Endless Turkish journey. Marmaris
Marmaris
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
It was our first Marmaris, we read a lot about its beauty and were ready. Expectations did not disappoint. Already approaching the city, from the mountain it was clear that we would like it. And when they saw the embankment and the mountains framing the sea, they immediately fell in love with this region. And a nice bonus - the sea is already more tolerable temperature. If in Bodrum in the last days of May it was already possible to go in to swim for up to three minutes, now we could swim for up to ten minutes at a time! It sounds ridiculous, of course, but at that time it was a big progress on our route. And most importantly, wherever we went, it was during our week that the colder time fell, but after our departure it will be hoo warm, but not in the location where we will move each time. Turkish coffee complemented the ideal marine picture. While the man was preparing it to cheerful music, he himself began to sing along and dance. The dance was contagious, Dasha and I also began to dance while waiting for coffee. I love it when a location goes by so quickly. And the main thing is to survive this weekend and from next week new rules regarding the lockdown should be announced. Now you need to settle in. We found a laundry in the city, bought an excursion and a boat trip that were of interest to us right away. This time at the hotel we only included breakfast and dinner, if desired, we could pay extra for lunch separately. In a nearby market, we immediately got a loyalty card, and then we will need it more than once. Although it is not clear in Turkey, the buyer card in the Migros network is loyalty or punishment to the client. With this card, some of the goods are significantly cheaper, but literally every time everything goes according to the “Protection Cancellation” principle. Since discounts break through once, instead of mango they can break through passion fruit and they don’t always swipe the card when you give it and everything starts in a circle. Price tags in the markets are only on half of the products, which greatly complicates the purchase process. Moreover, all the above problems relate specifically to Migros. But other markets have their own nuances. For example, the A101 network, which seems to select the best cashiers from Migross, has a different problem. All the racks of the market are displayed in the form of a labyrinth, and everything is done in such a way that you have to go through absolutely all the products of the market, and since the price of a bottle of water may not be indicated, in order to buy one bottle of water, you may have to go through the entire market three times. In general, everything is done in Turkish markets in such a way that you can’t just go there for a couple of minutes and leave.
In the evening we went to check the legendary embankment. The length of the embankment here is really impressive and connects the two cities. That is, you can walk here in the evenings until you drop, you still won’t go through everything. We got to the center of Marmaris in the evening, but again there were no people. What is it, today is a weekday? It turned out that there are also evening lockdowns. Well, let's wait, we still have a lot of time, someday everything will come to life here. While returning to the hotel, messages with very strange videos began to load on my telegram. At first we thought it was some kind of pervert. But it turned out to be a guy who sold us an excursion and a boat tour, he decided to send us a video message from his bed, in which he apologized for screwing up with excursions and he wouldn’t be able to send us as agreed. And in general, he can’t do anything now, while he is closed in the apartment during the lockdown. But on Saturday mornings it is allowed to work, so tomorrow morning it will be possible to collect the money. On this trip, we generally noticed that even two hours cannot pass without some kind of crap. We liked our new hotel. It is relatively inexpensive and located in a good location called Myra Hotel. I would even describe it as suspiciously cheap) Unlike the previous hotel, the line for food here was considered a line of three people and a cozy atmosphere reigned in a small area. One of the kitchen workers, when laying food, said the Russian phrase “You will have potatoes”, he apparently tried to say it without an accent, and he got it from the series “Boy, do you want candy? ”. Now his phrase “… Will you? ” became another memo on trips, when Dasha and I offer something to each other.
The second hit from our friend was about sweet cookies, which he said “wet, sweet! ” when he put it on. It is moments like these that leave pleasant notes about the journey. We also had a very hectic first night. Unlike Bodrum, there are mosquitoes here, you will need to buy a fumigator, but so far it is not there and the first night you will have to arrange a real battle. But not only mosquitoes decided to deprive us of sleep, in the middle of the night someone decided to get acquainted in English with an English-non-speaking girl. As far as I understood from the hour-long conversation, the girl knew only the article “E” from English words. Either there was good acoustics here, or they decided to meet at our door. But all conversations come to an end, and this one too. Immediately after their conversation, some kind of mysticism began, someone started scratching right inside the air conditioner. Someone was clearly trying to get out. Air conditioners in the hotel are connected by a single drain system, it looks like someone was scratching into the air conditioner in another room, or someone chose the drain hose on the street. In parallel with the rattle in a nearby hotel, the external unit of another air conditioner apparently broke down and a whistle began. From the stage of irritation, Dasha and I moved into the stage of acceptance and began to laugh at all the absurdity of what was happening. The epic fight with mosquitoes under the ceiling already seemed like a distant past, this time we were fighting an invisible rumbling enemy. But the rattle of the air conditioner once stops, and even the whistle of the external unit in the neighboring hotel, apparently someone froze and turned off his air conditioner. The most interesting thing is that there was only one such night in this hotel. Apparently familiarization royal. And even during the day, it seemed to me a story when we could not turn on a single light bulb in some kind of mystical room. Here the system of switches turned out to be so non-obvious that even the manager went around and checked all kinds of plugs and shields until I deciphered the combination of switches on different walls, which did turn on the light bulbs in the room.
