Türkiye: Bopping Around on the Mediterranean

 Merhaba! It's Nikita covering our fun adventures along the Turkish coast. 

When we were initially sketching our 6-month adventure, Turkey wasn't in our original plan. Due to some visa constraints, we had to pivot quickly, and it became a pretty attractive option for us. There are gorgeous coastlines, history, and nature to explore. We've started our Turkey leg (no pun intended) on the coast and the sheer beauty of the turquoise waters certainly did not disappoint. At this point in our journey, we are fully settled into long-term traveling and don't have the same energy as we did in the beginning. We truly needed a break from how fast we were moving in the Balkans. R&R was the name of the game for this week. Along the Turkish Rivera, we spent time on a Koda Sail cruise, a small beach village called Çirali, and the big mega resort city of Antalya.

Koda Sail

To kick things off, we booked a 7-day journey with Koda Sail. A huge selling point for us is that they cater to "young professionals" between 25-40 which we found is a unique niche for the type of experience we were looking for, party a little bit but also relax and hangout with everyone. For us, it was meant to be a time where we could turn our brains off and meet some cool new people. For the most part, we got just that. 

Overall, the cruise felt really different from the rest of our trip so far. We started and ended in Fethiye and headed east a few miles before turning back. The beauty of a cruise is that we didn't have to figure out where we were going, the bus schedules, the hotel for the night, etc. It was all included and really refreshing. The views were stunning, and I can't believe we got to spend so much dedicated time enjoying it. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Sunset at St. Nick's Island

Kas

Kekova

Sea kayaking

I'm going to spend more of this section reflecting on our experience vs. the agenda. Our group had 13 people in total traveling from all over the world: the UK, Spain, the US, New Zealand, and Australia. It was a good mix of couples and solo travelers who were traveling for various lengths of time. I'm always a little bit skeptical when a tour company boasts that we'll make friends for a lifetime after the week, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked our group. Our tour leader Henry fostered a great environment where we could relax, play games, and party as a group. Chester and I got along with mostly everyone, which I call a win. With so many different personalities, it was bound to happen that there were some personalities that didn't gel with ours. Contrary to our "normal travel day," it was an incredibly social week where we got to build solid relationships with everyone, including the crew. Usually, it's been just Chester and myself, and on a day tour we may meet someone to have a drink with but then we part ways. This was refreshingly different. 

The group

Playing drinking games

Winners of Boat Olympics (Chester's team)

Runner ups and great sports about it (my team)

We loved the crew: the captain, first mate, deck hand, and chef. The first mate, Deniz, was really helpful, sweet, and hilarious. He really put up with a lot: our drunk shenanigans, all of us pestering him for something, and making sure that we were safely getting from one location to another. He was the true MVP of the experience, and we're lucky to have met him. Mustafa, the chef, created healthy and delicious Turkish meals all week. Furkan, the deckhand, always had a warm smile on his face and made a mean Aperol Spritz. Ali, the captain, I always greeted at 4 AM when I would inevitably get cold from sleeping under the stars and need to move downstairs. He somehow was always awake at that time.

Furkan and Deniz

Captain Ali cooking us fish for the night

Chef Mustafa in the middle on our last morning

With all of us being around the same age, we generally were on the same page. We gave each other space when we needed it, and we rallied and partied when the time came. This group really knew how to have fun. We were always on the dance floor dancing to the greatest hits that the Turkish DJs knew travelers would love like Bohemian Rhapsody and the Macarena (big LOL). Something we haven't had enough of on this trip is a good night of dancing, and we got three. I'll fully admit I don't have the endurance to rage quite the same way I did when I was younger, and I was ready to call it quits earlier than some of the group. I ended up taking on the role of mom and took care of a couple of people while we were there.

All in all it was a ridiculously fun week with a group of strangers that turned into friends. Rapid fire list of things I enjoyed about our cruise

• Sleeping on deck under the stars
• Delicious Turkish food for every meal
• Bonding with the group and the crew
• Taking really cool photos on my Fujifilm that everyone has used on their own social media
• Playing games, I like some organized fun
• Exploring the town of Kas
• Swimming multiple times a day
• Going out to the traveler's bars

Çirali

After a week of socializing, we were ready to get back to just the two of us. We were exhausted. We were warned the week on the boat would be relaxing but not restful, and that was 100% the case. Our sleep wasn't great mainly due to the heat and early times the boat needed to move. We were looking forward to our next destination in Çirali to be a solid rot spot for us. Çirali is a small beach village an hour away from the mega resort city of Antalya. It's got a really backpacker, rustic feel to it, and we were excited to go somewhere a little quieter and less busy.

One taxi, two buses, and one shuttle later we made it to our accommodation. It was brutally hot that day with temperatures reaching 107F, and we were looking forward to air conditioning that we could control for the first time in 7 days (the boat had certain times we could have it on). We check in to our hotel and turned on the air conditioning to have the whole grid in the town shut off. This lasted for 30 minutes and then it came back on to have it be cut again an hour later. I honestly was about to cry at that point. We decided to head to dinner and hope that we could find a generator with some relief from the heat. Food, water, and a fan really did wonders and we came back to a room with electricity!

Overall, we had a relaxing time here. We went to a hammam, a traditional Turkish bath, where we got scrubbed down, bathed, a relaxing massage, and a face mask. This kind of pampering hit the spot. Some of the aches and pains of traveling melted away and we felt refreshed. We explored the Olympos ruins that were next to a river that fed into the sea. This was the first of a few ruins we would be seeing on this part of the trip. We obviously did some swimming in the Mediterranean and enjoyed the sea views. And of course, lots of rest and rotting were done. After a couple days of that, we headed to Antalya.

View from our room

Dinner spot had the bill in my favorite Christmas movie! (The Holiday)

Making distant friends with all the strays of course

Çirali

Olympos Ruins

Mornings

Antalya

I'll keep Antalya fairly brief. It's the fourth biggest city in Turkey and is known to be a resort destination for primarily Russians, Germans, and Brits. In fact, it's number 6 on the most visited cities in the world. We opted to stay in Old Town, which had that old Ottoman charm. Our plan here was to restock on supplies, do laundry, and rest before we roadtrip through southwestern Turkey. I opted to go to the mall to escape the heat and do some shopping. Chester went to a museum with a new friend from Koda Sail, and we got dinner with him a couple nights and debriefed on our cruise. 

Seeing Reeza, our Koda Sail friend, in Antalya

Corners of our hotel

We were ready to get moving out of the Turkish Rivera. We felt like we spent a good chunk of time there and were ready for more ruins, more sea, and new vibes elsewhere. Stay tuned for the next one!