Blogs from Mediterranean, Turkey, Middle East - page 30

We've had our first day sailing on our own from Fethiye to a tiny bay on an island called Tersane (one of the southwestern islands in the gulf of Fethiye). You won't find it on a map, but may on google earth. The breeze was 15 to gusting 25 knots and we made really good progress. We had earlier stocked up on as many supplies as we could carry back to the boat, after farewelling Stu. We filled up the water containers, pulled up the anchor and motored into the marina to fuel up. Then it was sails up all the way to our anchorage spot, followed by a swim, a beer and dinner. It's a gorgeous evening, the sun has just gone down and we are totally relaxing. We anchored in this bay 2 years ... read more

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” - Seneca At first I thought, along with most people I'm sure, that Mt. Olympos was in Greece. It was, after all, where Zeus and the rest of the gods supposedly resided according to Greek mythology. But it turns out there's one in Turkey as well, just spelled differently. The sleepy town of Olympos lies nestled in a forested mountain region a few miles from the ocean. While there are plenty of opportunities to mountain climb, swim, or explore Roman ruins we were more interested in two other things. The first thing we wanted to do was stay in a tree house. Huh? Yes, I know it sounds kooky, but for some reason the hotel owners here decided that the tried and true method ... read more

Para festejar el cumple de Mariela este año decidimos hacer un viaje. El destino fue Turquía. La verdad que no teníamos esperanzas de encontrar un lugar que nos fuera a sorprender demasiado, nuestras expectativas eran bastante moderadas. Increíble fue la sorpresa al encontrarnos con un país bellísimo. Lugares históricos fabulosos, modernidad, organización, limpieza, cultura y muchas otras cosas que nos sorprendieron constantemente. Fue una de las mejores vacaciones que pasamos. Todos los vuelos los hicimos en Turkish Airlines. Puntualidad, aviones nuevos y cómodos y servicios de primera. Tomamos un vuelo de Trípoli a Estambul, y de ahí una combinación a nuestro primer destino: Antalya. Antalya es una ciudad situada en la costa ... read more

Our travels in Turkey began in the central region known as Cappadocia. The landscape there is crazy mad - built on volcanic soil and eroding ınto pinnacles and fairy chimneys. Where nature left off, humans have taken over and carved the pinnacles into rock hotels, thousands of churches, and pigeon houses. We spent several days wandering around in the hills near Goreme. After some hefty bus rides from Syria, it was great to be free and on foot. We only had a simple hand drawn map which conveniently chose not to include every valley. Unsurprisingly, we spent a fair portion of time in the middle of nowhere, crashing through fields and occasionally popping up in people's vege patches. We saw churches carved out of rock with vivid frescoes still in tact. We also visited a vast ... read more

Today Nessie and I had an easy start to the day. Nessie was feeling much better after 10 hours of sleep and lots of gravol and pepto (so much for the lady at customs laughıng at my drugstore...it all came in handy). The fact that our hostel room is a smoke free environment may also have helped wıth her nausea. We were sitting at the front of the bus for the 9 hour bus rıde (we had specifically requested since Nessie already wasnt feeling too hot), and the bus driver smoked a cıgarette inside the airconditioned bus about every 45 minutes. We smelt like we had been at a bingo hall when we got off the bus...Turks smoke everywhere. We headed to the Antalya Museum where we saw many sculptures that have been restored from the ... read more