Proud to be a Canadian Turk.

July 18th and 19th

You've seen this before but in case you forgot here's what we did

1. Sleep
2. Eat breakfast
3. Go to beach/pool
4. Have dinner
5. Sleep
6. Repeat

But can't just leave it at that so a little rambling if I may.

Below is a picture of the most famous Turk in Turkey.

Mustafa Kamal Ataturk was the first President of Turkey and the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname "Ataturk" (meaning "father of the Turks") was granted to him in 1935 and no one in Turkey is allowed to use this name. He is credited with transforming the Ottoman Empire into the modern Turkey we have today.

And below is the least famous Turk in Turkey.

So everyone here thinks I'm Turkish and immediately start talking to me in Turkish. I explain I'm from Canada and they don't believe me. We get into intense discussions which usually end in the other party convincing me that my great great great grandparents obviously came from here and that is that, end of story, drink your Raki. By the way, everyone thinks Sheryl and Samantha are Turkish too. John on the other hand is having trouble convincing the locals that he is Turkish (must be his Canadian accent when speaking Turkish).

For some reason, people just don't believe John is Turkish (sorry John, had to post this one)

But the word has gotten around here in Marmaris that there are 10 Canadians visiting and when we do introduce ourselves as the people from Canada the reply is usually "...oh you're the ones." We're enjoying the somewhat celebrity status we have here for sure.

Tomorrow, we're off on another boat trip.

Our bus/boat trip to Daylan

July 17th

So a relatively early day today (well for those of us on vacation anyway). Today we went on a tour to Daylan and for a swim in the Mediterranean. Daylan is located on the Daylan Vayi river that connects the Mediterranean Sea from a fresh water lake called Lake Koycegiz. You can get there from land or water and we did both. At 8:30 we boarded our bus for a one hour trip to the Lake where we then boarded a boat which took another hour to get to Daylan. 

On our way we stopped by the mud baths next to the lake. Getting dirty was never this much fun.

Getting into the mud baths

Before

During

After

Mud monsters on vacation

And our friends did the full face thing (Steve did the full dunk but didn't get a picture)

After the mud baths we headed up the river to Daylan. We didn’t actually get off the boat in Daylan but slowly moved through the river allowing everyone some photos of the tombs cut into the mountains above around 400 BC. 

Rush hour on the river.

One other thing also makes Daylan famous and it’s the local Loggerhead Sea Turtles. These fellas are big and have quite the bite so swimming with them was not allowed but we did get close to them on the boat.

And we did get to swim in the Mediterranean. I previously mentioned that I dipped my toe in the Mediterranean in Marmaris but apparently I was wrong as Marmaris is on the Aegean Sea. So this time we did get to enjoy the bath tub temperatures of the Mediterranean.

The day ended with the trip being done in reverse back through the lake and onto our bus home. we were also treated to some local fish and Blue Crab.

Note to tourists - Everyone in Turkey smokes!

Meat-Fest 2013

July 16th

Today started out like most days,

1. Wake up
2. Have breakfast
3. Go to ocean/pool
4. Then ....

MEAT-FEST 2013

You probably didn't read the book and certainly never saw the movie of three men, two ladies, two children and a set of grandparents eating their way through more food then could possibly come from one animal. In the final chapter, this group of people event get assistance from a brother, his wife and I suspect a few waiters to finally finish everything that was on the BBQ.

A glass of Raki to start the evening and cleanse the palate.

Our second floor getaway from the tourists below.

And our view.

OK, ladies and gentlemen take your seats and let's start the feast.

Some vegetables and peppers to start.

Now bring on the meat.

and some more meat.

My god, even more meat!

The opening cast of Meat-fest 2013. From left to right, Scott, John, Murat and his father and mother, Mine, Sheryl, Asena and Samantha.

As the evening wears on, some staff come up to sing for their supper. Yes this fellow is playing with matches.

And yes those are flames coming out of his mouth.

The Turkish ritual of dancing and jumping up and down to make more room in your stomach for more meat. Will this madness ever end?

Towards the end of the evening a little water pipe and some more Raki.

And a cuddle with my sweetheart. Now we're ready to go to bed.

But the kids aren't, so another hour before we hit the sack. 

Spa day at Pamukkale

July 15th

A short blog today, but a few photos. Our tour today took us to Pamukkale  which lies on a fault line and is home to hot springs and travertines, which are pools of warm water created by carbonate minerals left over by the flowing water. The minerals in these hot springs are said to be the best in the world (at least by the locals here). When you first look at the travertines you would think it had recently snowed. Only once you're close to the deposits do you realize it has taken hundreds (thousands?) of years to create. Apparently 1 millimetre of mineral deposit is added to these travertines every year.

skiing anyone?

These carbonate minerals took centuries to build up.

The floor of these pools is a soft white mud and the water is warm.

And the tourists are happy.

Mother natures water slide.

Another fact (or fiction) that makes this place famous is the Cleopatra pool. Depending on who you talk to, either Cleopatra visited this area to enjoy the mineral baths which helped keep her youthful look or had her soliders bring back this water to her (for the same reason). The pool temperature is around 32 degrees celsius which makes for a very enjoyable swim. The bottom of the pool is covered in gravel and Roman artifacts.

 Same two happy tourists.

And just to prove I was here too.

These are Roman pillars that are two thousand years old, and yes I did stub my toe on them a few times.

No spa day of course would be complete without some fish eating dead skin off your feet.

For $17.00 you can have 20 minutes of being tickled at Doctor Fish.

Again, a great day and totally worth the three hour bus drive there and back, and 20 minute confrontation with the local police.

Apparently they have a road tax in Turkey. I suspect some money may have changed hands between our bus driver and the local authorities.

A history lesson

July 14th

So today we woke up early (let's call a spade a spade - it was 5:00am) in order to catch a bus tour that was taking us to Ephesus to view the ruins which relate back to the 5th century BC. We were promised a nice air conditioned bus which gave me visions of this

But in reality we got this below...

Anyway turned out great, it was air conditioned and confortable and being a small group things went along very smoothly. Also Sheryl wanted to pay for this tour using her credit card but they didn't have a machine with them so the tour company just had Sheryl pay for two gas fill ups along the way. Only in Turkey.

Our first stop (well after a couple bathroom breaks) was the Church of Saint John.

It is believed that Saint John came to Ephesus along with the virgin Mary sometime between 37 and 48 AD. John was also joined with Saint Paul who visited Ephesus between 55 and 58 AD. Saint John created a church here and was buried beneath the church. It is believed he lived to be 100.

Tomb of Saint John

And the batismal area

And me in it.

And one last photo of the outside of the church.

From here we went to the ruins of Ephesus. These ruins date back to 550BC when the Temple of Artemis was completed. This temple was one of the seven wonders of the world but today only one column is left.

You have to strain to see it but in the centre of this picture is the last remaining column

Most of the ruins that we saw related to the time the Roman Empire ruled this area. By the end of the first century AD it is estimated that Ephesus was home to between 400,000 and 500,000 people. They had an open air stadium that held 25,000 people. Brutus (yes the fellow who had the run in with Caesar) apparently lived here for two years. Below are some photos of the site.

Not much of the site to see here but had to get a picture with us in it.

A walk down main street.

That's Medusa up there, snakes in her hair and everything but now she's the only one turned to stone.

When you gotta go you gotta go, and here is where they went. A steady stream of water under this structure flushed everything away.

The library

Another view to get a feeling for the architecture.

One of the many statues, but we also found three never seen before.

And lastly two photos of the stadium.

PS, the temperature in the shade was 37 degrees and over 40 degrees in the sun.