Demre and Simena

Demre was a larger city that many people seemed to only use as a day trip spot. We enjoyed walking through ruins of Ancient Lycia ( again we had the sites to ourselves) and trying to piece together different stories of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus and random visits from Saint Luke ( San Lucas) and Saint Paul ( San Pablo).

Church of Saint Nicolas

We also enjoyed an amazing day trip to Ucagiz and Simena ( the area we had hoped to Kayak from Kas) It worked out perfectly for us, getting to explore the Lycian Tombs and managing to find an unoccupied house in a remote cove with beautiful clear Mediterranean waters to swim.

Ucagiz

Simena

Back in Demre, the ruins of Myra were by far the most impressive Lycian tombs we have seen. The roman city that grew around the Lycian site then became an important stop to swap slaves as Luke wrote in the bible. Saint Nicolas was also Bishop of the city for some time and is where the legend of Saint Nicolas began.



Kaş

Our next stop along the coast was Kaş. We stayed there for two nights hoping to do some kayaking to Kekova, but the wind and some rain forced us to change our plans. Not that it bothers us much, as we enjoyed our time in Kaş very much. Kaş is a very nice, quite "chic" fishing town, with nice restaurants (delicious fresh fısh and good Manti -turkish ravioli-), our hostel had a very nice common area to read, play backgammon and internet on a covered terrace with amazing views and the weather was good enough to let us enjoy a picnic and a nice walk to some Lycian Tombs.

Kayakoy and Oludeniz: PARAGLİDİNG!!

Back to the west coast. After taking 3 different buses, we arrived at Kayakoy. A very small town famous beacuse it used to be called Levissi, a Greek town deserted after World War I, when the League of Nations supervised an exchange of population between this town and some turkish living in Greece. The Turks never lived here (there were less turks than greeks ın the exchange) so what remains is a Ghost Town in a beautiful setting.

While doing some hiking the next morning we came across Oludeniz, a place known to be one of the best in the world for Paragliding and luckly for us, the International Air Festival was being held at that time!!! Beautifull sunny day, paragliders and and skydivers landing everywhere arround the beach, music... We had to join the party and so we did the best thing you can do there!!!

Cris in the red team!!

Yellow team clear for landing!

Pamukkale

After Ephesus, we moved a bit inland, away from the west coast to visit Pamukkale which means "cotton castle". As you reach the town you soon understand why. Among the hills and mountains in that area, the slope of one of them is compleatly white, as if it was made of cotton. The thermal waters in that area deposit calcium carbonate as they run down the slope creating this amazing, strage and beautiful whıte mountain. We spent a wonderful afternoon visiting the ruins of the Hierapolis (roman town famous for it's thermal baths) asnd exploring and swimming in this surreal place.

Ephesus (pictures)

Basilica of St John ( San Juan )



Our latest Addiction -Baklava ( Diabetes Inducing)



Church of Mary

The First Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary - We will explain - So the year AD 431 in the Roman city of Ephesus, a group of important men gather to discus politics and general running of the cıty. While the usual agenda included taxes, roads and buildings, AD 431 meeting was to discuss the simple notion İs Jesus the son of God and İs Mary the mother of God?

After much discussion ( İm sure) and after banishing the only member who said NO, the meeting concluded that yes, Mary and Jesus were for real, and so the city of Ephesus ( Where St John and Mary lıved after Jesus death) has the very first Church for the virgin Mary YAY! 



Temple of Arthemis



Can you name the 7 ancient wonders of the world? How many are left?

Well - we stumbled upon this - the temple of Arthemis ( the remains ) an enormous temple said to have been the most wonderous of all the wonders ( just lıke every student is the teachers favourite right?)

Bergama - Pictures

Bergama was a pleasent surprise. Having amazing ruins to explore by ourselves and a charming and lively rural town. This is the nice and welcoming place we stayed in Bergama. Odyssey Guest House

Pergamum Acropolis

Bergama

Asklepion Temple