Good Friends, Good Beer, Good Beach
Trip Start
Jul 06, 2008
1
13
26
Trip End
Aug 18, 2008
Olympos,
Antalya,
Turkey
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
We swam in the Mediterranean and basked in the sun on a beautiful beach surrounded by huge mountains covered sporadically in lush green vegetation with various rocky ruins from the 2nd century BC gazing down on us. I was completely breathtaking.
We left the scorching city of Antalya in favor of the rocky beach and tree huts of Olympos. Olympos is just inland from a beautiful beach. It is here that we met some new friends from Istanbul and had a couple of late nights. When we arrived at the hostel we would be staying at, the friendly Australian owner, Mike, showed us around quickly and bought us a cold drink while we waited for a room to become available. We had the choice of staying in an airconitioned bungalo/hut type deal - or a rough looking treehouse - no A/C
01. Orange Bar Promotion
. The treehouses were only 5 Lira cheaper than the more private and cooler and bathroom included bungalo that we chose. This was somewhat of a no-brainer - although we do enjoy the whole 'treehouse' type experience, the need for the A/C far outweighed the intrigue of sleeping up in a tree on the grey-washed rickety boards that we looked at. Once in our bungalow and organized - we headed for the beach. It was about a 10-15 minute walk from our pansion - but a nice walk to say the least. To get to the beach, you must walk through the ruins of Olympos. They are scattered among the vegetation - figs and bay trees - and there are some paths that we were able to trek further into to see some of the deeper ruins. These ruins stretched along the pathway that we walked each day and there was also a stream that ran alongside and then through a rocky gorge. It is quite the thing to simply walk by these sights each day!
Most of our days were spent in a similar fashion:
We would wake up (as slowly as possıble)
Join the other guests for the included breakfast
Head to the beach for some cooling off in the water
Back to the pansion for a game of cards /a rest/ backgammon/ interent
Back to the beach after the heat of the afternoon had past
Back to the pansion for the delectable buffet supper also included
A tough few days indeed
02. People Dancing at the Bar.
!Our first evening in Olympos, we met up with Jesse - the American we had some beers with in Cappadocia. He had also met a couple of guys from Istanbul, Gökhan and Oskay, and we all hit it off quite well. We headed for the infamous 'ORANGE BAR' which was in a most incredible location!!!! This bar was a good distance from any other building in the area. There was music blaring and everyone dancing - it was quite the party. When we walked in and had a chance to look around, we noticed the surroundings a bit better. This bar was actually 4 walls - and no ceiling. When we looked up, we saw sky and stars and the immense mountainside covering over half of the sky - stretching up, and what seeemed like, out of the building itself - what an incredible location. To add to the party atmosphere, the bar had flashing lights and the occasional mist would shoot out of somewhere as well. Just outside the bar, a huge flood light seemed to sway back and forth over the sky, highlighting the mountain and then turning into a blast of multiple spot lights as it turned in circles against the mountainside. This could be seen from the many pansions and huts further away back towards the pathways. It was like a beacon to party-goers just as the people of Gotham City send out the Bat Signal when they need the Man Behind the Mask.
Our incredibly hospitable Turkish friends we met at our pansiyon paid for our cover charge and bought us beer as well
03. I Love Beer
. We had left our money at our pansiyon thinking that we would simply come and check stuff out and head back within 10 minutes. Feeling rather sheepish, we thanked them and figured this would now be more than a 10 minute look-sy. Well, 10 minutes turned into about 4 hours. Although any attempts made at any of the Turkish dancing we were shown failed somewhat miserably - we did get a standing ovation for a quick little jive we did to an unknown (to us - but famous in Turkey) band. Before we knew it - out came the infamous swinging arm move, the shopping cart (how embarrassing) a little bit of the robot and who knows what else. We hope that they do not judge all of Canada by our sensational 'moves'.The next couple of days were very relaxing and we enjoyed some more drinks and games with Gökhan and Oskay. They were both incredibly kind and we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them - one night it was after 2:00am and we were all still visiting, sprawled out on the lounger - type huts that had low tables that you sat up next to, or lay down next to on cusions and mats. Gökhan showed much patience when teaching us the tricks to Backgammon - I can only imagine trying to teach us newbies how to play - watching us counting with our fingers and making completely idiotic decisions - but he always corrected us and showed us why a particular move was better and so on. We had a great time!
We are hoping to meet up with them again when we get back to Istanbul for two days before our flight back home in August. It would be nice to share some more laughs and beers with them. Olympos was definitely a superb location to catch up on some relaxation - we would like to stay longer - but there is so much more we would like to see!
Hugs and Love,
Dana and Trevor
![[03] Olympos ruins](http://images.travelpod.com/users/el_condor/thumbnail.asia_2005.1148208360.picture_020.jpg)
