Fethiye

Fethiye is certainly a touristic destination. The city itself is not large, but it has easy access to the beach and to the many surrounding islands.

DAY 1: We went to the beach, watched the sunset and had dinner.

DAY 2: Breakfast from the roof of our hotel overlooking the harbour. Then, 12 Islands Boat Tour.

On the tour, one island was more beautiful than the other. My favourite however, was flat island, one that is typical of Fethiye and appears in 90% of the post cards. It was a stop for all boats so it was quite crowded. However, the benefit to this is that there were little shops set up. Some sold freshly boiled corn, others sold trinkets, and a few people had set up booths in typical middle-eastern fashion for shisha smoking. Of course we got a corner booth overlooking the crystal clear waters where we smoked apple flavoured tobacco, drank apple tea, and nearly fell asleep. It was a very memorable experience.

DAY 3: Day trip to Tloss (ancient city), another carpet place, an incredible hideaway and an enormous gorge.

The carpet place was similar to the first one near Efes. They showed us how the carpets are made, models of what they had, and then tried to seduce us into buying. What was very interesting is the selling technique they used. Although they were selling the same product, it was evident who was the stronger salesman.

Tloss is an ancient city with an estimated historical past dating back to 2 thousand years BC. Parts of the city date back to the Roman era while some are of the Lycian Culture and others of the Byzantians. The city itself is located on a cliff and the most unique part is the area of tombs and sarcophagi that are carved directly into the stone.

For lunch, we went to an incredible forest hideaway. With enormous trees and cold spring water flowing all around, it had a very relaxing atmosphere. In every direction, including high up in the trees, platforms had been built on which in a typical middle-eastern fashion, pillows and small tables were arranged. We decided to have our lunch high up in the canopy and afterwards, took a well deserved nap. Well, this nap was a little long, because when we woke up, our tour guide was desperately looking for us and the tour group had been sitting in the bus for a good half an hour. But, it was without a doubt one of the best naps I've ever taken.

We then went to a large cold water gorge that had liability written all over it. With very slippery rocks and water so cold that my legs went numb, I was certain that in NA (as in North America) this would not have been possible. It was beautiful very beautiful though; the water was a mirky white/light blue, the rocks were a light grey and the walls of the canyon rose to an enormous height.

DAY 4: Butterfly Valley Boat Tour

On our last day in Fethiye, we decided to take another boat tour, but this time to a different destination: Butterfly Valley. We left from a beach were dozens of paragliders flew above and landed. In the valley itself, we had to pay an additional entrance to visit a waterfall. We walked at least one kilometer there and all we found was a little river coming down over some rocks. My sandal also broke in the meantime so I had a hard time walking in the rocky terrain AND we didn't even see any butterflies. Lucky for the very blue waters and clear, sunny sky.