Onwards to relax in Olympos

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Saturday 24th September - Egirdir to Olympos

Before leaving the hostel we enjoyed an lovely hot shower and an enormous breakfast. Our bus was at 10.30 am so luckily we had time to do these things without having to get up exceptionally early.

We bid farewell to Ibrahim, who advised us to go to his friend's tree house accomodation in Olympos, and we headed off with our bags down to the bus station. We were about 15 minutes early and the bus was about 10 minutes late, so again we sat waiting at a bus station. Eventually, our bus arrived and we loaded our bags, took our seats and took off towards Antalya. Tickets were 15 try = $8.40 each and the journey was to take about 2 hours.

At the Antalya otogar we transferred to a minibus / dolmus after a short wait heading for Olympos, tickets 10 try = $5.60 each. This trip should have been about 1 hour, but took longer due to all the stops this dolmus made along the way. This bus was following the coastline so there were many people getting on and off at assorted places along the coast. Finally we were dropped at a roadside cafe where another dolmus was waiting to take us the last few kilometers down towards the beach. This was down a dirt road to the township of Olympos and cost 3 try = $1.70 each.

We asked the driver to drop us off outside Bayram's tree house accomodation as recommended by Ibrahim, but after inspection I was not impressed and they did not seem to want to barter the price so we moved on to see what else we could find. After asking and inspecting a few other places we ended up at Saban Pension, which is where I with my 2 sisters last visit to Olympos 6 years ago. Here we opted for a tree house, but it looked much more comfortable than the ones we had just viewed. Most important point being that Saban had proper mattresses, compared to the thin, sad bits of foam the other tree houses were offering. They all seemed to be the same price so a better mattress was a better deal. And if the food was still as good as the last visit we would have another reason to be happy we selected to stay at Saban. All the accomodations here in Olympos include breakfast and dinner, this is because there is nothing much else here really besides the assorted places to stay. There are a few snack shacks that offer sandwiches or gozleme for lunch, but the main 2 meals are included in the price of the rooms. So for a nice thick mattress (with clean linen and blanket - which was needed) breakfast and dinner (both buffet style) we paid 35 try = $19.60 per person per night. This was a great deal!! There was also en-suited air conditioned bungalows for only a little extra, but we opted for the cheaper tree house type bungalow. The very clean toilet and hot shower block was only a short 2 minute walk away. Could stay here for weeks if time would allow, but of course it would not so we just really had today and tomorrow to chill out and do nothing. I love it here and next visit to Turkey I will make sure that I allocate more time here just to enjoy.

We shared a dinner table with an Australian bloke who was married to a Spanish girl (and she was VERY pregnant) and they had been here in Olympos for 6 weeks already. Staying in the same spot, they had limited funds and wanted somewhere to chill out and relax and do nothing before the baby was born. They still had 2 more weeks to stay and were already not looking forward to going back to real life. Bloody hippies!!

We amused ourselves for the remainder of the afternoon by taking a bit of a wander along the one and only street looking at the different accomodation places. It's grown here also since my last visit, but still has a relaxed, chilled out, (dare I say it) hippy atmosphere. But without the drugs, which are really frowned upon here, and this fact really surprised me. We were told it was impossible to even get any kind of drugs around here, not that we wanted any it's just that the whole place had that 'hippy' feel to it. Most of the accomodation owners really frown upon it, which suited me fine as it's a place you can go for the chill out atmosphere without being surrounded by drugged out, stoned people.

Zak was really taken by Turkman's tree houses as this was one of the original places here and still had a lot of old tree houses that were actually in trees. Unlike the one we stayed in which is really a hut on stilts, the same as all the other places claiming to have tree houses. But it's well known that Turkman's is a 'party' place for the young drunks to congregate and this is not the experience I wanted to have in Olympos. I was happy with our choice and the food proved to be excellent and abundant. The first night we had trout with assorted other dishes - yummy.

The relaxing began after our little walk, when I took up a prone position on one of the raised platforms lined with cushions and ordered an EFES (6 try = $3.40), Zak had a nice glass of tea!! He is really missing the green tea he drinks in Morocco as they only drink black or flavoured (mainly apple) tea here in Turkey.



