The Turkey Road Trip Continues

PATARA

After our sailing trip we had five nights left on the Turkish coast before heading back to Istanbul. We picked up our rental car and decided to head for three nights to Patara, a tiny little town known for its ruins and 18 km beach. Apparently if you Google "the best beach on the Mediterranean", Patara comes up as number one. It is pretty stunning with amazing sand dunes but not sure this one makes the top of my list. The surf and wind were pretty intense which made for one too many take-downs. But it was still very beautiful.












We enjoyed a few too many Turkish pancakes from this woman who had her own little ottoman-style cafe on the main road in town. I use the word "road" lightly as Patara is only home to about 900 people. The sweet and savory pancakes were whipped up from scratch and were super tasty - somewhere between a thin-crust pizza and crunchy crepe.


Our rental car was a lemon! Our first hiccup was a flat tire. We drove from the beach to town (five minutes) and when we got out of the car a Turkish man was laughing and pointing at us. Apparently flat tires are funny in Turkey? Luckily we had a spare which covered us for the rest of the trip. The air conditioner also leaked - more like a running tap on our feet - but hey we still got from A to B.


Our Hotel Patara Viewpoint was great. Nice pool and great views of the sea and the valley. Although our host wasn't the most colorful (Bueller, Bueller) you couldn't help but laugh at his monotone attempts at being a generous host. It gave the place a different kind of charm.



The view from our room.



The day we arrived in Patara was my birthday. Ahead of time Josh organized for fresh flowers and Turkish delight (famous sweet in Turkey) in our room. This completely surprised me! Very thoughtful.

CIRALI

We made sure to stop for a brief two night stay in Cirali - another great recommendation from the Goehrings. Cirali is a really tiny town nestled in the mountains, and on the sea - right beside Olympos home to the Greek Gods. We stayed at Anatolia Resort, which we quickly realized should have been labelled Anatolia's Farm House. There were literally a hundred roosters and goose-looking-things who were kind enough to get us up at the crack of dawn. Follow that up with the call to prayer from a mosque situated 50 meters away and we definitely had a couple of full days in Cirali! Funny, they neglected to mention all of this on their website. Made for a couple laughs and Cirali still proved to be one of our favorite stops.



Anatolia's lent out bikes to their guests. Mine was meant for an eight year old and Josh's probably even younger but they were great to take around town and explore. In the photo you can see Anatolia's on the left and the mosque on the right.


The beach in Cirali with Olympos mountain in the background. Cirali was even smaller than Patara (about 300 residents) which made for a couple quiet naps on the beach.





From this point we did about a 30 minute walk through the ruins of Olympos. Then headed back to the beach for some sun.



As per usual we adopted a cat. We were hanging on the beach and heard a cat crying. Soon enough he was cuddling with us on our towels. We named him Pringles (he loved our Pringles chips).






On our last morning we hiked a rocky mountainside above Cirali village to check out Chimaera which is a fascinating natural phenomenon - about a dozen flames burning from a mass of rock with no apparent fuel to sustain them. Apparently the flames have been venting from the earth for thousands of years.

Last stop in Turkey, Istanbul (Round 2). On the list: The Bazaar, hookah, and rain???

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Location:Patara and Cirali, Turkey

Blue Cruise a Must Do

Before I get started a few people have mentioned the photos on our blog are blurry. Because we are working off of an iPad we're not able to try and fix this but apparently if you click on the photos the resolution is better? Something like that.

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Turkey just gets better and better. After Datca I felt sure that it couldn't be topped but four days and three nights on a "blue cruise" in an old Turkish gulet was unreal. It is an absolute must do if you come to Turkey. Not only was the sail boat itself, the coast, the bays, the water, the food all excellent, the people we met are what made it for us.

We set sail from Marmaris (tidbit: no need to visit this tacky tourist town) to Fethiye.


Our boat. We weren't sure what to expect. We went in blind - ended up booking the trip over the phone a couple of days beforehand so we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Only complaint was that this boat didn't have proper sails - meaning it looked like a sailboat but in reality can only run by motor. We found out after the case this is pretty typical.


Our shipmates. Fourteen of us in total plus three crew: a family of four from Switzerland (including 10 year old twins Max and Eva who LOVED Josh), an older couple from England, four young Kiwis (tons of fun) and another couple (one is from Japan, the other from Iowa but they've been living in Turkey for last 10 years). An eclectic group right? It was fantastic.



Our room. More spacious then we thought. I should have taken a photo when Josh was wearing his neon green wrist bands to bed (to help with sea sickness) although thankfully he switched with Max who loved the bright color and Josh got light grey ones in return.



The front of the gulet had about a dozen comfy sun beds, where we spent most of our time during the day. Well, between the sun beds and the water.




