Oludeniz lagoon // Fethiye
Today we went to the famous Ölüdeniz lagoon, which according to all the guidebooks and travel websites, is a beautiful place to see. We were markedly underwhelmed. It’s a murky pond lagoon that had me concerned for our health after swimming in it, with private beach clubs vying for your money. We spent only about 20 minute here, 10 of which were spent showering off the questionable water.
We slept in a little later today because we were so tired from the hiking yesterday I think. We went for a morning swim and then ate a nice breakfast before our plans for the day got derailed…
So, remember how I mentioned yesterday that this village we are staying in is pretty rural? Well, we woke up this morning without water or electricity. Typically the water is solar heated (meaning cold showers before 12pm). This is our second time without power since we arrived but the lack of water was far more concerning.
One of the few things we did not do on our last trip that Onur really wanted to do was go on a boat tour. We finally made that happen and I’m so glad we did, it has been my favorite part of the trip so far!
Sunrise // Cirali, Turkey
We started the day around 5:30am (still feeling a little jet-lagged) to get photos and swim right at sunrise. It was a long day, doing most all of the sights in and around Antalya. It was fun but exhausting. Lots of pictures below..
Yesterday we were up early to fly to Antalya, where we rented a car and drove to Çıralı, a place well off the beaten path in the jungle. We found this place on our last trip and it is completely perfect. There are no real hotels here, just cabins, pansiyons, and tents for rent. I am pretty sure no bus could navigate these roads, which is great because it keeps the numbers of tourists down.
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Süleymaniye Camii // Istanbul
Today’s word of the day was jet lag. Onur and I went to bed around 10:30pm local time and were wide awake at 2:30am and unable to sleep again, so we worked on email and a coding project until breakfast was served at 7am. The hotel serves a very nice kahvaltı (breakfast) which helped fuel our whirlwind day of sightseeing (Mom posted about breakfast and sightseeing here). We were so efficient in our route planning and time management that we saw all the sights in less than 12 hours, so I’m glad we decided to spend only one full day here. Read the rest of this entry »
Our flight was smooth an we landed in Istanbul about 5:30pm local time. The first thing I noticed upon exiting customs was bullet holes in pillars and signs in the airport lobby, left over from the June terrorist attack here in June 2016.
It has been a long time coming, but we will finally be boarding an airplane back to Turkey in just three short days. Onur and I have been looking forward to this trip for two years, essentially since we boarded the return flight home in 2014 after our last trip. You can read all the posts about our last trip here.
The big difference is that this time the world is a lot more scary.
