East meets West

Going from Croatia to Turkey doesn't make a lot of sense geographically but they are definitely two countries too good to miss. We've been in Turkey for 10 days now and every place we visit is so different from the places before.

We started in Istanbul for culture and history. I was woefully ignorant about Turkish history, except insofar as Constantinople features in the Crusades. Going to the Topkapi Palace, the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque in two days crammed my brain chock full of the history of Turkey. Really interesting stuff and so different than what I've learned about before.

From Istanbul we went to Cappadocia which is central/western Turkey in the middle of the country. It's a region where old volcanic activity and erosion have created bizarre and wonderful rock formations. In Roman/Byzantine times, Christian monks decided it would be a great place for schools so they built lots of churches and monastaries in these naturally occurring caves. In one place, there is an entire 8 level underground city that was used for hiding in times of war. Probably the highlight of this part of the trip was the hot air balloon ride we did. You get up at 5am and go up at sunrise, floating over these canyons and cliffs. It's a popular thing too so the sky is filled with balloons. Surreal and magical.

Now we are in Olimpos, on the Mediterranean coast, which is basically paradise on earth. We're staying at Bayram's Treehouses and all we do all day is sit around, read, eat, drink and go to the beach. It's hot, humid, tropical and carefree. The only 'activity' we did was last night to go see the Chimera Flames which are rock fires in a cliff not far from Olimpos. They're caused by burning gas escaping from the rocks. The legend is that the spot is where Bellephontes killed the Chimera, which is trapped underground but still flaming.

I could say so much more and hopefully soon I will, but today is our last day in Olimpos and I have to go chill out some more!