Fethiye

We said goodbye to a crestfallen Asher (as he'd lost his glasses the day before) over doner before boarding the six hour bus to Fethiye. Bus ride on Kamil Koç was uneventful except for the fact that it was the nicest bus we rode in Turkey - so take them if you can. We arrived in the Fethiye bus station around sunset and got in touch with our Couchsurfing host, Engin, who was still at the office. So we met him there, along with his friend, Söke, who was visiting in town for a couple weeks. We grabbed a drink at the Blue Wave bar where we met up with another friend of their's, Guvenc, then all of us went back to Engin's townhouse.

It was like hanging out with friends from home. These guys had a hilarious dynamic in their group. It was like the Big Lebowski trio - Engin was the Dude, Guvenc was Walter, and Söke was definitely Donny. So funny just to watch them squabble, even if it was in Turkish and we didn't understand it. Our nights covered a whole range of things from doing the can-can to Turkish music to discussing the repurposing of apples. We also disappointed them greatly by not being aware of the cartoon "Lucky Luke" or "Redkit," if you come from Turkey, which was basically akin to them never hearing of the Simpsons to us. As it turns out, Lucky Luke, while it is set in the States, is actually a Belgian cartoon, so we were off the hook... but we crushed more than one Turk's perception of America that night...

Aside from chillin' and illin' with Fethiye's finest, we also managed to get out to the famous Oludeniz beach and its associated Blue Lagoon. Basically, it's all one huge stretch of beautiful sand beach that comes to a dramatic point in a channel of water, cutting off the sea and creating a large lagoon on the other side of the isthmus. So peaceful that we went back a second day.

In fact, that was pretty much all we did in Fethiye outside of hang out with the guys. But there are worse ways to spend one's time than lounging on pristine beaches and swimming through crystal clear, absolutely still seawater. If we'd had more time, we would have assuredly gone to the Butterfly Valley and maybe done some other stuff in Fethiye itself, but we were quite content with what we did.

Our last night in town, we went out for drinks at the fish market in town, after a dinner of köfte at a super-tasty and cheap place. Guvenc ended up getting some fish at the market (he joined us later and hadn't eaten) so we got to see how it works: you sit at one of maybe six restaurants in a huge courtyard with tables from each place scattered in the different corners and pick your fish from the fish stalls in the middle of the courtyard. You pay the fishmonger for your fish then bring it to the
restaurant of your choosing for them to cook however you prefer, then they serve it with sides of rice and salad. The fish price depends on what you get and how much of it you want... but the restaurant charge is a flat 5 lira/peron... or about 2.5 euros! Crazy cheap... if only we'd been hungry... but we got to try a bite of Guvenc's delicious fruit of the sea and all got in on the photographing, including this shot that makes me look much, much tinier than I actually am.

And that was Fethiye. We said our goodbye's, packed our bags, and headed to the bus station the next day, grateful for Engin's hospitality
(the guy gave us his own room!) and the friendship of all those crazy Turks in Fethiye...