Heaven

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Saturday August 19, 2006 - We woke up at 6:30am in order to catch the first bus out of Olympos at 7am, bu tit either didn't come or we missed it. Either way we decided it was a good thing. We then had two hours to go to see the beach and ruins of Olympos (on the way to the beach) and have breakfast before the 9am bus. The ruins were good to see and the beach was pretty, but by that time the sun had come up and it was baking already. So we walked back, explored some more of the ruins, and had our breakfast. The bus filled up quickly and we were on our way. We had to pay for that small bus (which we had avoided doing the first time) and then pay for the second small bus back to Antalya. As soon as we arrived in Antalya we were asked where we were going (Egirdir) and practically thrown onto a bus that went to Egirdir and was leaving that minute. We were on that bus for two slumbering hours and then landed in Isparta, where we transferred to another bus station across town and put on yet another bus, our fıfth of the day, that would take us to Egirdir. By this time I was cranky - I know, hard to believe - and was worried we had made a mistake by going there at all. My book doesn't mention Egirdir - it was the recommendation of a friend - and I had no information about places to stay or if it was even within our budget. I started to get worried and wasn't sure what we had done. But it turned out to be a fabulous decision in the end.

The lake was absolutely beautiful and we ended up finding cheap accomodation without a problem. The woman started out with 45 lyras, we said 30, she said ok. And it was a gorgeous room with bath that looked right onto the water. And that part was even on a peninsula so that the water was both in front of and behind us. Amazing. Thank you Tracey for the recommendation! The weather was even more fabulous - it was cool and breezy.

We spent the rest of the day resting and then swimming in the lake. It was wonderful. Had lunch and dinner and snacks and enjoyed ourselves.

Sunday - Today was one of my laziest days ever. The room was so pretty and cool and wonderful that we stayed there until 4pm! Reading and sleeping and eating chips, chocolate, and cookies until we ran out and got hungry and thirsty (we had no water all day). We grabbed a quick sandwich and went swimming for a couple of hours before getting some dinner and using the internet.

Monday - In the morning I went out to use the internet and buy tickets for our trip to Capadocia that night. We checked out of the room and stored our luggage with them. Then we spent the day at the water swimming and sunning and relaxing again. Afterwards we tried to use the internet but the power was down so we had a tea and waited until it came back on. I have been corresponding with a Russian travel agency trying to arrange train tickets to China as well as trying to figure out if I will be able to get the visa. Afterwards we had a nice dinner - third time at the same restaurant - and then grabbed our luggage and went to another pension to say good-bye to Katie, an American girl we had met when we originally arrived in town. There I exchanged the book I had finished and to my delight they had the second book in a series I had started in Africa. Best luck ever. We ran to catch the bus but the bus was late so we sat around talking to Jeff, a strange Dutch guy and Rob, an American Katie had spent the day with and told us to meet. Then we got on the bus and away we went.

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