Antalya Part 2: Olimpos (Olympos) and Chimaera

(Justin) We went to Antalya with a list of ancient places we wanted to see. The ruins of Olimpos (Olympus), an ancient Lycean and Greek city and national park, along with the ancient Chimaera, or "yanartaş," flaming rocks, was first up for my dad and I to explore. Fortunately, the weather was mostly sunny and high 50s, not bad for hiking.

Our resort was in Beldibi, about 30 mins south of Antalya city and just north of the resort town of Kemer. We took a bus (4TL/person) to Kemer (about 30 minutes) and got let out on the main highway (Kumluca-Kemer yolu) at the intercity bus station. From there, we caught a minibus (3TL/person) that told us it would drop us off close to Çıralı (another 30-40 minutes), the village where they are located.

View from the Kemer bus terminal.

This provided my dad an experience on local transport, where we stood in the aisle of the cramped minibus while elderly village women, fully covered, sat chatting. The road is quite curvy and one local woman got carsick as the driver passed plastic bags back to her while everyone pretended not to notice -- a first for me in Turkey. 

It was going to be a 7km walk downhill to Çıralı. After walking a bit, we flagged down a car to hitchike and some retired German-Turk locals dropped us off at the Çıralı beach and pointed in the direction of the ruins.

Olimpos ruins are at the far end of this beach where remains of fortresses can be seen. The tables are from a local restaurant hopeful to snag us, one of the few open in the off-season.

Mt. Olimpos and its snow-covered peak in the background. Palm trees and beachfront in the foreground. That's Antalya.

So, we walked and found the way obscured by the Çıralı river. We rolled up our pant legs and crossed, the water being quite cold but crystal clear-- much like the Mediterranean around us, a beautiful light blue color.

Dad crossing the rocky river. Not a typical senior citizen at this point.

We proceeded to the ruins where we took a few photos. Because it was the flood season, the waters were high and we didn't walk too far into Olympus. The winter wind was quite strong and we got a good lesson as to why it was dangerous for ancient Mediterranean sailors to sail during the winter (see Acts 27). This area is part of the Lycian Way, a backpackers' haven, and we saw plenty of internationals carrying their packs on the beach.

Olimpos was built on both sides of this river with a bridge connecting the two sides. Ruins of many buildings still stand, and in the center of the picture you can see what remains of the bridge.

Ancient tombs

Flood season meant water running through much of the ancient city dwellings.

We then trekked up the rocky bank of the Çıralı river, inspired by a covered elderly woman ahead of us who was balancing on rocks and clinging to branches like we were, back to Çıralı village. The village is filled with "pansions," bed-and-breakfast places, and restaurants-- all unfortunately closed for the off-season. From the village, it was another 3 kilometers to Mount Chimaera.

This hike took us through the village with its beautiful orchards and to the base of the mountain, where we had to buy tickets (5TL/person I think) and hike another kilometer uphill to the flaming rocks. (This blog has a good review of how to navigate the area during the tourist season.)

Methane gas seeping through pores in the mountain that have remained alight through millenia is what makes the place legendary. In ancient times the flaming mountainside served as a lighthouse for sailors. The ruins here are only partially excavated (This is common as Turkey has so many ancient sites and new discoveries are made seemingly daily). We watched tourists play around the flames, some using them to cook dinner, and hiked back down.

I almost stepped on this flame on the ground.

You can see the flame burning over my right shoulder.

Ruins at Chimaera.

Dad and I were rather weary having hiked quite a bit (I should also note we also forewent lunch), but we still had a 10km journey back uphill to the main highway. So, after walking a bit we hitched a ride with a family of Turkish tourists who luckily were staying in Kemer and graciously gave us a ride all the way there. I enjoyed chatting with them about teaching as they were public school teachers in Izmir.

From Kemer we caught the bus back to our hotel and made it back in time for dinner. My dad is over 65 but was probably less tired than I was. I definitely recommend renting a car for an excursion like this if you don't fear driving in the country. We had a great adventure experiencing the great sites and hospitality of Turkey!

Family Visit, Part 1: Trip to Antalya

(Joni) Before we left Ankara, Justin's parents came for a visit, and we traveled with them to Antalya, a southern coastal region of Turkey we had never visited before. So it was a fun adventure for all of us! We enjoyed the flight there, and flying into Antalya was pretty awesome because they flew out over the sea and then turned around for the descent into the airport.

Then we rode a shuttle out to our resort, the Marriott Antalya Renaissance Resort. It was all-inclusive and a perfect place for us to use as our home base when exploring the area. Best part was that, because it was off-season, we were able to get a really good deal on the rooms.

