Olympos, Turkey

"I sought love, I found independence. I sought direction, I found freedom. I sought wisdom, I found uncertainty. I guess in the end you may not find what you're looking for, but you find what you really need." -From the beach of Olympos

If there is a single place I will never forget its Olympos, Turkey. We got there at night, took a 2 hour taxi winding through the mts in the dark to pull up to “Bayrams Treehouse Pension”… we step out of the van having no idea what to expect, walk to the bar to grab our key, pass the campfire and get warmly greeted by about 7 people having a beer in the warmth of the fire. We dodge the oranges hanging on the trees to get to our treehouse dorm, set our bags down, the host closes the door behind us and we all stamper our feet, squeal and doing a little dance in celebration and excitement! So you want to talk about that little kid excitement? Yes!

(our tree house)


Our host asks if we’re hungry and we admit we were, sure enough as we get some hot apple tea (available 24/7) he heats up soup & a dinner plate with a basket of bread. It was such ‘poor people’s’ (cheaply made) food and we ate like we were starving children alright. We kept laughing at ourselves and once we could get our breath back we’d start discussing how lucky we felt. Out of all the people in the world, why us? Out of all the places in the world, how here? We felt so incredibly lucky and I still do.



I want to appropriately thank my Uncle Eric and family friend Dale who told us about this place and encouraged me to visit. They were so right, it was the perfect place for me to visit… thank you guys!



This is another experience I don’t want to explain for everyone get drastically different opinions and images, after all I say a tree house community and people think of huge trees with a little hut you climb into via a tall wooden latter, which it wasn’t the case. Sure there were some models like that but they were homey little cabin type places made of just wood on stilts.

(inside view of home)


So to give some kind of visual, I stayed in a valley with one dirt road leading into the community. There are multiple treehouse pensions and even treehouse restaurants. We were towards the end of the road, which was great. That meant that we were a 2 minute walk from the gate to get into the old ruins and only 8-10mins from the water. The ruins in Olympos were my favorite even after traveling through Europe, especially Greece and Italy. These were so natural, so untouched and respected. There wasn’t construction going on like everywhere else and the ruins were through a vast amount of space. So each day we would pick a few things to hike to ranging from tombs, old roman bathes, old churches and even an old castle… which brings me to a funny story…

(bathing in the old roman bath)

(huge tomb)







So Kassidy is the one I room with back in Cyprus and she is a hoot! This girl is the most outgoing and adventurous person I know. So sure enough I’m journaling on the beach and she goes I think I’m just going to swim over to that point out there! I kind of turn my head and say okay, this point was years away and she wanted to swim there! Well she’s a big girl so I sit and watch her swim for 10-15 minutes and finally I can’t watch anymore, pack up my things and start hiking to the castle built up on the hill. Huffing and puffing I got to the top and the view took my breath away (ha). You could see the entire beach from a bird’s eye view. Standing there taking pictures I all of a sudden hear the bushes crackle and it startles me, I have no idea why or how I thought this but I instantly yelled out “KASSIDY!” and sure enough I hear “YEAAAH!”. I start cracking up because I couldn’t believe it, I hiked the side of the mt, through the ruins like any other person would, but nope, not Kassidy! That girl swam for a solid 20+ minutes and then climbed up a cliff side to get to the castle. She is hilarious and we couldn’t believe it… not to mention she totally thought I swam after her and climbed up with her, HA! Adopting her spirit in calmer terms, we kept hiking higher and higher. The views were incredible.

(view from castle and near by hiking areas)




Kassidy and I could not come to terms with leaving Olympos so early. Never have a cancelled a flight but before dinner Friday evening my plane ticket back to Cyprus was no longer! Best choice I’ve made in a long time… I was in Olympos for 5 days and 5 nights.



Basically our days consisted of waking up around 9:30, eating community breakfast, taking a few minutes to digest in the hammocks, picking an orange for the road, enjoying the sunshine at the beach (swimming, tanning, journaling, etc) and then around 3 the direct sun would fall behind the mts which made it perfect for hiking and looking at the ruins. In the evening we ate at 6pm and by that time we were starving (yes there were places to buy food but we were saving money and enjoying the simple living). We ate with our friends and then we might send an email or two, read a school book, go for a run, hangout by the fire, adventure to the beach or the internal flames… all which were accomplished.

(hammock)


(beach)


(swimming)


(hiking)


(sunset)


(internal flames)


We made good friends with a lot of the people there. It was funny, the last few days Kassidy and I were making the most of the days and we would get back at 5:59pm right before dinner still wearing just our swimsuits and the hosts would laugh and crack jokes as everyone has all their layers of clothing on, gathered around the fire with tea. We were close to two Swedish guys (one born in Turkey), a couple from Australia & two female travelers from Australia. They were great, sadly they left and then we met two single American travelers and I did not enjoy their presence (one was 60, called himself a photographer and was an *ss when we were talking about the art, Americans…) but I also met a girl from Vancouver, Canada which was so refreshing and I loved her outlook on life. She took a semester off from school and she was traveling all through Turkey, looking to go back to Istanbul to teach English. The other guy I liked to chill with was an Iranian just traveling by himself. Good times with some incredible and inspiring people.



Random Stories!
• Our first real view of Olympos was Saturday morning when we got up at 9am, put on our running clothes and just started running towards the water. We ran through the old ruins, down the trail with trees changing colors, reflective fresh water to our right and it lead us to one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. The morning sun felt so good, we walked on the rocky beach and following Shami’s lead, we stripped off our clothes and dove right in. Those 45 minutes are still my favorite out of the entire week, it was fantastic.
• After dinner one night I hopped in a hammock to chill and this little guy, about 18 months walked over to me. The family was from Moscow and didn’t speak English but that didn’t matter. He waddled over, grabbed my hammock and started to swing it… he thought it was hilarious! I was panicked thinking he might fall but sure enough he kept doing and kept laughing harder and harder. We had his entire family’s attention as well as everyone else eating their dinner… no one could resist his giggle!
• Hiker puppy! The animals are so funny there. A few examples, Kassidy and I hiked the furthest mt side and half way up we saw a dog and sure enough he hiked with us all through the mts and valleys, we called him hiker puppy and even took his picture at the last outlook. I also had Milo and Mouse (we named them) and they were adorable cats that wanted food during meals but were so loving during the evenings, one night Milo kept me warm as he took a long snooze on me as we enjoyed some wine with friends. The best story came from 20 minutes before I left though. I was walking by myself and found a kitten the size of my hand. I pet him and made friends and then I went to walk away, but he wouldn’t leave me! Every step I took he’d take four quick leaps to catch up and then stop cause that foot would be stationary, until I took another step and it was 4-5 huge leaps for him again. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone passing me couldn’t believe it and kept asking how long he had been following me, about 10 minutes in total, minus the Turkish men who stopped to take a picture with me (white girl with blue eyes, how different! Haha). I have a video of the kitty following me, I’ll have to post sometime : )

(hiker puppy)


(kitty)


(This is a story by itself, cheers to everyone who knows the story!)



Without getting into too much detail I just want to share what a healing experience this was. Sure I did a lot while I was there, but it was all on a much slower, simple pace of life. It provided me time to reflect, think and appreciate everything and everyone in my life. I’ve never felt so at peace with all aspects of my life. I’m quite honestly rather proud of myself and all I can do is hope that I’ve made you proud, it doesn’t matter if you’re parents, my distant friend or a friend of a family friend… I hope I make you proud and I hope at least one small part of my life journey touches you, inspires you or makes you appreciate something in your life.


So thank you all from deep down in my heart…. Thank you.