Leevi & Sarahs Travel Blog

We just got back from our 4 day 3 night cruise from Fethiye to Olympos. What a great time we had cruising in a Gulet along Turkeys Mediterranean coastline.

The trip started with a 14 hour bus ride from Istanbul to Fethiye. Turkeys bus network is very good with lots of leg room between the chairs frequent stops for toilet breaks (every 2-3 hours) and tea, water and other snacks and refreshments served through out the night.

The first problem with our first bus was the fact there was about 10 young children on the bus and a couple of babies. When one cried they all cried. Most of the times I slept through the noise however Sarah woke up most times. I did wake up one time to the smell of roses which was a nice experience however Sarah later informed me that the smell of roses was to cover up the smell of a dirty nappy; not so pleasant.

The second issue we had was the percieved direct bus to Fethiye. It turned out that our direct bus was actually three buses, one coach and two minş buses. We changed twice and spent about three hours of our trip in an un-airconditioned mini bus.

When we finally got to Fethiye it was all worth it. The medium sized coastal town had a nice feel. Sarah and I took a taxi to the V-Go guest house where we where shown a pleasant and clean room with views of Fethiye Harbour and the many gulets that occupied it. We unpacked our bags, had a revitalising shower and headed into town.

A new towel, bıg aussie straw hat and a beer later we were running back up the hill to our guesthouse as the skies turned dark and the rain started to fall. Our sun drenched Mediterranean cruise was not off to a good start.

Later that night we headed upstairs to the covered roof terrace for a huge serving of fish and vegetables where we met Josh and Emma who we found out where also on our cruise. They are cool cats, both teachers, one dance one music; we hit off ımmediatley. The night progressed we met another member of our cruise and all retired ready for a day of sailing in the morning.

Day one

The shuttle picked us up in the morning and drove us to the travel agency. We met the rest of our party and where informed that we could not take any of our own alcohol on the cruise. This was not good for Charlıe who had already purchased a bottle of Vodka and a couple of bottles of juice. The quick thinker he is Charlie emptied a water bottle and filled it with his new magic water. Jack, Tom and Jane where a little more careful and just hide their booze, while I just smuggled a small bottle of Raki on board. As it turned out the alcphol on the gulet was not that expensive. 4 TLY for a beer and 5 TLY is ok when you can supply a little of your own magic water to supplıment.

A short walk along the harbour we spotted and boarded our Gulet met the captain, crew and the rest of the passangers and prepared for departure. Unfortunatley there was some kind of problem with the boat or sailing permissions and we were delayed for a couple of hours. The delay allowed Sarah and I to mingle with the rest of the passengers and as it turned out learn alto about the Canadian Hockey League.

The Gulet finally pulled out of the Harbour and our cruise begun.

The day was not particularly hot and the short cruise out of the harbour had all of us wondering what the weather would be like for the rest of our trip. As it turned out we had nothing to be worried about.

Our first major destination for the day one was butterfly valley.

Butterfly Valley (sea conditions permitting) is our next stop for a swim & to visit this natural reserve, hosting 136 kinds of different butterflies and moths. http://www.bluecruisesturkey.com/

In our trip to Butterfly Valley we saw three cows, four butterflies, a couple of hippies and after a short trek through the scrub a waterfall. Butterfly Valley reminded us all of The Beach with out the crazy lady, ganga and the guys with guns. Still it is a great place to stop for an hour or two and have a swim in the crystal clear waters.

We left Butterfly Valley and headed for Oludeniz (The Blue Lagoon) where Sarah and I had pre-booked a 40 minute paragliding session from Mount Babadag (2000 metres above sea level). A speed boat from the paragliding company met us in the harbour and took us to a paragliding jeep in which we drove 45 minutes up the mountain. During the drive Sarah started to show some nerves and I was starting to get quite excited.

Slowly the warm weather cooled and the tree and shrubbed lined hill side gave way to rocky cliffs. In the distance we could see some snow covered peaks, a stark contrast to the lagoon we where enjoying only 30 minutes ago. Eventually we made it to what we thought was the top only to be driven another couple of minutes higher due to weather conditions.

I was suited up first and given the very basic instructions of “When I say run, run and don’t stop running until I say so”. And that is exactly what I did. Before I knew it we where gliding effortlessly along the edge of the cliff and eventually out over the bay.

It was an amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone with a spare 150YTL (although I was told if you organise it on the day its only a 100 YTL) . As it turned out the rest of the passagengers on the boat only spent an hour in the bay and didn’t even get to swim so we definantley made the right choice.

Sarah eventually followed my path with a few extra “aerobatics” thrown in and we both landed safely on the beach. I wasn’t quite sure if I was taking photos of Sarah landing until I heard a couple of excitied screams just before touchdown.

