Furry Ölüdeniz

Kumluca to Fethiye

The beautiful turqouise ocean decorated the outside window of the minibus that we travelled on our way to Fethiye. It reminded me a little bit of Amalfi coast in Italy, although not as cliffy and packed. Once in a while we passed some beautiful beaches on the side of the coastal road, that I can imagine us camping if we were to go on a roadtrip.

Coastal road from Kumluca to Kas

Coastal road from Kumluca to Kas

At Kas bus station on our short break

Leaving the bus station in Kas

A glimpse of one of the beautiful beach on the coastal road on our way to Fethiye

Beautiful view from the bus

Another beautiful beach on the coastal road

On the high way coming in to Fethiye

We arrived in Fethiye just before sunset and got picked up by our lovely host, Linda, who has invited us to house and baby sit her little ones while she will be going to the UK. We got to her place in Oludeniz where mount Babada stands proudly in front of us. As we entered the front gate, we were greeted by 4 dogs -Bella, Alfi, Rose and Betty- and we then were introduced to the rest of the member of the family consisting of another 3 dogs -Harry, Blondie and Bentley-, and 31 cats (Must I announce all their names? Sure, why not.) -Roger, Macie, Simon, Prudence, Florence, Gracie, Jeanie, Toby, Lillie, Megan, Jeanie, Beatrice, Sean, Sidney, Poppy, Georgie, Rodney, Misha, Naomi, Timothy, Amber, Chloe, Oscar, Felix, Robert, Molly, Annie, Penny, Brian and Peter-. Everyone, accept Simon (the 'don't like strangers' cat, although now we are both in love with each other) and Bentley (who's not fond of strangers either, especially male), were excited to meet us, I was extremely excited myself. It's really nice to -again- be surrounded by the little furry ones. 

This is Betty (in the front), Alfi (middle) and Bella (with Mats)

This is Macie

From left to right, this is Toby, Timothy, Naomi, Felix and Oscar

While Roger (in the middle) was sleeping on my lap, Simon (the on in the front) came to join him and Prudence just had to come along to join the crowd as well.

Oludeniz itself is not what I expected it to be. If it were to be left alone, it might have be an absolutely beautiful place, but the beauty of the surrounding, unfortunately, has been taken advantage of by the locals. Therefore almost all the beaches available are not free and all prices for everything here are quite expensive, even more than Greece (which so far we have found to be the most expensive place we've been).

View of Ölüdeniz beach at the stop on the top of the road

At one of the beaches in Ölüdeniz

Beautiful stone wall in Ölüdeniz

Closer view of Ölüdeniz from one of the cliffy road

Spectacular view of the beaches in Ölüdeniz

This road reminds me of the road in Atlas Mountain, Morocco

Beautiful stone wall in Ölüdeniz

After house sitting for a few weeks here, we have been invited to stay for as long as we like, so we are taking this oppotunity to manifest our time to waterfast for 40 days (for Mats), as for me to manifest the lifestyle that I have been dreaming of for months now, which is to become a breatharian. We also take opportunity to grow some herbs. 

The first week of our little babies growing

A new member of the family came in to join us (Alistair). Betty who's so kindhearted, allowed Alistair to sleep with her one night. It was so cute when we found them together. Bella's fast asleep in the background.

Our little babies growing nicely after 3 weeks.

A nice little sunset just outside the balcony of our room

That's our update so far from during our stay in Turkey this May. Until next month.

Much love from Ölüdeniz <3

Serenity on top of the Mountain

Kumluca

Our stay at the small village around Mavikent had been a rather interesting experience. I decided to deactivate myself with the social media and had more time for myself.

The first week of our stay, we spent a lot of time with our host (a family of four and Cilek (which means Strawberry) the dog) and were served Turkish tea and delicious homemade desserts in their living room while watching episodes of Survivor. It was really funny how they were really in to this show and looking at how long the commercial takes (which is half an hour), I suppose so many people in Turkey are big fans of this show.

Anyway, I don't have much to say, but here are pictures that Mats and I have been taking during our stay in the village.

On our first week at the village, Firat and his partner came to visit and we tagged along to Karaoz Beach 

Taking advantage of the beautiful view of Karaoz Beach on the way back

In the middle of making a torus with the Flower of Life

Finally, we can enjoy the water without freezing

Fruit and Veg we picked from the neighbor's green house

In the greenhouse

Taking Cilek for a walk to a nice beach on the west side of the village and saw this beautiful plant with amazing looking flowers

Firat and his friends came over again the next week

Firat, me and Mats enjoying the cool water

Sebastian from Germany came to live at the BnB we were staying in and spent some time with us on the beach. This beach has a really beautiful large rock, it was perfect for rock climbing practice.

