Wednesday, June 15
The sheets were short and scratchy and the pillows lumpy but we slept like logs and woke up nice and refreshed. Guess what was for breakfast!? Cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, and bread. Again. It's tasty but some variety would be nice.
We had a kayaking trip booked for 10am but it got off to a slow start. We had to wait for some French guys to join us, then we had some Turkish tea with the guide, then three more people joined us and we finally started loading the kayaks to head down to the beach at around 11.
We floated down a little creek and then out into the sea. The kayaks were good quality, not the short, fat recreational kind. We paddled a couple miles down the coast to a remote little beach that could only be reached by boat. It was awesome! Swimming in the Mediterranean is so easy, it's almost cheating. In fresh water my legs sink and my torso barely stays at the surface. In the salt water I felt like I had a built-in life jacket. I've been in the gulf of mexico several times before but this felt different. I attempted to snorkel with minimal success. Didn't like the feeling of sucking air through a small tube. Anyway, we hung out for an hour before heading back. It was getting into the afternoon by this time and everyone was getting hungry. Lunch was included with the trip and it was delicious. Turkish pancakes with potatoes and spinach. We ate with the rest of the people who were on the trip. It was nice to chat with other young travelers. The French guys didn't speak much English but the three others did. There was an Italian guy who was studying in turkey, his Turkish girlfriend, and her friend. We were discussion our travel schedule and they couldn't believe we didn't hit the huge clubs in Istanbul. I guess we aren't that young after all.
After lunch we showered and packed up. We had some time to kill so we just lounged at the pension in the nice comfortable couch/tables under the shade of grape vines. The relaxing morning was a nice touch before our next major travel. Shuttle bus to the main road, another bus to antalya, kill an hour in the bus station, overnight bus to goreme. Total travel time, about 11 hours. It was worth it though. Goreme was beyond our expectations!
