Endless Turkish journey. Kusadasi

19 November 2021 • Travel time: with 10 June 2021 on 17 June 2021

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Part 1. An endless Turkish journey. Bodrum

Part 2. An endless Turkish journey. Marmaris

Part 3. An endless Turkish journey. Akyaka, Dalyan and Pamukkale

Part 4. An endless Turkish journey. Kusadasi

Part 5. An endless Turkish journey. Cappadocia

Part 6. An endless Turkish journey. Cesme, Alacati and return to Kusadasi

The journey was quite long, all the passengers were first given ice cream, and then they also had other sweets. Long-distance moving here is just like some kind of holiday. What we were not given on the buses for all our experience, I even remember slippers in Vietnam, but ice cream for the first time! We arrived at the bus station. Still so new and unknown, we could not even imagine how dear and beloved these places would become to us by the end of the trip.

Now it is very important not to be heroic about getting to the hotel by local transport and take a taxi. We arrived at a hotel with a name that is impossible to read. It was right on Ladys Beach. It is important to understand that the sea in Kusadasi is similar in nature to the ocean. Long and beautiful waves demonstrate the power of nature. Well, let's run to check the sea! It was very hard for us to believe, but it is warm!!!

Has the long-awaited moment come when the sea season has begun on our journey! And it was an important moment in our journey, despite the fact that the sea is usually not the main thing for us, but when it is constantly cold, it really annoys) We simply could not swim. But also eager to start exploring the city. In this hotel, we only had breakfast included, but you could take dinner for an additional fee. Meals were held on the terrace overlooking the sea, dinners in this hotel are a special feature - this is home cooked food.

That is, one of the owners of the hotel is preparing dinner for himself, and if you signed up for it, then there will also be a portion for you. We were also informed at the hotel that the Dashin watermelon challenge is completely safe, as there is a free watermelon service at the reception. You just say you want watermelon and they bring you a big bowl of sliced cold watermelon. I love cold watermelon very much, although sometimes my forehead can freeze from the cold, I read that such an effect is inherent in a certain percentage of people. Once he froze him so-so that he didn’t let go for half a day.

Kusadasi is a purely Turkish resort, even despite the fact that tours are actively sold to it from other countries, but, for example, only Turks were on Ladys Beach. The prices for entertainment like ATVs are sky-high here, so it’s definitely not here for active entertainment. For example, for a quad bike per person they want 50 euros per hour. But we are not critical, we can wait for Cappadocia, where two hours costs 11 euros. On the first evening, we found out that there is a water park at the Infinity Hotel and walked around the residential areas above the sea. Very cozy location. Let's go back to everyday life. An update arrived on my laptop, which broke my taskbar, and now I could not humanly switch between instant messengers. It is very important not to apply any updates to the laptop while traveling, we will write this down in the rules. But even in spite of the broken operating system, it was easy to see the wreckage of our project after everything that had happened in recent days. But these were only the consequences of the first “explosion”. The second wave of misfortune covered our project with even greater force. I just couldn't believe that such crap could happen. While you are trying to unravel the bundle of problems and understand why it happened, there are even more of them, it was I who saw the picture of everything that happened very clearly, it looked like some kind of fantastic story from the War of the Worlds series, which I had to tell my English-speaking manager. Sometimes I didn’t believe my words myself) We had a reproduction of the painting Scream on the wall opposite the hotel, which very well conveyed the atmosphere of my weekdays.

I realized that I will not limit myself to one vacation on this trip, now we will rake everything and I need to go back to rest. And not only I had a hard time enduring all this, our manager from Germany went on sick leave for three weeks and said that the doctors recommended her to minimize communication with the team during the sick leave. After we collected everything that was left of the project from the “wreckage”, our German manager acted quite competently. During our three-week sick leave, we were removed from all tasks that could somehow come into contact with the tasks of the error that led to this horror. And three weeks after the return, we continued to work as if nothing had happened, and tasks of increased criticality now had to be taken voluntarily only if there were no other tasks at all.

While we were resting in Kusadasi, my parents started their journey to Cappadocia via Ankara. This trip was canceled once due to a stoppage of flights and now a successful restart has begun. And they had a cool moment on the route. The bus from Ankara drove through the salt marsh and made a long photo stop there. In all our experience of Cappadocia, we have never had anything like this. So my mother took the baton with a flight on a balloon, my father is not friends with height. During their trip, they hid a bottle of money and sweets for Misha and sent us a satellite photo with the tag. So, an interesting adventure with the search is waiting for us soon, we will arrive a couple of days after they fly home.

The story of a garage

Kusadasi Again

The days passed in this city quite comfortably, as the warm sea is always available and there is always something to do in this city. We started with the water park. While I was working, Dasha and Misha went to the hotel where the water park was located, but it turned out that the water park is still available only for hotel guests, and is about to start accepting external visitors, but they do not know the exact day. On the second day, Dasha went to find out again and this time she decided to be more persistent. As always, the staff hung out near the box office, but nevertheless, tickets were not sold because they could not open in any way.

