Hike to Kayakoy

We arrived in Hisaronu Saturday October 2. The bus ride was about 5 hours but wasn’t bad because we were on a big techno bus so we had lots of entertainment and comfortable seats. The windows on the bus are huge as well so you can see everything and you see some strange things. We’re in the middle of nowhere and at the side of the road is a man at a table with stuffed donkeys. The donkeys fill the table and line the road in small plastic bags. What?

At any rate, finding the apartment here was a real chore. We paraded up and down the street with our bags until even the other tourists were starting to ask if we needed help. We did eventually find the place but not before I began to wonder if perhaps it didn’t really exist at all. On arrival, however, we were not disappointed. This is a two bedroom apartment with a living room, dining room, kitchen and two bedrooms. It is on the second floor and has two lovely balconies overlooking the town and surrounding mountains. Rhys commented that it felt like he’d come home. After nine weeks of staying in small box rooms, this really did feel fabulous.

Today we went on a hike recommended in the notes at the apartment. It was a 12km walk much to Julia’s dismay and horror. The trail was not easy to follow as it really didn’t look like a trail at all but with the directions clutched in our hot, sweaty paws and all four of us looking out for the trail markers, we managed to find our way through. Look at the picture. Can YOU see the trail?? We only became lost one time when I swear the trail marker was actually about ten metres away from where the REAL trail lay. I think some local had moved the rock.

After about two hours, we came upon a ghost town called Kayakoy. It was really cool. There were tons of buildings. The story is that back in 1923 there was an agreement between the Greek and Turkish governments that all the Greek people living in Turkey would be sent back to Greece and all the Turkish people living in Greece would be sent back to Turkey. The town of Kayakoy was filled with Greek people. They left and the Turkish people were supposed to come to fill the empty houses. According to the Turks, the Greek government would not give the Turkish people who were being sent back a fair amount of money for the houses they were leaving in Greece. Therefore, there was some difficulty with the returning Turkish people and the houses of Kayakoy were never filled. Personally, after looking at the homes, it seemed to Tom and I that the Greeks who were leaving probably hadn’t been all that excited and fairly ripped their homes apart as they left. There are large holes in the buildings, no paint or other remnants on walls, no rooves, nothing. It kind of reminded me of the whole Musqueam fiasco out at UBC some years back.

We crawled through the town looking at the churches, roads and houses until we came to a lovely little garden restaurant where we had a drink and sit. After regenerating our batteries, we climbed to the top of the town and headed to the blue lagoon. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The views down to the lagoon were pretty spectacular but the beach itself was packed with umbrellas and sunbeds so it wasn’t all that beautiful. What was quite beautiful was the sky. The mountains around the lagoon have perfect winds for paragliding and the paragliders were out in force. The sky was absolutely filled with the colourful sails. People could go tandem or alone. It looked so peaceful and fun. It cost about $75 per person to try it. Yet another thing Julia will want to do when she returns to Turkey.

Pamukkale

Pamukkale started to look not very good as we hiked up to it in 25 degree weather. I was really hoping we wouldn’t do it. Ok lets rewind a bit. We were on the bus when dad pointed it out. It was big and white and it looked like one of those things you just could live with out doing. We went to our hotel and we were staying for 1 night, but it was a really nice hotel. Anyway when we got there Mom took out this book and started to look at things to do (I don’t even know where she gets these books.) She aid we could go up the big white thing ( she didn’t exactly say ‘big white thing’) and go for a swim in the hot springs. I didn’t think ‘hot’ springs sounded so nice in the 25 degree weather, but how could I refuse a swim? Plus I really don’t have much say. So that very day after the 4 hour hot, stuffy bus ride, we went for a hike.

Up from our hotel after 2 minutes I was already ready to go back, y’no even though it was only a 7 minute walk from our hotel to ‘Pamukkale’ ( It even sounds deadly.) Mom had told me earlier that it was made of calcium, the stuff in milk, witch is kinda cool really. When we got there it got MUCH better. It asked you to take your shoes off because there was a cool creek running from the top. Immediately I loved it. We started to walk up a not-so-steep hill, the ground wasn’t slippery at all it felt really grippy and smelled of faint milk. We walked for a little bit, then came to our first pool it was a pale blue. It was fluffy and soft on the bottom but ever so often you came to a big pointy rock, ow.

We walked and walked until we reach the top there were awesome views on the way, it was a bit more slippery a the top. When we put out shoes back on we went to a museum, mom and dad were like ‘Omigod, that’s so interesting’ ‘that happen 2000 years ago WOW!’ I stuck with my usual ‘Yah *yawn* that’s so amazing, I love it.’ or ‘This is the best museum yet.’ Museums are all the same, old people’s buried stuff.

