East meets west - Part 3

On the bus and about 12 hrs later woke up dazed to find the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere .They took away all our passports and after 30 mins came back with them, god knows what they were looking for .I must say the Varan buses are very comfortable and relatively cheap theY compete with cheap airlines so they have onboard meals and drinks etc .Very luxurious and very nice

Another 2 hours later reached Anatalya the southern part of turkey .Nice sea side city but it was only a stop over for us, had to catch another bus to reach Olympus .

We took this opportunity to visit the city quickly took a bus to the city centre and walked around a bit then it was time to catch another bus to get back to the main bus station called OTOGAR (main bus terminal) .We had no clue how to reach there so asked some locals and caught the random bus .Turns out that bus stops outside the station which we failed to identify so a bus full of local screamed OTOGAR at us when it reached there !!!!!!

Caught another local bus or a mini van which dropped us of to an unknown destination outside a tea shop .After waiting around for a bit another bus picked us up and dropped off to Turkmans hostel .We didnt know anything about it but yes dropped off and nice hostel to stay in i think we paid about £7 a night including dinner and breakfast .Heres the details

http://www.olymposturkmentreehouses.com/

Would happily suggest this hostel as its excellent value for money and the food was awesome. Well we were constantly worrying wht meat was served to us at these rates ????

Well once we were allotted out room we hit the road .A 15 min walk in the ruins to reach the beach which was pristine and nice .The water was blue and there were hardly people around look below for the Photo .Lots of Photo ops and Mountain climbing later Made our way back becs it was getting dark .

Beach in olympus

After dark was another story :)

We decide to see the eternal fire at Chimera close to Olympus .All we were give was a torch and told we would be taken there .Stopped over at a small shop bought some bottles of wine and off we went .What they didn't tell us was it was about at least what felt like a 3Km uphill walk to reach the Eternal fire .

It was literally pitch dark and we didn't know where and what we were stepping on , Got to see a strange new world when its absolute black as we walked along only one thing remained in our mind the fire and the fear of the Unknown - we didn't even think about the latter.

Reached this place let me tell you this is one of the places out of your child horror story book .Its in the middle of nowhere and u suddenly see a mountain with fire holes in it .Legend has it that a dragon was killed or buried here which still oozes fire. Its a strange gas released which catches fire when it comes in contact with air. It was very strange and unique to watch .Skulked around for a bit and then picked a nice spot and the wine bottles opened and so did our heads .Just looked up to see all the stars that just was there to be seen .

Chimera olympus

Strange what modern civilization can do for you now we could quiet easily work out how constellations came in how to track stars and stuff.well we knew the answers now strange also is when people ask you what do you remember in this trip , for me it was just lying on the rocks looking at the sky full of stars each brighter than the other and just occasionally sipping some wine and talking to friends .

Its just these simple things we miss in this modern world which make these special moments in this trip its not Blue mosque or Tajmahal or a Jazzy looking building in La defence its Nature bare simple Nature!!!

It didn't cost us a thing apart from getting there and we didn't even pay the entrance fee .

Well got back from this a bit tired as the wine veiled away and straight to bed for me .But Ms J and M where thinking about a bath .I was not bothered for a moment , according to their reports i was asleep and snoring in a couple of mins .Poor guys they were subjected to this music for about 10 mins before I apparently switched it off :)

Sorry!!!

Next day was for lazing around the beach and swim and better still jumping of the cliff the water was cold and crystal clear the sand warm on a sunny day with no one of the beach what do you do u swim and jump of the cliff:~).

Cliffs Olympus Jump from the Cliffs

After this and some more Ruins hunting later we debated a bit about staying here for a while or going to KAS our next destination it was a pretty difficult choice but we made it Now onwards to KAS.