Dasha tried to find out which of the crowd of workers was the most important, as a result, one of the Turks went to a meeting, said that he would let him into the water park, and Dasha would then go to the reception and pay there for visiting with a card in the terminal since the ticket offices are closed here. The water park was turned on twice a day. You need to pay for entry once. The next time I went with Misha, but agreed that Dasha would come instead of me for the second run, the manager agreed. As it turns out to be easy to agree here) And most importantly, everything is officially through the cashier. Dasha was even given a discount for the first time) The hills in Infiniti are excellent. There were only 7 of them open here so far, and that was enough. And one of them - a butterfly was very extreme. Another entertainment option that we made for ourselves is a trip to the next hammam. We have generally found out that it is possible to go once a week, so we will not fall behind this trend as much as possible.

What unites absolutely all places in Turkey is the pleasure of the hammam. It was just as pleasant and relaxing here as in Marmaris. But if there we had an oil massage, then here we did a massage through soap suds. Misha swam in the pool during our procedures. By the way, this hammam was on the territory of Infiniti. We even googled the profitability of settling into it in order to get a water park, but it would be even difficult to imagine what problems people encountered there about our trio, where we now live. As one of the guests of the Infinity Hotel wrote, “If I had a time machine, the first thing I would do was go back in time and dissuade myself from stopping here. ” Okay, we continue to live in our hotel with an unreadable name. By the way, in almost all locations we booked only a part of the nights at the hotel and then extended it when we realized that the location was suitable for us and we could adjust the further route. The next entertainment option is to take a walk to the center. It's about forty minutes walk from our beach.

On the way, you can visit as many as two islands, on one there is a free fortress, and the second with a small forest. But it seems to be private, nevertheless, it’s worth watching the sunset from there at least once. When they left the island, the fisherman treated Misha to sliced melon. I think it's very nice.

Further along the road begins the central embankment. It has a special atmosphere here. The atmosphere is reflected from every Turkish family, which imposingly walks along the aggressive waves. On benches and stones, everyone sees off another passing day. A mountain with multi-colored houses and a large inscription with the name of the city rises above the city. Then you need to move deeper into the streets away from the sea.

So we go to the streets of the old city. The old city here is also made for glory, you need to aimlessly walk and absorb the air saturated with Turkey. The main thing is not to approach the shop windows, otherwise barkers can dispel the atmosphere a little. And for all the heroes who are still on their feet, a visit to the Yö rü k F? r? n & Bakery is a must, they surprisingly make delicious lemonade. They noticed our love for lemonade and the next day they raised the price from three to five lira ($0.6) per glass, Misha and I always took three glasses for two. It has already been a whole evening tradition if we get out into the city.

Kusadasi is good because you can always find where to hang out in the evening and for this you don’t even have to go to the old city. And most importantly, a beautiful sunset is provided from everywhere. Sometimes we went for a walk towards Green Beach. There are many hills, in the evenings it is completely deserted and the ever-raging sea with a red evening sun is only ours. When the ancient philosophers were looking for the meaning of life, they most likely did not see the local sunsets, I am sure that most of them would agree that admiring this beauty may well pass for the meaning of life. In general, a very cozy place to relax for those who like to actively walk and romantic evenings. The next series of weekdays has gradually come to an end, which means you can move on to the active phase of rest.

National Park of the Dilek Peninsula and the Great Menderes River Delta

I didn't even know parks had such long names. But apparently a long park is not good to have a short name. It takes a long time to get from Ladys Beach to the park. You have to be real connoisseurs of parks to spend about two hours on minibuses. And the problem is not so much in the distance as in the route. On the way, dolmush visits all conceivable and unthinkable villages, as well as all possible nooks and crannies. So, you need to have a little patience.

But trust me, it's worth it. The minibus drives right into the park, they collect 10 lira ($ 1.17) from tourists at the checkpoint for entry, and the minibus goes further, making stops near the beaches. If I'm not mistaken, we came out on the third. And from there you can walk to the beginning of the park, visiting each beach and stopping at gazebos with fantastic beauties of seascapes.

The main thing is that the roof does not blow off from the heat. But on the route there will be a source of water where you can cool your feet and wet your head. The beaches themselves are very well equipped. There are showers and changing rooms. From time to time wooden tables with benches. And all this is included in the entrance fee. As soon as we got off the minibus to the third beach, a local resident, a wild boar, immediately came to meet us.

But for some reason the boar decided to immediately try to bite Misha. Misha dodged, and the locals grabbed a stick and hit the ground, which immediately drove the animal away. Then we saw a banner that also had a warning about a leopard or something like that. And again, that feeling when, on the one hand, I would like to look at them, but on the other hand, somehow not very much. In addition to living creatures, there is a very beautiful color of water. They even take boats here to look at the beautiful bays.