Ship in Marmaris
From the very morning we took the money for the excursion and for the boat and went to look for another boat right on the pier. By the way, it turned out to be much cheaper. There are different reviews about these boats, but we are apparently very in love with sea travel. We added the beauties from this boat to our virtual museum of memories of beautiful places.
Well, even though the sea here is warmer than Bodrum, you can even swim at the stops))) And those who have already sailed in Turkey at least once on boats can easily imagine what beautiful water was waiting for us.
A funny fact is that the boats sailed even despite the lockdown and, apparently, officially.
Turunc
One of the main attractions of the local area is the city of Turunc. Here the ship stopped for two hours. There are legends that in this city of unprecedented size there is a bazaar, everyone sells something, people from other cities come here to the bazaar....But now, during the Sunday lockdown, these are pre-Covid legends. For us, it will now remain so, a city without people. But unlike Bodrum, here we felt comfortable without people. Still, the beautiful sea and cozy streets do their job. But it's high time for a Turkish cinematographer to shoot westerns about cowboys who meet in a deserted square for their final duel, and between them another tumbleweed rolls.
We even got to shoot what looks like a commercial about resorts, because during a walk a man walked behind us with a special camera, filming our walk along the sea. On the chairs, we noticed a resting film crew. So look for us in the best social videos of the country! The sea in Turunc really looks like a solid five. We were bribed by the fact that it is here in several colors, on one of the beaches the color of emerald, and literally on the next one there is already blue water. Although the sea after the last year of travel is rather difficult to compare. Because the rule is simple. Do you want the best water color in Turkey - Oludeniz, do you want the best water color in the world - Nungwi in Zanzibar. But, probably, in the vicinity of Marmaris, I will give Turunc a medal for the color of the water. If only it were warm, but not tolerable))) It’s a pity you can’t send yourself a message to the past “Travelers, the coolest and warmest sea is already waiting for you, you just don’t even suspect that it will be like that there. ” It's time to return to Marmaris. And then, we were already quite tired of waiting for the old city.
Marmaris Again
An interesting fact, but Turkish castles are open every day, regardless of the lockdown. So being in the old town and not visiting the castle with a reasonable price is a crime. Here you can spend 30 minutes, in addition to the observation halls, admire the views from the walls.
Behind the castle is the old town in the form of a real labyrinth. This is where the Venice effect comes into play. Although there are only a couple of streets, it’s not easy to get lost, for all the time in Marmaris we have never been able to walk through the streets so as to get out where we planned.
So our route changed each time after crossing the old city. Now in this lockdown, you need to get your lunch somewhere. This time we were more fortunate than when I was looking for coffee. Literally from the very first restaurant, an employee looked at us and it so happened that he just wanted money, and we wanted food. We made this exchange, and he ran inside to give the order to the chefs. We could not go inside the restaurant, but we could choose any parapet in the area.
Welcome tea was brought to us on the parapet for the inconvenience, and later the long-awaited doner. By the way, it was very tasty. Although it is with the doners in Turkey that we usually do not work out. After a snack with seagull, we are full of energy again, let's now see what kind of forest is located outside the city. We walked long and far. Where we didn't know yet. When we reached the forest, the road went uphill, we went uphill. Where exactly we did not find out, because we swung so much to go and went back))) The trail turned out to be without views. Yes, and strength must be preserved in front of tomorrow's mountain. So we return to the hotel, just in time for dinner we will come. Each time I returned to the hotel, I called the reception of the previous hotel to remind myself and wish them good luck in finding our things. But as the girl at the reception of that hotel told me, that since things were lost only with us, it doesn’t look like a theft, so if many things were lost, then yes... How good it is when the hotel is so savvy in thefts and knows that if you steal by the piece, then you can live with a clear conscience.
