The Germans are Coming (provided they don't die on the Turkish motorway)!

Hello mothers, fathers, siblings, in-laws, other familial relations, friends, acquaintances, co-workers and random internet creepers!

This post is dedicated in part to the Germans, the people of Deutschland, who we have noticed are EVERYWHERE in our travels (not just Turkey, but in the other countries we have previously visited). They seem to be avid travellers and we had the pleasure of spending a whole week surrounded by them during our visit to "The Watermill" in the tiny village of Faralya overlooking the Butterfly Valley along the coast of the Mediterranean.

The Watermill is owned by a lovely lady named Brigitte (a German married to a Turk) and is very popular with her people. We were the only non-German guests during our one week stay but loved every moment of it! Lance and I agree that our stay at the Watermill was the highlight of our trip and we highly recommend it to anyone thinking of going to Turkey. We have agreed that, like Arnie,  we will be back.

In addition to our German friends, this post is also dedicated to the fearless drivers and passengers of Turkish motor vehicles. We salute you with your total and utter disregard for lanes, signal usage, stop signs, yield signs and for that matter any posted sign, car seats, seat belts and general safety or common sense. You are a brave lot and unrelenting even in the face of one of the highest motor vehicle fatality rates in the world. Thank you for making our travels of over 4000km in the Hyundai so exciting and allowing us to see the whites of our knuckles for hours on end.

 This is the first picture we took when we arrived in Faralya. Lance pulled the car over and said it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen. I absolutely agree.

 The spring fed pool at the Watermill. The water was freezing but refreshing after being in the hot sun all day. We spent two whole days lounging by this pool, reading and drinking Efes (yummy Turkish beer).

 We had breakfast and dinner every day at the Watermill and all meals were delicious with fresh local ingredients. They even made their own wine from vines that had been brought from Greece over 1000 years ago (and they still made it in the old tradition).

 GERMANS!!!!

 For our last meal we dined on Turkish pancakes, made fresh right before our eyes.

 Sunset at the Watermill.

The Watermill had a gorgeous garden. Lance took some great shots of the flora....

And fauna!

 A view of Butterfly Valley from the beach. The Watermill is about an hour hike above the valley. We actually took a boat from a nearby town to get to the beach as the hike is very steep and can be dangerous. Someone actually died on the trail....well....technically off the trail because he fell....several years ago. Hiking  or by boat are the only ways to access the valley.

 Lance-O reading in Butterfly Valley.

 This is a view of Kabak (about 7km south of Faralya). We hiked to Kabak as the trail, while steep, was not as dangerous as the hike to Butterfly Valley. 

The beach at Kabak was awesome. There was hardly anyone there, the views spectacular and the water was so warm and clear.

 Reading in the sun. I love this picture because you cant tell how disgustingly sweaty I was.

 Lamy at Kabak!

 We took an Aegean yacht cruise one day arranged through the Watermill. This was our boat - "His Boat". We went island hopping and swam in 5 different spots in the sea. 

 I'M ON A BOAT!

 Cruisin through the Aegean.

 Ahhhh.....yes.....what can I say?

 This picture is interesting. Someone is using a helmet which is super impressive. We saw very few helmets in Turkey. However, call me old school, but shouldn't he have offered it to his female passenger? Perhaps chivalry is dead.

These two gents took no issue cruising down the highway at 110km per hour (on a sometimes bumpy road) in the back of this truck. Indeed, they were both enjoying a long drag on a cigarette when we drove by.

A most wonderful breakfast and a Macau!

Something very unexpected happened to us on our journey from Goreme to Faralya. We met a lovely new friend named Ahmet and he stuck his bird on my head. Let me back it up a bit.....

So, we only had one night to stay somewhere in between our stay in Cappodocia on route to the Mediterranean. I booked a room online in Side before we left Canada for 25 Euros in a hotel that looked decent in the pictures but turned out to be a shit hole in person. I know. I know. Jen, you were right. I should have known better. 25 Euros, what was I expecting? Even though the hotel was a little piece of hell on earth, we met a guy named Ahmet while looking for directions. Ahmet was kind enough to navigate us to the hotel (he even joined us in the car with his Macau, "Chico") and later he gave us tea, delicious Turkish pasties and we shared pictures and stories of Turkey. He even offered to take us to his favourite breakfast joint the next morning before we hit the road.

