Planet View: N41°00.445’ E28°58.618’

Street View: N41°00.445’ E28°58.618’

Temperature: 12°C (54°F)

A packed train ride from Selcuk to Izmir and then a quick flight on Turkish Airlines brought us back to Istanbul where we spent three nights exploring the wonders of the historic city.  We had a couple of days to ourselves before meeting up with ET and Sally, who flew in from Glasgow on Tuesday night.  What a great city, we could have spent more time in Istanbul, such a lively and hip place.  We stayed right in the thick of the old town at Cem Sultan Hotel in-between the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya, a couple of minutes walk from the light rail and about 15 minutes from the Grand Bazaar.  More than a couple of days in one place enabled us to finally get some washing done!  Definitely a bit of a temperature change further north away from the Mediterranean and Aegean, we even had a bit of rain whilst in the nation’s cultural capital.

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace is tucked in between the shores of the Bosphorous and the bustling tourist area of Sultanahmet in the center of Istanbul.  The palace is surrounded by stone walls and beautiful gardens filled with tulips, it was built in 1453 by Mehmet the Conqueror and was inhabited by subsequent sultans until the 19th century.  We spent around half a day in the palace and were glad we weren’t visiting during peak season as some of the exhibits involved 45-minute waits.  Unfortunately photography was prohibited in the most extraordinary displays, but we still managed to get some good shots inside the harem and the rest of the palace grounds. 

The first area we toured was the sultan’s harem, the section within the palace where all the sultan’s wives were kept (it does seem like the were kept, almost imprisoned) and tended to by a mass of eunuchs who devoted their lives to servitude.  If I remember correctly, I think I overheard one tour guide mention that Sultan Ahmet had 112 children!  The ornate woodwork and intricate tiling was amazing to see, it boggles the mind to think how long the artisans would have spent decorating the harem over 500 years ago.

The other noteworthy exhibits were the treasury, clothing display and the sacred safekeeping rooms in the palace’s third court.  The treasury had the most breathtaking display of jewels I’ve ever seen, from egg-sized emeralds in the hilt of the Topkapi Dagger to the 86-carat Spoonmaker’s Diamond (which is named as such because it was discovered in a rubbish dump during the reign of Mehmet IV and exchanged for three spoons!).  The Spoonmaker’s Diamond is the world’s fifth largest diamond.  Some of the most breathtaking items for me were the diamond-encrusted stars donated to the sultans from foreign governments and monarchs, so brilliant they almost made me squint to look at them.  The clothing exhibit had a display of original pieces from a range of sultans, the intricacy of the kaftans’ embroidery was amazing.  My favorite was a 500+ year old fur-lined kaftan with its exterior made of white silk.  The safekeeping rooms in the palace’s third court had quite a different crowd to the rest of the palace, the safekeeping rooms house an array of Muslim treasures from a number of different prophets.  Muslims from all over the world undertake pilgrimages to view the religious treasures.  We saw a lot of women in head-to-foot black gowns with only the tiniest  of slits for their eyes, something we didn’t see anywhere else in Turkey.  The safekeeping rooms have some amazing religious treasures, from actual pieces of the Prophet Muhammad’s beard and teeth to the millennia-old sword of the Prophet David. 

The Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar

We visited Istanbul’s two most famous bazaars on the first afternoon we were in Istanbul and happily revisited them both when Sally and ET arrived in town a couple of days later.  The Grand Bazaar is a maze of anything and everything, from jeans to chess boards, Turkish carpets to cameras, I could have probably killed a day in the expansive shopping district.  We sampled our first Turkish coffee in the Grand Bazaar and both loved it, Lisa hadn’t drank coffee since 2001 so it was quite a leap for her.  We were hooked after our first cup and had a quite a few more during our days in Istanbul.  The Spice Bazaar was also a real treat, only a small portion of the size of the Grand Bazaar, as its name suggests the Spice Bazaar is almost exclusively devoted to spices and food.  Most of the vendors offered some form of spices or dried fruit, while there were also a number of butchers offering mostly dried meats that would have made my dad salivate, as well as pastry shops and a few soap stands.  I’m not usually a big fan of Turkish delight, but the sample I had in the Spice Bazaar had me immediately purchasing a few cubes of the treat, the tough part was choosing one of the more than 20 flavors on offer!  Lots of photos here, but it such a picturesque location I just couldn’t help myself…

Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque

We visited both Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque, arguably Istanbul’s two most famous landmarks, with ET and Sally on their first day with us in Istanbul.  Both monuments are an amazing sight as they face each other across Sultanahmet Park, Aya Sofya originally a tribute to Christianity and the Blue Mosque a Muslim place of worship.