Icmeler
Right after breakfast we went to Icmeler. This was the first acquaintance with the city, which will soon be almost native and how many more memories and emotions it will leave us)))) This city is relatively small, it is connected to Marmaris by the embankment. You can walk if you wish. On the other side of the cozy town is a large mountain. Today it will be our main object. A trail goes through the mountain straight to Turunc.
I once found this route on the forum when I sent our parents on a trip. Mom and dad went through part of the route and did not have time to finish it, as it was already evening. We stocked up for the whole day. But it's not for you to climb Hoverla. Everything is serious here, the season has not yet begun, there are not so many tourists. If you want a route, make your way along half-grown paths. Although Goverla is many times higher, she is more gentle, and here is full hardcore.
The main thing is not to choose a hot day for this business. It takes about four hours to get to Turunc, but there is a risk that during the quarantine there will be no return bus and you will have to conquer this mountain again. As a result, we went all the way up to the place where the road begins to go down. As a reward, we received fantastic views of the city and beaches, panoramas of sea mountains and a bunch of picturesque places for halts, right above the tops of tall trees. We were afraid that our legs would fall off, but the real hero - Misha, how he mastered all this at all - is incomprehensible. On the way back, he twisted his leg.
But after a bad hike last year, when we didn't make it down the mountain before nightfall, we've always been motivated by the fact that it's the middle of the day. In addition to us, there were also two turtles and a goat on the route. Moreover, the turtles confidently crawled to the source of water marked on the map, although the source itself was no longer there. It's a pity that the turtle cannot be explained that it crawls in vain.
On the other hand, maybe they have a secret source there. It would be interesting to check this. But I'm afraid then the night on this mountain would definitely cover us. At the end of the route, a reward awaited us - a delicious meal. There are some takeaway restaurants in the city. We ordered delicious pide for ourselves and threw a feast right on the curb by the road. This is the only place where we could sit in the shade.
For some reason, I remember the taste of cold cola, it is not always so perfectly tasty, but this case was especially successful, apparently it's all about the temperature and the level of thirst. Then I went to order Turkish coffee, at that moment the owner was having lunch in the restaurant. He told me to treat myself to pieces of chopped pide from his table, how sweet! After such a trip and a meal, even the sea ceased to be cool. I got used to the water and did not want to climb out at all, I caught the perfect temperature balance. This is how the weekend turned out, now we are returning to working days) Near our hotel there was a cafe for locals, where we had lunches and coffee ceremonies. In Turkey, there are even special machines for making Turkish coffee in the form of two small electric kettles. It is good that Turkish coffee is not sold at every step in Ukraine. Since I only drink it in Turkey, it turns out to be one of our shades of all Turkish travels. And in general, a very cool moment when you find yourself a country in which there are so many differences from your home, but at the same time, all these differences impress you very much. Today after work we will have the first experience with an electric scooter. This is a three-seat vehicle that can reach speeds of up to 30 km per hour. In Marmaris they are very popular, rental does not require a driver's license. And my great experience in playing GTA allowed me to easily get involved in management. Now we are rushing along the beautiful and flowering promenade to Icmeler. The beauty of the June embankment is indescribable. It may be beautiful here all year round, but they did a great job with the number of flowers. We were already so in love with the beauty of Marmaris that we did not want to change the location at all and were already thinking about extending this location for some time, a week is not enough. What is the route to Icmeler worth, to which we arrived happy as elephants. But then we didn’t know yet that the first law of Turkish meanness reads “You can’t just take it and drive somewhere on a scooter. ” We stalled, and with the ends. After turning on our transport, I can drive about a hundred meters and turn off. We now know that this is a popular problem with electric scooters. The landlords came for us by car and returned back to the hotel. They were still so surprised, they say, for the first time they encountered such a thing. But in fact, it doesn’t happen differently here) The next evening we went to the local island.
Yildiz Adasi Island
In normal times, you can get here by dolmush, but now it looks like only a taxi. On the island, a cave of incredible height awaited us. Perhaps this is the highest in our experience. Moreover, even after the trip, when I look at the photos, I am again impressed by its size.
Further we were waiting for trails for hiking routes, many trails, many panoramas. One such route takes you to the top of the mountain, from where you can see a great view of the lagoon with violently colored water. How good it is that there are many such species around the world and they never cease to delight us. This island has only one minus - time flies here at an unusual speed, we only had a couple of hours that flew by in an instant. We had to go back in time to have dinner and not stay here in the dark. We still had a faint hope, what if that mythical bus did arrive, but, fortunately, it was not clear where the empty bus came from.
