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Published: June 17th 2010
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To get out of Goreme we decided to take the plunge and go for a night bus to our next destination. We thought the night bus couldn't possibly be as bad as the only other one we've taken this trip, in Vietnam. We were mistaken. However this time it was mainly just bad luck, as a baby somewhere near the back of the bus screamed its head off every half hour ALL NIGHT. Phoebe's grumpy comment at three in the morning: “Is there any such thing as peace and quiet around here?” That nine hour bus ride was just to get to Antalya on the coast, and from there it was another five hours around the winding coastline in another bus to get to our destination; a small town called Patara.
It was all worthwhile though. When we exhaustedly stumbled into the hostel (they're called 'pensions' in Turkey) we had booked, we were greeted by the friendly owner Kazim, who bid us to go up to our room and have a lie-down before worrying about the paperwork later (a courtesy that surprisingly few hotels allow you). The family run pension turned out to be a brilliant place to stay and
a great example of Turkish hospitality.
Turkey has an enormous amount of coastline and holiday destinations abound on the Aegean coast (facing west towards the Greek islands) and the south-facing Mediterranean coast. There's also the less crowded Black Sea in the north as another option. We'd picked Patara on the Mediterranean pretty much at random, based on no more than a small blurb in the guide book saying it was a smaller town with good budget accommodation 2km from a 20km long stretch of sandy beach. There are even Lycian (more or less Greek-style) ruins to provide some token 'cultural' interest on the road from town to the beach. Sounded good.
Did we get organised enough to go and catch a bus to the nearby ruins of Xanthos? No. Or find the energy to hire kayaks and paddle around some of the bays? Also no. Our days consisted of getting up late, stuffing ourselves with Turkish breakfast (fresh bread, egg, cheese, tomato, olives, honey, incredible home-made sultana marmalade, cherry jam, fresh fruit, coffee, apple tea) and then at some stage summoning up the energy to haul ourselves down to the beach, via the fruit shop to pick up
Good at jigsaw puzzles?
Most of the ruins are really... ruins. Patara needs you. some ludicrously cheap fresh cherries and peaches. It's tough... I don't know how we managed. The beach was lovely and the weather was great. Phoebe was, as usual, incredibly excited about all things water and swimming. She even managed to find a couple of children to play with one day and had some quality sand-castle-building time.
Each evening we'd return to the pension where Kazim's wife Aisha would cook mouth-watering dinners. No menus, just something different that she would choose to cook each night and which were so good that in the four nights we stayed we didn't bother eating anywhere else. It really was five-star Turkish food, with all sorts of unfamiliar but excellent dishes. We found Turkish cuisine includes many similar dishes to the meat + bread + dips that we lived on in Syria and Jordan, but has so much more besides. Yes, even vegetables! These were fairly scarce in the Arabic countries though I don't think Phoebe was complaining. Each evening finished with apple tea and backgammon and then off to bed to do the same again the next day. (Deepest apologies to anyone suffering through winter at the moment!)
So, Patara was a
More beach
We took the long way to the beach and found deserted sand dunes. holiday within the holiday - abandoning pretensions of 'cultural-ness' to laze around on the beach for a few days and soak up some sun. Still, I think it was a very good choice on the Mediterranean coast, compared to some of the others locations which looked fairly ghastly (not the landscape, just the massive development and the throngs of people). It says something about the popularity of Turkey with European holiday-makers that, although there are
so many coastal destinations to choose from, the majority of them are still packed with hordes of tourists... and it wasn't even the mid-year school holiday season yet. Patara was an exception, I think due to the 2km walk to the water - not crowded at all and it retained plenty of Turkish character and charm. We were really happy to have stumbled across it.
- by Nick
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Maya Simmonds
non-member comment
Hi Phoebe
Hi, we have just been going through all the photos of you! Looks like you are having a great time. We are thinking about how excited you would be to see Grandma Janet. We are going to visit Ben in Newcastle for the weekend, flying up tomorrow and back Monday night. In August I am going to Bali to the Green School for 3 months and is very excited. Lots of love Maya