Unforgettable journey
To begin with, my wife and I are against continuous lying on the beach during our holidays, so we choose places where there are few vacationers and many attractions. Turkey is the perfect place. The means of transportation is a personal car Mazda 6. So, the fourth trip to Turkey, the place of rest is the village of Cirali. We book a room at Cesur Pensiyon, open a Bulgarian visa and set off on the 1st of August. The first night in Romania before Constanta, in the morning - in St. Vlas to Velichko Boshev (Janet Hotel), where we have been staying for the fourth year in a row, with whom we have made friends and do not even want to look for another place in Bulgaria. Two nights in St. Vlas and on August 4 at 5 am we start to Turkey. The road to the Turkish border near Malko Tarnovo was almost completely repaired - at 8-30 we leave Bulgaria, at 9-15, after going through all the procedures at the checkpoint (visas are not needed), we drive along the familiar road to Canakkale, planning to drive as far as possible and spend the night. On the ferry from Eceabat for 26 lira, we cross the Dardanelles and stop near the Helen Hotel to greet the general manager Ali Aldemir, who has been very cordially greeted us for the previous two years, and go to the cafe opposite, where tea of an unforgettable taste is prepared. We drive further towards Izmir, we pass the place where the Dardanelles Strait connects with the Aegean Sea - a magnificent view, then - a turn to Troy, to the islands of Bozhchaada and Gokceada, which we visited in 2010 - an extinct volcano, lakes, olive orchards, vineyards, the purest deserted beaches, there are hotels and boarding houses. Then the road went into the mountains, the speed dropped - for about an hour we drive at a speed of 40-60 km / h, a lot of cars, especially trucks, we stop near the roadside market on both sides of the road and suddenly a view opens up from a height of about 300m to Ayvalik, the sea and in the distance to the Greek island of Lesvos, we take a dozen photos, buy olives, olives, grapes and go. At 16-00 hours, we are in g. Ayvalik - we drove 600 km, we decide to spend the night here - without any problems - right by the road on the shore of the Sozer Motel bay, - shower, rest, beach, in the evening on the shore of the bay dinner in a full program restaurant - 70 lire for two, night and after an excellent buffet at 9-00 - on the way to Pamukkale - it was decided in advance. We drove Izmir, Aydin, Nazilli and in Denizli turned to Pamukkale - 17 km, stopped at Alida Hotel - the room is small, but everything else compensates - the pool, friendly hosts, a view of the travertines and the price is 30 euros. At 16 o'clock we went up to the top by car, then on foot - Cleopatra's pool, the ruins of Hierapolis and, of course, splashing in warm mineral water on travertines. At 21-00 in complete darkness we find the car and the hotel. Dinner for two for 30 liras could not be completely overcome, we don’t want to leave, but tomorrow we will start our holiday in Cirali. In the morning, after a hearty breakfast, we say goodbye to the hosts, give them dishes with EURO 2012 symbols, bought before leaving at the Epicenter, forcefully push my wife into the car, who does not want to leave. On the way out of the city, we buy several onyx products and - to Antalya. The road is excellent, as elsewhere in Turkey, we are not far away, so we don’t drive fast, turn our heads left and right, take pictures, shoot videos. We stopped in Antalya to drink coffee, see the city a little - it didn’t work out - we didn’t find espresso anywhere, overboard +42, didn’t like it - further to Kemer, Tekirova and Cirali past the bizarre mountains, Mount Tahtali (Olympos), to which the cable car leads the road is about 4600m long, the second in the world. , after Tekirova we turn left and down the serpentine about 7 km with a height difference of about 350 m - we are in Cirali. This is an amazing place on Earth - a small village with one-two-story houses for vacationers, located in a valley surrounded by mountains, one of which is called Chimera - Yaanartash (Burning Mountain), from which mixtures of gases come out and ignite spontaneously for many thousands of years. It is better to watch this miracle in the evening - it is not so hot and the fire is perceived differently than during the day. The road up is difficult, but it is and should always remain so - to make this place civilized is a crime, as, indeed, everything in Cirali - uniqueness in primeval. One and a half kilometers to the south are the remains of the ancient city of Olympos - a former pirate fortress and about 3 BC. e. became part of the Lycian state. A special mention of the beach - is under the protection of the state and UNESCO - the place where the eggs of the turtle "caretta caretta" are laid. In July-August, the turtles hatch, and specialists follow this process very strictly, keep records and help the turtles to be born. This happens before dawn - a newborn the size of a matchbox on sand and pebbles stubbornly strives for the sea, where adult turtles with a diameter of a meter and a half await him - they can be seen both from the shore and from the boat. Looking at this, my heart skips a beat - so touching. The beach itself is almost deserted, there are trestle beds and umbrellas (free of charge), mostly sand, pebbles closer to the sea, the width of the beach is about 60m, the length is 2km, to the nearest hotels 200 meters. During the day, the air temperature rose to 40 °, sitting in a room is stupid, it is impossible to go to the beach - only an excursion! We are going to Demre - a city where St. Nicholas of Patara, aka Nicholas the Wonderworker, aka Ded Moroz, aka Santa Claus, served in the local church. We buy an icon as a keepsake, go to Myra, the ancient capital of Lycia, see the Lycian tombs, the theater, the remains of ancient buildings and back to Cirali. On the way, the beach in Finike, about 5 km long, caught my eye, neat hotels and pensions, endless greenhouses on the slopes of the mountains - it is from these parts (from Kumludzhi to Fethiye) that vegetables and fruits are brought to us. The road along the sea is very winding, but the quality is good, you can go up to 90 km / h, if you do not catch up with some slug. Five days later, we again visited these places, but already on a sightseeing boat - to the island of Kekova and back to Demre, from where to Cirali by minibus. Recommend!! ! The next day, we decided to still visit Antalya, see the city, compare the conditions of rest with ours (Antalya, as they say, is resting), we liked it more in Kemer, and even more in Tekirov, but in Cirali it’s better - our subjective opinion, who think otherwise, agree. A little north of Antalya is the village of Kurzunlu, and next to it is a natural park - we stopped there, before that we visited another ancient city of Perge, which existed under Alexander the Great and, in comparison with other ancient cities, is quite well preserved. There is beauty in Kurzunlu Park - waterfalls, the deafening crackle of cicadas, narrow paths in the shade of trees, water turtles, I almost stepped on a greenish-yellow snake, a meter and a half long, but she was lucky - she managed to escape, I also ran - horror! - On the other side. I was struck by the cleanliness, as everywhere we were - people respect themselves and others - let's try it too! We rested, cooled down - home in Cirali, slowly 125 km in 2 hours, beach, dinner, walk. In the evening there is absolute silence, all the stars in the sky are visible and in the distance the lights on the Chimera, there are no discos, no TV - like in paradise. Holidays in Cirali are over, we say goodbye to Osman, Julia and Stefania from Milan and go home to Kyiv. On the way we stop at Ephesus, spend the night in Dikili (I liked it very much), then already in Bulgaria in St. Vlas and in Romania we visited Bran and Ryshnov - Dracula's castle and the fortress of the knights, respectively. It is a pity that when passing through the city of Sinai, it was not possible to see the castle of Count Peles, but we saw the railway, where the Bucharest-Sinai diesel-electric train ran. The last night is 20 km before Chisinau (from Romania we entered Moldova near Leuseni), an excellent hotel and Moldova is getting better and better every year, which is what we wish everyone! Everything (so far).
