorite part was the amphitheater because it was the.
Most well preserved we had ever seen.
Amphitheater goals. Look at this backdrop. I'm a sucker for marble columns. I think this is the biggest, most impressive one I've ever seen.
And that's all the tourists are here. The details are still so intact.
Beautiful. We had originally ended this vlog with this really heartfelt moment of how much we loved our time in Turkey. There's seriously a little bit of everything. There's food, there's history, there's nature. The people are amazing. And we were so sad to leave.
We were encouraging everyone to go, and that's because Turkey has moved to the.
Top of our list of places that we want to go back to.
And that is a wrap on our adventures in Turkey. We just have a three hour drive back to Izzy. Got some coffee. Tomorrow we're having a work day and we're flying to our 77th country.
Okay, it's time to tell you about our favorite adventure book of all time. And that is the river of Theodore.
Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.
When most people think of Theodore Roosevelt, you just think of the President. But he was a real adventurer, and.
This book chronicles his adventures exploring an.
Unknown tributary of the Amazon River.
It has all of the elements that will keep you on the edge of your seat while you're listening to it. As they're going down the river, people are starving to death. They're being hunted by tribal locals. People are dying. It's absolutely crazy. And the best part is, it's all true.
Seriously, I guarantee if you download this book, you will not be able to stop listening to it.
It's totally nuts. So if you want to get this book or any other audiobook for free, make sure you use our link audible.comkarennay or. Or text Karen Nate to 500500 plus.
Audible is stepping up their game and adding two more things to your monthly membership.
In addition to getting your free audiobook, you also get two free Audible originals of your choosing. These are audio titles created by celebrated storytellers that aren't available anywhere else.
Plus, you'll get access to their premier audio fitness program. So if we start to look a little buff down the road, you'll know why. They're packing a ton of value into this membership. So make sure to get your first.
Month free using the link in the description below.
Hey, sweet boy. You have a pretty good home, don't you?
Look at your view. Cleopatra coming at ya. I'm so sorry.
I'm, like, really smiling right now. Why?
We just lost our footage.
We need to be sad.
Okay.
We are so sorry that we're doing this to you again, but you may remember.
I was trying to keep a straight face. We're removed from this now, so it's not actually the same that.
