Blogs from Kas, Mediterranean, Turkey, Middle East - page 4

Tuesday 12th October: archaelogical daze. The idea for the day was to visit several archaelogical sites all within easy driving distance of Kas. We still had the hire car, from Ali Baba Rentals, and headed off for Xanthos a World Heritage site about 30 miles from Kas. This place had been a large and important city well before the Romans arrived and contained remnants of Lycian (pre-Roman), Greek, Roman and Byzantine cultures. It's a big place and it took us a few hours to get around it. The guide book made repeated mention of Sir Charles Fellows, a British explorer who visited the abandoned site in the 1840s and carted off a number of the best preserved architecture; which are now star exhibits in the British Museum. It seems that Sir Charles is remembered with the ... read more

Well the girls are here for shopping and that’s what they did Wednesday. There are so many little shops and vendors tucked in all the alleyways of this small town. Actually I suppose Kalkan is more a big village than a small town, but lots of shops and tomorrow is Kalkan ‘market’ day. The girls have been talking of ‘market days’ since we got here and I suppose the excitement of it all, like little kids waiting for Christmas, is why the bus trip to the Kas market. Just can’t wait ! So while the girls shop, Al and I tag along. Who knows, we may be needed to pack and carry stuff. Of course if we do it will be all uphill ! Obviously there wasn’t expected to be too much shopping as we all ... read more

Saying goodbye to Salona we rented a car on Saturday mornıng and headed east. Our first stop along the Mediterranean coast was Kaya Koy a Lycian town originally named Levissi. İn the fırst millenium the Greek speaking Christians fled from Gemiler İsland to escape from raiding pirates and settled 2 miles inland at Levissi. The town prospered and grew for centuries until the end of WWİ when civil war between the Greeks and Turks in Western Anatolia brought about a peace treaty brokered by the British. 400,000 Turkish-speaking Muslims were resettled in Turkey and 1,200,000 Greek-speaking Christians were to be sent to Greece. The Muslim Turks did not want to settle in Levissi. They wanted farmland and were afraid the Greeks had poisoned the wells before they left. Levissi became a ghost town and, after an ... read more

30 Degrees and some (!!) for our last few days in Kas so clearly the best place to be is by the pool relaxing and enjoying Villa Deniz! What a hard life... On day one I set up a chair on the corner of the balcony where every day started with a cup of coffee and breakfast. From here there was then likely to be a move to one of the deck chairs on the upper level to read for a while. Perhaps a dip before lunch then a move to one of the deck chairs on the lower level by the pool for direct access. The sunset from the Villa was lovely to watch though, we also enjoyed trips into the town centre for some dinner and drinks at either one of the restaurants in ... read more

Kaş - Day 1 (proper) Well, finally the day has come - we get to check into the villa which our whole trip has been worked around - it did not disappoint! A very nice place to just sit back and relax...We have done some serious walking around our previous destinations and this was to be a bit of 'nothing' for once. We have noticed we are able to scale and even climb up some pretty steep ascents, being stairs or otherwise without 'too' much hassle now - regardless, the gut remains (I blame the beer and the food but we are on holidays!) but the legs are certainly 'better' off for the adventure. We did a bit of shopping to stock up before we dropped off 'The Beast' as this would be our last opportunity ... read more