Aya Sofya was completed in 537 AD and was the greatest church in Christendom until the Conquest in 1453, when Mehmet the Conqueror converted the building to a mosque.  The exterior of Aya Sofya is nowhere near as exquisite as that of the Blue Mosque, but the interior’s iconography was something to behold.  The sheer size of the church was astounding, the interior has a cavernous feeling, the domed roof stretching hundreds of feet above the main hall’s floor.  Quite interesting to see a building that was originally a church now with out-of-place Arabic scripts of Islam inserted into areas of prominence inside the structure.  Today Aya Sofya is no longer used as a place of worship, it’s totally devoted to tourism as the adjacent Blue Mosque serves as the central place of worship in the Sultanahmet area.

The Omphalion (pictured here to the right) is an area on the floor of the main hall of Aya Sofya that was designed to be the place at which emperors were coronated.  Quite a feeling to stand there next to the stones on which countless emperors had knelt over the centuries to be coronated.  So much history!

The Blue Mosque was constricted by Sultan Ahmet I in an attempt to surpass the beauty and elegance of Aya Sofya (that’s still Aya Sofya pictured to the left, but all the photos below are of the Blue Mosque).  Contrary to the dedication of Aya Sofya, which was built as a place of worship for Christians, the Blue Mosque was constructed as a place of worship for the Islamic faith.  On the exterior the mosque is a breathtaking structure to behold, it’s spires reach up toward the heavens with multiple domed roofs reflecting the sun.  The blue tiles that give the mosque its name number in the tend of thousands, the central prayer space is enormous and is lit by hundreds of small windows.  As the mosque is currently an active place of worship there are dress standards for those wishing to enter: females must wear a headscarf and both sexes must have long sleeves and pants or a skirt for women, also you can only wear socks, no shoes and no bare feet.  There are also certain times of the day, namely prayer time, when the mosque is closed to visitors.  While the interior of the Blue Mosque isn’t quite as intricately decorated as Aya Sofya it was still a sight to behold.  It’s a little hard to make out here, but on each of the spires surrounding the mosque is an array of speakers from which the call to prayer is broadcast across Istanbul four or five times a day.

Istiklal Caddesi

Before leaving San Francisco I sat down with a Turkish mate of mine, Kivanc Arda, and asked for the off-the-beaten-path locals-only areas of Istanbul we should visit to get a feel for what the city’s like away from the touristy areas.  Istiklal Caddesi is the area that Kivanc said we had to visit.  Istiklal Caddesi was a 30 minute train ride and then a quick jaunt in an underground funicular from our hotel Sultanahmet.  The entire street, which runs for a few kilometers, is closed to traffic and is a huge open air mall.  Lining the street was everything from hip Turkish clothes stores to NBA shops and the newest Diesel jeans.  The first evening we ventured to Istiklal Caddesi it was raining and cold, but when we went back with Sally and ET the weather was perfect and the mall pumping with activity.  One street off of the main drag near Istiklal’s center is an area called Nevizade which is a small alley crammed with seafood restaurants and bars.  We were some of the very few non-Turks in the restaurants and bars during both of our visits, an excellent locale to kick back and have a few beers for the afternoon and then top it off with fantastic local food.  We were fortunate to be sitting next to a table full of university students on one of our visits there, our waiter didn’t speak a lick of English and the students enjoyed helping us out with the menu translations.  ET and I put back quite a few 500mL Efes lagers one afternoon in a few of Nevizade’s jaunts!

We say goodbye to Turkey after our time in Istanbul, off to Thessaloniki and then to Meteora before heading to Santorini for a wedding next weekend.  We both loved Turkey, such a great time, the people were fantastic, food exquisite and a fabulous place to spend a few weeks exploring another culture.  I could have spent a few more days in the sun in Fethiye and would love to go back and explore some more of the Lycian Way one day.  Looking forward to Greece!

