We left Cappadocia on September 4th and flew into Izmir, one of the larger cities on the Turkish Aegean Sea. Our driver picked us up in the pimpest van I have ever seen...we're talking gold detailing, huge rims, and club lights. Pretty awesome. It was also a nice distraction from the fact that he drove like a MANIAC for the next 90 minutes along one-lane cliff-hanging highways over the sea, but (luckily) deposited us safely in front of our house rental in Guzelcamli unharmed. The 3-bedroom home, right on the sea, was the perfect place to while away our next five nights (thanks, HomeAway!). We spent the days doing...well...mostly nothing, and the evenings cooking simple dinners and drinking too much Efes. Good times. Guzelcamli is a small resort town near the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus ("Efes" in Turkish...we thought we were driving to a beer factory until we realized this). The town's population swells to more than 60,000 in the summer season, but got lucky that the "summer season" had just ended by the time we arrived and there were only 10,000 vacationers and locals left. It was very peaceful, and allowed me to make some good headway in the second "Game of Thrones" book. Yes. I'm addicted.
After two days of sheer relaxation, we decided we wanted a little history to fill our brains, so four of us rented a car and drove to the ruins. Ephesus was one of the most important cities of the ancient world, founded around 6000BC with a population of 200,000 people. The most impressive sites still in existence are the 25,000-capacity amphitheater, and the elaborate library. Everything else cool has been taken off the premises and put into the Ephesus Museum in Selcuk (which they do not tell you before you go).
Theater:
Library:
Another highlight was a lovely reenactment of a gladiator battle, with actors playing members of the royal court and spearing each other with plastic swords. I got to see it twice. Lucky me.
Just around the corner from Ephesus is what is alleged to be the house where the Virgin Mary died. According to the story, Saint John brought Mary to the hills surrounding Ephesus after Jesus' death, and she lived out her days in a pretty, wooded area high on a hill. However, the exact site was "discovered" by a blind German nun, who had a revelation about the location of Mary's last dwelling in the late 1800s, so what actually stands on the grounds 1) is a reconstruction, and 2) probably isn't really the right place. We didn't know this until after we paid $20 to get in, but it was still a nice little visit.
"Mary's House":
We spent our fourth day in Guzelcamli taking a boat tour through the national park. I had no idea just how clear the Aegean Sea is, but let me tell you - that water gives Zanzibar a run for its money. It was GORGEOUS. For $15, we got an 8-hour boat ride complete with stop-offs at secluded coves to swim in the pristine water, a delicious lunch, and a sweet lounging spot on top of giant pillows on the deck of the boat.
Sweet lounging spot:
Me in my happy place:
Secluded cove:
A hike through the national park proved to be a nice activity for our last day. The walk was beautiful, right along the cliffs overlooking the sea, and you can hike down to the water and stumble across this:
Oh, and this (yes, that is a wild boar...gross):
Our last night in Guzelcamli was spent at Agora Restaurant, which is owned by a local named Mustafa and his wife. Caroline. From Massachusetts. Bet you didn't see that coming. She was on vacation at Club Med in Mexico and took a windsurfing lesson. He was her instructor. They are now married, pregnant, and living in Guzelcamli, Turkey. Nutso. Here are some fun facts about the town that she shared with us:
1) Village women stay at home all day. Literally. They don't leave their houses.
2) Village men retire at 50 and play backgammon all day. Literally. They don't leave their backgammon tables.
3) Circumcision is performed on boys at age seven or eight, and the ritual involves a parade of cars through the town honking and celebrating. The boy rides at the front of the parade dressed in elaborate white robes. I was lucky enough to witness this, although it was before I had a clue what I was actually looking at. I described it to my travel companions as follows, "there was this tiny pope guy riding in a pickup, and 50 cars driving after him". He had a big smile on his face...so that must have been the "before" parade. Poor little guy.
Saying goodbye to Guzelcamli was bittersweet, but we were excited to move on and experience Bodrum, known as one of Europe's prettiest and biggest party towns. We hired a car for the three hour trip (much to our disappointment, it was not a pimp van) and arrived at our BEAUTIFUL apartment atop a hill overlooking the town and the sea (thanks, airBnB!) around 1PM. Dave and Erin both get huge gold stars for finding us awesome accommodations. Commence two more days of...sitting around. It's hard not to want to do that when these are the views from your patio....
