Last Day in Kas

This morning, as I sit at my keyboard, listening to the 5:15am call to prayer waft across the canyon, I am thinking of our experience in Turkey. What a wonderful visit!

Our Turkey experience was much richer, fuller and more enjoyable that I ever expected. Istanbul is a fabulous city, full of style, culture and panache on the one hand and amazing sights and unique experiences on the other. The mosques, the palaces, the bazaars are all amazing and interesting to experience. There are more Greek ruins in Turkey than a person can absorb in just a month, all accompanied by famous myths and stories of dedication and loyalty, great beauties, fierce warriors, dramatic social upheavals, clever battle strategies. And the food--oooooh, the food is fabulous. People are friendly, pragmatic and moderate. We didn't run across one single experience where we felt uneasy or threatened.

Recommendations:

Don't miss Istanbul. There is so much to see and do there. We had two days, we needed at least four to see everything and do the things we wanted to do.
Cappedocia is another area that is so different and unusual and offers much to a tourist. Two or three days there would be good.
The two restaurants in the Kas area we can recommend are Kas'im in Kas and Degirmen in Islamlar. Ask for the special of the day or your host's suggestion. It is always wonderful. Restaurant food is reasonable.

Sunday Brunch at Degirmen Restaurant

We made a date with Tom and Val for brunch, so this morning they picked us up, all 5 of us crammed into one car which Tom backed all the way down our narrow gravel street, at least a block of backing, and off we went for today's adventure.

We drove up into the hills, through craggy rocks and past ancient farms nestled in green meadows and then up and up to the little village of Islamlar. There we parked the car and as we got out the restaurant owner waved and called hello to Tom and a welcome to all of us. Tom is very friendly and gregarious and seems to be on a first-name and back-slap basis with everyone in a 50 mile radius of Kas.

We walked along a path and over a little bridge where there were big pools teeming with trout. The stream rushes down the canyon, past the restaurant, and the pools are set off to the side of the stream. Then we went up some stairs to a rooftop dining area with a beautiful view down the canyon, all the way to the sea. The weather was warm and dining al fresco seemed just the thing to do.
Of course we didn't need to look at the menu, the host knew just what we wanted. It was the Turkish version of the "full English". First came our coffee and the big basket of bread along with butter, tahini spread, honey and jellies. Then there was a plate of cheese fried in olive oil and sprinkled with paprika. This may sound questionable, but take our word for it--it is delicious! Then came plate after plate of food--fried eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, green olives. We ate until we were stuffed, and then our host offered us seconds. Oooooh, so good, but no room in our tummies.

As we were making our way back to the car I bought 3 fresh trout, scooped right out of the stream, to cook for our dinner. Yum.

The route home was a pleasant and interesting ramble through the hills, canyons and meadows. We passed through quiet little villages where the buildings were in various states of disrepair. An ancient woman with 3 teeth, dressed in her traditional baggy pants of black with small printed flowers, stopped to chat with Tom as we were slowly moving our car through her herd of goats. Between the teeth, tongue and back country accent I am not sure how much of the chat was actually understood, but it was nice to meet another friendly Turk.

The Turkish people are very friendly and helpful. Out here in the country few speak any English, but in Kas, and most towns of any size, the shop clerks, ticket takers at points of interest, and many of the locals have some English. There seems to be no animosity towards Americans and usually when they find out we are American the first thing they say is, "Oh, Obama" and when we say we are from California they say, "Ahhh, Schwartzeneger". Everyone smiles at us and shakes our hand.

Our tummies were full the rest of the day, but we did have our fresh trout for dinner that night and it was very good.

Don's Pictures

Kas Friday Farmer Market

Friday is market day in Kas. So on the way to cooking class we stopped to check out the big flea market in the town parking lot. There were many stalls with colorful fresh fruits and vegetables. Other stalls had tools and books, rugs, copper pots and fresh flowers. We just had a short time there before class started, so I bought some fresh spinach and a few other vegetables. I asked for a half kilo, about a pound of spinach, but I guess he didn't understand, and I ended up with a full kilo, so we will be having spinach dishes for the rest of our stay.Don's Pictures

My Life in Ruins--Patara

My Gosh! Patara was the biggest treat and surprise yet. We went to this ruin on another excursion and I was amazed at the site. There were two groups of archeologists working at the site. This was a huge city, as big or bigger than Epheses.

There is a beautiful arch entryway where extensive excavations are underway. The road is dug up because the road was built right over the ruins. We took the detour around the excavation site and on into the extensive ancient city. I could not believe the huge artifact "cemetery" where thousands of pieces have been identified, numbered, catalogued and set out in orderly rows, awaiting reassembly by future archeologists.

