An unexpected blissful day.
It started off with a trip to view Butterfly Valley from above with a new French friend.
Türkiye is just one of those places where I feel like I'm on a movie set because it's so beautiful it just doesn't look real at times. Am I on the Truman show?
This beach is only accessible by boat and I like that exclusivity. I suppose I could base jump down into it but I'm enjoying life so far and I don't need a rush like that yet.
When I crawled down to get this next photo I thought, “don't be one of those people who die getting a selfie”. While I leaned against this rock my brain popped up the scenario of “what if this whole cliff side just falls off into the sea rn”. Brains are funny things.
I thought this was where the adventure would end but we ended up swimming at Ölüdeniz beach. The water was spectacular, blue, clear, beautiful. The rocks however…a hilarious challenge. If you want this beautiful water, you have to work for it but traversing the rocks.
We swam for quite a bit and I have some very strong lines on my body as a reminder. It was kebab time once again and we walked into Ölüdeniz for a bite.
The kebap was probably my least favorite that I've had here but it sustained my hunger. Even better though was the salata.
I will be making this salata everyday when I return back to Tulsa. Simple, light, and refreshing.
We walked around the Blue Lagoon, which was beautiful but packed with people. The simple Ölüdeniz beach was much better imo.
Ölüdeniz is a very popular paragliding spot, the sky is filled with people floating down the mountain.
We walked around to a few of the shops, stopping for a Nar Suyu (pom juice).
I am loving the knockoffs of Turkiye.
We took another swim break in Ölüdeniz before heading back to Fethiye.
I love how mountainous this area is.
My first time seeing olives growing in the wild.
After a break and greeting by my new cats, it was dinner time.
We were in search of Mantı but the Mantı shop was closed so we saw another place to pop into. A real character greeted us and chatted us up and helped us order food. Then I saw him talking to a cat and I was wondering if he was my new best friend. He had a great energy but it's possible he was intoxicated 😂 as he asked me to bring him some ouid back from Greece. I have seen locked up abroad plenty enough times, international drug smuggling is not in the cards for me 🤣. He was entertaining and hospitable, I love to come across a character like him.
We had chicken soup, lentil soup, salata, pide, and Lahmacun.
Lahmacun is my jammm y'all. It's a meat covered flatbread-ish thing that you put lettuce, onions, tomatoes on and then roll it up and eat it. Soo yum.
Had to have some after dinner çay, stop off at a Migros for more water and fruit, and then it was time to sleep after a full day in the sun.
It was a lovely blissful unexpected day. One for the books for sure.
I will probably not go outside today to give my skin a break. My Airbnb host invited me to a barbecue on Sunday and I'm pretty pumped about getting that invite. It is a Holiday weekend for Muslims here, Eid al-adha.
It's hard to top the experience that I've had here so far but I still have two weeks left, anything could happen.