Still at KayaKoy
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
46
68
Trip End
Nov 08, 2007
KayaKoy,
Turkey
Saturday, September 29, 2007
View across to the ruined village
. Even Chris was interested to figure our how people lived in such recent ruins. And the answer is quite simply! Most houses had 2 or 3 rooms, one of which had a corner fireplace, and a cellar underneath the house. Outside was a cistern to hold water and a small out house toilet (with a bucket underneath?). There were a couple of houses at the base of the old village that people still lived in and we found one house that had only been abandoned recently, so the roof was still intact and the built in interior wooden partition, doors, and shelving was still there - which gave us a much better picture of life in those days.We wandered back along the narrow village roads to our pension for a beer (Chris) and a swim in the pool (Tina) and after a couple of hours of relaxing, set off over the hill to a small local beach. It was a beautiful setting - lovely pine treed hills falling into a small bay with a little island offshore and even some ruins to add to the picture. However, its also a popular beach, so it costs $5 per person to come to and there are restaurants, lounge beds (another $2.50 each) and umbrellas (yet another $2.50. And about a third of the beach and bay is cordoned off for swimmers - the rest is full of boats - private yachts, gullet cruises, speed boats and jet skis for hire, people offering waterskiing and banana boat rides!!! Its very busy and very noisy - which doesn't really work for us
Inside the old village chapel
. Apart from a couple of places like Mount Maunganui, I think NZers like their beaches with way less people and activity!! So we went for a couple of swims and a bit of a wander, then left to go back to our hotel.That night we decided to have a meal at a little restaurant in town that Attila from our pension recommended. The restaurant was very lovely and very atmospheric - set up under some huge trees in the courtyard of a 2 story restored stone house at the base of the old abandoned village; fairy lights strung in the trees and some old carved relics scattered around the lovely garden - including a very old Byzantine carved column capitol. And the food was superb!! We went for the meze - little plates of different starters - and these were really, really yummy (Tina has tried to take down the approximate recipes for some of these, so hopefully we can make them when we get home) and Chris decided to try the lamb special for that night. This was so good, that despite filling up on the mezes, we ate every bit of the main as well. Chris commented that at least the extra weight we're putting on has been really worth it because its been done by eating great food..... In fact this was the best meal we have had in Turkey (and we've had lots of excellent meals)!! At least we had to walk to and from the restaurant which was about 2 kms each way.