The resort was beautiful!

The view from my in-laws' room

What's cool about Antalya is that is has huge mountains AND seaside all in one place. So one side of the resort faced the mountains above, the other side faced the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was a little too cold for beaching, but we enjoyed the scenery!

The resort also had activities and shows. This was an evening of traditional Turkish dancing.

The resort was all-inclusive, which included meals, snacks, and an open bar. Elias LOVED the juice mixes called Rainbows where the different juices separated into rainbow colors!

A really unique thing about this resort is that it was a cat shelter, so they feed and shelter homeless cats. There was this Cat House structure, but the cats just roamed freely around the grounds, sometimes even sneaking into the dining room!

Elias LOVES cats, so he loved this part of the trip!

They also had an enclosure with geese, ducks, and rabbits!

This was a really fun place to stay, and the scenery was incredible!

Back in the U.S.-- just barely

(Justin) We're behind in posting because we've been busy moving to the U.S. Eventually, we'll post pictures of my parents' visit and our trip to Antalya.

We had plenty of goodbyes from friends before we left. Some of our friends graciously are housing many of our household items in the hope that we'll be back in August, or sometime soon enough.

Leaving was very tough emotionally, and then I was almost physically prevented from leaving Turkey at passport control in Istanbul. Joni and Elias got waved through but the system flagged me; there was a problem.

An immigration officer at the airport walked me to a line of people having stayed in Turkey illegally and waiting to receive their punishments and learn what they needed to do to leave. I chatted with the officer a bit in Turkish and he took me to the head of the line. He even had me translate for another person in line who couldn't speak Turkish. I was thankful I could communicate, or else I'd still be in that airport. Turns out, when I resigned my teaching position and the school informed the labor office, my work permit was canceled and so therefore my residency permit was cancelled -- I was thereafter living in Turkey illegally.

I had to sprint through the airport to get photocopies made, pay a fine, and bring all the paperwork back to the officers, then go back through passport control, where there was another delay as the officer had to call to make sure everything had been taken care of. I arrived at my gate after everyone had boarded, and then had to go through the hassle of again being searched and such. I was one of the last passengers on the flight -- just barely made it back to my worried family and we took off on time.

A LONG time (2-hour delay in Chicago waiting for our plane to be de-iced!) and another connection later we arrived in Cincinnati, where Joni's parents were waiting and drove us to central Kentucky, where we'll be based for an indefinite time. We're all still recovering, but the transition to the new time zone is going well so far.

Bayram Vacation, Part 5: Ephesus

(Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Part 4.)

Another exceptionally cool thing about the resort we were staying at is that it was only 10 minutes away from the site of ancient Ephesus by public transportation. It was so amazing to see this historic, beautiful, biblical site! We were very happy that Elias gets to say he got to go there, even if he probably won't remember it.

Justin and Elias in front of the Great Amphitheater

Elias and me inside the Great Amphitheater (See Acts 19 for one thing that happened there!)

We went fairly early in the morning (for Turkey, at least), but we were surprised how many people were already there. This is obviously a destination for tour groups, and it's easy to see why. This place was cool.

The Temple of Hadrian

Elias and me in front of the Library of Celsus.

Looking down on the commercial market

Elias and Justin in front of the fountain outside the Amphitheater

An unexpected thing about Ephesus was that it was absolutely full of stray cats! (Most places in Turkey have too many stray dogs for there to be many cats about.) Elias, of course, adores cats, so this was definitely his favorite part.

Elias trying to climb onto a ledge to visit a kitty inside the Library of Celsus.

At one point, I put my backpack down to get some water out, and I was immediately accosted by a meowing cat who tried to get in my backpack! This seemed like strange behavior until we later saw this man who was carrying around a bag of food and feeding the cats. When I put my bag down, the cat must've thought I was him!

  

Justin had been to Ephesus in 2009 but was glad to take his family this time. We didn't get to hit Selçuk to see the Church of John, House of Mary, or the Ephesus museum, so perhaps another time.

Bayram Vacation, Part 4: Waterpark & Beach

(Read Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.)

The Aqua Fantasy resort had an unbelievable waterpark! It is one of the biggest in Europe and also the biggest and safest in Turkey. (Even so, there were still a few slides we would never see in the States!) However, as mentioned previously, the water was too cold for us to enjoy it much. We only spent about an hour there.

Justin & Elias standing in front of some of the big slides as soon as we entered. I've never seen a water slide like that yellow one before! People would drop down on a raft and then just slide back and forth until they came to a stop!