Street View: N40°14.463’ E26°16.901’

Temperature: 8°C (46°F)

ET organized for the four of us to spend Anzac Day at Gallipoli on an organized tour with Intrepid.  We caught a 12:00PM Intrepid bus (that ended up being a 1:30PM Intrepid bus) from Istanbul out along the Gallipoli Peninsula through Eceabat for dinner and onto Anzac Cove for the night.  For those of you reading this that are unaware of the significance of Anzac Day: on April 25, 1915 the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers stormed the beaches at Gallipoli in an attempt to take the Gallipoli Peninsula for the Allies and force Turkey (then a German ally) out of World War One.  Gallipoli was a key strategic location along the peninsula protecting the thin strait of the Dardanelles, a narrow stretch of water that marks the only seagoing path to Istanbul.  What was anticipated to be a short campaign and easy victory for the Allies turned into a nine month battle resulting in the loss of more than 100,000 Allied troops and more than 200,000 Turks.  Ultimately, the Allies withdrew and ceded to the ferocious Turkish soldiers.  The battle has resulted in a strong bond of respect between Turks, Australians and New Zealanders and in recent years thousands of Aussies and Kiwis have been making the pilgrimage to Gallipoli for Anzac Day to remember those lost at the site. 

We arrived at Anzac Cove around 7:30PM on Anzac Day Eve, walking the 800 meters from the bus drop off to Anzac Cove to join crowds for the nights in the grandstands and lawn area.  The total number of attendees ended up being a little more that 7,500.  Anzac Cove is actually quite small but the combined efforts of the Australian, New Zealand and Turkish governments transform the national park into a well organized event with food stands and sometimes quite moving documentaries that ran through the night on big screens.  It was probably the coldest night of my life; Lisa and I borrowed a large blanket from our hotel for the night, Sally and ET had a sleeping bag each with them so didn’t feel the chilly 8°C (46°F) night air as much as we did as we huddled together. 

The dawn service was a welcome start to the day as we’d sat there all night waiting for it, the Australian Army band performed renditions of WWI marching tunes and the various countries’ national anthems as a supplement the service, which was actually quite moving.  We ventured to the food stands at around 7:30AM and shelled out for a chicken doner (similar to a gyros [yiros]) each, at the time that doner tasted like the world’s best item of food combining meat and starch!  After the dawn service was complete we walked the three kilometers to the Lone Pine service to commemorate the Australians who fell, then further up the hills to the final memorial at Chunuk Bair (N40°15.143’ E26°18.494’) for the New Zealand service.  The Australian service at Lone Pine was excellently done, the rendition of Waltzing Matilda by the Australian Army band very emotive.  A stirring feeling to sit there and think that 94 years prior thousands of troops had perished at the area in which we were seated.

The ride back to Istanbul was a little trying, after getting only a couple of hours sleep the night before and sitting in the hot sun all day our bus ended up being one of the very last buses in the queue to retrieve us from the pickup point.  Considering that there were more than 400 buses to transport over 7,500 visitors this meant we waited for around three hours to make our way back onto the bus for the six hour trip to Istanbul.  By the time we arrived at our pansiyon in Istanbul we were all pretty beat, to say the least.  The trip was was quite an experience and even though the night in the cold and crowds were a little trying at times I think it’s something I’ll look back on and be glad I was able to witness.  If I ever do go again I’ll be sure to take a sleeping bag next time!

Water Heaters: The water heating system consists of two metal barrels stacked on the roof which are attached to solar heating panels, the water is stored and heated and then transferred back into the homes.  This has been interesting in our accommodation because it takes a while to get the hot water but when you do, it is scalding and hard to find a comfortable temperature.  There are often many of these barrel systems on one roof to accommodate entire apartment buildings. This picture is also showing satellite dishes for TV.

Backgammon: When we were in the Bahamas last year, all of the older men sat on the corners and played dominos all afternoon.  Here, the pensioners sit around and play backgammon (although much more quietly than the Bahamians played dominos).

Driving: We could write an entire essay on this.  The short description is there are no rules.  Four grown men on one scooter (none with helmets), plenty of little kids in the back and front seats of cars, none of which are in baby seats or seatbelts.  There are very few painted road lanes, you just go for it and many times if there is a lane, a car will straddle it and consider it a third lane.  Huge buses passing smaller buses, work trucks or cars on a two lane road with oncoming traffic approaching.  Tractors are often seen driving with large trailers through very narrow streets in the middle of a bustling town.  The photo shows a tractor holding us up while on a bus trip in Selcuk.  If you are walking on the side of the street, you had better keep your ears open and move out of the way because cars will not stop and wait for you like they do in the states. Honking and cutting-off merging cars are very common.  It is always an adventure and surprisingly we have not seen any accidents.

