Kadir’s Treehouse!
Lonely planet describes Olympos Turkey as a one time hippie hotspot, or something like that, so naturally we wanted to check the place out. We caught the midnight bus from Marmaris to the nearest major city, Antalya, and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the bus service. Free coffee and tea throughout the 7 hour trip as well as a snack time! Olympos is nicely located in a deep valley that meets with the Mediterranean making it tough to get to as well as subject to landslides. Two years ago they had a massive one that wiped out the entire town, so we prayed for sunshine. The first bus from Antalya to Olympos drops you off at the roadside restaurant and you catch the mini bus down to the town from there. We had expected this arrangement but did not anticipate the level of accuracy and punctuality of the buses. Before we knew it, we were cruising the town for accommodation. The first place we stopped at was at the recommendation of a nice Aussie girl we met in Marmaris. It was located close to the beach and provided breakfast and lunch (free!) However, it was going to cost us a few more Lira than we intended to spend. We had a quick look at the guide book and made the hike to Kadirâ.
Vegemite House!
The town of Olympos has enough hostels to accommodate a ton of people; in fact the entire town’s commerce is tourism. What makes this place unique is the style of accommodation, Treehouses! Kadirâ’s happened to be the first to do this and we felt it was fitting, after all the copycats, that we picked the original.
Plus it was super hippie with paintings all over the tree houses that the people have done!
Apparently a year or 2 ago, half of the tree houses were wiped out and all these Aussies and Kiwis came to help rebuild and decorate everything…so there is Aussie stuff EVERYWHERE and i was really excited when i saw the vegemite house!! There were cushions everywhere to lay around on and a volleyball court, chickens running around everywhere… and just tons of cool stuff~!
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the tree houses and made our way to the beach, where you actually have to pay to get into – 3 lira for a day pass, or 5 for a week! We went for the week of course, but I’m always upset when you have to pay for beach entry. The reason why though, is that there are tons of ruins along the way, which turned out to be really really cool. They were deep in the forest and really fun to explore.
Ruins in the jungle!
Awesome ancient trees
When we finally got to the water, it was such a beautiful sight, with mountains surrounding us, and crystal clear blue water right in front of us! The water felt soooo nice too, especially because it was pretty deathly hot in Olympos, being on the southern coast! So every day Brad and I would wake, eat our traditionally Turkish breakfast, which seems to be Tomatoes, Cucumbers and this white cheese, olives (which Brad and I opted out of) and bread, with Jam and honey! And then we would get fresh omelets made by this guy who has perfected the art of flipping and making fast omelets! He also took a liking to Brad because on the first day, Brad said hello to him, and that his omelets are delicious, and from then on, Brad got a double sized omelet!! Then we would head to the beach and just swim in the water for a couple hours. We wouldn’t even sunbathe because it was too hot AND we didn’t want to dirty our freshly washed bath towels!
Beautiful backdrop1
Ice cream in a melon!
Then we would just hang out with the staff in the outdoor cafe/bar upstairs and watch the world cup! The dinner was this massive buffet, and we would walk down the line while these ladies put spoonfuls of food onto our plate, and by the time we reached the end, there was a mountain of food – half of it unknown to me as to what I was eating, but ALL of it delicious!!
Our Vegetarian dinner!
It was such a relaxing time, and it really was sad to leave! There are paintings all over the place that say “We came, we saw, we stayed, and stayed and stayed and stayed” and it’s true. It is hard to leave because it is super relaxed, you get fed an amazing amount of delicious food, and you have this beautiful beach with water so clear it looks like the bottom is only 5 feet under you, when really its 30 feet! (Brad and I took turns trying to touch the bottom because it looked SO close, but we could NOT get it!!) Finally though, we did catch a night bus out of there to Istanbul, although admittedly only after considering staying just ONE more night! Lucky Brad was there to talk me out of it, or I probably would have ended up staying and working there all summer! (The staff gets fed lunch TOO, and gets free beers at night!)
These paintings are awesome