Agean sea, the place to be
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2008
1
29
33
Trip End
Jun 11, 2008
Assos,
Canakkale,
Turkey
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
people were surprised that i was going to assos: while it's definately a tourist destination (when you enter the town you see tonnes of signs pointing to various places you can stay) and though it's found in my lonely planet, it's more geared towards turks. in any case it's definately off of the backpacker's radar.
it's a bit tough to get to assos. i had to take the commuter bus from selcuk to izmir, the regional capital (turkey's third-largest city, previously known as smyrna), then a bus from izmir to ayvacık (actually to çannakale, but it stopped in ayvacık)
sarcophogi
. ayvacık is a sleepy, dusty, town. from there i had to take a dolmuş, a sort of minibus, to assos. except assos has two parts: the main part of the town is on the side of a big hill, the harbour (and where i was staying) is 2km down the hill. of course, the minibus only goes to the hill part of the town, so i had to walk 2ks down to the beach.the place is real different than anywhere i've been yet. since it was a monday, not even the turkish tourist crowd was in: just a quite village. nobody spoke english. the environment is right out of homer with fields and low fruit trees and a dry intense heat with a strong sea breeze.
but assos wasn't always so sleepy. the place is known for the temple of athena which sits on top of the hill that the main village is on. for a time the local king was a former student of plato who encouraged philosophers to move in: aristotle lived there for a while. st. paul even came by. though only the temple has had some (crappy) restoration, the ruins are still visible and approachable on the hillside oppostie the current village, through grass and nettles taller than me. quite prominent are the medieval walls, ancient theatre and sarcophagi. and you get a great view of the agean. i explored the ruins yesterday when i arrived.
the place i stayed was right on the water, and i had a great fish dinner
agean
. this morning i just sat at the beach and read, sometimes getting in the water with schools of fish to cool off. in the distance, i kid you not, dolphins started to jump out of the water. I. KID. YOU. NOT.like i said, it was really good to get off the backpacker trail for a bit, but there were disadvantages, namely, no people. nice for 24hrs, but no more.
in the early afternoon i trekked back pick up the dolmuş and got a bus to Çannakale. it's a small city on the Dardanelles and it's the main spot from which to visit troy and galipoli. in fact i'm staying at ANZAC hostel. the city is actually pretty cool. far less 'provincial' than selcuk: people have hair styles that don't make me feel like i'm from outerspace. reminicent of İstanbul. tomorrow morning i see troy, then in the afternoon i get a bus back to istanbul, where i spend an evening and a morning before i go to the airport...