Beautiful calm beach

Walking back with Cilek after sunset. It was quite a walk as the warm wind was blowing. It felt like the Saharan Desert wind.

Firat came for another visit with his mates and we tagged along to the same beach with the beautiful massive rock

Mats, Firat, Tunc and Daniel

Me, Mats and Firat

Last day in the village and we took the chance to take Cilek for a walk

Mats planting some seeds with Cilek by his side

Well, that is all from me for last month's travel journal. More coming up from Fethiye, as we have been invited to house sit and take care of some dogs and cats there. Looking forward to it! :-)

1ove <3

Farewell Europe.. East we go!

Athens - Chios Island - Denizli - Side - Kumluca

Deciding where to go next was a little bit of a dilemma. Crete? Turkey? Ikaria? So many places we want to go to, but where is it that we are suppose to go?

So we just let the universe decide for us and Turkey it was. 

We left Athens after dark and spent the night in the ferry where we made a little room underneath the stairwell. We arrived in Chios Island early in the morning and decided to spend the night and rent a car to cruise around the south side of the island. We discovered fields of red tulips that were blooming only for 2 weeks every year. We gathered some mastic gums from mastic trees that grows everywhere by the side of the road. We also discovered some interesting medieval towns that was decorated with flower of life patterns. 

Chios town from the harbour

Going through the narrow roads on Chios Island

Beautiful red tulips welcoming us in Chios Island

Spending some time with some goats on the side of the beach

Mats collecting stones by the refreshing looking water. 

Beautiful flower of life based pattern on the buildings in a medieval village called Pyrgi

In the middle of the square of Pyrgi

On the road along the south west coast Chios Island

Coastal road Chios Island

Parking the car beside a monastery facing Turkey. That is where we are going next.

We got on our ferry that took an hour to cross to Cesme, Turkey. Then we continued on our journey to Izmir, where we were planning to spend a week but instead we were taken to Denizli where Pamukkale is and spent the week there. We were glad. Thank you Universe. :-) 

Downtown Izmir, Turkey

Looking up the mountain where the castle is. We noticed the amount of flags everywhere.

During our stay in Denizli, we tried to think back and forth if it was worth going to Hierapolis, Pamukkale and pay 10euro. Finally our dilemma was answered as we were shown a way to enter Hierapolis by climbing one of the fences. So off we went!

The bus took us to Karahayit, where the northern gate of Hierapolis is located

We have to walk along side the mountain to enter Hierapolis from the side

Our walk passing through fields and mountains

Lovely walk on our way to sneak in Hierapolis

Mats exploring the tombs

As we entered from the pine forest, this is what we were brought to

Half circle seating in Hierapolis

Hierapolis, meaning the Holy City (thanks Kostas)

And ancient pool with constant flowing of hot water spring that is medicinal

Ancient ruins inside the pool. When bathing in the water, it helps cure rheumatic, asthma, skin disease, etc and when drunk it can help cure kidney stones, stomach problems, etc. 

A large amphitheater in Hierapolis

Walking down towards Pamukkale village through the calcium build up from the hot water spring

We had to walk barefoot and the ground was quite chilly, but there was hot water flowing so we can soak our feet before continuing walking again

Picture taken during sunset. The calcium build up looks like vanilla icing on a chocolate cake. Mmmhmmm!

Mission accomplished! It was time to go. Side was our next destination.

An island in Antalya on our way to Side

Our journey from Denizli to Side was passing majestic mountains

Stopped by these men who were checking each passengers

Getting a glimpse of a Ukraine dance practice from the apartment we were staying at in Side

Ruins by the side of the beach

An ancient theatre by the side of the beach

Apollo Temple by the side of the beach

During our stay in Side, we received a confirmation to pet and house sit in Fethiye at the end of April, so we looked for a nice place to stay for a month and chose a little village up the mountain near Kumluca. We ended up at a cute little place with spectacular views and incredibly friendly neighbours who happily shared their fruit and vegetables with us. We found ourselves to be living in a such loving community.

A stroll around the village on the mountain where we are living in

Found some interesting looking plants

A little forest we walked through

While walking on the side of the road, we met our cute friends, George and Cindy who are also travelling with their homes on their back

See if you can spot George and Cindy here.. It's like 'where's wally?'

Here we are, with a spectacular view right in front of the balcony

It is so nice to be home in Kumluca to have a relaxing serenity time breathing in fresh air every single moment with only birds, dogs, cats, cows and chicken that we hear mostly each day, o and the prayer calls. Until next month. :-) 

Sending my love to you from Turkey.

1ove <3