Breakfast: The breakfasts seem to always be included with our pansiyons and consist of the same things: sliced tomato, sliced cucumber, olives, fresh bread, cheese (usually like a feta), and sometimes a hard-boiled egg or a strange processed meat that tastes like bologna.  The locals like to snack on what looks like a giant round pretzel covered with sesame seeds.  I’m not sure what they are called, but they’re sold on every street corner in the morning.  We tried a piece of one that the owner of our pansiyon offered us and found it to be very dry.

Animals: Cows, goats, sheep, chickens, cats and dogs.  Many of the homes in the small towns between larger cities will have a cow, goat or sometimes a donkey tied up in front of their dwelling.  We have even seen goats tied up on the median strips of busier roads.  Also in the small towns there are many sheep and goat herders, standing guard of their flock to make sure they don’t venture onto the busy roads.  Many local dogs and cats roam the streets, you can tell the local dogs versus stray dogs because they have been tagged in their ear (indicating they have been neutered).  The cats tend to look a bit more scruffy.  Chickens are seen everywhere scratching the dirt.  It seems the dogs, cats and chickens don’t bother each other.

WC: Otherwise known as restrooms, toilets or bathrooms.  The public toilets crack me up.  You must pay to use them by giving your lira to an attendant who sits in a glassed-in box (prices range from 0.50-0.75 YTL).  The attendant will then unlock the turnstile and you may enter (like entering a theme park).  If  you are lucky, you will find what we consider a ‘normal’ toilet but at times there is just a hole in the ground with two spots where you put your feet (but it is tiled).  You must stand back when flushing this type of toilet because water shoots out everywhere.  I was clued in by another Aussie passenger on our bus to check all of the stalls in the WC because sometimes there will be just a couple of ‘normal’ toilets at the end of the row.  Learn as you go.

Tea: Chai is consumed all day long.  Large groups of men sit around smoking and drinking chai out of small clear glasses with a saucer.  You will often see a man or boy walking down the street with a platter full of cups of chai delivering them to the shop keepers or street vendors.  We have enjoyed drinking the chai as well and for 0.50-1 YTL, you can’t beat it.  One shop keeper told us it is common for Turks to drink up to 30 cups of chai per day.

Sunflower Seeds: They are massive!  The sunflower seeds are sold in bulk by street vendors or in the corner markets along with many other nuts including almonds, dried garbanzo beans, hazelnuts, pistachios, and peanuts. I had to buy some seeds to give them a try and they were pretty tasty.  Dried apricots and dried figs are also very common and the figs are delicious!

Mosques: We are often woken in the early AM (5AM-6AM) by the morning prayers of each town.  There are many mosques in the towns, easy to identify because they usually have a large domed roof and next to it a tower that is encircled with speakers.  We think that the same prayers get broadcast across all of the mosques in a given town simultaneously because it’s very loud everywhere (although we don’t know the language so it is hard to confirm).  The mosques also announce prayers throughout the afternoon and usually late evening around 8:30PM or 9PM, we think there are five per day.

Street View: N37°56.915’ E27°22.079’

Temperature: 28°C (82°F)

Three buses and about four hours up the Aegean coast took us from Bodrum to Selcuk, the quaint country town a couple of kilometers from the famous ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus.  We only had one night in Selcuk, mainly to visit Ephesus, so we had Alibaba the owner of the local carpet shop and brother of one of the owners of our pansiyon give us a ride to the southern end of the ruins.  Ephesus is an absolute tourist mecca, luxury buses from the nearby port town of Kusadasi (one of the interchange points for our dolmus ride) transport holidaymakers from cruise ships to walk through the ruins for the afternoon, so even in the early high season the place was packed.  The tour guides speak seven languages, we felt like we were solidly on the tourist trail for the first time while we were visiting the ruins. 

The ancient city of Ephesus (N37°56.704’ E27°20.342’) if the best-preserved Roman city in the Mediterranean.  In its prime it was the trading and cultural center of the cult of Cybele, an Anatolian fertility goddess.  We overheard one of the tour guides explaining that a lot of the intricate stone carvings in the city signify freedom of sexuality.  When the Romans conquered over the area and declared it part of Asia, Ephesus became the Roman provincial capital.  While the city has had a number of different societies call it home over the past couple of millennia, the main portion of the ruins were constructed by the Romans around the second century AD. 

A walk through the ruins for the afternoon really gave us a feeling of what it would have been like during Roman times.  Extensive colonnaded streets, an amphitheater with capacity of 25000, a huge central marketplace with a road leading to the city’s inland harbor, the city was a sight to behold.  Perhaps the most publicized ruin remaining is the front wall of the Library of Celsus (Lisa and I are pictured sitting in it below), the facade is still in very good shape and the intricacy of the writing carved into the stonework was great to see.  Unfortunately the city’s harbor and stadium are permanently closed to tourists, but our two-and-a-half hour walk certainly was a fun trip back in time.

