Blogs from Mediterranean, Turkey, Middle East - page 32

Hi all, I was unable to keep a good connection last night for long enough to enter my blog notes. Anyways, I am in Fethiye which is also Telmessos and the site of the book that started this whole trip for me. I read or actually listened to BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS on cd in my car and was so fascinated by the descriptions of the place that I decided I had to check this out. So, almost 2yrs later, here I am. In Telmessos! Even if you are not interested in visiting here, I highly recommend this book, the author also wrote CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN. (sp?). I spent 8hrs yesterday on a boat trip to the 12 Islands, actually stopped at 4, just cruised past the others. It was a breezy warm day, in the 80"s. ... read more

Swimming on the Med looking for the sunken city Day 5: Kas to Olympos The plan for today was to sit and do nothing, whilst sitting on a boat and enjoying the sun before a drive to our next destination of Olympus - And we did exactly that. We picked up a boat in Kas that was to take us around to see the nearby islands (we didn’t actually stop to see any of them though). A noteworthy item on our itinerary was the views of a “sunken city” from our boat. I don’t want it to be said that I use the Lonely Planet guide as my only reference - but I should have figured it was a bit fishy that there was absolutely no mention of this city in the books’ reference of ‘Things ... read more

..well really only in the museum! Its amazing how we all came to be such prudes when our distant ancestors had naked statues around all the time. Its also amazing how good they were at carving and that the work has endured for so long. I visited the Antalya museum today and WOW! Its the best one i have been to. A huge gallery of statues and another of sarcophagai..is that plural for sarcophagus? Plus an exhibit showing how the nomadic tribes lived. Very well done and most of the texts were in several languages, including English. Antalya is a really old city and the old part is kinda like the old part of Istanbul, except less traffic. They still drive crazy here. My hotel is very nice and the food is yummy. IF the chef ... read more

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. “ ~Lin Yutang On our last week in Turkey we mainly did the beach thing. We enjoyed our time in Turkey very very much. They say the genes of Chimpanzees and Man are 97% similar. But the 3% make a huge difference. When traveling to a foreign country you usually find that 97% of the way people live and behave around the world is the same as it is at home and you spend most of your time seeking the 3% difference in order to learn and experience something new. In turkey it was difficult to find that difference. We felt much at home. The temperament, history and some of the views are ... read more

Too soon we had to get back on the Fez Bus and head for what we expected to be yet another highlight of Turkey - Olympos and its treehouses. A fairly uneventful journey was followed by an exciting arrival as we caused unintentionally caused controversy. We arrived at the “House of Fez” in Olympos, a place called Kadirs which we weren’t staying at because we had heard that it was a massive party place and we just wanted to relax. The tour leader said he would get someone to contact Sabans (the place we were staying) so they would send someone up to collect us but in the meantime we should come into Kadirs for a welcome drink (normally reserved for those actually staying there). We were not going to refuse a free drink so headed ... read more