Antayla Boat Trip & Kursunlu Waterfalls

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It was fantastic to arrive in Antayla and meet up with our good friends Andy, Nicole and Nikolas Limmer. Our Home Exchange looks out on a river leading to the ocean where we can see people fishing and of course some local cats and ducks to keep us entertained. Our complex also had a very large swimming pool which we all enjoyed cooling off in.

Our first day began with a personal tour of Antayla Old Town. Nicole and Andy know lots of great little spots and treated us to a boat ride in the harbour. After our trip we walked up some 2000 year old steps. Antayla was the port where the Apostle Paul came and preached the gospel, it is believed he preached on the very stairs that we walked up. We ate a yummy Turkish lunch and tasted Ayran, a sour milk/yoghurt drink that is salty.

With the extremely hot weather we once again found ourselves drawn to the beaches and some waterfalls. We found Kursunlu Waterfalls, a lovely walk and scenery not far from the city. The waterfall wasn't flowing with as much water as usual because we were there in the height of the summer heat, but it was still fun being able to walk behind the waterfall. It was a lovely afternoon exploring the different tracks, waterfalls and ponds. It was neat to see turtles swimming in some of the ponds.  

Pamukkale - Cotton Castle

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Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish is an amazing natural wonder. The city has hot springs and travertines with terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. People have bathed at Pamukkale for thousands of years.

Although a popular tourist site, it was well worth the trip on our way to Antayla. We parked at the bottom and made our way up the hill enjoying the smooth rock under our feet (no shoes allowed). The water flowing from the top is quite warm and cools slightly by the time it reaches the bottom. It wasn't long before Leo and Corban ended up having a soak.

We were surprised how big the site was and how many pools there were, some were only for looking at while others were for swimming in. It was amazing that the surrounding countryside was just regular hills and farmland.

A truly magnificent place!
 

Milli Park, Zeus Cave and Halicilk Kursu Rug Shop/School

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Over the next couple of days we found some truly hidden gems.

Unfortunately our photos of Zeus cave didn't turn out that great. If the flash was on you couldn't see how blue the water was and if the flash was off, everyone was blurry. Zeus cave was great, just a short walk in +40 degrees to find yourself in a nice cool cave with freezing water. Leo and Taylor couldn't bear to get in. So it was just Allan, Corban and I who dared to swim in the freezing water!

After our dip we headed to Milli Park nature reserve. This was certainly the most beautiful water and spectacular swimming so far in our holiday. Because we were swimming and snorkeling, we left the camera in the car so there are not many photos.  Allan even found a cave that he swam into and could poke his head up and breathe. Milli Park is also full of walking trails, we walked along the bottom of a canyon. All the girls felt hot and tired, but Allan and Leo were keen to go further! Before leaving Milli Park we decided to stop for one more sunset swim before heading back to our Pension. Our final swim was well worth it, we came across a family of wild boar eating people's picnics!

The owner of the Pension was such a great guy. We wanted to buy some souvenirs, so in true Turkish style he insisted that his brother in law come and pick us up and that we buy something from his shop. He also arranged for us to visit a Turkish rug shop/school, which was absolutely spectacular! We were given a demonstration of how the silk for the rugs is made, how the wool and silk is coloured, saw women weaving and given lessons on how to distinguish the quality of a rug and what area of Turkey a rug is made by the pattern. After we had learnt everything there was to know about Turkish rugs we were provided with apple tea and had about 40 rugs rolled out for us to examine, we were even quizzed! As much as we would have like to purchase one, we left empty handed but certainly know where we will purchase one from if we are ever in the market for a Turkish rug.

You'll also see some photos of chickens on a roof of a little shack type house. This is the closest shop to our Pension! We cherished each little unique place and the lovely hearts of every person who was so kind and open towards us. Turkish people make you feel like family. We loved all the stray animals and our Pension where we looked a St John's hill each evening at dinner. It was cool watching bats fly around during our meals and we were even entertained one night by a fabulous thunder storm. However after 8 days of exploring and beaches it was time to move on. Our next stop was Antayla.

Sirince, Mary and Ladies Beach

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It didn't take long for us to begin loving Turkey and the Turkish people. Everywhere we go people make a fuss of the little kids, woman will come out of their houses and offer them turkish delight and other sweets. Everyone is very friendly and helpful with a relaxed way of living. 

Among the many things that we did was a visit to The House of the Virgin Mary. It is believed that Mary lived in Ephesus until she died. In the 18th century a nun by the name of Anna Katherina Emmerich had such a vivid vision with detailed description of the characteristics of the city of Ephesus and the place where Mary lived, that several years later an expedition began. The expedition uncovered the site that she had described even through she had never visited the area. Alongside this there are scriptural references in the Bible and written recordings from Ephesus of Mary. It was very 'touristy' but still a great place to visit. Some people paid a lot a money to purchase a small flask and fill it with the holy water from the natural springs (looked more like tap water to us). There was also a prayer wall covered in the prayers of pilgrims who have traveled to the site.

