Day: 27

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I rolled out of bed around 9am, and thanked whoever was in charge for letting me get back to my normal sleep cycle. All that waking up at seven for the first three weeks of my trip was really starting to F with me. I headed over to the kitchen and started my day off with another vegetarian omelet full of a salty cheese, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms, and chased it down with a strong glass of Turkish tea. I didn’t have any real plans for the day, so I asked Benny (one of the Aussies that helps run the place) about a good hike in the area that would take the better part of the day. He told me that there was a nice hike up to a small meadow and the lost city of Olympos, sounded cool.

By now it was 10:30 but before I could start my hike I was missing one vital ingredient, Sunblock. Me being as white as I am can’t really go for another day without some 40spf. I asked around and someone told me there was a little shop about 10 minutes up the road that sold my fix. I headed over there, meandered the isles for a couple of minutes and finally found a nice bottle of Nivea 40spf for a cheap $27 lire! (that’s about $20). Holy Freakin Crap! $20 for sunblock! I knew I was getting taken so I tried to barter the store clerk down, but I am pretty sure he took one look at me and knew he had a sale even if he charged 40 lire. Bastard. I shelled out the money and headed to the trailhead.

The hike was great even though I had a light rain about 2/3rds of the way up. When I got to the top I found a spectacular meadow filled with wildflowers and trees. I spent 20 minutes taking pictures and to the lookout point where a Turkish father and son where enjoying their picnic lunch. We got to talking and I told them all about my trip and they told me other things I just had to see in Turkey. They even gave me an extra cheese sandwich that they had so I could picnic with them. It was great especially since all I had for the day was a bag of peanuts leftover from my ferry ride a few nights ago. I took a long break, meet some more hikers (2 Swiss guys and an Aussie) and headed down so I could still make the end of happy hour at the hostels bar. I also must say that after six hours of hiking I feel out of shape, it was tiring.

I spent the rest of the night drinking Efes (the local Turkish beer), eating another Vegetarian dinner, meeting and dancing with a couple of cute British girls, Rachel and Honey, and just having an all around good time. I think I finally staggered to bed some time at three in the morning.