On the other side of the sea rises Greece. She is so close to us all this trip, but the border with Turkey is closed with a big and rusty lock. No ferry in Turkey goes to Greece. If the borders were open, then the route of the trip would be radically different. But in the current realities, we only look at the Greek islands every time we arrive at the next location. Although, it would seem, there she is, literally at hand. On the other hand, if not for the epidemic, then such a trip, perhaps, would never have happened. The world wouldn't go online, we wouldn't be given telecommuting, and I'd be squeezed into my 25 days off. And with the current opportunities, this season is already leading in terms of the number of days spent abroad. By the way, an interesting fact is that during this calendar year we will spend almost three months in Turkey, since the last big trip began in August, and this is in May, and between them there was still big and beautiful Istanbul. The fact that we flew to Istanbul in the spring also affected our current route, otherwise we would have built it a little differently. In fact, we have a real butterfly effect, when any change in the initial conditions radically changes how the future goes.

In the meantime, we slowly go towards the first beach. What are all the same here chic gazebos. Be sure not to skip them. Despite the heat that tried to melt our minds, our return hiking route had two important missions. At first we helped Turkish speaking tourists with directions, they didn't know how to get to the beach by car. It turns out that we can already quite well explain the second story - we found a mobile phone. I am always lucky in search of lost equipment and, most importantly, I am also lucky in search of owners. Phones are the easiest option. But here's the catch. It is overheated and does not work, as it has been lying in the sun for a long time. Five minutes later the phone came to its senses, and I was able to turn it on. Charge - 40%. Great, that's enough. Now the most important thing is to understand the code. Much to the happiness of the owner, there was no lock code. Now let's find mom or dad in the list and it's in the bag. But we didn’t know how the parents would be in Turkish. Then let's see who the owner last talked to. The last correspondence was in Viber. I wrote to the same contact so that he would find a way to contact the owner and tell him to call us. Five minutes later the phone rang. Two Turkish gray words flashed on the screen. Which one means "Accept"? Pressed at random. Didn't guess, dropped the call. The owner is clearly tensed at this point. On samsungs, it’s convenient that accepting and rejecting are highlighted in different colors, it was xiaomi, there was no such chip here. Entering again. What button did I press last time? Oh, I guessed! I immediately asked in English if the person on the other end of the line spoke English. But all that he knew in English was “not enough”. Yes, it will certainly complicate our communication. Next to us was a sign “Icmeler” It looks like the name of the beach. I said the word "Icmeler" Turkish voice became more joyful than at the moment when he realized that he would communicate in English. The guy was able to explain that he was also somewhere here. I saw the parking lot and added “Otopark” in Turkish. Since this sign is in Istanbul on all parking lots. The guy said he was going to the parking lot now too. The connection was interrupted. Then he called, again I can't guess the call accept button. Then we found out that both were in the parking lot and could not find each other. I began to describe my clothes, he said the magic word "Yaulshark". Yes, what does this word mean? That year we were told it in the mountains, and they clearly wanted to warn us about something. I rummaged through the translators, then asked other Turks, they say there is no such word. A year has passed and here again “Yaulshark”. But according to the current situation, it looked more like “yaul” is a color, and “shark” is some part of clothing. As a result, we figured out how to resolve the issue, a Turk passed by, and I handed him the phone to talk. They were able to explain themselves much more productively and after a couple of minutes a guy came running, thanked and took the phone. We had such a funny experience with the return of a lost phone, and this time it is more interesting than when we returned a found phone in Armenia.

Now we were on the beach at the very beginning of the park. It seems that the whole of Turkey has gathered here at once. I have never seen so many people even on the beach of Montenegro. In general, the first beach is definitely not suitable for relaxation. And there are so many cars parked here that there are two parking areas near the beach. That's why we couldn't find that guy. The only thing that this beach has interesting is some kind of path in the thickets, which are fenced with torn wire and a sign that clearly does not encourage tourists going there. Let's go and see what's there. Apparently nothing, or maybe you need to walk longer and come to some beach. Nevertheless, in search of something interesting, I saw a group of men sitting by the sea, they twisted their hands Chig-kofte. This is a Turkish snack. For some reason they looked somehow illegal here. Our eyes met with them. It's kind of embarrassing, but we can pretend we didn't see anything. The man called us and handed us some of the dish. It's fun, we love it. So the secret path eventually led us to an illegal snack!

Our route was not limited only to the park, there is also a very cool natural phenomenon - a cave with an underground lake.

