Turkish Delights!

Turkish Delights!
July 14, 2007

Lyceum rock cut tombs, sunken cities, roman baths, Saint Nicolas,
Butterfly Valley, small fishing villages accessible only by boat….
the incredible sights seen on a” Blue Voyage” in Turkey are too

Lyceum rock cut tombs, sunken cities, roman baths, Saint Nicolas, Butterfly Valley, small fishing villages accessible only by boat….the incredible sights seen on a” Blue Voyage” in Turkey are too numerous to do justice to with the space and time that I have. We liked the “Turkish Delight”, a popular soft candy in Turkey that we were aware of through the kid’s classic book “Narnia” where it plays a central role, so of course a “must” try for our visit. We were pleased to find out that there were so very many kinds of delight in Turkey!

For those that know the area or are planning a Blue Voyage, we started in Fethiye and went o Kayakoy, Oludeniz and the Blue Lagoon, Letoon, Patara, Kalkan, Meis Island and onto Kas, Kekova, Simenia, Kekova Island and Demre/Myra. Then there was a bus that picked us up near Demre and took us to Olympos where there are the famous tree houses and Chimaera. They say it is the most stunning scenery on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.

It is hard to pick out one favorite place with so many stand outs, but Kalekoy (ancient Siminea) was our best-loved treasure on our Blue Voyage and a place we would not mind returning to for a longer stay. It is a tiny fishing village that is only accessible via water with no roads, but tiny dirt paths with an old castle at the top of the mountain. It was a just a gorgeous jewel and the people were very sweet. It was one of the prettiest spots we have seen on our entire journey.   

There were Lycian tombs there and many, many of the places we went, which we got to see close up as well as at a distance. Homer mentions the Lycians in the Iliad. They were a heroic people that settled on this coast from Fethiye to Antalya and formed the Lycian League in the 7th century BC. They believed that when a person died, the soul was carried by a flying angel first to the sky and then to Hades. Thus, they placed the deceased in a sarcophagus on a high rock podium or in a tomb carved into rocks high on a mountain.

Nearby Kekova and it’s Sunken City was also a fascinating sight that we enjoyed. During an ancient earthquake, the island sunk a few meters and it is easy to see large sections of the city under the clear water. Houses, walls, stone staircases of various buildings sit in the turquoise waters as they have for eons.

We enjoyed Kaz too, especially the pretty yacht harbor and full moon. Some of the places we liked, we don’t even know the name or if they have one. There was one tiny place we docked that was charming from it’s spectacular views through olive trees and bougainvillea to its chickens and ducks wandering about.

We bought light handmade gauze scarves with shells tied to the edges from some sweet girls which came in very handy for the rest of the trip to enter mosques or just cover up in more conservative areas. Mozart picked a pink gauze poncho to go with her scarf from another woman and we ended up with endless “evil eyes” which are very popular here and in Greece to ward off negativity. People regularly pinned them on Mozart.

We liked a little alter in the middle of the sea. Ancient sailors and fisherman would use it to sacrifice an animal to Poseidon before they took off on a long voyage.

Surprisingly, as nice as it was, it was really good to get off of the boat from time to time and walk around. Four days seemed like the perfect amount of time for a trip like this and I am glad we did not do a longer one. The only way I would do a longer cruise, is if we had the boat all to ourselves. I have sailed in the Caribbean, California, New England, French Rivera and now the Turkish Mediterranean, but I am not really a sailor by nature. I love the advantages of sailing, but I am a short voyage person I think. Unlike the captain and Natalie, we would not want to spend our summer on the boat even though our four days were great.

That said, it sparked enough interest in us that we might look into learning more about sailing and possibly doing a bare boat sailing experience elsewhere on the trip like perhaps New Zealand. We might even do some sailing in Croatia if it works out easily, although we got quite spoiled by super cheap Turkish prices.  This experience certainly opened our eyes to new possibilities!