Olympos....Maybe Heaven on Earth?

Ok boys and girls everyone gather around the computer. Its time for a magical story about an ancient settled nusseled away in Southern Turkey where pirates and various ancient civilations lived. And where some thought a monster lived in the hills. Olympos is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. It is located at the bottom of a huge, mini-mountain. When we were on the bus going to it we turned off onto this gravel road. There were no signs so I had no idea what the driver was doing. We kept driving down and down and around corners. Soon we got into a lot of pine trees. Before I knew it we were there. Olympos is famous for their "treehouse" dwellings. There most be at least 20 different places to stay at and they all claim they have treehouses. The truth is that most of them only have 1 or 2 and a few don't have any at all. Now when I say treehouse I dont mean the kind you had as a kid. Some of them are really fancy. You have a set of stairs to a wooden room basically. Some are just one bed while other have 2 bunk beds. What makes them tree houses can vary. I saw ones that had just the trunk of the tree going through it. Others had 2 or more parts of the tree going through it. They were really cool. I unfortunetly didnt get one. My room was just a box up on stilts. It had planks of wood for siding and shingles on it. BUT they didnt put them close together. So there were gaps all around. I considered it camping but without a tent. I thought I might get cold but I didnt. The treehouses are really the main draw for people to come to Olympos. There is some history though. Rather than type it out here is a link if you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympos

One of the coolest things though was a place called Chimaera. This is a place were flames come out of the ground. It is caused by gases that come out of cracks and when they hit the oxygen in the air, they combust. The first night I got to Olympos some people from the boat and a few other cats and I decided to hike there. Every place offers a shuttle but it is 15 YTL. We knew we could hike there. So we took our torches, that is what Aussies call flashlights, and headed out. We didnt really know where we were going just the direction to go. The hike turned out to be about 7 km eachway. We made great time though. It was worth it because that place was something else. No wonder the ancient people thought a monster lived there. My camera sucks at night but here is a picture I pulled off the net.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FiresChimera2.jpg

That was the first night. The next couple of days I just hiked around and explored the area. It was really nice out. I wish I could have stayed longer but my tour package only had me there for 3 nights. It was good to just relax and take it all in. Here is video I took from the top of the Akropoli.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6oV3llqluA

Tonight I am leaving for Istanbul. Its an overnight bus. YIPPEE! I cant wait to update my time here in Goreme and Cappaducia. I will wait until Istanbul because my hostel has free net and faster upload speeds. Yesterday I started week 7. Time sure does fly. See ya soon. Cheers.

Looking down on Olympos.

Looking down on Olympos.



In ancient castle in the woods.

The castle from the beach.

A pic of a guy I met on my boat cruise. We are in my treehouse.