Unlike the Dominican Republic and Zanzibar, here it is also free. Officially, you cannot swim in the lake, but the number of people in the water suggests otherwise. But even despite the large number of people, when you swim in the dark water underground, the feeling of horror tickles your nerves just like in the Dominican Republic, when you are alone in such a lake. From the icy water, steam begins to flow from the mouth, betraying the ominousness of this whole undertaking. To my surprise, Misha supported the initiative to swim into the darkest corner of the cave.

It is interesting that a couple of years ago we did not even hear about such lakes, but recently we have been lucky to visit them. After such an eventful journey, the heroes are waiting for a small cafe with Turkish coffee and croissants.

Now you need to be patient and go on a long route to the center, and there everything is already standard: lemonade and other sweets. By the way, here we visited a fish restaurant where octopuses are prepared.

What I want to say, who ever tasted octopus in Zanzibar is now doomed to compromise with less tasty octopus. Even now, when tickets for the end of the year to Zanzibar began to be sold, the first thought that slipped through my mind was “How much have we missed octopuses already? Might be worth repeating?

Ephesus

Turkish folk wisdom says "There are many sights in Turkey, but not all are worthy of your attention. " Unfortunately, from our point of view, this refers to the legendary ruins of the city of Ephesus. In recent years, prices for attractions have increased many times in the country, and some of them are now simply not worth the money.

For example, in Side there is a complete analogue of Ephesus, much cooler and larger, and most importantly, completely free. At the time of our visit, the entrance already cost 110 lire ($13) per person. Compared to other prices of the current year - 1 hour boat cruise from the castle in Kusadasi costs 15 lira, expensive Turkish Magnum ice cream 7.5 lira, ordinary but tasty from 1.5 lira. Two full hours of quad biking through the valleys of Cappadocia costs 110 lire. And here you pay 110 lira for the opportunity to see part of the ruins of the city of Ephesus. The other two parts are paid additionally in the same place. On the other hand, fans of visiting historically significant places should like it. But personally, our opinion, it is better to spend this day at one of the local water parks. There are a lot of them in Kushadash) Or go together, and for 110 liras you can buy 73 ice creams for a child, the emotion will be much greater))))

Nevertheless, this did not prevent us from having a wonderful day off, although if we hadn’t managed to catch a rare minibus that runs every two hours on covid Sundays, we would have to stay and live among the ruins.

And the work day began again. But for me, it was just a couple of days left and a well-deserved long vacation in Cappadocia would begin. In the meantime, we need to swim to the maximum in the warm sea, since it was not clear to us what and most importantly, when the sea will appear next time on the route. And this is not a pathetic phrase, we only had sketches along the route, and the route itself was formed every week for a week in advance. Dasha stated a funny fact that as soon as we fly to Kusadasi, instead of the already familiar 25-27 degrees, it will be 36 degrees. It turns out that every time we change the location before the warming. But why is it warmer, it's so good here. The last entertainment that awaited us in this part of Kusadasi was an hourly boat for 15 lira ($ 1.8). And Misha is free! I don’t know where such an attraction of unprecedented generosity comes from, but the boat, like all the others, was beautiful. At sunset, we cut through the waves of the constantly stormy sea in the truest sense of the word.

The spray rose like in disaster movies. In order to avoid falling overboard, we settled down right on the floor of the second deck, there was upholstered furniture and flooring. I even did the heroic trick of standing up to take a picture. The main thing was to stay away from the sides so as not to dive. After the boat, for a long time, the effect of the shaking earth remained under the feet. Kusadasi is a good place, usually in good places they leave a coin to return, but this time we had new losses. Mishin's sock evaporated in the laundry, the girl at the reception warned us and even offered to pay for the second one))) We also left a computer table here, as we decided to get rid of the bulky load. We bought it a year ago in Turkey for 20 lira ($2.4) and returned it to our homeland.

I also left an imprint of my body right on the glass wall. Initially, my working day did not start, at first the mouse for the laptop began to treacherously sit down, and then next to me someone at full speed dug into the transparent door when I was working in the hotel lobby. Such absurd situations make me laugh very easily. I went into the room so as not to burn and tried to tune back into a working mood, but the door did not get out of my head. Then we went to lunch and the same story caught up with me. This time the workers had to hide their laughter. It was necessary to wash the glass in such a way to perfect transparency! There were patterns on all the adjacent panes, but here there was none, and peripheral vision on the machine recognizes it as a passage. So in Kusadasi we did literally everything to come back again.

And you know, the most interesting thing is that we will return here as soon as we have never returned to any foreign city))))) But this will be another pleasant part of our trip. In the meantime, we are sitting and having lunch at our favorite Nazilli Pide Salonu. There are dozens of types of pide for every taste and a very friendly hostess. Well, Kusadasi, see you soon, we need to move on! The hotel gave us breakfast and, apparently, to support the watermelon challenge, they put three cans of watermelon tea.

Continuation in Cappadocia

Translated automatically from Russian. View original