We spent the night travelling between Pamukkale and Adana in a lake village called Egirdir, pronounced Eh-yeer-deer. We weren't sure about leaving Pamukkale behind, especially when we went through and found a number of pensions available (the hawkers were out front inviting us in), but I had read about Egirdir and thought it would be a nicer place to stay. We arrived after dark and got "trolled" by a young man on a bicycle--he pulled up to the car and asked if we were looking for a place to stay. At 9:00 pm after a long day, we didn't mind being trolled a bit, especially when he mentioned the name of his family's pension, Lale, and I recognized it immediately from our tour book. He took us to the pension and showed us the room. It was small, but had everything we needed and was reasonably priced so we took the room for the night.

We showered off the sweat and 10,000 years of dust from Hieropolis, and went to the rooftop restaurant for an ice cold Efes beer. The place was full of youthful backpacker-types and we sat and talked to two girls from Belgium on their way to Mersin, near Adana. We joked with them about getting "trolled" and the young man was there to say he had reeled us in.

We spent a comfortable night in our room and awoke to a beautiful view of Lake Egirdir in the morning. It was cool enough in the mountain and by the lake to sleep with our window open and we could hear the ducks quacking and smell fresh bread baking. I don't think of Egirdir as a possible destination for us, unless we go back for some winter skiiing, but it was a wonderful place to stop over.

It was apple-harvest time around Lake Egirdir and the apples were piled along the side of the road waiting to be boxed and transported. We had to dodge slow tractors and even truck drivers that would stop in the middle of the road so they could hop out and pluck a few apples for lunch. But we had a beautiful drive for several miles along the lake and through the apple orchards.

Isparta, nearby, has a huge rose harvest each May and that might be worth going back for. They harvest the petals, soak them in water, and a valuable oil for perfume rises to the top. The rest of the rose water is used for making everything from rose water, to soap, to rose jam.