About 15km from Ephesus along a winding mountainous road we found a small Italian wine village with streets filled with handmade crafts and market stalls. There was heaps of colourful pottery, felt crafts, rugs and lamps. Everything is bright and colourful and everyone wanting to sell us something. 

Ladies beach is a very popular beach, you can see from the photos that there almost isn't room to even find a spot to sit. There are many Muslim woman who wear full bathing clothes, I tried to get a photo without being rude. Everyday was packed with new sights, sounds, smells and people. As you can see after traveling for 6 weeks Leos gets a little tired every now and then, nothing like a quick nap before dinner. 

Ephesus and St Johns

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Our start in Ephesus was a little slow, I was sick on the first day. While I stayed in our cute little pension Allan took the kids to the local markets and spent the day swimming in the pool.

The first thing we noticed about Turkey were all the stray animals. On our first morning we were all delighted to find goats eating out of the rubbish bin across the road. There were chickens and turkeys everywhere. In Turkey people don't really own pets, they literally just live in the streets so there are cats and dogs everywhere. The day we visited Ephesus Corban counted over 50 stray cats, there were definitely no double ups. Much to the delight of Corban and Leo during our stay we also saw plenty of donkeys and horses just walking around the streets.

We followed this up the next day with a relaxing day at a private beach that our host drove us to. Everyone was in for a shock at the lack of rules and regulations we are used to. The Czech Republic is far more relaxed with rules than New Zealand, but as far as cars and road rules in Turkey, pretty much anything goes. Our little taxi van didn't have enough seats, no problem our host grabbed a seat from inside for someone to sit on.

Unfortunately Taylor was sick on Day 3, it was her turn to stay in bed. We visited the ancient ruins of Ephesus (Taylor went the next day). There are many biblical sites in Ephesus and it is also famous for the temple of Artemis. Ephesus was one of the seven churches in Asia that are cited in the book of revelations. It also has the ruins of the first church that was dedicated to Mary, as this was the city where Mary lived after the crucifixion.

Taylor was feeling up to visiting the Basilica St John after lunch, so we all headed up the hill above our pension for a look around. The hill where the Basilica of St John is located is home to two mosques and two churches, so this was also our first visit to a mosque.

The site of the Basilica of St John's is huge and used to be in the shape of a cross with six domes. If it were still standing it would be one of the largest churches in the world. It is believed that John wrote 4 books of the bible here, and also looked after Mary.

Throughout different periods of time the Basilica has been used as both a Christian church and also a Muslim mosque. It was used up until the 14th century when it was destroyed by an earthquake.

Ferry to Turkey

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We were very excited about the next phase of our summer as we began the journey to Turkey. Another early morning to catch a ferry from Athens to the Greek island of Chios. The ferry trip was 9 hours of heat, cigarette smoke, dogs barking and board games! It was certainly not the lovely, entertaining and enjoyable type of ferry we experienced last summer on our Baltic's tour. 

On our arrival at Chios, we found the next ferry terminal that would take us to Cesme Turkey. First we en-counted a small problem with our passports because the border security did not stamp our passports when we arrived in Greece.  Thankfully we looked honest and they let us through as our entry point being Macedonia. 

They let us board the little, old ferry that only took 10 cars to Turkey. We were all laughing hoping that we would make it alive. It was only a 50 minute trip to Turkey and we meet another family who were moving to Turkey from Sweden. They had a problem that all of their documents and money had been stolen, we also had a problem because our car isn't officially in our name so we all bonded very quickly knowing it might be interesting once we reached Cesme. 

As predicted everyone else went through the Turkish customs relatively quickly. As for us and them we needed lots of patients, stamps, checks and waiting. Eventually after 2 hours of paper work, our car was let in to Turkey. The other family were still waiting when we left. 

But we did get to see a lovely sunset from the port and arrived at our pension only a couple of hours late, around 10pm. A very long boring day, but we were all excited to be in Turkey! 

Athens Museums and Changing of the Guards

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Visiting Athens wouldn't be complete without visiting the Athens Museums. We knew it was going to be hot, so we started early!

Arriving at the Acropolis at 8.30am before it was scorching hot and the crowds not so big was a great plan. The site is extensive and was the main sacred and religious site in Ancient Athens. It was occupied since the Neolithic period, but had the height of its power in the 5th century. We spent several hours wondering around the various buildings, northern and southern slopes of the Acropolis and the Oden of Herodes.

By mid morning we were ready to tackle Hadrians Library and Ancient Agora. We literally took 100's of photos of the different statues, buildings and columns. Everywhere we looked there was something else to explore.