Elias overlooking the kids' section of the waterpark, which included that cool pirate ship!

Justin rode a few of the big slides, some of which had features you'd likely never see in the U.S. One was a snake-like tunnel that you rode in a raft, easy except it was pitch black. Elias and I enjoyed watching him go down this racer one from the bridge!

There was also a beautiful private beach that was part of the resort, but the waters of the Mediterranean were also a bit chilly. We did, however, have quite a bit of fun enjoying the various parts of the beach!

Elias loves playing in sand, and we had brought his bucket & shovel for that very purpose. The sand here was interesting - it was very fine and powdery, and it had glitter in it (apparently caused by mica)! So when we went to wash off, we were muddy & glittery! We had fun building sand castles and looking for shells, though!

The resort had this long pier we could walk out on. This was taken at sunset, which is why it's kind of dark.

Elias chillin' on a deck chair out on the pier.

The resort also had paddleboats we were able to take out in the sea. The water was only a little higher than my knees, so I just jumped out to take a picture of the boys in the boat.

It was so beautiful and so fun!

Click to read Part 5.

Vacation, Part 9: Boat Tour & Fish Dinner

Here is the ninth and final installment of our vacation blogs. I hope you've enjoyed seeing so much of Turkey and learning about our experience! To see the first 8 blogs in the series, click here and here.

Since we only had 1 day in Amasra, we kind of wanted to get an overall tour, so we decided to take a tour boat around the whole area.

This wasn't our boat, but ours looked pretty much like this.

We had to wait around on the pier quite a while before the boat left (Like many other forms of Turkish transportation, the boat didn't have a specific departure time - they just wait until they feel like they have "enough" passengers.), but we enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching the people.

There was a lot of activity along the shore with food vendors, swimmers, and fishing boats going in and out!

The boat left from the side of the peninsula that has the free beach, and our jaws dropped at how PACKED it was! We were so thankful to have discovered the less-crowded beach first!

It did have the cool floating slide and trampoline park, though. I'm sure Elias would've loved to check that out!

Then the boat just toured around the whole peninsula, and we really enjoyed seeing the beautiful sights!

Then we went to the restaurant across from our hotel for one of Amasra's famous fish dinners. Justin and Elias split some fried calamari and fried catfish, which they both found delicious. I'm trying to eat a little healthier, so I got a salad,

Fancy!

And broiled fish.

Um, yeah, that's a whole fish with skin, bones, & all. This is pretty much the only way to get non-fried fish here, so if you're squeamish (like me), you just have to get over it.

So we really enjoyed our day in Amasra, and we're thankful to have seen such a beautiful place! In the morning, our bus left before any of the restaurants were open for breakfast, so we packed a picnic breakfast and ate overlooking the beach.

We're so thankful to have had this opportunity to rest, refresh, and see more of Turkey!

Vacation, Part 8: The Beach!

We were so excited about going to the beach! Elias had never been to a saltwater beach, but he has seen them on shows and he'd been talking about wanting to go to one. There were actually two beaches at Amasra on opposite sides of the peninsula, and we were fortunate that our hotel was on the less crowded one. (Come back tomorrow for shots of the other one!) Here's a view of our beach from out on the water.

We think this beach wasn't as crowded because it wasn't free, but we thought it was worth paying 15TL (appx $8) to rent the umbrella and chairs for the day. We brought a little bucket/shovel set, and Elias LOVED playing in the sand!

The same people who rented us the umbrella & chairs also had a menu we could order lunch from, and they delivered it to us right on the beach!

Then we hit the water! We had heard that the water of the Black Sea was very cold, but it was just cool. It was actually perfect for swimming in since the weather was so hot!

This is the first time Elias got in the water and the only time you'll see him with his feet touching the bottom. As much as he loved playing in the sand on the shore, he REFUSED to let his feet touch it in the water!

So I carried him out to the deeper water...

...and he floated in his floatie! Win!

It's always interesting in Turkey to see the great variety of people. At the beach, we saw ladies in bikinis, but we also saw fully-covered conservative ladies also enjoying their swims. As Justin mentioned previously, many Turks don't know how to swim, so we saw a large number of adults wearing floaties and water wings to stay safe! (Not pictured: The middle-aged man who was rescued while drowning and had to be taken to the hospital.)

We absolutely loved the beach and were so thankful for the opportunity to visit! Check back later for the final (finally!) installment of our vacation blogs where we take a boat tour around the peninsula and enjoy the famous fish dinner!