Olympos

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I got up early since I didn’t sleep well and the bed was not very comfy. I like getting up early since it is very peaceful and I enjoy the time to myself. Kadir’s is such an interesting place, with random chickens and peacocks (who were in full display) running around, and fires in the middle of the dance floor of the bar, I felt like I was really someplace different. I was just playing on my computer and sitting on one of the loungers when Marcus woke up and it was perfect timing since breakfast was just getting started! Sadly there still wasn’t any yogurt, but it was a good Turkish breakfast overall. We had to eat and be ready at 9 since we all we had decided to go sea kayaking today!
Dora had chosen not to come and was going to be going rock climbing later, but the 5 (Marcus, Taylee, Brett, Bex, and I) of us got in the van that took us to the beach. There was a bit of confusion since we didn’t know if we all just wanted to buy one ticket each, or pool our money and buy a pass. In the end we pooled our money and bought two 7 pass cards for the beach, which cost us each 3TL which what one ticket is through would have cost us.
We walked and walked on the Turkish sand (note: pebbles) until we reached our kayaks. Now let me just take a moment to describe our tour guide. The guys on this trip had some nice oogling at the Russian girls who seem to always be scantily clad, but now it was the girls turn. This guy had THE best body I have ever seen. He was lean, muscular, and cut! He had a 12 pack if that is possible, but at the same time he looked like a caveman (with a little Jesus thrown into the mix). Yes he was 75% pure bodily hotness, 23% caveman, and 2% Jesus, but as hot as he was he was probably the worst guide on the planet. We got our kayaks and hauled them into the water (no explanation from caveman) then followed his lead and pushed them into the water and we were off! We all had different colored kayaks with Bex wanting the red one since she said the red ones go faster haha! I had never really been kayaking before (definitely not sea kayaking) and we didn’t receive any instruction; the hot caveman didn’t even turn back to see if we all had gotten in the water, or much less teach us the right way to paddle. I watched our guide and tried to mimic him, so it all worked out. We fought the sea (it’s funny to be paddling along then all of a sudden your kayak veers off in an unintended direction) and made it into a few coves which was pretty interesting. The water was a very pretty blue and you could see all the way down to the bottom at some points! We paddled to a very small secluded beach (again note: lots of pebbles, almost impossible to walk on, much less drag your kayak up onto, and no doubt hot caveman was probably laughing at us because it was funny). We didn’t know what to do here so we all just sat down, it was only later that Marcus said caveman had gone up to him and apparently whispered (since none of us heard him) that we can jump off of some rocks into the sea if we would like. So once we got this info out of Marcus we swam to what we thought was the rocks to jump off of. Wrong! Marcus had climbed up this random section of rocks and then couldn’t figure out how to get down! I told him to jump but land far enough away since rocks hurt when you land on them (everyone learns this in don’t land on rocks 101, but I decided to take don’t land on rocks 401)! We eventually talked him down, and then Brett found the proper jump off spot (now we could have avoided all of that if hotcaveman spoke up!) Marucs and I were the last to get our Kayaks in the water so we were behind the others a bit, and as luck would have it a storm was rolling in! There was lightning in front of us and behind us, and here we all are bobbing around in the sea, yay! Hotcaveman didn’t seem too worried and like his usual self didn’t even check to see if we were alive behind us.
We finally made it back to the beach and was served lunch and then it really started to rain, Marcus and I tried to start up a conversation with hotcaveman, but all we got out of him is that he is from Izmir (hey it’s a start). We all then decided to go back to the Treehouses for some R and R. I was so tired from not sleeping much the night before that when we got back I passed out. I woke up around 4:00 pm and found that my brother had decided to go rock climbing as well! He and Dora had a good time scaling the large rock behind the Treehouses, but their hands were sore afterwards since this was the real deal!
We then all hung out and played more backgammon (common theme in Turkey) until dinner. We had a lovely dinner which is when we decided we wanted to see the famous Chimera flames. Apparently gas leaks out from these rocks and upon mixing with the oxygen in the air creates fire which doesn’t go out (although at one point Taylee wanted to test this theory out and tried pouring beer on one) I was expecting one little flame, but to my surprise there were about 8 of them! All spread out on this huge slab of rock! Bex on the other hand was expecting a huge cave bursting with fire (we all joked that “was it supposed to be spouting fireworks too”?!) We lay back on the rocks and looked at the stars by the light of the flames. Marcus swore that he saw a star that looked like it could have been a satellite but it was moving way too erratically, but Dora was the only other one who saw it (sorry brother! I had no idea what you were looking at). It was soon time to make our way back down to the bus at the bottom of the hill (it was a good 15 minute steep walk up to the flames) and as I was walking with the group I noticed Marcus wasn’t with us, and with it being dark I knew that I wouldn’t want to walk down it alone either so I waited for him. Once I caught up with Marcus we heard all this screaming coming from further down the mountain! I wondered what it was and thought someone probably was scaring someone. As it turns out it was Bex, Taylee, and Brett scaring a bunch of other tourists! They waited in the bushes at one point and as the other people walked by they jumped out at them!
We all made it to the bus in one piece and had planned to make it a late night at the bull bar, but Taylee and Brett had found a company to go Scuba diving with and it left early in the morning, and Bex wasn’t feeling up for it, so that left Fatih, Marcus, Dora, and I. There weren’t very many people at the Bull bar, but we made up for it. They played decent music and once you get a few beers into the guys they like dancing too! The best part is that it is mostly an outdoor bar, and there is a fire on the dance floor! So I started off a bit chilly, but if you danced around the fire you were fine (I wonder if drunk people get burned often). It was such a laid back atmosphere at the Bull bar that at one point the bartenders got up on the bar and started dancing, then invited Marcus and I up to join them, in the end there were about 8 of us all dancing on the bar! ( Bucketlist: “Dance on bar” check!) I was also happy since I was the one making the noise and was not being kept up by it! It was a wonderful experience and a great night, topped off by the fact that we didn’t have anything planned for the next day. Olympos is an awesome town.

B

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Photos

Marcus and Dora scaling the rock wall
This isn't your granny wall!

The only picture of hotcaveman I have
His face isn't all that much, its too bad he has his shirt on :( (hes the one sitting down)