After a stop for lunch we headed to the Temple of Zeus, followed by a visit to the ancient pottery and cemetery city of Kerameikos.

It was heading towards the late afternoon, everyone was exhausted but we didn't want to come back into the city again. So after refueling with an ice cream we began to make our way to the parliament building for the changing of the guards. Our walk was very eye opening, we followed the gps through some not so tourist areas and saw shops filled to the roof with junk. These shop keepers sold their items on the sidewalks. There were also many homeless people.

Changing of the guards in Athens is pretty funny. The soldiers uniform has funny pom poms on their feet and they actually do this hilarious little march, step, point their toes routine. We decided it was to stop the enemy from attacking because they looked so silly.

We finished our day at 5.30pm. If you can imagine that at 8.30am it was already 36 degrees and quickly rose to 42 degrees. So after 9 hours of heat and walking we were all ready to go home, have a cold shower, eat dinner and go to bed!

Athens is a truly amazing place!

     

Rafina Beach, Alimo Beach and Lykavittos Hill - Aegean Sea

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Because the weather was so hot and the city so crowded we decided to spend a couple of days exploring some different beaches and little coastal areas. 

We drove to Marathon where the battle of Marathon took place and enjoyed spending time there and at Rafina Beach. 

The next day we went to the other side of Athens, a more popular and busy place and enjoyed swimming and playing at Alimo Beach.

 On the way to Alimo we stopped at Lykavitto Hill, a big hill in the center of Athens with a small white chapel at the top. The 360° view showed us how huge Athens is. It was a beautiful day and you can literally see all the way to the ocean from every angle. 

Athens, Greece

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We knew Athens was big, but we didn't realise how big! The population is slightly over 3 million and is a sprawling city of narrow streets and back to back buildings. Thankfully the main historic sights are all located in the Old Athens area and our home exchange was a short bus ride and metro trip not far from everything we wanted to see. 

We began our visit with a walking tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed learning about Ancient Greece, visiting many historical sites and listening to the many legends of the Greek Gods. The Olympic stadium  above is made completely of marble. The weather continued to be stifling hot and we drank almost 10 liters of water between all of us! 

One of the things most noticeable is the change in culture. People are so friendly, the store vendors and people in the street love chatting and playing with Corban and Leo. When we walked through the markets the butchers would steal Leo's hat and play with him in a cheeky way.  There were plenty of Albania's who kept trying to talk to Corban because she was wearing an Albanian hat. When we explained that we were on holiday, they were so happy that we had visited Albania and wanted to hug her. 

Macedonia

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Macedonia is a lovely little country, we spent two nights in the capital Skopje. Filip's dad lives here so we also had an evening catching up with them and he took Taylor out for one of the days.

The central city of Skopje is under reconstruction as part of their bid to become part of the EU. There are many statues, water fountains, bridges and fancy things being built.  They clearly have a vision and the city is very pretty. Macedonia is the birth place of Mother Teresa, so we visited the Mother Teresa memorial house and read the little gold plaques that we scattered throughout the city with her quotes.

Only a short walk out of the city is the Old Town markets nestles below the old fort.  We wondered through the cute little market streets looking at the rugs and hand made leather crafts, of course stopping for an ice cream because it was so hot.

Another must do in Macedonia was the Millennium Cross.  It is the largest cross in the world, it was erected in 2000 as a celebration of 2000 years of Christianity. Pretty impressive for a predominantly Muslim country. We took a gondola ride to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the view, play park and watched a thunder storm rolling in over the mountains.

Once again we we surprised by the surrounding countryside and little farms.  There were lots of horses and carts, children herding goats, little road stalls with fruit and vegetables or as you will see in one photo a guy literally walking his cow up the state highway.  Although new highways and bridges are being built, many people appear to do what they have always done e.g. we saw a number of people happily walk across the 3 lane state highway and climb the barrier in the middle rather than walking to an over bridge a few hundred meters up the road. We also saw little children maybe 8 or 9 years old driving tractors to the petrol station to fill up.

What would make headlines in a New Zealand newspaper is everyday life here. Unfortunately not long after leaving Macedonia we learned that they have closed their borders to refugees. There are many people mounting up at the borders. Police and military have lined the border and even used tear gas where families are desperate to get help. Europe is in crisis, and from what we have seen are not dealing with it very well.    

Quick Stop In Albania

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Albania was only a one night stop and quite a journey, it took us over 4 hours to drive 200kms. It is clear that we are no longer in the EU as the roads are very narrow , there is rubbish everywhere and the life style looks  very different.  

There were many abandoned or incomplete buildings in Croatia and Montenegro but Albania is full of desolate half finished buildings, we decided for every completed house or industrial building there were at least 5 or 6 abandoned ones. We also literally saw thousands of houses half finished with people living in them, it was very interesting.