The breakfast turned out to be one of the best breakfasts OF MY LIFE! Do you know how many breakfasts I have eaten? 29 years times 365 days is a lot of breakfast so please try and fathom the impressiveness of this feat. The food was traditional Turkish breakfast (or kahvalti) with pancakes (more like a crepe stuffed with herbs and goat cheese), olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, honey, jam, sesame spread, cheeses and fried eggs with paprika. Lance and I ate so much food but it was so good we couldn't stop. It was all prepared by a woman and her daughter in a small outdoor restaurant in a tiny village and could not have been more delicious. We ended up staying way longer than we expected but the food, cay (tea) and company was so amazing it was hard to leave. Eventually we managed to stop eating and roll ourselves to the car to finish the drive to the coast which, of course, turned out to be beautiful. Oh!!! I almost forgot, Ahmet took us to the Manavgat Waterfall on our way back to Side. Very pretty :)

 I had just met Ahmet about 5 minutes before this picture was taken. When he offered directions I had no idea his bird would be joining. I let them sit shot gun so as to not anger the bird.

 Lance and Ahmet insisted I hold the bird and let it use me as a jungle gym. This is the look of true terror. For those of you who don't know, birds scare the bejesus out of me. Their feet are crazy reptilian dinosaur relics and they can FLY people!!! I don't trust them. And fish. I also hate fish.

 Feigning a smile hoping Chico wont eat my ear like Hannibal Lecter. He turned out to be super gentle and well trained....but still....

Breakfast fit for gods. Amazing.

Ahmet treated us to ice cream after breakfast at the Manavgat Waterfall. Lance was being a smart ass with the ice cream man (see the smirk)...little did he know.....

ICE CREAM MAN ATTACKS!

Ladies, the one on the left is taken. The tanned one is single and looking for a hottie, a cougar or a sugar momma (Lance and I taught Ahmet these very tasteful terms)

Pictures of Cappadocia

As promised here are some of our pictures from the village of Goreme and the surrounding area of Cappadocia.

 Picture of our cave suite. It was the biggest room of our journey thus far with a HUGE bed perfect for practising my spread eagle. Lance did not notice the size of the bed as my sprawl sent him to the edge of the mattress.

 Other view of our cave suite which looked onto a ground level garden terrace.

 Beginning of our walk into Love Valley.

 Along the walk, we could see remains of old houses where the people of the area used to live. The homes were built into the rock but are generally no longer inhabited as people have moved into modern type houses. On one of our tours we visited an entire village that had been relocated out of the caves and fairy chimneys into a modern village for safety concerns (the soft rock is eroding and starting to crumble and deteriorate).

 Lance being a perv with the camera...OR taking inspiration from the Valley....

 More of Love Valley

 Lamy!!! We were a sweaty mess during the hike. Very hot (thermally) for these Canadians :)

 View of the village of Goreme from the terrace of our hotel's restaurant.

 Lamy again! We have determined that black and white photos make us more desirable looking - less pasty.

 We took a day tour that included a stop at a monastery built into the rock. Below is what they figure to be the communal dining area. The long strip of rock was the dining table.

 We also visited the only known ancient city found so far in Cappadocia. The site is under excavation but is a slow process due to lack of funding. There were some beautiful preserved mosaics but neither Lance and I can remember when they dated from. Typical.

 The "Domed Church" in Soganli valley.

 Trying to make a run for it in the underground city of Derinkuyu (the deepest underground city in Cappadocia - approximately 85 meters deep)

 Lance at the bottom of a very steep and very small stairway leading to one of the lowest levels we were given access to in Derinkuyu.The stairwells were built to be particularly narrow to minimize the ability of invaders to make their way into the lower levels of the city.

 One of the common areas in Derinkuyu which also had living quarters, kitchen areas, a wine cellar, a schooling area, a chapel, a place to house the animals and also a very small and kinda scary area to store dead bodies when it was too dangerous to bury them outside.

 Tiny bathroom to accommodate a tiny bladder. Right after this photo was taken, I walked into the piece of plywood at the top of the outhouse. HARD. Like, full blast. I was no longer smiling.

Inside the tiny bathroom with low ceiling. Where's the toilet you ask? Yah. It's quite normal in many parts of Turkey. No conventional toilet. Just a hole with foot placeholder thingy's. Makes for an interesting visit when the Sultan is around.

 Hot air balloon ride day! So exciting! We got to watch our balloon being prepped for flight. We had to get up super early that morning (4:30 am) for a 5am pick up. Apparently the weather conditions are perfect early in the morning.

 Looking down from our balloon once in flight.
                                      

 Between 70 and 80 balloons go up every day in Cappadocia making it one of the most busy places for balloon rides in the world.

 We arrived alive after our 70 minute flight. I didn't know it when we went up but found out afterwards....apparently people die in these things. A couple of years ago there was a crash and someone plummeted to their death. Doro and Euny, don't worry. We are fine.

Celebration for not dying! Champagne!