Sunday 25th September, chill out time in Olympos

After a sleep in, not too long as to miss a great breakfast, I decided I was going to do nothing today and have a nice relaxing day. Didn't really take much thought to reach this decision as the surroundings helped with getting into a relaxed mode. Zak feeling a little more energetic decided he wanted to go and hire a mountain bike and go for a little bit of a ride. He asked if I wanted to join him and I almost felt guilty enough to say yes, but then thought better of it and reminded him I'm a 'flat country hiker' remember and mountain biking does not come under this category. Man, I am going to get my monies worth out of the flat country hiking I can tell you.

So as I took up a comfortable position to read my book that so far I had not had much of a chance to even open, Zak took off up the road to hire a mountain bike.

My couple of hours of relaxing flew by and I only managed to read a few chapters before the mountain biker was back and hungry. I must have had a bit of a doze or just day dreaming in my tranquil surroundings that made time go so fast. Anyway we gathered up a few things and headed off to find something to eat.

Just down the path, heading towards the beach, we found a place that was making gozleme.
Gözleme is a savoury traditional Turkish hand made and hand rolled pastry. Fresh pastry is rolled out, filled and sealed, then cooked over a griddle. The name derives from the Turkish word göz meaning eye. Traditionally, this is done on a sac. Gözleme varieties include: Spinach and Feta Cheese, Spinach and Feta and Minced meat, Spinach and Feta and Egg, Seafood, Egg, Minced Meat, Cheese, Potatoes, Mushroom, Lavaş cheese
This place did not offer so many choices in fillings, however we ordered a spinach filling for me and Zak ordered a cheese filling. I watched as the ladies prepared the gozleme as Zak chatted away to our waiter. When the food came it was delicious and a bargain at 12.50 try = $7.00 for both.

With our hunger now satisfied we continued down the road to go take a look at the beach. To actually get to the beach you have to walk through the Olympos Ruins which of course requires an entrance fee of 3 try = $1.70. So whether you are interested in the ruins or not you must pay this entry fee to get to the beach. There were a lot of buses parked in the car park so I knew the beach would be crowded as surely not all these people were here to see these small insignificant ruins. After a 10 minute walk, yeah alright past some rubble and piles of rocks, we made it to the beach. And yes, sure enough it was crowded, but we managed to find a couple of empty rocks to sit on and put our stuff down. Yes rocks, this is a rock beach, and I mean rocks, not pebbles. Doesn't make for a very comfortable resting place, this rocky surface, even though the rocks are worked smooth from the constant rolling in the waves.

Zak was pretty brave, being a non swimmer, and walked straight to the water, not too deep, christening his new board shorts. Surprising the water was a lot warmer than I expected. I have swam in the Med on several previous occasions and the water has always been freezing no matter what the outside temperature was, but today it was luke warm and bearable. I also entered the inviting sea and cooled off. The day was hot! The water here was just beautiful and crystal clear! We could see every rock on the bottom and the tiny little fish that swum around us.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sunning, swimming and enjoying the beach with the other hoards of people. A guy came along the beach selling mussels and we tried them also. They were stuffed with rice and after seeing a local eating them we just had to try as well, they were very tasty.

Late in the afternoon we went for a walk along the beach, which was not easy going considering we were walking on rocks. Although smooth it was still hard going on tender feet even though I was wearing thongs, who just happen to choose this time to have a blow out and break. We did a makeshift repair but decided it was best if we headed back before they became completely unwearable. Halfway back we met up with the mussel man again, who had sold all his wares but was happy enough to strike up a conversation with Zak whilst I went for a quick 6pm dip. The water was still invitingly warm, but when it was time to get out the breeze had picked up a bit and I was happy to walk back to Saban, via a quick look at more ruins, and have a hot shower.

By this time we were ready for dinner and another tasty feast awaited us. Tomorrow we will be moving on again, but I have promised myself a longer stay next time I am lucky enough to visit Olympos.

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Photos

beer and tea
who's having what?

Olympos beach
first touch of the Med

Olympos beach
I went for a last swim at 6pm

my view for the next 2 days
relaxing at Saban

Zak and Bob
attention!