Any way after that death trap was swimming in the ancient ruins, it just makes everything sound better when you use the word ‘Swimming.’ The water was very hot, well not boiling I could swim and all but it was still warm. The ruins wernt that cool but in one part that I wasn’t allowed to go but went anyway, you could see the small little bubbles forming on your body. You could write your name and stuff on yourself. Then we did more walking after the swimming, and all I could think of were more movies. Yay, movies!

Food.

Food. Food is good. I like food. You know what's good? Food!

We have now established that food is good. Now the food in Turkey, it's pretty good too.

Julia and I have established that two particular types of food are exquisite. First of all, the meat is good.

"Man, the turks make the best meat." - Julia Lloyd

"mmm, Bread+Butter=Happiness…" - Rhys Lloyd

I had 15+ pieces of bread at our last hotel. My parents warned of indigestion, but no problems yet. Turkish breakfast is pretty good, with feta-like cheese, fresh bread, cucumber, and tomato. The Turks have their own special type of pizza. It's called "Pide" and looks like a circle got it's middle chopped out, and the top and bottom were put together. Sort of like a North American football or two brackets: (). It's very good, as it has extra crust J.

There are some foods that are similar and some are different.

For example, honeydew is called kazun, is about the same size, is shaped like a teardrop, and is coloured like this; It fades from orangey~yellow at the top to greenish~yellow at the bottom, or vice versa, with light~dark green splotches or parallel top-bottom light~dark green lines of splotches strategically placed all over it and parallel wrinkles running all the way, or part way, from top to bottom.

That was just the outside.

On the inside, it shifts from dark-light green in about a centimeter from the outside, and then stays green until 1-3 cm from the middle, where the seeds are. The seeds look like a skinny cob of beige corn, and separate easily from the fruit.

Kazun tastes like honeydew, with the texture of cantaloupe.

We're in Turkey!

We have passed our first week in Turkey and what an amazing country this is. We have seen some very unique and unusual places. We started last Saturday with a boat ride from Rhodes to Marmaris. That was fun because we took the high speed catamaran. It was different from the much slower ferries but you couldn’t sit outside so it took some of the fun out of it for me. It was, however, a very quick trip.

Leaving Rhodes we had to pay a tax of 15 Euros each. Interesting. On arrival in Turkey we had to pay a VISA of 60 USD each! That was more than twice what the citizens of any other country had to pay. Wow, the Canadian and Turkish government obviously have “issues”. It made for a very expensive day.

We took a cab to the bus station (otogar) and as we drove the cabbie offered us deals to drive us all the way to Selcuk (pronounced Sel-chook). He started at about 150 Euros and made it all the way to 100 Euros as we reached the station. He felt his cab would be far more comfortable than the stuffy old bus. We declined his offer to his great disappointment and booked the bus for 50 Euros. It was interesting that most everything is listed in Euros AND Turkish Lira.

The bus turned out to be very elegant. It was a huge coach that looked brand new. It felt like we were traveling in business class on an airplane, particularly because they actually had bus attendants! The bus attendant served us complimentary drinks and snacks a few times during the 4 hour bus trip. There were headsets and video screens at each seat so you could choose from a variety of movies, television stations, music or games. Most everything was in Turkish, of course, but that didn’t stop us from having quite a bit of fun playing around with the sets.

We arrived at Aydin (can’t get directly to Selcuk) and climbed off the bus to find a connection. The Turks are very used to tourists obviously and as we dragged our bags across the lot, a few men came running up to me to ask where I was going. I told them and immediately one grabbed my bag and dragged it off to another bus, shoved it in the back and looked at me expectantly. Tom, meanwhile, was having conniption fits behind me. I could hear him hyperventilating and spluttering as he jogged to keep up. Was this the ONLY bus to Selcuk? Was this the most expensive one? Did this bus actually go there or were we being kidnapped off to never-land? The bus driver looked somewhat irritated as Tom and I discussed the options and the driver grabbed each of our bags to shove them on the bus.

We sat on the bus for the next 20 minutes while Tom’s heart-rate returned to normal. It was about 33 degrees out and the bus was probably hotter. It was a small van-like object, nothing like the elegant affair we had just stepped out of. Our astute observation skills determined that we were on one of two buses to Selcuk and the other one left later than ours. Eventually the bus took off and we were whisked away to Selcuk.