As most of the visitors to Ephesus seem to flock from cruise ships and luxurious resorts on the coast, Selcuk (which is only about two kilometers away) remains off the beaten path and thus retains its welcoming Turkish culture and fantastic food.  There are a few pansiyons and up-market guest houses about the place, catering to holidaymakers and backpackers alike, but for the most part the people we saw in the streets were Turkish.  It’s a fantastic little town, the start of the line for the train into the bustling metropolis of Izmir to the north, the town center is a mix of trinket shops and a strip of eateries surrounding a fountain.  We stayed at the ANZ Guest House which is run by an Turkish Aussie who moved to Turkey after growing up Down Under (who was actually a bit of a tit) and his more-than-friendly partner Murat (Alibaba’s brother).  On the recommendation (again) of the Lonely Planet we ate dinner at Edjer Restaurant, it’s probably the best meal we’ve had in Turkey so far!  Fried eggplant, sarmas (very similar to Greek dolmas), lamb shish and our first sampling of Turkish yoghurt, the food was just to die for.  The family running the place were great: the father takes care of the meat, the mother the vegetables and the boys comprise the wait staff.  Next stop: Istanbul.

Street View: N37°2.357’ E27°25.614’

Another bus, another post…  We’re on our way to Selcuk to see the ruins at Ephesus at the moment, so a little more downtime to write about our two nights in Bodrum.  Bodrum is located on the Aegean Sea northwest along the coast from Fethiye, the main drag runs along two moon-shaped harbors filled with multi-million dollar Turkish yachts.  It reminded me a little of the harbors in Nassau, except here the boats are almost exclusively wooden while the mega-yachts in the Caribbean are made from sleek fiberglass.  In-between Bodrum’s main harbor is the main archaeological attraction: a medieval castle perched at the end of a spit that was supposedly the most impenetrable stronghold in the Mediterranean in its time (how it was conquered in the fifteenth century is a little confusing, though!).  As well as being an attraction in itself, the castle holds the world’s most extensive underwater archeological museum.  The waters around Bodrum hold some of the world’s most well preserved and extensive wrecks, all are closed to public diving in the interest of archaeology but the tour booklet we received at the museum stated that the government is considering allowing access to a limited number in the interest of tourism.  The main attraction of the museum is the display of an excavated boat from the 14th century BC, the condition of the artifacts were astounding.  The trade routes between Egypt, Africa and the Mediterranean civilizations meant the boat had a wide array of cargo from three continents, from simple amphoras used for transporting wine and oil to intricate Egyptian scrolls and cosmetics.  Really an interesting exhibit.

We thought about exploring some of the beaches surrounding Bodrum in the afternoon, but it was a little cooler yesterday and mostly overcast so we decided instead to do something that was recommended to us by a number of people: take a Turkish bath.  There are two main hamams in the area of Bodrum in which we stayed, Lisa was (understandably) not so keen on visiting the one that required separate bathing so we ventured to Bardakci Hamam for our experience because it allows mixed bathing.  Bardakci is the oldest hamam in Bodrum, constructed in 1749 and in operation ever since.  It was quite an experience, so I’m going to go into some detail here so we don’t forget it…  We were escorted into a small changing room and each given a pestemal (a small cloth shown here on me) to change into.  Lisa was asked to wear a bathing suit under hers while I was told to completely nude-up for my experience.  We were escorted into the marble camekan (a domed steam room), in the center of which was a large square marble slab about half a meter tall about three meters on either side (a meter is  about three feet, Brooke).  The slab was heated in the center, where it was excruciatingly hot, and then cooled-off slightly toward the edge.  Even toward the edge, though, it was almost too hot to touch, we had to ease ourselves into lying on it over the space of a few minutes.  The steam room was very hot and extremely humid, both of us were dripping with a mix of sweat and water within a few minutes but after 10 or so we got used to the environment and started to relax as our pores opened.  About 20 minutes into the experience our masseuses entered and started their work.  The first portion of the bath involves being rubbed with an abrasive glove which has the texture of a fine grit sandpaper, the glove removed any trace of dead skin from our body.  We were both amazed at just how much dead skin was sticking to us after being sandpapered for 10 or 15 minutes (the amount of skin was actually quite gross!).  We were then rinsed of dead skin with cold water while sitting on the marble slab, only to lay back down on the superheated rock again for the cleaning portion.  Our masseuses (by now dripping with sweat themselves) used a cloth bag dipped in soapy water to lather us each in a cocoon of soap bubbles, probably the most silky smooth soap I’ve ever felt.  Once lathered we were cleaned with more vigor that I thought possible, for a good 20 to 25 minutes we were lathered and rubbed all over while laying on the marble slab.  Lisa’s masseuse was a little more reserved than mine (I think because she’s female) but mine cleaned everything.  I mean everything.  He even cleaned up my nose, in my ears, in- between my toes.  And remember this whole time I’m nude with my boys out for the world to see.  Before being escorted out of the steam room we also had our hair (and my beard) washed vigorously, Lisa’s hair ended up in a large blonde dreadlock by the time she was done!  Once clean (and by now we are really clean) we were wrapped in towels and escorted from the steam room to cool off outside.  This also gave the masseuses a chance to cool off and relax a little, the amount of effort they put into the experience was amazing, they have some seriously strong hands and forearms.  At this point I was so relaxed I actually fell asleep for a few seconds in my chair, while Lisa was the complete opposite, exhilarated and very awake.  The final part of our bath involved an oil massage, Lisa’s from a woman this time, with  aromatic oils for about 20 minutes.  The whole experience took about an hour and a half, we’re glad we decided to do it, something neither of us will ever forget!