We climbed up into the theater, and toured the government building, hiked to the top of the hill to look over on the ocean inlet and river. If this site is ever fully excavated and reassembled it will be another wonderful tourist attraction, as much as Epheses.

After we left the ruins we continued along the road to Patara Plaji (beach). This is a protected area where the turtles come from May to October to lay their eggs. Most of the shoreline here in Turkey is rocky and rough, but this is an 8 mile long white sandy beach.

Don's pictures

My life in Ruins--Letoon

According to legend,the goddess Leto fled here from Mount Olympos to protect her twin babies, Apollo and Artemis, from Zeus's jealous wife, Hera. Local shepherds tried to drive her away, but she was aided by friendly wolves, in whose honour she changed the name of the area to Lycia (after Lykos, Greek for wolf). She then turned the shepherds into frogs. Apollo and Artemis became the ruling deities of Lycia.

Here in Letoon there are three temples in various stages of reassembly. Replacement parts have been cast and are sitting there waiting for a block builder-puzzle assembler to rebuild the temples. The temples are surrounded by ponds and as we walked along the banks of the ponds hundreds of shepherds, the very shepherds that Leto turned into frogs, leapt off the bank and into the water. The males would then hang there, floating near the surface of the water, with brilliant chartreuse stripes gleaming in the sunshine.

The ponds also housed hundreds of turtles who were sunning themselves on the ancient ruins, which had toppled off their pediments and partially submerged in the ponds.

Don's Pictures

Kas'im Restaurant-Geralynn takes a cooking class

One day we were in Kas town and so we stopped again for a meal at Kasim, the best restaurant in Kas. We all ordered the special, which turned out to be fire-roasted meat in a sauce. Yum, yum, yum. They always bring us mezes (appetizers) when we sit down, and those are good too. When we were finished I took off to do some grocery shopping and left Don and Cheryl to get the bill. Well, stupid me! The owner brought complimentary warm bakalva with ice cream, so Don an Cheryl ATE ALL THREE dishes!!!! And then when we met up again they bragged about it!!! How cruel.

But also while they were greedily eating my portion of baklava they mentioned to Murat that I had gone off in search of some ingredients to make a Turkish meal. They told him that I like to cook and that I was going to attempt a Turkish recipe. Murat then mentioned that his restaurant sponsors cooking classes for the British women of the town. The classes are held every Saturday. So, even though I didn't get my baklava, I did get to go to the cooking class.
Chef Murat Usta and daughter

I arrived a bit early for the class and as Don and I waited on a nearby park bench I began to see women arrive and sit at one of the tables in the restarant. I went to join them and the ladies all welcomed me to their table. Our teacher at the class, Figen, soon arrived and set up her cooking area, passed out recipes and welcomed me too. She explained that there had been many previous classes that set the stage for this one and she tried to bring me up to speed with a quick recap. Many of the women in the class know little about cooking, so I felt that I could keep up without a problem.

Figen Kanik cooking class

Today we were doing salads, so Figen began with humus, then prepared a red cabbage and pasta salad, a curried potato salad and she finished up with an interesting fried sausage filled pastry. I copied down all of the recipes and took notes on the techniques she used. After the cooking we got to sit down and eat. Everything was delicious.

In the meanwhile Don and Cheryl went to explore the local Kas ruins. While sitting at the theater Don met a Canadian couple who were of Norwegian descent, and had a nice chat with them. Later, while Don and Cheryl were eating lunch and waiting for me to finish my class, the Canadians came by and Don encouraged them to have lunch at Kasim too. After the class I joined Don and Cheryl and they very graciously ordered another round of warm baklava with ice cream so I could enjoy the experience too. It was delicious.

Don's Pictures

Ucagiz-Simen

We read in a book that the town of Kekova is paradise, so we took a side road to check it out. It turns out that Kekova is on an island just off the coast of Turkey near the town of Ucagiz. When we got near the town we were told that the road was closed and we couldn't drive into the town, so we parked up the hill and walked down a few blocks. Everything seemed to be in order, so Don went back and drove the car closer to the village.

We strolled down the narrow roads of the village to the harbor. As we did our walk we were approached by several fellows who offered to take us out on their boat, for a price, of course, to see the sunken city. We passed on the boat ride because we felt totally ruined (as in we have now seen enough ruins to last us several years). The harbor is lovely and would be a great place to moor a boat. It is a sleepy, sunny, peaceful little village. The school kids played around the plaza and some of them actually marched down the pier and took a boat across to Kekova island, where, presumably, they live.

Don's Pictures