Olimpos

This was my fourth time in Olimpos. The first two visits were great; the last one was rotten. It kind of turned me off of Australians for quite a time. But their number was diluted this time around. For some reason, tons of Turks have discovered the place. Yeah, imagine Turks taking vacations in their own country. Absurd! I stayed there three nights and managed to cobble together that wonderful Phaselis/Arykanda adventure in between beach days. But I didn´t really make the scene. Maybe it´s all the years of being in Belltown or something, but I really felt no need to connect with my fellow humans. That was fine, as I used all my non-beach, non-ruin time to convey my Ukrainian ordeal to you, my three readers. OK, if you´re reading this and still wondering what the hell this Olimpos place is, I´ll describe it like this: it´s a place in the middle of nowhere on the Lycian Peninsula between Kemer and Kumluca that stands near the ancient city. Since the entire place is built on an archeological site, people aren´t allowed to sink foundations, so inventıve purveyors of accommodation have built treehouses in their stead. The first two times, I stayed at Kadir´s. It was like high school. Then I switched to Bayram´s. That was more like college. And the partying was very serious, so serious in fact, that it was no fun at all. But this time around, it was much better. While recovering from my preliminary sunburns, I had a chance to explore the Olimpos ruins. They are as you see them: unexcavated and overgrown. Here are some pictures:





The town was around for more than 1500 years, but thanks to the silting of the harbor (something that happened all the time in the ancient world) and Arab raids, everybody left around 1000. True story: during my jaunt around the ruins, I was forced to scramble over the entire northern necropolis in order to get back to Bayram´s. I even had to do a fair amount of rock climbing. Normally heights are an obstacle, but I climbed so high that I could no longer see bottom, so it wasn´t a problem. So that´s how you solve acrophobia: keep climbing. By the way, have I mentioned what a vast improvement that Turkey is over Ukraine? The people are nicer, the roads are better and the sights are much more interesting. So yeah, Turkey´s way better.