We were getting close to the end of our trip and we wanted
to see a couple of more places in the area before we left, so we called the
truck driver to drive us back after a nice breakfast which was crowned with
thyme honey (honey obtained from bees feeding off of wild thyme). Picking up
our car from the village, we drove off to Yazılı Kanyon (Inscribed Canyon). The
name comes from a poem engraved on a rock in the canyon, attributed to the
great philosopher Epictetus. The words of the poem still hold true to this day.
Arriving at the site, we first treated ourselves to a nice lunch of trout,
farmed right there in the river, which flows through the canyon with its ice
cold water yearround. Afterwards we took a pleasant walk, passing through the
woods in all shades of oranges, yellows, and greens. Once again the water
looked so inviting just as Lake Egirdir had looked earlier in the trip, and
this time around I didn’t want to miss my chance of taking a dip in the water
despite the coldness of the water. I was only able to stay in the water for
about a minute, but it was well worth it. We warmed ourselves up with some
thyme tea and took off for the town of Aglasun, in which we were to stay
overnight. Hunting down a dinner spot in town, we came across informational
signboards about the ancient city of Sagalassos, which we were planning to
visit in the morning before heading back to Istanbul in the afternoon. We called the phone number found on the sign
but they did not answer. Couple minutes later we recieved a short text message
stating that the person was in a meeting and would get back to us in a couple
of hours. Surely enough, the person called back in a couple of hours, and
answering the phone I immediately started talking very informally, without even
introducing myself, about our enquiry for information for the site and such. When
I finished there was a moment of silence, then he asked me politely who I was,
and introduced himself as the mayor of the town. Once I got over the first moment
of surprise, I changed my voice to a much more serious and polite tone, and we
agreed to meet shortly even though it was 10pm by that time. We were greeted
warmly by the mayor of Aglasun, Mr. Aydın Kaplan. He was an enthusiastic guy
with a vision for the town and had good intentions with high motivation. We
were glad to see an exception to the usual cold, bureaucratic, high ego
officials.
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