4Runner Roadtrip – Turkey Part 2

After leaving Fethiye we were headed to Kaş. Kaş is another costal town that we were quite looking forward to visiting. It had a reputation of being quiet and much smaller than Fethiye but with a good expat population, something we were interested in checking out as you never know where you might want to settle in for a few months.

On the road to Kas.

On the way we made a stopover at a ruin called Tlos. One of the challenges when road tripping around Turkey is the plethora of historical markers and ruins all competing for your attention.  As I have to remind Shani, you can’t see everything! Picking and choosing is always difficult, not to mention the fear of missing out.

From Wikipedia – “Tlos is believed to be one of the most important religious Lycian sites and settlement on the site is said to have begun more than 4,000 years ago. It is one of the oldest and largest settlements of Lycia (known as ‘Tlawa’ in Lycian inscriptions) and was subsequently inhabited by Romans, Byzantines and eventually Ottoman Turks, making it one of few Lycian cities to be continually inhabited up until the 19th century.”

After tromping around Tlos for a bit we continued on to Kaş. The weather was beautiful and the scenery along the coast was stunning. It was like driving the Turkey equivalent of State Route 1 along Big Sur in Northern California. In fact, the whole coastal drive was very reminiscent of the coast of California except for the fact that the Turkish drivers seem to have a knack for passing you disregarding the blind corners that none of us can see around.

This road sign means nothing here.

The town of Kaş is on a steep hill so choose your hotel wisely! The center of the town is pretty close to the harbor and along the water. We had a nice wander about but in the end, Kaş seems a bit too touristy for us.  Who knows, maybe living there it would feel different. The front desk guy at our hotel says that September is the best time to visit, so we might have to go back and see.

From Kaş we were off to a small town called Cirali. Cirali is also right on the water but it is quite a bit more rural and rustic. There is a very large beach and it was a lovely spot to just relax. We made a small tactical error and forgot our camp chairs – this isn’t a sandy beach but a rather rocky one!

Aside from the peaceful environment and lovely water, the other big draw to Cirali are the ruins of Olympus. From Wikipedia – “The exact date of the city’s foundation is unknown. A wall and an inscription on a sarcophagus have been dated to the end of the 4th century BC, so Olympus must have been founded at the latest in the Hellenistic period. The city presumably taking its name from nearby Mount Olympus (Turkish: Tahtalı Dağı, Timber Mountain), one of over twenty mountains with the name Olympus in the Classical world.”

We had a good wander around the Olympus ruins but certainly did not see it all. Like most of these open air museums, you are pretty free to explore almost everywhere with very little restrictions. It is always so interesting to me that I’m walking the same cobble stones and touching the same walls that someone else did thousands and thousands of years ago. As our sojourn along the coast continued, we headed to Side. At Side we decided to slow down a bit and re-organize our stuff a bit. We stayed there for 4 nights in a lovely apartment right next to a very good kebap shop. It was a good spot to get some laundry done and catch up on some chores. But never fear, it certainly wasn’t all work and no play! Antik Side is one of the best-known classical sites Turkey. (We did not know that so imagine our surprise.) Side was founded by Greek settlers. This most likely occurred in the 7th century BC. (Wikipedia) Our apartment was about a 30 minute walk from the ancient ruins and we were quite surprised at how vast the ruins are. Taking in all of the ruins can build a powerful hunger and we found an excellent restaurant with amazing views.  At this point in our journey, the 4Runner was due for a service. Our last oil change was right before we put her on the boat to Belgium. As the 4Runner model hasn’t been sold in Europe for quite some time and possibly never in Turkey I thought we might run into complications. But Toyota is such a ubiquitous brand that I figured the global supply chain was in our favor. I contacted the Toyota dealer in Alanya and we got all of the details worked out. They had to order our air filter and they were able to track down the only one in Turkey for us! They got the whole thing done in one day, gave us a detailed accounting of what was done and even gave us some travel recommendations for when we headed east. Alanya is a pretty tourist saturated town but we had a nice ocean view there and aside from risking your life to cross the road and get to the ocean boardwalk we enjoyed our brief stay.  With the 4Runner all tuned up and ready to go we continued along the stunning Aegean coast to our destination in a small town that is really a local tourist spot called Kızkalesi. Kızkalesi is named after the ancient castle built on a small island just facing the town. “According to the legend of Kızkalesi, a fortune teller informs the king that his beautiful daughter will be poisoned by a snake. He adds that even the king is unable to change her fate. Shocked by the fortune teller’s words, the king tries to save the princess by building a castle on an island where no snakes live. He sends his daughter to live in the castle. But a snake hides in a grape basket sent from the mainland and poisons the princess.” (Again Wikipedia)

Putting the sad story about the princess aside, it was a really quaint town with a stunning setting. It seemed like a very local place and not at all overdone.  We stayed at a little hotel called Rain Hotel and breakfast was at their sister restaurant on the boardwalk facing the ocean. (We also had our dinner there the night before.) The staff and owners were all very nice and accommodating and the breakfast spread was amazing. But alas, our time on the coast had finally come to an end. Stay tuned as we visit more historic ruins, drive through a ‘do not visit under any circumstances’ town and make our way east and north headed to Georgia.