Staying in a different hotel each night has its pluses and minuses, but I like to see what cultural things I can. We mostly stay in 3 star hotels that locals use, not tourists, though this is not always entirely possible. The breakfast has a constant in these local digs and that is the sliced processed mystery meat. All the hotels have it (except the Russian oriented one on Alanya which among other things had bowls of eggs on offer boiled to different times, ie 3 min, 5 min etc). This mystery meat is nasty, sorry to judge, and it is stinky too. Michelle won't get ten feet from it though I might venture within one or two feet if something nearby seems worth giving a go. I am just saying...
Anyway, lost my mind for a moment, we left our hotel and drive toward the famous Pisidian city of Termissos, a city Alexander the Great had great difficulty taking due to her position high in the mtns. We drove in and hiked up into the site, unfortunately having to get around a few bus loads of folks, many of which wearing improper shoes and stumbling about. Termissos is a fine place and this was a nice day, but I got a bit too much sun and received a headache for my thoughtlessness.
After three plus hours we were hot and sweaty and made it back to our little Opel, the air conditioner getting a real workout. We then headed along to coast to Phaselis, the ancient city with three harbors. It was full of people and we walked the ruins then Michelle swam in the ocean a bit until she was stung by a jellyfish (she is fine, no signs of it now). We then wrote a happy birthday message to our friend Willow on the beach in rocks and left to our car. There were a lot of nice looking girls around so it was a good all around visit, ruins and girls, all I needed was coins to have a slam dunk! No Michelle is my slam dunk and my little dunk wanted to find this little hotel with cottages that I figured was located in some hideously remote and inaccessible spot but believe it or not my faithful one or two readers we actually found it! Michelle was over the moon and we were treated by a mob of chickens, a turkey or two, three dogs and a friendly and seemingly always hungry pet sheep. Our cottage was delightful and we relaxed in the lovely grounds throwing bread to the chickens ( and two Turkish turkeys) and made some strong coffee. The dinner served was delightful and Michelke had her dream hobbit cottage stay!!
Anyway, lovely Michelle then decided to drag my tired **s out of bed at 4AM to watch the sun rise at Chimaera. We've done it before and this time no marshmallows!!! Chimaera is basically a clearing on the side of a forested mtn where natural gases have been seeping and have been burning for thousands of years. Like scattered barbecues, the flames are visible from sea and the ancients associated them with the mythological beast the Chinera, which spewed fire ong other things. There are also ruins of Ronan era structures. We had the site to ourselves and played around, even making a silly video or two we posted to Facebook.
Afterward we drive back to our cottage, had some much needed coffee, then sadly left and drove to the ancient Lycian city of Olympos.
Now Olympos was more awesome than I had ever thought. The ruins ate sprawling and separated by a river with ducks and the whole kick and whatnot. We wandered around and had a great time. There was a local beach too but we were probably the only ones not interested in the beach. It was hot and eventually we tired and found a nearby dig for a doner (bread wrapped meat, tomato deal we asked them to add fries to). A nice afternoon. Then we drove west to another site but decided we were tired and found this roadside hotel with nice restaurant and nearby supermarket where we can do our laundry and recharge our batteries.
It will be another hot and dusty day in Lycia tomorrow but we must press on to Fethiye.
Until then, adiyue my one or two readers...
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