We docked at Fethiye and drove up into the hills to Kayakoy, a village on a hillside that had been the home of a Greek community for hundreds of years. In the 1920's, the people were given one day to pack their things and leave. The place has been abandoned since that day - it is a village of ghosts.
Back in Fethiye, we had some free time to shop. This is always a dangerous thing.
At the grand bazaar in istanbul, I was captivated by a small shop that sold old ottoman maps and
miniatures. I left and retained twice but, in the end, decided not to buy the amazing world map that caught my eye, which had been gradually reduced to its final price of $325.
Well, in a great little shop in Fethiye, I saw another map, not quite as wonderful as the one in istanbul, but the starting price was $250. My main hesitation was carrying it for the next week. While karen bargained hard on a piece of metalwork, I stared at the map.
The price was down to $160 when we decided to walk away. The shopkeeper was desperate for us to keep bargaining, but we just couldn't commit.
We walked around more - there were many stores selling truly gorgeous things. It was time to rejoin the group. We again found ourselves walking by the earlier place. The proprietor saw us and welcomed us back with a hearty greeting.
Our time was short. We went back and forth. Karen did buy her piece at her asking price and, to my amazement, we bought the map for $135. At the last moment, he begged us to make it $140 but we held firm.
As he carefully wrapped it up in layers of cardboard, bubble-wrap and tape, I fished thru my wallet. I came up with $120 and a 20 lira note. He did some mental math and said '5 lira more'. I handed it to him and he smiled, said '137?', and we shook hands.
Our last night on the gulet was noisy, as we were moored in the marina, on a busy street. Neither of us slept very well. After breakfast, we left the boat and headed off in a van, for a long day of tourism.
We followed Alexander's route thru ancient Lycia. The way was obvious.
We stopped briefly at Xanthos - a haunted place with a remarkable history (look it up). More ghosts, from long, long ago.
More driving - stops at Kekova for a boatride along the shore of a sunken city of 1500 years ago. We docked at Simena, to climb to the top of the castle, for great views of the mountains, bay, islands and huge, stark, mysterious lycian tombs. A great stop, but we were hot, tired and hungry, with MANY kilometers yet to go.
We drove to Demre for lunch and a chance to take photos of the many likenesses of Santa Clause, exactly as he appears in every Christmas ad. St. Nicholas was bishop here. We visited the 3rd century basilica, which was pretty neat, then drove a short distance to the site of Myra, a truly ancient place with multiple layers: 2500 year old lycian rock-cut tombs in the cliffs, the massive Roman theater, with the view from the top taking in the local mosque's minarets, and the view below taking in the modern Turks, trying to sell the German, French, Russian and American tourists effigies of a fat gent with a white beard and a red suit.
It was overwhelming.
Now thoroughly burned out, we returned to the bus for the 2+ hour drive to Antalya, still following alexander's route. I am writing all this on the bumpy ride, on my handheld. With any luck, i'll be able to post this to the blog later.
It's been a long day.
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