The one unfortunate aspect of Bodrum is the influx of British package holidaymakers the town receives.  The strength of the British pound results in everything being between double and triple the price we’ve experienced elsewhere in Turkey (and even elsewhere we’ve still stuck to relatively touristy spots).  In addition, the restaurants cater to the much blander British taste bud: instead of spicy rice, fired onions and peppers, and a salad of pickled cabbage with dill and tomatoes to accompany our food we instead received plain white rice, unseasoned meat and French fries!  While the food we ate in Bodrum was still good it was a far cry from the scrumptious fare to which we’ve become accustomed elsewhere on our trip.  Otherwise, the town was a great spot, another picturesque stop on our way up the coast, and we’ll never forget that hamam!

Street View: Trailhead at Kayakoy at N36°34.343’ E29°5.137’ to the beach at Oludeniz at N36°32.856’ E29°7.232’ 

Temperature: 31°C

The Lycian Way is heralded as one of the world’s most picturesque hiking trails.  After discussing sections of the trail with the Aussie couple we met in Antalya who had just completed 287 kilometers of it, we decided to attempt a section today from Kayakoy to Oludeniz.  We wanted to visit Oludeniz whilst staying in Fethiye anyway, as a number of people had told us it’s the best beach in Turkey.  We caught a dolmus (small local bus) to the village of Kayakoy in the mountains south of Fethiye.  The dolmus system is great, they run very frequently and are a cheap way of traveling short distances.  They’re about the size of a minibus and have seating on one side, standing room on the other.  The only drawback is that when you get 25 or so people crammed into one in 31°C weather the aroma can get a little interesting, to say the least! 

The ride to Kayakoy took about 45 minutes, it seems that apart from farming the mountain plateaus the main income provider in Kayakoy is a ghost town of buildings perched above the village through which we walked to begin our hike.  The 2000 or so stone houses were abandoned by the mostly Ottoman-Greek inhabitants after WWI and the Turkish War of Independence.  We weren’t expecting such an interesting start to the day, but the relics were quite a sight, a completely abandoned city but for the most part still standing (minus their roofs).  Our first mistake of the day was to trust probably the worst hand-drawn map known to man that we photocopied from the guest book at our pansiyon.  The second mistake was to fail to completely read the set of instructions that went along with the map.  We hiked through the mountains and ridges overlooking the Mediterranean between Kayakoy and Oludeniz for about an hour before running into a local boy herding donkeys and, via a combination of sign language and pointing at our rudimentary map, figured out that we were a few miles on the other side of an impassable ravine from where we needed to be.  He did know a little English though: when we asked whether we could walk to Oludeniz from the location at which we’d found ourselves he gave us a forceful “no way” and looked at us the way Jarrid Bordessa’s dad looks at me when I get bogged on their dairy! 

