Termossos Adventure

After the terribly LONG and bumpy bus ride, we arrived at the Antalya bus station around 7AM. We didn't know what we were going to do but we unloaded and as I sat by our bags in a daze, Mike wandered around seeing if he could, in fact, find a bus to Termossos, an ancient city I has read about. I chatted with a man about Antalya and what it had to offer but we were thinking of putting our bags in storage for a few hours (they charged us double as foreigners...sneaky), going up to Termossos, coming back down and going on to Olympos. This is was we did. We ended running after the dolmus as it was leaving which is always a way to wake you up a bit. We made sure to grab a water but let's remember that the last food we had was dinner the night before. Here we go! There was a very nice man cramped next to us who told us he would tell us where our stop was. Which he did, smiling. Very nice people. The dolmus let us out at the entrance of Gullek Mountains National Park. We had gone from being on the sea to the mountains in 15 minutes. It really felt like Colorado (not that I've been) or Yosemitiesh (not that I've been there either) okay maybe like the Gila National Forest in New Mexico...but taller Mountains. Get the idea. Smell of pine was immense and reminded me of a walk I took with Kathy Ward in Washington once. We had read that there are taxis that go up but they charge you over the roof and because it wasn't busy season and we were there before the park even opened, we knew they would charge. There was one ranger that came out to take our park entrance and we began the 9km walk up to the city. It was lovely. Breezy. Pine in the Dry Air. Low Sun. Perfect really. I wish I had taken more pictures of the walk up but we were conserving our photocard for the city. After about an hour or so or walking (still a ways to go) we heard a car coming so we stuck out our thumbs. It sounded like a lawnmower coming our way and sure it enough, well it wasn't a lawnmower, but a pretty beat up car, with the same ranger from the bottom driving. He stopped and we asked if he'd take us the rest of the way and he shook his head. Not much talking occurred. I practiced my few words of Turkish. He laughed but probably was somewhat bummed that he was taking us up for free when ususally the tourists pay him for a lift. Oh well, he offered and I was glad because the road got steeper and seemed to go on forever.

At the carpark, there was a bus of school kids. It seems they had camped there over night and tried to tell us which way to go but there was lots of laughing and pointing. I just felt like they were setting us up but we headed in that direction. After a pretty steep 30 minutes walk on a winding path, through the trees, with the breeze, we saw our first sign of the city. The outer wall. These are the walls (and the cliffs) that kept ole' Alexander the Great from the City. It's said to be the only city he didn't take...that he wanted to. Here is some more info on the city if you are interested...Mom, will no doubt read it...she probably knows all this already anyway.

It has been described at the Machu Picchu of Turkey. It's history does commence in 333BC when Alexander the Great surrounded the city but decided to move along...just couldn't be bothered I guess. It's historical account is referenced from this point on.

It has to be one of the most brilliant of all sites because of the way it's situated. We took our time wandering around the agora, by the cisterns, the temples, sarcophagi, and the the theatre without a single other soul. Just us on that bright, hot, dry May day in Turkey.

After the wandering, and after our water supply was depleting, we headed back down. We lucked out because there really wasn't anyone going down at that point, some tours were just arriving so we began the 9km walk down. We played a movie guessing game for a while and even whistled some tunes to pass the time. But the walk was beautiful although the sun was hot but I had my turban to protect me. We got picked up in the last km of the walk but gladly took it. A frech couple dropped us at the bottom of the hill where we waited only 10 minutes for a Dolmus heading back into town. It's very easy travel in Turkey. Reliable from what we found. Funnily enough that same couple was staying in Olympus which is where we were headed and we saw them the next day there on the way to the beach. So go ahead a look at the rest of Termossos "our favorite find in Turkey".