Had a nice breakfast overlooking the Aegean sea and then of to Antalya with a few stops on the way. Our first stop was an abandoned Greek village. The place had once housed around 5000 people but after the Turkish-Greek war and Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 the entire Greek population left Turkey with whatever they could carry on their backs to go to Greece or the wider world. Quite sad and made Christos very emotional.
We wandered amongst the ruins and met a local Turkish hippy who was making jewelry from olive pits. After he found out Christos' grandfather had been one of the Greeks who had left Asia Minor around 1923, he gave us both gifts; small pieces of pottery from dishes that had been abandoned almost 90 years ago! He also gave us a CD of local music with both Turkish and Greek influences.
We then drove to a beautiful gorge carved through the mountains where we stopped to dip our toes in the cool natural spring water bursting from underground! Scenic place but a bit busy for our tastes. Then it was a long drive through the ancient country of Lycia on the way to Antalya. Saw quite a few ruins from the 6th to 7th centuries BC including the Xanthian Obelisk (pictured) that had Greek one one side and two Lycian languages on the other sides as a grave marker for a famous wrestler.
It is of significant historical importance as it served as a translating device similar to the Rosetta Stone!
We then continued the drive to Antalya with a short stop for some excellent fresh crab by the seaside, finally arriving around 7:30pm. While enjoying the crab feast we noticed that we had a guest in our booth (or perhaps we were guests in its booth); a mantis!
Now its off to dinner before a good night's sleep.
We wandered amongst the ruins and met a local Turkish hippy who was making jewelry from olive pits. After he found out Christos' grandfather had been one of the Greeks who had left Asia Minor around 1923, he gave us both gifts; small pieces of pottery from dishes that had been abandoned almost 90 years ago! He also gave us a CD of local music with both Turkish and Greek influences.
We then drove to a beautiful gorge carved through the mountains where we stopped to dip our toes in the cool natural spring water bursting from underground! Scenic place but a bit busy for our tastes. Then it was a long drive through the ancient country of Lycia on the way to Antalya. Saw quite a few ruins from the 6th to 7th centuries BC including the Xanthian Obelisk (pictured) that had Greek one one side and two Lycian languages on the other sides as a grave marker for a famous wrestler. 
It is of significant historical importance as it served as a translating device similar to the Rosetta Stone!
We then continued the drive to Antalya with a short stop for some excellent fresh crab by the seaside, finally arriving around 7:30pm. While enjoying the crab feast we noticed that we had a guest in our booth (or perhaps we were guests in its booth); a mantis!
Now its off to dinner before a good night's sleep.
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