Rose Life Suit Hotel Alanya

... to Alanya, I opted to take the coach this time instead of hitch hiking. I got into the station at 6:30 and then took a city bus to get closer to the beach. I think I was pretty much in the wrong neighbourhood for cheap hotels but was able to negotiate a room down from 50 to 30 TL. The apartment had a living room, kitchen, dining area and bedroom!

Now for a walk-about town for the evening...

... la montgolfıere en Cappadoce.

Raftıng ın the Kropulu Canyon. Blue water, fıshes. Very nıce day wıth new frıends, Mıchel and Suzanne, from Montreal wıth whom we are goıng to go balloon flyıng ın central Turkey (Cappadocıa).

... nahen und f**nen Dorfminaretten üb** das Land. Wir w**den es imm** wied** hören, weitgehend noch live gesungen, fünf Mal am Tag, and**s als in den arabischen Länd**n wo meist das Tonband bemüht wird. Kein Mensch auß** uns genießt den Blick üb** die idyllische Szen**ie, nur am Aquädukt hält kurz ein Reisebus und spuckt eine Busladung bunt** Ameisen aus, nur um sie gleich wied** einzufangen. Auf d** Weit**fahrt nach Alanya kommt man vorbei an imm** mehr ...

... among others). According to our guide book Silifke is also known for the fact that Frederick Barbarossa died there. He drowned in the Goksu river while leading his troops on the third Crusade. Robert's history teacher at high school always told that he was thrown from his horse and fell into one of his sharp "tools of the trade", drowning is less glamorous for a warlord isn't it? Apart from birds and beautiful medieval castles, the Eastern ...

... from our path to Syria and but Cappadocia is a place we've wanted to see since we first heard about it. We weren't disappointed . . . it was an incredible landscape of volcanic tuff eroded into fantastic shapes. And almost as incredible is what the ancient Christians did with it. Christians started coming here in the 3rd century to escape persecution and dug out homes which were easily defended, as well as churches and whole towns from the soft stone. You have to see it to believe it.

... Damo felt energetic and even swam out to the castle while I lay like a lazy whale on the beach! From Kizkalesi we headed along the coast road towards Alanya. Unfortunately the coastal road was slow as it wound it and out so we made a decision to head inland. Not the best decision ever made on our part. It took us 9 hours and part of the road wasn't sealed and ...

... where we stayed in the a very cool camping ground called the suger beach club. Next morning was a ruins free day and we took a cruise round the coast in a small cruise boat stopping along the way to swim eat drink very relaxing and hot. Next day we had a short drive to saklikent which had an amazing gorge. We stayed at the mouth of the gorge in tree houses or just lay on raised platforms in ...

... straıt, vısıted the spice market and grand bazaar where two merchants told me (Ants) to go away cause they couldn't handle the Kohıtı barterıng strategy or they just dıdn't lıke dealıng wıth a gırl, and went down to the seashore to eat sunflower seeds wıth the locals. Cy and Astro shot slug guns at bottles on the shore while Suze and I watched the dolphins. Left on ...

... and gaze at the remains of old stone forts, churches, temples, and an Acropolis. I would go swimming for forty five minutes at a time, which is a lot for my lazy ass, as I'm not a great swimmer, but with so much to look at the time would just fly. On a few occasions, I would leave Kelly reading on the beach and go exploring in the woods by myself. Just an outstanding way to spend an afternoon. Climbing small mountains and picking my way through the foliage and every so often ...

... got stuck and we had to push it out, we took a casual boat cruise around the islands swimming, eating and getting rid of our lovely English skin colour. Our first hit of the warm weather and we are liking it very much.....more is on the way apparently so will see over the next few days. Heading off to a place called Cappodocia tomorrow which mind you is a 12 hour drive away. Looking forward to that. Will be posting some pictures in the next couple of days.