olympos, turkey

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Today was the best travel day ever in Turkey! We left on an Anamur Zafer Co bus at 10am in the front two seats. It was a super nice bus and only a 6 hour ride to Antalya. The buses in Turkey are usually amazing and have comfy seats and offer free çay, water, traditional turkish hand sanitizer and snacks. We made it to Antalya and a small Dolmuş was waiting to take people to Olympos. The dolmuş dropped us off in the Olympos Valley but not at our hostel. We waited at this Olimpos Restaurant for more than two hours and it was getting dark and we were getting a bit nervous b/c we did not have reservations. The dolmuş finally came and we arrived at 7pm just in time for dinner at Turkman's Treehouses. They even had a vegetarian buffet for dinner. We were starving! And we got to sleep in an awesome treehouse with two little beds. And we were able to catch the last tour to the Chimirea Flames that night. It all worked out so perfectly we couldn't believe it!
We had to leave the next morning because our time in Turkey was limited but I do regret not spending more time in Olympos. It seemed like such an awesome place and so beautiful, as well.

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Photos

the honeymoon suite
upon checking in, they looked at us awkwardly and spoke quietly in turkish to each other and then said, "you will be in the honeymoon suite". haha!

riding to the chimaera flame
we hopped onto the tour at the last minute and there wasn't enough room for us so they put us in the back of the dolmuş in 2 lawnchairs.

scorpions galore!
hard to see, but that's the scorpion i almost stepped on climbing the mountain in the dark to the flames. there was also one under the sink the next morning while i was brushing my teeth.

Chimaera Flame
these flames are awesome, they are really just sprouting up all over the place in between rocks.

Chimaera Flame
Near Olympos, located in the neighbouring village of Çıralı and about 200 meters above sea level, the eternal flames called the Chimaera may be seen issuing from the ground. The fuel source for the flames is natural gas, largely methane, seeping through cracks in the earth.

Chimaera Flame
The mythical Chimaera was a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent, who supposedly roamed the woods and sprouted fire from her mouth.