The Simple Life

"I came.  I saw.  I stayed and stayed and stayed and stayed."

I saw this saying painted on a treehouse when we first arrived at Kadir's Tree House in Olympos, Turkey.  We got there on a Saturday intending on staying a couple of nights.  By the time we left Olympos I had no idea what day it was or how long we had been there.  

In the emerging spring the only things to do in Olympos are: 

- Go exploring (hiking around).

- Take a walk on the beach.

- Read.

- Sit by the river.

- Lose track of time with coffee and friends.

- Play a borrowed guitar.

- Have a bonfire.  Everynight.  

Hmmm....If you know me (this is Steph writing)- then you know that I pretty much just described my paradise.

Some highlights would be:

*For less than $10 a day each we got a private room, private bath, breakfast, AND buffet style dinner!  (Low season price)

*The eternal flames of Chimaera.  Chimaera is a place where mulitple fires are coming out of a side of a mountain.  These flames have been mentioned since the 4th century BC.  For a long time scientists could not explain it, but I guess now it's explained by methane gas coming from the earth.  7 of us took a night hike to Chimaera (about 10km round trip--IF you don't get lost.....hehe).  

*At the bonfire one night all the following countries were represented:  US, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, Turkey, and Poland.

We eventually made ourselves leave Olympos.  I think we were there 7 days.  I still don't know, actually...  We wanted to stay down south (north=cold) and had heard Fethiye was cool.  It's about 4 hours west of Olympos, also on the Mediterranean coast and decided to hitchhike our way there. Shawn didn't even have his hand all the way out yet, when a phenomenon we call "Hurricane Mary" screeched to a halt.  

Hurricane Mary comes flying out of her car, already talking.  She takes our bags, throws them in the trunk, throws all her stuff in the trunk, and before we're even in her car she tells us we can stay at her place that night.  She doesn't even know where we're headed yet because she hasn't stopped talking.  She just starts driving.   We learn that Hurricane Mary is an old hippy from Oregon and has been living in Kos, Turkey for the past two years selling organic towels.  Even though Mary was expecting one couch surfer, her friend from London, and another friend from some village she insisted we join the party.  The only other person that showed up was her friend from London, late.  We stayed one night and left early the next morning.  Hurricane Mary's talking did not stop the entire time we were with her, only slowed...

We have made it to Fethiye, where there are actually computers.  The weather is rainy so we're just hanging out.  I think we'll probably leave tomorrow and make our way to Bodrum.  From Bodrum we can catch a $50 flight to Istanbul which is not much more expensive than the 12 hour bus ride.  Two hours after we land, we'll be on our flight to Kathmandu, Nepal.  

Turkey has been great, but we're definitely ready to move on to Nepal. 

Thanks for following!