The Aqualand Theme Park

So about 3 days ago I left Kusadasi for Selcuk, the town next to Ephesus, the best preserved Roman City in the world. Ephesus was the shit back in the old days, the capital of the Roman Asian province of Asia Minor. It played a major role in the development of Christianity, and was where St. John was buried.

So I took the early morning minibus from Kusadasi to Selcuk to get to my hostel at 8am, and hop on the tour at 8:30am... but the directions I got from the internet made no sense at all. So I was walking around the ghetto residential area of Selcuk, looking for this damn place and its past 8:30 and I know I missed my tour... I was like fuckkkkk.

But then this guy from his hostel nearby waved me down, and I figure I'd get some directions from him. But I walk into the hostel, and it's got a nice courtyard and there are two korean travellers sitting there (the first asians I have seen in Turkey). So I sit down and start chatting with them and actually it turned out one was Japanese and one was Korean, both girls, both travelling alone. THey told me they were going to the Aqualand theme park that day... and asked me to join them.

Now, when I took the bus to Selcuk that morning I did pass by this park and thought.... man that looks like fun. It pretty much like your standard park.... kind of like Wild Water Kingdom, but I think a little bigger.

So I was like, fuck the ruins, they'll be there tomorrow. I want to go on water slides! So I went to "Adaland"... and it was a great decision because I had an awesome time.

Those slides are FAST! And during the middle of the day this air raid siren sounds off, and I'm like...wtf is going on. Then the loudspeaker says something in Turkish and people start gathering at the main "square" of the park that has a stage.. and then this Turkish techno starts blasting and everyone starts doing this line-dance, with the guy on the stage leading them. And there are these spinklers from the bottom spraying everyone while they did the dance... it was the most random thing.

That's how things are on this trip... the by chance encounters usually lead to an awesome time.