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Published: July 30th 2006
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Yesterday, I took a 12 Island Blue Cruise. It is why I came to Fethiye. We left at 10:30 am, a sensible hour, and sailed for nearly two hours to our first destination. The boat did not actually have sails, and inboard motor got us everywhere. The boats holds about 80 people, and approximately 40 were on our cruise; I had asked the night before. Many people stayed on the upper sun deck, I along with perhaps a third of the people stayed below. The sundeck was full of young and bronzed people, turning every 20 minutes or so to tan another part of their skin, much like I do when I am cooking chicken, or in this case cooking Turkey.
Our first stop was a swimming stop. I took a few pictures of the blue sea, the other boats and the islands. There were many other boats taking the same trip, including the traditional gület, a wooden yacht. The second stop was Cleopatra's bathhouse, built by Julius Caesar. We were able to wade through this ruined stone building, which sits at the edge of the sea, partially submerged, as intended. They say that bathing there will make you beautiful.
Then we were served lunch. I do not know how, but suddenly 40 plates of chicken, fish and meatballs were served. They magically appeared from behind the bar.
Another stop was the ship building community of the Ottoman Turks. It's all ruins now. Another stop was Flat Island, which isn't so flat if you walk some 100m away from the boats. I climbed the 30 m elevation hill and looked down upon the clear water and floatıng boats.
At the last stop, even I took a swim. I sımultaneously dazzled everyone with my Adonis like body and startled everyone with my marble like white skin. The water was cooling but not cold, very clear and full of sea life. Someone pulled up from the bottom a couple of sea urchins, another pulled a gastropod still usıng his large shell. Gladly, all these livıng things were studied and thrown back into the water. The water ıs amazingly clear. I can try to show in photographs, but I don't think this shows just how far through the water you can see. Or from dıfferent angles, the water reflects the sky and is truly turquoise.
Except for the Turkish pop music that played as we sailed from island to island, it was a very enjoyable day. Out on the water and undercover, I never got hot or sunbaked. We returned at 7 pm. These types of cruises are advertised all over the Aegean and Mediterranean, but only in Fethiye can you take the famous blue cruise and wade through Cleopatra's bathhouse.
That was yesterday, today still ın Fethiye, I climbed up to the Lycian rock funarary temples that date from 400 BC, and then a scramble up to the unsign posted Crusader Fortress. These fortresses and castles are scattered all over this part of the world, apparantly the Crusaders intended to stay, and they did for 300 years. I am not staying here that long, as I intend to travel to Bodrum tomorrow, then onto Ephesus, heading north for the next two weeks.
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