Still alive, sorry about the wait for a new post but we've been running all over the country in the past few days, literally! To recap, Sunday the 30th we got up at 4 am to go on an hour long sunrise balloon ride, which was spectacular, but if I'm seeing a sunrise it's usually because I haven't gone to bed. We got some amazing photos of truly unusual rock formations, which was followed by a champagne toast. Next it was back to the awesome cave hotel to be picked up by our driver Mahmet who lives in the town of 1,000 where we were staying. Like most people in the area, he has two jobs - one as a farmer, the other as a driver for tourists. A majority of the touristy places (hotels, restaurants, shops) close up for the winter as it is too cold, but we found this to be true on the coast as well. We started off at the underground city of Kaymakli, one of several in the area. They served the same purpose as the rock castles, safety, but in the plains areas they had to carve them out underground instead of in cliffs. The one we saw had 8 levels, but only 5 have been excavated so far. The cave system was immense, and designed to hold up to 5,000 people. Next we headed to a Greek restaurant where they served us a delish lunch, and next it was back in our van to see more rocks. We ended the day at a carpet workshop where we saw how they made the carpets and I even got to help. Mom ended up buying a beautiful carpet, so this means I don't need to anymore since I can just 'borrow' hers! By that time we were exhausted After the long day, and headed back to the hotel for a quick dinner before we packed and went to bed.
Another early morning (Happy Halloween!), this time back to the airport to fly to Istanbul and then to Antalya. Since there are no direct flights, we had to fly up to Istanbul to fly down to Antalya. The three hour layover in istanbul was actually longer than the two flights put together! After our arrival in Antalya we picked up our rental car. It's amazing how many weird looks we get when we tell people we're driving, but after a rough start in Antalya, we're doing great. One thing you have to know about Turkish drivers is that they think of traffic regulations more along the lines of suggestions. People do not stay in one lane, usually run the red light and pedestrians cross everywhere, even across the freeways! It's a good thing I am the one driving, as apparently I fit right in! Mom is a great driver, but she was white knuckling it there for a while on the way from the airport to downtown Antalya. To be fair, traffic was insane, we had no idea where we were going and we definitely didn't expect the city to be that big (over 1 million people and the fastest growing in Turkey)! We found a hotel and walked around, but kept it relaxed and went to bed early after not getting much sleep the past few nights.
The next morning we slept in a bit (9am!) and headed down to to the Antalya museum. I wasn't expecting much, but I was pretty impressed. Their collection was immense, and covered finds back to early man. Most impressive was a collection of statuary that came from a nearby theater. Two hours later, we were on the road to Kas, a seaside town along the Turquoise coast. The drive was stunning, and is basically like CA's Highway 1 with amazing views and lots of twists and turns. We took one of the many side roads that branch off to some ruins along the coast. Turkey has more greek and roman ruins that either Greece or Italy! We (Mom) picked Olympos, which was down a very steep hill with quite a few hairpin turns, which was fun for me but nerve racking for mom. The ruins themselves were pretty standard and not really excavated to any real extent. It almost felt as though you were wandering through and just happend upon them. We also had lunch on the beach, which was rocky, but the water is amazingly clear. Back on the road, we started looking for a place to stay, but we couldn't find any the guidebook recommended until Kas. Along the way, we saw the most gorgeous sunset, all pinks and oranges. As soon as I get home I'll post the pictures (we still can't get the photos to post from mom's iPad). Once in Kas we found this little pension run by the nicest family. I think they had closed for the season (the first hotel we tried was closed), but they let us stay for two nights for the same price we stayed for one night in Antalya! They also hooked me up with a dive group for the next day. We walked to the downtown and had a delicious Turkish pizza and relaxed in our room.
Today we had a lovely breakfast on our bougainvillea covered balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, and then headed down to the harbor to catch the boat. Mom came along for the trip and actually relaxed! The sun and beautiful day helped a bit. I ended up going on two dives, the first was pretty shallow and the reef was not in great shape, but the water was amazing clear and I saw a huge school of baracudda. The next dive was short, but super cool - to WW I plane wreck. We got to go inside the plane, where someone had placed an old school laptop in the galley. After heading back to the harbor, we walked around and had a yummy Turkish ravioli lunch and then checked out the local ruins. The amphitheater is especially impressive, dating back to the 1st century BC, and still in such good condition that the locals still use it for films and performances. We headed back to the hotel to watch the sunset from our balcony and to catch up on our posts! Tomorrow will be a busy day full of driving and ruins, followed by another day of driving and ruins, but I'm looking forward to exploring the Turquoise Coast!
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