The countryside is full of small farms with little stalls selling food or homemade goods on the side of the highway.  There was large construction of a new highway taking place, it was heart breaking as we could see that many of the little villages would be completely by passed and imagine that when it opens many families will lose their income.

We saw heaps of goats, donkeys, horses and cart and people generally living a much more simple life than what we are used to.  The food we are eating seems to be changing again as well.  Everything is severed with large chunks of goats cheese and bread, regardless if it is breakfast, lunch or dinner.  

Only a short stay, but we were glad that we were convinced to come this way. 

Budva, Tivat and Kotor Bay

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While staying in Montenegro we also visited and explored some small towns like Budva and Tivat not far from where we were staying. There was also a ferry across the bay to another town which was a nice day trip.

Life here is very family orientated and relaxed.  Allan needed to be very careful driving as children are everywhere and just walk across the road at any time.  We loved our stay and enjoyed the friendly locals.

There was a heat wave while we were staying, with the coolest temperature at 36° and the hottest days at about 41°.  

We were lucky enough to see beautiful sun sets each evening and would sit on our deck and watch bats catching insects around the lampposts at night. 

The Beautiful Bay Of Kotor, Montenegro

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Kotor is a remote coastal town situated in a large bay; our neighbour explained that it is actually a fiord. Italian is spoken in Monenegro, however we also find many people speaking Croatian. There is no or limited internet access in the towns and no mobile phone coverage, so we truly had some down time.

The township of Kotor is also surrounded by a fortified wall with cute streets and markets.  There is a fort at the top of the cliffs above the city (not quite double the height of the Mount).  Corban and Leo did really well walking to the top, climbing the slippery stone steps in the hot temperature of about 36°.  We stopped in the shade every so often for a drink of water.

We don’t plan on having any hospital visits this summer, but Corban did develop an abscess on her gum.  Thankfully we drove past an open dental clinic and managed to make her an appointment; the dentist even spoke some English.  Much to her delight the best way to fix the abscess was to extract her front tooth.  She is very pleased to finally have a missing tooth; it’s likely she’ll have a gap for quite some time as her adult teeth are not ready to come down yet.  

Life in Montenegro is very relaxed and the more east we come the less modern conveniences seem available.  Most noticeable are western fast food chains like McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks etc they are simply not here. Even the supermarkets are smaller with less available, buying food from market stalls and side road vendors seem more normal.

We enjoyed our stay in Kotor. Swimming everyday at the beach was wonderful, even swimming some mornings early before breakfast. It was neat seeing Corban get more confident at snorkelling and finding treasure, getting excited about the fish and crabs she found. Leo also became more water confident, always wanting us to watch him go under the water and swim with flippers. Taylor collected mussels and Allan become so tan, that Leo said he “wasn’t from our family”. 

Road Trip To Montenegro Via Split and Dubrovnik

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We hit the road nice and early for our drive from Zadar to Kotor, Montenegro so that we could stop along the way.

Our first stop was in Split, Croatia.  Split is a wonderful city spread along the Adriatic Coast with the old fortified wall still standing.  We weaved our way through the streets and alley ways enjoying the old buildings, cathedrals and market stalls.  Leo and I especially liked the fish market, looking at all the unusual fish and trying to decide if some on them were snakes. We dropped Filip off here to catch a plane back to Prague.

We passed lots of wonderful scenery.  In the photo of the blue border crossing was the Bosnia border control.  We only had a 20 minute drive through this part which was luscious and cultivated with lots of fruit and vegetable orchards.

Next was Dubrovink, another amazing city that has a very distinctive Old Town with massive stone walls that encircle the city with a castle down on the waters edge.  We’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but this is where much of the filming is done (we even saw the ‘throne’).

Our GSP also took us along some very narrow coastal roads once we arrived in Montenegro.  We had to find our way back to the main road, so we could reach our Airbnb apartment which is along a very narrow, scary road that takes some driving still!  

Kornati National Park

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Croatia is famous for its beautiful islands and coastline so we did a boat trip to the Kornati National Park.

It was a 2 hour ride out to Lojena Island where we swam and snorkelled in the warm clear water.  There were lots of fish, kina and orange sea coral. The rocks were scattered with interesting things to look at. The water was so clear it was like swimming in a pool.

From here we went to Tureta.  Here there is a small chapel built in the 6^th century and some ruins at the top of a rocky hill which only Leo and I dared to climb in the heat.  We had some pictures at the top before heading back down where I fell down on the rocks and injuring almost every part of myself other than my face and the camera (good save)!

Lunch was in a 1000 year old fisherman’s village.  We were served a Croatian meal with a whole fish, pork and a pickled cabbage salad. We met a couple from South Africa who Corban and Leo befriended their daughter.  We enjoyed a short walk and another swim before the boat trip home.