At the Selcuk station we had instructions to go to the corner to find the sign for our hotel. This turned out to be very accurate and within a few minutes the van from Atilla’s Getaway arrived to take us to the hotel. It was a lovely hotel. It was tucked in behind a restaurant at the side of the highway but was an oasis of calm and charm. It looked like a great place to stay if you were in your twenties and it was the height of tourist season. There was a bar next to the pool, hammocks, lounge areas with pillows and hookah pipes, ping-pong and pool table, volleyball court and weight lifting area. All in all, a fun place to be.

Apparently I have run out of storage space for pictures so I have to purchase more space. I don't have a credit card on me in the little bar we are using for Internet at this moment so will have to wait for another time to upload more pictures.

Our Place in Lindos

If you ever get a chance to come to Rhodes, stay in Lindos. It really is a lovely little village. There are no cars allowed in the village so the town is fairly quiet and safe. The streets are too narrow for vehicles anyway. There is a certain amount of charm in trying to find your way through the rabbit warrens. The place we stayed was wonderful. It was fairly simple amenities wise but had a killer view from the deck. The window in the picture is the way you came out onto this rooftop deck. It was the roof of the home beneath. There was a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette and second room that could have been a living room if there were only two of us but because we were four, it had two beds in it and not much room for any other movement. It didn’t matter however, because the rooftop deck was the place we all wanted to hang out anyway. It was only 330 pounds for the week. The web link is http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/greece/GR136.htm

Four last things about Greece

1. There are stray dogs and cats everywhere! At first I felt sorry and a bit appalled at the thought of all these homeless animals but after four weeks I can see it kind of works. The animals go wherever they please and the people are usually affectionate towards them. The restaurant owners feed the animals table scraps as they come. It is interesting because all the tables are outside so the animals are roaming around as you eat. The cats are the worst, believe it or not. They will sit staring at you while you eat. Once there was a wall behind me and the cat leaped onto the wall and stared at my dinner the whole evening. I was having prawns. I was just waiting for the thing to leap onto the table and drag one of the prawns off my plate but he only watched. The cats seem to come in and out of people’s homes too. We actually had to close the window to our Lindos place or we’d find a cat playing inside with the garbage. Yes, playing.

2. We discovered kite surfing on Rhodes at the very southernmost beach there. The beach was incredibly windy so there were lots of windsurfers zipping back and forth but a far more exciting sport to watch was kite surfing. It was kind of like the snow boarding of the water. The sport has a person on a wakeboard kind of apparatus with a harness around their waist. The harness is attached in the middle of the chest to a line on a huge kite. The surfer also holds a handle bar in both hands attached to the kite. The surfers zip along the water like wind surfers but then the kite actually pulls them right out of the water to spin and flip in the air. It looks wildly exciting. Julia has decided she will take up this sport as soon as we will let her.

3. I know we’ve gone on and on about the roads but the one last thing that needs to be mentioned are the potlumps. I want to say that the roads are generally pretty smooth but every so often the pavement breaks into potholes and once we saw a potlump! This really does beg the question, doesn’t it? I mean, how does one get a beautifully paved lump? I can only imagine that in the 45 degree heat, the paving crew came across yet another rock in the road and just paved right over it. It made a bit of a rough ride but we were in a rental car and the lady who rented it to us said, “You’re fully insured so I’m not even going to check for any marks before you leave”. That’s just soo Greek.

4. I had no idea the olive was so significant. Really. Oh sure, I’d heard the old legend about how Athens got its name, (told in an earlier blog). They always say how many uses the olive has as though this is a given fact. Personally, I thought sea-water was pretty handy but that’s just me. Then you drive through the millions of olive trees throughout the countryside, sometimes creating a maze-like feel. I swear there are more olives in this country than blades of grass. However, it wasn’t until our guide through Knossos on Crete began telling us about it that I realized the full impact this tree has on the culture. She swore the first olive tree came from Crete. Is THAT where Athena got it? She also said olive oil is the leading export of Greece. I can believe that. Then she told us that men should use a drop of olive oil after shaving to make the skin baby smooth. Tom has yet to try this. Mix a little with yogurt to relieve sunburn and if that isn’t enough, buy this book of 101 uses of olive oil to help convince you. 101 uses?

Rhymie thing that im to tierd to name

Our home in Rhodes is nice,
but we happen to have no ice.
That’s sad because it’s very hot,
cold water really hits the spot.
It’s hot out on the deck,
but it’s fun so what the heck.
You crawl out the window to get there,
but the stool is wobbly so beware.
The rabbit warren is a musing,
because it’s so confusing.
This is Lindos, Greece.
rhymed by Julia and Rhys!