Party in a Treehouse

We boarded yet another night bus with the sort of enthusiasm typically reserved for a visit to the dentist. As we had come to expect, a clean cut, well dressed man happily served us refreshments upon take-off, and, promptly freshened the air inside the bus as we set off on our trip to Antalya. Meanwhile, the child seated behind us commenced her evening long complaint session, crying at every conceivable opportunity. Her caretakers, seemingly deaf and possessing absolutely zero parenting skills, did nothing to calm her or her flailing appendages which spent most of their time slamming into the back of my seat. After a couple hours of squealing, the child did a poo in her diaper effectively destroying the last shred of comfort inside the bus. Even the conductor’s deliciously scented lemon air freshener was powerless against the stench of feces emanating from seat 16.

After 5 minutes of breathing through the sleeves of our shirts, we vacated our assigned bus seats and took up residence in the back of the bus as far away from the soiled diaper as possible. For the next hour, the woman holding the screaming child did nothing to improve the situation until, finally, the bus conductor approached her and apparently asked her to clean her baby up. The half-brained woman then took the child to some empty seats near where we had moved (lucky us) and did the diaper change. Fortunately the smell improved, however, the child still continued to scream throughout the evening.

Antalya didn’t come quick enough, but we were happy to finally part ways with the loud child and stupid mother. Tired and hungry at 9am, we pressed on and hopped on our next bus to continue our marathon journey to our final destination, Olympos. We traded a nice comfy bus for a dinky dolmus for the next 3 hours of roads that winding up and down hills along the Mediterranean coast. The ride was quite beautiful and probably would have been more enjoyable if we both weren’t nodding off around each bends in the road. We arrived about 11 kilometers outside of Olympos at a little rest area where we had to wait another 1 hour for the third bus to “arrive” (the bus driver was sitting there with us at the rest stop the whole time) to take us the final leg of the trip. Finally, some 20 hours and three bus rides later, we arrived at the infamous tree houses of Olympos ready to settle in for a few days to enjoy the sights, sun and beach.

Our first attempt to settle in and have a relaxing time was marred by the fact that we both got stomach illnesses from our final meal in Urfa. We confirmed that it was definitely the meal we ate in Urfa once we got in touch with our Czech friends (who also stayed at the same place) and learned that they too were sick. So, our first day/night in Olympos was spent hanging out at the hostel flushing the toxins out of our systems. Fortunately the hostel was very nice (a bunch of open air wooden buildings with cushions, WIFI, and decent food) and an easy place to lounge around. We made friends with three girls (Italian, French and Dutch) who were all living in Turkey, and palled around with them to pass the time. We called it quits rather early and retired to our little tree house to the surprising sounds of thumping dance music.

After our illness passed, we set out to explore Olympos (specifically its ruins and beach) and discover why a number of people we had met in our travels suggested going there. Wandering around the ruins proved to be rather disappointing as the ruins are little more than a few arches, several smashed up sarcophagi and lots of broken stone walls that often rarely stand higher than an average human. Even trekking up to the cliff overlooking the beach is rather disappointing as very little of ancient Olympos still stands. After browsing the scant ruins, we headed out to the stone beach for a bit of sun. The beach, while incredibly beautiful, was huge and packed with people and considerably less peaceful that we were expecting. We spent a while laying on the rocks and splashing in the chilly waters, but retired rather early back to the hostel. As the evening set in, other hostels in the area pumped up the music and what could have been a nice serene evening chatting amongst friends turned into a beach-side disco scene. Perhaps not bad if that is what you are searching for, however, Rozy and I were more in the mood for a quiet beachy evening under the stars in our little tree house.

All up, Olympos certainly wasn’t what we were expecting, and, had we known more about the place, we probably would have skipped it and gone elsewhere. That being said, the environment hostel we stayed in (Saban), was incredibly relaxing and owner/manager Merril was super accommodating and a friendly person to have a chat with. Don’t go to Olympos for the ruins. Don’t go to Olympos for an amazing beach experience. Go to Olympos if you are looking for a get away where you can hang out in the woods with friends and drink till the sun comes up.


STATISTICS

• Flights taken = 13
  
• Intercity trains rides taken = 19
  
• Intercity bus rides taken = 55
  
• Times lost = 35
  
• Total instances of diarrhea = 13
  
• Total number of requests for pictures with Daniel = 38
  
• Total megabytes of pictures taken = 43,910
  

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