The experience was slightly tarnished by the paragliding companies after sales service. We where forced to wait 1.5 hours before we where returned to our boat. During that time there was little in the way of information updates and considering we didn’t bring any warm clothing or money the time went by uncomfortably. After a 30 minute Dolomus ride from hell we could see our boat and finally boarded.

A couple of beers and a bottle of wine helped us both recover quite quickly. A night of playing cards (a##h#le) and magic water ensured we where up well into the night enjoying the great company of the rest of the passengers.

Its also worth mentioning that the food on the boat prepared by the crew was of top notch quality. Beautiful fresh ingredients and super salads accompanied by more bread than could be handled meant that all bellies where full and smiles where wide.

Day two and three

Day two and three of the cruise bougth more sun and swimming broken up with short trips to:

• Kas - Described as a charming fishing village but in reality is quite a lot larger than a village. Josh and I had a turkish shave here including the flaming cotton bud treatment
• Sunken City - First impressions lead you to believe that the site is over rated but with further inspection there is quite alot to see. You cannot swim or anchor near the ruins which is probably a good thing as tourists have a habit of taking souviners.
• Simena - Can only be apparently reached by boat. Dam hot and contained ancient ruins of a fortress and some interesting sarcophagi.
• Pirates Inn - Last night party at the Pirates Inn which involved a water pipe, glow sticks, multiple Jack Attacks and some crazy dancing by all.

Day four

Our cruise concluded with a final anchoring in Demre Harbour a spot of poor shopping amongst some dodgey locals and a bus trip to Olympos. Sarah, Emma, Josh and I left the group and headed to Anatlya on a Dolomus for our 13hr bus trip back to Istanbul which arrived the next morning.

Word of warning. After a 13 hour bus trip you can let your gard down considerably. We where greeted by a man at the bus station offering to get us a mini bus (you have heard it before I know). He grabbed our bags before we had a chance and after some bartering organised a dolomus for us back to our hostel for 10YTL. I gave the guy a 10er but something wasn’t quite right so I asked some other people about the dolomus service.

As it turned out the Dolomus was a free shuttle. I found the guy and in a very very p*ssed off mood demanded my 10YTL back. In the end I got 5 back and we headed back to the comforting Nobel Hostel.

Apart from a couple of downs life is good.

Check out the pics on Flickr 

Update: Added some of todays pics to the Bulgaria set on Flickr

Stay tuned for the Fethiye to Olmpos Cruise updates. I am about half way through organising the photos and writing the update.

Sarah and I hae just jumped off the night train from Istanbul to Prodiv, Bulgaria which was a fairly pleasant experience. We had to pay and extra 36 TRY for a sleeper carriage on top of our Interrail Ticket; money well spent. I slept about 60% of the trip while Sarah managed to sneak a little more.

From what we have seen Bulgaria is a beatuiful place. We are situated in the middle of the old city and can see a fair bit of the landscape from our hostel.

Only had one bad experience so far which was a combination of being cheated and a lack of preperation/understanding on my behalf. Our Taxi ride from the Train station should have cost 3LV (Bulgarian Curreny) however it seemed the guy had a dodgey metre so the fair ended up being 20LV. I though the price was in Euro so I paid 20 Euro.

1 Euro = 2 LV so the taxi driver made an extra 37LV on top of the 3LV taxi ride. Guess I should have been more careful although I have beaten Bob and Joannes icecream experience in St Nicholas.

Off to explore Bulgarias old city now. Hope everyone is having a great time on holidays!

Well the first part of our Istanbul adventure is over.

To recap some tidbits that may have been missed so far:

• We visited the Hagia Sofia and where not only blown away wıth its size but also the workmanship of te beautiful mosaics (most still hidden under plaster render) which lined the roof, arches and walls of the building. Watch out Mıchael, Helen will have you mosaicing the whole house after she vists the museum.
• We met Timmies doppleganger at a pub while watching the World Cup Final. We also didn’t appreciate the $10AU the bar was charging for the beers, although our recent aquaintance Paul found a way around that.
• We got the most impressive vıew of all of Turkey and the Golden Horn from Galata Tower
• I enjoyed a freshly grilled mackrel sandwhich with plenty of salt on the shores of the Bosphorous for 3TYL
• I also enjoyed my first can of Cola Turka

So now onto the more important details about the Turkısh Bath and our time at Nobel Hostel. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some pics from our ANZAC Day tour. There are still a few more to come but play is about to start in the world cup final. Pints of Efes Pilsner are calling…

So adding pics to our blog is not as easy as it was when we had the laptop on hand. I guess that means you are all spared the boring pics until we get home!

Caveat: These images where resized and rotated wıth MS Picture Manager hence the poor size and quality.