Enough about the buses, the resort area of Olympos is sort of an alternative beach resort, most “hotels” you stay in there are what they call tree houses. I however was highly disappointed to find out that I would not be staying in a tree house, ala Swiss family Robinson, only a shack on stilts, and a very hot one at that. There is not actually a whole lot to do once you get there. There is a beach that is very rocky and not comfortable and to get there you have to pay a toll since you walk through some old ruins. Most people just lie around and read, play backgammon or talk.(Michelle) The ferry ride from Greece to Turkey was an organizational nightmare. It is a popular day trip for tourists from Rhodes to go to Marmaris, since it is only an hour ferry ride, so there were loads of people trying to get on this ferry. There were no marked signs as to which line you wait to check into if you already have tickets (which we did) and also there were also different lines if you were going round trip or one way (I of course unknowingly waited in the round trip line first). The tour group operators also added to the confusion by trying to butt in each of their tour groups ahead of other people patiently waiting. Needless to say, the ferry left like an hour and a half later than scheduled. The buses in the direction of Olympos leave every hour or so, and we just missed one, so we are now about 2 hours behind schedule. Because of this and the other things TJ described about the actual bus ride, we arrived to the Olympos area after dark. I was somewhat concerned because the main bus drops you off on the side of the highway (there isn’t actually a town there or anything) and I wasn’t certain there would still be a separate mini-bus down to the actual Olympos area since it was so late. Fortunately there was still one left.
Even after all that, I will say that the last couple hours of the bus trip to Olympos along the southern coast of Turkey was a very scenic route. Mountains, ocean cliffs, random weird greenhouses that we didn’t understand, mosques, forests… It is really not a bad little bus ride. The part of the coast that we were driving along juts out and in so much that it created like 40 little alcoves with mini beaches. You would see like 2 or 3 cars parked on the side of the road above and then 5-10 people at each little alcove beach.
After checking in, we immediately looked for food. We were supposed to get free dinner at the treehouse place, but we got there so late, we didn’t think they would let us, so we instead walked down to the only street vendor we saw on the way in. We don’t speak Turkish, so TJ tried to use the international language of pointing to the exact sandwich he wanted. We aren’t sure why, but there was still a question from the vendor that we didn’t understand and he would not let it go, whatever it was. While he was trying to repeatedly ask us, he managed to drop the sandwich on the ground. We still did not know what the issue was, so TJ tried to ask him again for the sandwich by pointing to a different one. The man then tried to hand him the one from the ground. TJ obviously didn’t want the one from the ground. The vendor looked upset with us and we couldn’t figure out what we had done wrong, so we just had to walk away.
At about 10pm, still antsy from sitting on the bus all day, we went for a walk to check out the beach (you don’t have to pay the toll if you go at night). It is about a 20 minute walk from where all the tree houses are, but it is through all these ruins and it is a really dark and some what tricky path, especially since the batteries on both of our little flashlights were dying. So it was kind of a creepy walk. Since there were little cliffs behind the rocky beach, there are no hotels or restaurants or anything on the beach, so at night there are people just sitting out there with guitars and or little radios just hanging out in the total darkness. If we would have had a guitar (and knew how to play it) or a radio and some beach chairs, I could have hung out there for a long time.
I was playing with the camera on the beach: it was too dark to take any pictures of the beach or water or anything, so I pointed the camera to the sky. I took a shot right when TJ said he saw a shooting star. I doubt that is what I got on this picture, but you be the judge!
Even after all that, I will say that the last couple hours of the bus trip to Olympos along the southern coast of Turkey was a very scenic route. Mountains, ocean cliffs, random weird greenhouses that we didn’t understand, mosques, forests… It is really not a bad little bus ride. The part of the coast that we were driving along juts out and in so much that it created like 40 little alcoves with mini beaches. You would see like 2 or 3 cars parked on the side of the road above and then 5-10 people at each little alcove beach.After checking in, we immediately looked for food. We were supposed to get free dinner at the treehouse place, but we got there so late, we didn’t think they would let us, so we instead walked down to the only street vendor we saw on the way in. We don’t speak Turkish, so TJ tried to use the international language of pointing to the exact sandwich he wanted. We aren’t sure why, but there was still a question from the vendor that we didn’t understand and he would not let it go, whatever it was. While he was trying to repeatedly ask us, he managed to drop the sandwich on the ground. We still did not know what the issue was, so TJ tried to ask him again for the sandwich by pointing to a different one. The man then tried to hand him the one from the ground. TJ obviously didn’t want the one from the ground. The vendor looked upset with us and we couldn’t figure out what we had done wrong, so we just had to walk away.
At about 10pm, still antsy from sitting on the bus all day, we went for a walk to check out the beach (you don’t have to pay the toll if you go at night). It is about a 20 minute walk from where all the tree houses are, but it is through all these ruins and it is a really dark and some what tricky path, especially since the batteries on both of our little flashlights were dying. So it was kind of a creepy walk. Since there were little cliffs behind the rocky beach, there are no hotels or restaurants or anything on the beach, so at night there are people just sitting out there with guitars and or little radios just hanging out in the total darkness. If we would have had a guitar (and knew how to play it) or a radio and some beach chairs, I could have hung out there for a long time.
I was playing with the camera on the beach: it was too dark to take any pictures of the beach or water or anything, so I pointed the camera to the sky. I took a shot right when TJ said he saw a shooting star. I doubt that is what I got on this picture, but you be the judge! (TJ) It’s a nice area, but if we went to the same area again with more money, I think that we would hop on one of the famous “Blue Cruises” where it takes three days to get from Marmaris to Olympos, but you stop in some nice towns to swim, eat and drink along the route.
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