passion for culture

In the yard of the Pension, in Cirali-Olympos, I am having my tea, looking at the cloudy sky and the green weird mountain behind all the pensions.
Olympos is a very small city near Antalya in Turkey. In order to run away from the madding crowd of tourists in Antalya, I took a Dolmus-the Turkish term for minibus- to here.
The mysterious atmosphere of an ancient place, with its strange name that bring Greece into any mind I even have not been into town yet, as I directly came to the Cirali area with the minibus, found this nice pension and didn't get a chance to walk into town yet.The area is like a huge garden of fruit trees and on the other side of the only narrow road existed, is the clean beach. It is said that sea Turtles come here to lay eggs in August; therefore, I have not got the chance to see them now, in June. At the both ends of the road, I saw these ancient Greek ruins, one is called Chimera or I would like to say the eternal fire, which adds more to the mystic atmosphere of the area. The fire is just simply because of the methane gas. And people go there by night to barbeque their local sausages (sojuk) as snacks. I walked the entire road at night which is around 4 km, though I was told to bring torch with me, I didn't pay attention to this note and I had some problems coming down the mountain. The rest of my days of staying here so far ,been spent by going to the beach, therefore I got badly sunburnt. The other end of the road there are some ruins that is said to be a part of the lycian way in Turkey. I preferred to visit this very early in the morning, avoiding the crowds of tourists taking photos with tomb stones!It was pretty amazing the morning silence of the antique area in the morning sunlight in the cozy jungle. Though the whole ruins have not been taking good care of, but still it worth being seen. I finished my visit there before 9 in the morning and walking in the beach I came back to the pension, where a gourmet breakfast was waiting for me. I enjoyed my "Menemen"-Turkish term for Omelet with pepper-in the nice garden being accompanied with the mama cat with three newborn kittens, waiting for some food under my table.
I left Cirali after two days. I hiked a car to Kas and found a nice Pension.The dorm room is on the Terrace in the 5th floor with the view of the sea and Greek islands all around it. Sitting on the terrace, feeling the relaxing breeze and the smell of homemade food comes out of the kitchen.