Fethiye

Here’s my last post about my holiday, and it takes place in another country! One of the excursions offered by Olympic holidays was a day trip to Fethiye, a city in the south-west of Turkey. I’d been to Turkey once before (to Kalkan) and really loved it so was excited to explore a new area even if only for a day. In the morning we joined a tour group and we were first taken to the ancient Lycian tombs, cut directly into the rock-face above the city. The Lycian people wanted the dead to stay a part of the community with the living, and believed that from these elevated tombs in the mountainside the dead souls would be able to look across the village and assist the living.

We also stopped at the deserted town of Kayakoy. The town was formerly occupied by Greeks until a population exchange agreement was signed between Turkey and Greece in 1923. Consequently the entire village (about 2000 people) were forced to abadon their homes and relocate to Greece. Today the town is ruins with nearly all buildings missing windows, doors and roofs where they have been looted for money. The layout of the houses reminded me a little of the village I grew up in and I imagined children playing in the pathways between houses until the evening. How awful aand sad to then suddenly being forced to a different country where you had no money or connection. It was incredibly eerie and haunting and I can’t say I’ve been anywhere that managed to conjure up such a feeling of sadness and desolation (despite having visited places such as Ground Zero, the site of 9/11, and the graves at Normandy).

Kayakoy today has a little settlement for tourists which is where we met the camels, below including the baby one in the middle (note the size difference) who was particularly enamoured with me, and vice versa. This blog is fast becoming a collection of me standing around with various animals; let’s hope that’s an accurate reflection of my life! In the afternoon we journeyed to a local market; I was in awe of the amazing food and came away with several bags of nuts and spices. We also discovered the adorable animal bags, stalls of beautiful lace, gorgeous painted glass lanterns and acres of fake designer bags. If only they had been fake leather I might have been tempted for a Chanel shoulder bag or a Mulberry Alexa!

I had such a wonderful holiday, thank you to Philly for being such an awesome travel partner, Jane Cotton for her help with booking and organising and Sharon and everybody at Olympic Holidays.