Our beloved : 1) Pale Blue Dot and 2) Turk Santa Clause ( Saint Nicholas)

2013-09-20

Guninadin ( good morning):
We swam for the last time in the wine dark Aegean in the cove near the town of Fethiya.  It was a full moon night and as you see from the picture, the morning was glorious too. Unfortunately, full moon brought at least ten other boats full of day trippers ( Europeans and Turks alike) with loud music, dance and party. It was funny to watch them come and go as we sat there quietly and enjoyed our last night.

Morning

In the morning we said good bye to the awesome caption Asim and his crew.  A magic bus appeared just in time to drive us further south east.  Our destination was the resort city of Antalya.  It is magical how things are going so smoothly on this trip.  A lot has to be said for OAT and for our leader Behlul and of course for the country Turkey.

We drove along the Mediterranean for a total of 150 miles. Two things worth mentioning about the drive:

1) It felt like we were driving on highway 1 back in California. Same blue ocean and same beautiful winding roads, cliffs and pine trees.

Turkey or California?

2) Taurus mountains covered with Pine Trees reminded us of our drives in the Sierras.   Mother nature is equally beautiful in all the countries and our planet is really a very small blue planet. (if I had 100,000 to spare I would love to go to space to see the pale blue dot…hint for a birthday gift :) )

 

Taurus Mountains



Turkey or Sierras?

The drive brought us to the ancient city of Myra, where there is a Roman Theatre from 400AD and the Tombs of Lycians from 200BC.  These tombs are carved in the hills above the theatre, and  reminded me of the tombs and temples in Petra, Jordan. Civilizations have been travelling all over the globe for thousands of years.



Lycian tombs



Masks at the Roman Theater



Myra Roman Theater



The highlight of the trip to Myra was the visit to the church of Saint Nicholas.  Yes, Santa Clause was not only a Turk, but he also lived and preached in this town and is buried in the church!  It was also interesting to see many orthodox Russians (young and old, short skirts and long dresses) were there to just touch his tomb and to worship…it was a very serious business. This brought on the lunch conversation about the religions and marriages and one of our tour mates blurted out that her daughter was married in a zoo :)

 



Russian Devotees



St. Nicholas and the Evil Eye

I will stop on this note, it is 11 pm, I am in Antalya in the lobby of this amazing hotel with an interesting name , “Pudding”. Will talk about this more tomorrow..



Antalya