Assos and Just Lying in the Sun

Trip Start Aug 11, 2007
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Trip End Nov 08, 2007


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Saturday, September 15, 2007

Had a great night's sleep after so many days of early starts! Headed off after breakfast back to Behramkale to see the ruins of Assos. Stopped at a little grocery shop at the main cross road (there's only 2 roads through Behramkale) to buy water and just as we were about to turn up the road towards Assos, who should we see coming through the crossroads from the other direction, but our Aussie neighbours, Carol and Paul, from the hotel at Goreme!! Not as completely surprising as it might have been - they two had stayed at Apricot and ahd rented a car from Hakan, who had given them the same recommendation for accommodation as us for this area. And they had even booked to stay there last night, but hadn't been able to find it, so had stayed in the little fishing village just below Behramkale. We had wondered why this little out of the way place, clearly at the end of its season had seemed so unsurprised to see us and had even had a great dinner available - and now we know - they thought we were the Aussies!! They were just heading of to Pamukkale, which will be our next stop, but looks as if from now on we'll be a day or 2 behind them. Was fun bumping into them and very unlikely even though we were in the same area!

We had asked Jill and Gordon, who had been there 6 or so years ago, whether Assos was worth visiting and they were right. This is our first real ancient Greek ruins and while they are ruins, it is still impressive - not least because of the site. Assos was built all around a 300 meter high volcanic peak that plummets into the ocean below. Looking down to our pension
Looking down to our pension
 Most of the important parts of the city face out to the ocean and have dramatic views. At the peak, they built at temple to Athena, and a few columns still remain standing (or could have been restored this way - either way its impressive). Further down the hill are the remains of the Agora and the Theatre (also partially restored). There are also the remains of the old Hellenistic walls that can be seen. Later, in Byzantine times, massive city walls and defence towers were built and many of these are also still standing. The site is extremely steep and all over is littered with the tumbled down remains of old columns and stone blocks from the ruins, some of which have been incorporated in the current village houses, in the old mosque and in the later buildings at the site. All in all, very interesting and the fantastic views are a huge plus!

We drove the winding, steep paved (literally - paving stones - made a very jittery ride) road down to the little fishing village below. Here around 20 or so old stone houses have been converted to tourist hotels and cater for people from Istanbul and other parts of Europe (lots of Germans) during the summer, but now is the start of the off season (even though the weather is glorious) and many have been shut. Chris drove all the way down to the down, then started along the one very narrow street til we realised there would be nowhere to park, so we turned around (with difficulty) and parked a little way back up the hill and walked into the village. Chris navigating the ancient alleyways
Chris navigating the ancient alleyways
 While the tourists are clearly the major source of income, some other village life odes go on around them - fishing boats come and go (although their catch is all probably consumed in the seaside restaurants that are attached to the hotels) and while we were there, 2 of the little fishing boats were pulled up on the tiny wharf ramp, squeezed between 2 restaurants, being painted and maintained. There were still a few tourists around, but the place seemed very laid back compared to what it must be like in the busy season - even the 3 police were spending their time fishing off the wharf in front of the station (guess this would not be one of the hardship postings for the Turkish Police!!).

Decided that was enough hard work for the day and headed back to our pension. First a chance to keep up with the laundry - we are becoming very proficient at hand washing clothes in the basin. We have to be, given the amount of food we both seem to drop on ourselves - Chris and Paul suggested our blog should be titled Travels with Food Stains after we visited them in Virginia Beach! Luckily the warm, sunny weather and dry climate here mean we can get clothes dry really quickly. Of course we have now realised that yet again we have packed too much - we've been living out of day packs for the past week and its worked fine - the rest of our clothes in our really expensive 70 litre Ospray back packs are virtually redundant......

We are still the only people staying in this little bay - its great to have the whole beach to ourselves, so we made the most of it and stayed out there all afternoon. The water is incredibly clear and at the right temperature to be refreshing (ok it's a bit cool - but its still warmer than most NZ beaches in mid summer!). We're up in our room having had a shower, getting this blog written up even if it can't be posted. And now that its up-to-date, we're off to enjoy the balmy evening breeze and watch the sun set over the Aegean as we sip our beers and enjoy our meze and fish dinner! Hope life is as enjoyable for all of you.......
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