The past few days have been quite enjoyable... We traveled from Akyaka to Kaya (rock village) with our new friend, Tarkan. He and his girlfriend have a booth in Akyaka, where they sell homemade jewelry, as well as stuff from Nepal... his girlfriend, Saliyha, studied philosophy, so we talked with her and her friend Memet about being objectified by being in a photograph. Memet refused to be in a picture, which got the conversation started. Anyway...
Tarkan wanted to go to Ankara, but had some friends to visit in Kaya, which is an amazing place. It was a post-medieval Greek village, which was inhabited by Greeks until the Turks got kicked of Greece and the Greeks got kicked out of Turkey after WWI (I think). The Turks refused to move in to the houses, out of respect for the Greeks who lived there, and now it is a ghost town on a hill overlooking the small village. We stayed with Tarkan's friends, Tunji and his wife. They have an amazing third floor apartment with a huge kitchen, 2 BR and a large porch, which is like 200 Lira/mo (~$150) Tunji also studied philosophy, and we talked a little Wittgenstein. Last night, we hung out with Tarkan's friend, Meli, who actually occupies one of the rock houses (there are only one or two that are occupied). He is an air traffic controller, but he also sells homemade candles. He had lots of cool people over, and there were great kids, so we threw lots of paper airplanes around. Today, I hiked to Cold Water (sok su) bay, which is over the hill with the rock village, and down towards the water. It was a hard hike, because I foolishly wore my rope sandals. It was an amazing swim, though.
Speaking of the rope sandals: they are extremely popular in Turkey, except Will and I are the only people who have them. One night in Akyaka, we got asked about them by at least 10 different people: men, women, children, shop-owners... I gave out the website, which I hope is still valid. (www.nomadicstate.com) I have been toying with the idea of just staying here and importing sandals to the country. I'm sure I could live comfortably on the income.
So tonight we are in Oludeniz, which is only a few km from Rock Village, and is on the water. It means "dead sea" in Turkish, because even in insane storms, it remains calm. We are camping about 1/2 km from the city, which is very touristy and forgettable, but the area is absolutely incredible. this is the most touristy place we have been to yet, with the most foreign tourists (mostly Europeans, some Australians, no Americans). I am going to try to go to Butterfly Valley tommorow... until then...
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