Mon 17 th of may
Wow I can’t believe it is the 17th already. Well I can believe I have been gone for 2 weeks because I have seen so much already. Yesterday was a great day. We left the awesome Greek house at 7 in the morning. After a 5 hour drive we arrived at a place close to Ephasus where we had the homemade pancakes. These were amazing! And the place was so cool, we sat on cushions while we were served. Then we went to a leather factory which is a specialty of the region. This was a huge place which catered for busses by putting on a fashion show with trashy euro trash and a mirror ball. It was absolutely hilarious nut the free apple tea was great.
After this we drove to Seringe, on old Greek town. To get here we took a small windy road through olive covered mountains. It really felt more Mediterranean here. The town itself was very cute; we had a walk around, went to an old church and tasted some fruit wine, which is a speciality of this region. The tasting was in an old cellar with awesome old fashioned furniture.
Also had some freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, which you see here everywhere. It was good but had a bit of a weird aftertaste.
After this we went to the old city of Ephasus, which was absolutely amazing. Our guide helped us get a picture of the city how it used to be which made it so much more worthwhile then just walking around by yourself.
Dinner was in a nice courtyard with citrus trees which grow in this area. I really like this area, it is very nice and interesting over al the trip is going well. I’m getting completely addicted to Turkish delight which I never used to like back home and the weather has mainly been superb.
19 may
I am currently sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Kas. I have the most amazing view and am really enjoying some alone time while the others are at the restaurant. The last few days have been great.
On Monday, we took the public bus from Selcuk to Pumakkale, which is a small town inland at a reasonable altitude. There are two things which make thus town so special:
1: the ancient city of Hierapolis, which is located on a hill which is White because of the calcium, which is 2 the calcium terraces and pools. This place was amazing, that is the only way I can describe it. We spend about 4 hours up the mountain, but I wish I had longer to take it in and to take more pictures.
The next morning we caught the public bus to Fethiye at 7.30! Which gave me 30 min to pack and shower as I was only woken up at 7!! Unfortunately I felt terrible on the bus but managed to survive the 5 hour trip without throwing up. When we arrived in Fethiye it was pouring with rain. I have to tell you it was rather chilly in my short shorts!!! Luckily this was summer rain which stopped after Lunch and was followed by lovely sun!
In the afternoon we went to the beach close. The colour of the water was amazing, but unfortunately the weather did not encourage a swim. Hopefully I took some cool pictures though! In the evening we went to have dinner. This was really cool because you would buy your fresh which at the market and then the restaurant would cook it for you with salad and garlic bread. It was a neat evening, which included my attempt at belly dancing.
Today was great too. We went to a greek ghost town from the 1800s. We explored this and then we did a 3 walk to the lagoon by the beach we went to yesterday. The lagoon was nice but not as nice as the one I went to in Crete, so that was not uber exciting. After lunch, ice cream and watching Simon swim we drove to here. The landscape changed and went from friendly to dry bare and very impressive! Probably a bit more Greek looking but then with higher cliffs and mosques! I went for a run and was to explore the town. Though it it touristy, it is very nice and this view us just amazing! I gave been quite tired lately; too much fun and not enough sleep. Therefore, I am really looking forward to the boat trip tomorrow; to catch some sleep and enjoy the scenery.
22 may sat
We have just arrived at our hotel and are currently experiencing a tropical thunderstorm. The whole place here looks quite tropical with banana trees everywhere. It was great to have a shower after our 3 day boat trip. The trip was absolutely amazing. We went on a traditional turkish boat called a gullet. This boat has 2 decks and a very small toilet and kitchen. We slept on
The main deck, top deck and on
The front of the boat. I slept on the main deck the first night and on the front of the boat underneath the stars the 2nd.
We spent our time cruising the mediterranean which was varied by swimming, sleeping and eating the
most amazing homemade turkish meals. It was great we had such a good time. We checked out the island of Kekova and the sunken city. We also saw a lot of other ruins and tombs, but apart from that It was so nice to be on the boat and to just relax and do very little. I managed to do a few watercolours and find myself an Australian mum.
We were pretty lucky because there was rain forecasted for our second day, but luckily it was just a bit overcast until the some drops on the second night.
The place we have now arrived is called Cirali which is a holiday town close to the beach with a spectacular mountain backdrop. It is close to the
ancient city Olympus and the eternal flame of the Olympic games.
Sun 22nd May
After an amazing dinner at our pension last night we climbed up the mountain to see the eternal flames. This was very cool, it was a pleasant
Temperature to climb mountain and the moonlight helped a lot. It was crazy to see the flames come out of the ground. There was a strong smell of gas which made the fires seem like gas fireplaces. There was a very nice atmosphere with people chilling and cooking tea around the fires.
This morning we went to the ancient city of Olympus which was located at a river mouth just of the beach between the most spectacular mountains.
After this we took the bus to Phelisus, which was an ancient harbor town. Here we saw some more ruins and the last amphitheater, which meant some performances. They even made me sing, which means that everyone is deaf now!
The 1 hour drive from here to Antalya was very impressive. The mountains here are just so rugged, tall and seem to rise straight from the sea. In Antalya we stayed in the old centre which was very cute and located on impressive cliffs. The rest of the city consisted of some typical Turkish architecture: ugly high rise apartment buildings! Not very impressed with their building style, everything seems to be done to save costs, which results in large concrete apartment buildings spoiling the dramatic landscape surrounding this city.
“watched Simon swim”…WHAAAAAAAAAT?!!