We 'set sail' for a few hours every day and then would anchor at a bay. The water was bright blue and crystal clear. Everyone would jump in for some swimming until we heard the bell for lunch, or tea time or dinner...



The kids loved jumping into the water, especially when Josh joined them. They could do this for hours! Josh too. Above is a sad attempt at them doing a synchronized 'jack knife' jump.


Beautiful sunsets every night.



Even better sunset with Josh in the picture! :)


Some of the scenery - these are ancient tombs that were carved into the rock a few thousand years ago.



You can see the sun beds behind us. Switzerland family back left, Kiwis back right, British couple front right.


While we were laying on the sun beds in a bay, one of the Kiwis had a dream that she was eating ice cream. She was telling us about the dream when a small motorboat zoomed up and a guy was yelling "ice cream!!!" You should have seen her face. I guess dreams do come true.



We did an afternoon trip on a smaller boat to Turkish mud baths. On the way our boat got stuck because the water was so shallow. We ended up having to get a tow from another boat.



Josh teaching the kids a new game. I think Josh enjoyed hanging out with these kids as much as they did with him.



All in all, definitely a top-10 lifetime experience for me (and I think Josh would agree).

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Location:Marmaris to Fethiye, Turkey

We 'Heart' Datca

We can now say we have experienced the Turkish coast having visited Datca (thanks to the Goehrings) where we spent the last week of September. It's a small cute town on the water, not very touristy (mostly Turkish tourists), where the Aegean and the Mediterranean seas meet.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel, tucked away from the town perched on a hill, called "Villa Asina". Unfortunately Josh arrived with a pretty bad cold, but the staff - Arzu in particular - was very sweet and so hospitable to him.


The view from our balcony at Villa Asina.



Villa Asina at a glance.


Just another goat. We turned a corner on the ocean road and were confronted by over 20 of them. This guy had four legs I swear.


One of the many postcard-perfect bays we visited while staying in Datca.






We stopped for a Turkish tea while visiting one of the bays and met a tiny stray kitten. He must have been around six weeks old and was adorable. Despite being way too skinny he was less interested in food and more into affection. If it were possible I would have brought him back to Canada. Needless to say it was very sad leaving the little guy.


The owner of our hotel holding a swordfish just caught in preparation for dinner. The owners are architects and designed/built the hotel 5 years ago.


Dinner at Villa Asina. The dinner was served without a menu and the setting and the food were excellent. Lesson learned - make sure to ask the food/wine costs before dining. We received the bill the next day which came as a bit of a surprise. When in "Datca", right?


The turquoise water.


The harbor of Datca.


Our favorite lunch and dinner spot (ate here 3 times in 5 days). Delicious home cooked Turkish food served cafeteria style right out of the kitchen. The man with the moustache (above) we think is Zekeriya - friendliest man!


Swimming at the little bay just steps from our hotel. After a couple of days Josh was up and about so I took him down to the bay where I'd gone when he was in bed sick.


Bye for now Datca and Villa Asina! We'll be back. Thanks to Arzu (above) for making it a really special visit.

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Location:Datca, Turkey

A Bite of Bitez

After the educational 24 hours in Selcuk (Ephesus) we made our way to our first real coastal stop in Turkey: Bitez. Fifteen minutes outside the much bigger bustling Bodrum.

Despite being small, Bitez is still a pretty touristy place but we looked forward to a lazy couple of days poolside and by the sea.


We stayed in a cute place (above), called Sah Hotel.


The hotel was on the beach so we could just walk a few steps to a boardwalk.





After one of our episodes of getting lost (a 45 minute drive which should have be 5) we finally found a family-run restaurant we'd heard great things about called "Bagarasi". No wonder we couldn't find it though. It was in a hidden residential area (do Turks not need street signs?) in the middle of orchards and the restaurant itself was tucked away in a garden beside the family house. But it was wonderful and the food delicious. Near the end of the night the owner (think Shrek) blows a whistle, stands on a chair (see above, sort of, it was dark) and tells a joke in Turkish. We had no idea what he said but couldn't help but laugh since everyone else was!


Bagarasi is known for their stuffed zucchini flowers and for fresh pastry pasta with meat sauce and cream. Heart attack right? Worth it in my mind.





On our second night we visited the town of Gumusluk, a really cute and tiny fishing village at the tip of the peninsula. There were about a dozen seafood restaurants in the town all of which sit literally a foot away from the sea.


Above on the left is deep fried mussels. We're clearly eating nothing but healthy food hey?

That's all for Bitez. It was fun but I have to say where we've been since far surpasses Bitez, in my mind (still trying to get caught up on the blog posts).

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Location:Bitez, Turkey