Daytime:
Nighttime:
While a few of us (ahem, Erin, Ali, Dave, Christina) went out to explore the nightlife on our first night there, we mostly ended up chilling out at home. Again, the high season was (luckily) over by the time we rolled into town, so we got to experience a more relaxed side of Bodrum. It's an adorable place, with a shop and restaurant-lined main boulevard that stretches around the harbor, and streets dotted with ruins. It's also home of Bodrum Castle, which was originally constructed by the Knights Hospitaller in 1409 then conquered by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1522. The castle is surrounded by water on three sides, which serves the dual purpose of defense and having KILLER views:
Defense:
Killer views:
Bodrum Castle is also home to an underwater archaeology museum, and is filled with artifacts discovered from shipwrecks. In addition, it features exceptionally creepy full-scale models of old trading ships:
Besides the castle, two other notable things about Bodrum were the street mussels and the catamaran club. Let me explain. "Street mussels" (my creative name for them) are mussels sold at roadside stands all along the main drag. They are opened up raw and stuffed with a rice mixture, then closed and steamed. The Bodrum price is one mussel for one Lira ($0.60), although we typically got "angel price" and walked away with a few free ones. Turkish men loooove female tourists. Every waiter we had wanted to shake Dave's hand. Not kidding - he was practically a celebrity for traveling with five girls. OK, back to the mussels. So you order them one at a time, and the vendor takes them out of the case and separates the shells. He squeezes lemon on top, and you use one half of the shell to scoop out the mussel and the rice together, and eat it in one bite. And it. Is. DELICIOUS. My travel companions could typically find me standing next to a mussel vendor saying "oh...no...well, okay, just ONE more".
Delicious mussel (featuring amateur hand model Erin Keller):
Nom nom nom:
Now that we've covered the mussels, let me tell you about the catamaran club. We had heard about two famous nightclubs in Bodrum - Halikarnas Disco, an open-air club with capacity of 5,000 people and Club Catamaran, a giant cat boat that leaves the dock at 1:30AM and stays out until sunrise. We knew we had to do one of the two, and after some debate (and talking to locals), we decided to go for the boat. We started the night at our apartment with a few rounds of beers and Ali's ingenious art project: spelling "Turkey" with lights on our patio using an extra-long camera exposure. It actually worked. Proof:
Playing with the camera quickly devolved into a hilarious photo shoot, and we were also able to nail a pyramid. We thought about trying to turn the self-timer on and putting Dave on top, but we hadn't had THAT many beers:
We departed for the town center around midnight, and got on the boat (with the help of our new friend Can who we met on the bus). Despite having what I'm pretty sure is the highest-margin beer in Turkey, the catamaran was a lot of fun. Go-go dancers, a trapeze artist, two levels, a hot dog stand, a great DJ, a billion French people, and a LOT of dancing. I have more than 100 photos, but sorry, they're all classified except for these two:
Boarding the club...
Kind of awkward group shot (courtesy of new-friend-Can):
We made merry on the boat until 4:30AM, stood in line to get the motorboat shuttle back to Bodrum until 5AM, got home at 5:30AM, went to sleep at 6AM, and got up at 7:30AM for a 10AM flight. No, you did not read that wrong. It was BRUTAL. But a very fitting end to the trip.
The group finally split up on September 13th, with Dave, Christina, Erin and me heading back to Istanbul for a couple of days to do some last-minute souvenir shopping (note: do not buy ceramics in Turkey because they will ALL BREAK in your hand luggage on the way home) and enjoy a couple of final meals on the Bosphorus, and Ali and Keira heading to Santorini. Bitches.
All in all, beach time was a perfect way to end the trip. And now that I know the beaches in Turkey are so spectacular, I'll be sure to return. Especially if I can eat meze while sunbathing. Lots of love to my amazing travel crew. It's been real.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad from some awesome, fabulous, amazing, dangerous international location
Location:Bodrum, Turkey
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