So, we trudged back up into the ruins of Kayakoy, dripping in sweat in the 31°C midday sun, and after a heated moment here and there managed to get ourselves onto the correct portion of the trail.  We quickly discovered that the Lycian Way is marked by very distinguishable markers painted on rocks every few hundred meters even in sections where there is no discernable trail.  The markers became our saving grace as we always knew we were headed in the right direction at the sight of the next marker.  The hike was majestic, through pine forests and across ridges with views of bays and islands, cliffs and mountaintops all around.  One section of the trail was a little treacherous, we had to scramble a few hundred meters down quite a steep rock face where there were no markers, I managed get a little ahead of Lisa but was reminded of her presence by some very loud hyperventilating as a meter-long snake slithered across the rock a few inches in front of her feet!  A mostly downhill route had us in Oludeniz about three and a half hours after arriving in Kayakoy, enough time for a quick dip before heading back to Fethiye in the dolmus to catch our bus to Bodrum.

Street View: N36°37.136’ E29°5.686’

Leaving Fethiye behind us now as I have a little more downtime on the four hour express bus to Bodrum.  On another Pamukkale bus, the ease of bus travel in Turkey is amazing, the buses are very well equipped and the 25 YTL ($USD15.60) includes TV headsets, snacks, soft drinks, water and chai whilst onboard.  Too cheap.  Anyway, we stayed at the Ferah Pansiyon just south of Fethiye’s harbor and main drag, another nice little pansiyon run by the  extremely helpful Tuna and his wife Monica.  Our first evening we traipsed about town after arriving from Antalya, the harbor of  Fethiye is beautiful with its turquoise Mediterranean water and snow-capped peaks in the distance.  It has a very touristy atmosphere but the cafes and restaurants were still full of a pretty balanced mix of Turks and visitors.  We found a little bar on the water’s edge for a few half liter Efes beers at 2.75 YTL ($USD1.75) a pop where we whiled away a few hours and watched the fish fight over tidbits of bread thrown to them by bar patrons.  As we were walking through town late in the afternoon we stumbled upon the Presidential Tour of Turkey as the riders were finishing their leg for the day.  The main thoroughfare in Fethiye was blocked off for the race and all the locals were out to watch the pros come through town.  A lot of European countries had teams entered, we saw Turkey (of course), Spain and Germany to name a few.  We found a spot 200 meters from the finish line and got to witness the lead pack of four or five riders sprinting to the finish line, as well as the main pack of more than 50 cyclists come in five or so minutes later.  A bit of a treat!  On the recommendation of the Lonely Planet we walked to the Pasa Kebab for dinner and were not disappointed.  We shared a lamb shish and beef pide, I think the pide is probably one the best pizza-like foods on the planet.  An elongated flatbread cooked in a wood oven with pickled peppers (capsicum), onions and grilled beef.  Amazingly good.  The lamb shish was pretty awesome too, lamb in general here in Turkey is fantastic, but the pide was out of this world, I think I’ll be ordering a few more during the next 10 days! 

We spent Friday on a 12 island boat cruise on the recommendation of Tuna, our hostel owner.  We were picked up at 10:00AM by the tour operator in her little Datsun 1600 from yesteryear and driven through town in another seat-of-your-pants ride for which we could have used racing harnesses in place of our seatbelts!  Lisa thinks I would enjoy driving in Turkey (I tend to agree).  The boat was an eclectic mix of tourists from all over the world: Denmark, Scotland, New Zealand, the States and a few Aussies.  We had a good chat with a guy from Woodville who was traveling through Egypt and Turkey for five weeks, the world is a small place these days (for those of you that don’t know the suburbs of Adelaide, Woodville is about 10 kilometers from where I grew up).  We cruised around the islands outside of main Fethiye harbor, stopping at five or six of them for sightseeing, swimming, snorkeling and some fun diving off of the boat.  The tour operator (our excitable driver with the Datsun) had a bit of a tough time pedaling beers to the backpacking crew at 5 YTL a piece, by the end of the trip we’d bartered her down to 2.50 YTL a drink, more in-line with what they’d be onshore!  For 30 YTL ($USD18.75) each we received an eight hour cruise of the Turkish islands around Fethiye, lunch, and pickup from our pansiyon.  Again, too cheap.  A pretty fun day, some beautiful scenery and temperatures around 30°C, what more could you ask for?