The driver happily picked up three hitchhikers. Turkey, how I love you for the ease of movement! The guy was an avid traveler in his homeland, we hastily wrote down his notes and ideas of what to visit on our route. The driver dropped us off near the center and drove on. We now quietly had time to the hotel until the end of the evening meal. The next evening we immersed ourselves in Turkish culture with our heads in the hammam. This is one of our favorite things to do in Turkey, and this time even Misha announced that he would go to both the sauna and the hammam for treatments. Although usually such discoveries are not characteristic of him. The only point is the risks of visiting such places during the epidemic, last year, when there were no antibodies yet, we bypassed such places for a kilometer. Now it was a little easier. And the country already has a relatively high level of vaccination. The pleasure of visiting was the sea.
The next day we decided to go quad biking during our lunch break. Local travel agencies called them something like “Extreme ATVs”, but I thought it was just a lure. It turned out that during the route we were plentifully watered with a hose, we drove through muddy puddles so that everyone inside the ATV remained in the mud, then there were some arches with water. There was some kind of gesture. And the water was all ice cold. Well at least we already know where the laundry is. After the rides, we looked at the organizer with a questioning look, and he explained to us that these are “American-style ATVs”; they all have to come back wet and dirty after the route. I've never had a lunch break like this before. In the evening after work, we made ourselves rides on an electric scooter.
Here we had an awkward meeting face to face with the police, we were without masks, we looked literally into each other's eyes in the oncoming lane, moreover, we stood against the traffic. The second problem was that we stood in such a way that they could not bypass us. We passed a little to the left and parted with them as if nothing had happened. It was the height of loyalty on their part towards tourists. In general, even if the road is empty and you need to drive only 30 meters, you don’t need to violate it, although we drove as carefully as possible. Initially, we planned to get to the bus station and find out the bus schedule, but according to the already established tradition, at some point we began to stall. Taught by past experience, we were even able to reach the point of delivery of the scooter. Although we did not find out the schedule of intercity buses, we already firmly decided that it was good in Marmaris and we would stay here even longer, we paid for the extension of the hotel.
The next evening was planned to be spent in the style of relaxation, riding an electric scooter along the promenade in Icmeler. The road there was, as always, saturated with romance and love, we did not even stall. But this time we were waiting for a new round of events in our journey. The main part of the route is fenced with a high hedge, from time to time there are steps with a railing in the middle to go down to the beach. Literally in one short moment, I understand that something terrible will happen now, in films they say that in one second the whole life should flash before my eyes. But at that moment, when we lost control and our scooter flew exactly into the opening where the steps go down, you don’t even have time to figure out that you need to somehow group up. To our great happiness, we hit the wheel between the bars of the railing. The fence took the whole blow on itself, bending from the impact at 45 degrees. The seat of the scooter fell off the seat and pressed against the steering wheel. At the second second, I understand that everyone is at least alive. I pulled Misha out and put him on his feet, standing up. Dasha also got up, I'm standing. Shock wrapped in a thick veil. Who hurts? Fortunately, everyone only has legs, some have a little blood, some just hurt. “Are we in the ass? Yes! " Local passers-by ran up to us in horror, with great difficulty we pulled out the scooter. Now, at low speed, carefully return. The second relief after the self-test was that the scooter started up. The feeling of shock and horror intensified, but it seems like everything is over. Returned to rent. The guy asked how the trip went, I say: “We have a sincere confession here, just tell me how much we got. ” The guys quickly examined the scooter, with a broken front fender. They called the owner, he said that 250 lira and dealt with. I clarified whether it is possible to reduce the fine for damages, since we have a sincere heart and I do not deny that everyone is to blame for this. The guy said: “Since sincerely, then we can stop at 150 lira” ($18). Still got off easy. As a result, our most relaxing evening turned into hardcore. We analyzed a lot why this happened with management. Our official conclusion is that we are assholes. And it's good that those railings were there. Since the ground scooter did not work out for us, the next morning we decided to use a safer transport - a water scooter. Everything went smoothly here, a jet ski on the high seas, what could be better?
We spent the evening itself as planned last time in relaxation mode, but this time on foot. There was hope to see the working fountain of Marmaris, but due to the pandemic, for some reason, only the light in it was allowed to be turned on.
This is how another working week flew by, now let's get back to traveling, now it looks like it will be the opening of the year.
