Olympos - The Land of Hippies and Treehouses

The Olympos Beach

From Urgup we caught the night bus to Antalya.  I had been dreading this leg of the trip, but there was no way around it.  It was a 10 hour bus ride and we had to change buses along the way.  The bus left at 8:00 pm and we switched buses in Nevsheir around 9:00 pm.  We were both a little relieved when we got on the bus and found that it was significantly more comfortable than most buses we've been on over here.  Yet it wasn't an easy night's sleep by any means as the seats only slightly reclined and the bus stopped hourly (Or what seemed like hourly) along the way.  We had been planning on spending a night and day in Antalya, but somewhere in the wee hours of the morning Kati and I decided to skip Antalya and just keep going to Olympos.  We arrived at the Antalya Otogar (Bus station) around 6:10 am and quickly switched to a mini-bus that would take us to Olympos...or the side of the highway near Olympos.  At around 9:00 we got dropped off at a seemingly random cafe/shop on the highway to wait for a different mini-bus to drive us the last 9 km down to Olympos.  After a quick pancake with potato and cheese, our bus showed up and took us down to our lodging.  After over 13 hours and four buses, we finally made it to Olympos.

Olympos is a very interesting place.  It was never on my radar until a girl I went to law school with, who lived in Turkey for a while, told me that it was her favorite place in the country.  It's about as far off the beaten path as possible.  In the 1980s a local opened a place with treehouses and the hippies have flocked here ever since.  I'll talk about the place we're staying in a different post.

Me at the Eternal Flames

Olympos was a very important city in Lycia, the ancient name for this area.  There are tons of Roman ruins scattered around the area that you have to walk through to reach the beach--which conveniently lets them charge you for access to the beach under "historic" pretenses.  The beach is fantastic.  It's not overly crowded, the water feels amazing, and the backdrop of the mountains and ancient ruins is absolutely breathtaking!  The only problem is that it's still a pebble beach, but that hasn't stopped us from thoroughly enjoying ourselves and relaxing.  Being here is almost like a vacation within a vacation.

Additionally, the nearby Mt. Olympos is renowned for its eternal flames--literally, flames rise from the side of the mountain without any discernable source and cannot be extinguished.  They say that the flames on Mt. Olympos likely gave rise to the myth about Prometheus giving fire to man that we all know so well.  The eternal flames were incredible!  Seriously one of the craziest things I've seen around here.  After a 20 minute walk up to the top of the mountain, we caught a glimpse of the flames.  They seriously just rise out of the rocks themselves, from nothing.  While we were walking around, the dark coupled with my lack of glasses got to me and I took a really nasty spill into a hole with flames.  While I did survive, I've got a pretty bad gash on my right elbow.  Nothing to be too concerned about though, it's merely a flesh wound.