In the center of Fethiye is a fish market surrounded by restaurants: it’s setup such that once you’ve made your purchase from the fishmongers you can take it to the restaurant of your choosing and for 5 YTL ($USD3.10) they’ll cook it to your liking, provide you with toast and a green salad.  We chose squid and for 10 YTL ($USD6.25) purchased four good-sized specimens which were turned into delicious calamari by the chefs at the restaurant we chose.  The restaurants themselves don’t really have a menu apart from a wide array of mezes (antipasti).  Lisa ordered olives wrapped in anchovies (Gail and Greg, she said you guys would love them) and we also sampled the hummus and a salad of chopped tomatoes, garlic and onions.  The hummus here is a little different to what we’re used to: it’s served on a plate as a solid cube with oil drizzled over the top, you then have to mix in the oil until it’s of a spreadable consistency.  Another killer meal, lucky we had a big hike planned for the next day!

Street View: N36°58.959’ E30°27.902’

We ventured up into the Gulluk Dagi National Park yesterday to visit the lauded ancient ruins of Termessos.  First a bit of history and specifics…  The ruins are located in the Bey Mountains about 3300 feet above the Mediterranean.  The Termessans, a Pisidian people, we thought to be fierce people prone to battling invaders and were known to have fought off Alexander the Great as far back as 333 BC.  The Romans also respected the Termessan’s wishes to remain an independent society and treated them as allies in 70 BC.

We teamed up with a couple of Hungarian diplomats on vacation from their four year posting in Belgium, we ran into the girls at our pansiyon after breakfast, which was convenient as we split the price of the taksi tour between us.  The ride up into the mountains began with a by-the-seat-of-your-pants ride through the streets of Antalya with our Turkish taxi driver (who didn’t speak a lick of English).  The highway into the Bey Mountains is absolutely beautiful, the mountains stretch skywards with ski resorts and snow capped peaks as far as the eye can see.  Termessos itself is only around 30 kilometers from Antalya, then a 15 minute walk up a hiking trail to the lower city walls.  The ruins are perched in-between two adjacent peaks with a steep descent down one side of the city and cliffs on the other.  Its location no doubt made it a formidable location for invaders, we spotted quite a number of spots in the surrounding mountains where spots had been carved into the walls for lookouts and archers.  We began our walk through the ancient city  under the cover of clouds, which quickly turned to blue skies, then rain, and back to clouds all within about two hours, an almost alpine climate where we were glad to have dressed in layers.  The intricacy of the ruins really amazed us, considering that the city was constructed exclusively out of stone many thousands of years ago.  The 4200-seat amphitheater was a sight to behold and the complexity of the water supply and cisterns was amazing.  The city was complete with housing, a gymnasium, streets, a number of necropolis, baths and temples.  We also found a few areas of the ruins, especially down the colonnaded street, where sections of wall were engraved with writings in the Termessans’ ancient script.  The necropolis were quite a sight, too.  The northeast necropolis is the burial ground in which we spent the most time, the size of the tombs and the amount of time it must have taken to construct them is mind-boggling.  Termessos was really an awesome place to behold, we’re glad we made the trip.

On the way back into Antalya we also ventured to the Karian Cave, about 12 kilometers from Termessos.  Excavation and study of the cave began in 1946 and it’s heralded as one of the most important anthropological history sites in the world.  It is thought to have been continuously inhabited for 25000 years!  The cave is located at the end of a dusty road that winds through farmland off the side of the main highway, a steep hiking trail took us to the cave opening where we were free to venture into the cave unsupervised and uninhibited from touching the ancient writing on the walls.  We both commented that we definitely wouldn’t be touching centuries old archaeological treasures in the States!  The cave is split into two large chambers, definitely large enough to house scores of people, although I don’t think Lisa could have lived in there as she couldn’t handle the smell (surprise, surprise…) even for the short time we were inside!

At the moment I’m sitting on the bus from Antalya to Fethiye (location N36°58.262’ E29°47.835’), winding through the Bey Mountains as we cross the peninsula between the two towns.  Amazing views of snowcapped peaks in the distance and pine-covered gorges are visible out of both sides of the bus, just beautiful countryside and mostly uninhabited except for a goat herder here and there tending flocks in the steep ravines.  The greenhouses we saw surrounding Antalya continued up in the mountains, we found out earlier today that Turkey supplies Europe with a significant portion of its tomatoes and it’s currently tomato harvesting season.  We met up with a nice couple from Perth at our pansiyon this morning who have just hiked a 287 kilometer section of the Lycian Way between Fethiye and Antalya.  Great to get some firsthand knowledge of the area to which we’re headed next.  They’re sitting across the aisle from us on the bus, today they’re off to complete a 1200 kilometer trek through Spain after flying to London and changing planes to get back to Barcelona.  The Lycian Way, which we hope to venture onto tomorrow or Saturday for a short hike, was just a warm up for them!