Day 7 & 8: Kas - The Beautiful Fishermen's Town

When we left Oludeniz we knew we were heading to heavily favored Kas and before that we wanted to do couple of pit stops. First, we wanted to see the famous Saklikent Gorge that was on the way to Kas. This interesting little town was discovered only 20 years ago and the water coming down from the mountains created this amazing gorge. We only walked 200m and saw fast running freezing cold stream. Total hike required water shoes and it was4km long. They had a cool little set up table right on the river where we sipped our beer with fries while dangling our feet in the freezing water.

Saklikent Gorge and the restaurent at the entrance

After Saklikent our next stop was posh little town of Kalkan. This heavily rich British tourist filled spot was nowhere compared to Icmeler or Oludeniz. No hassling or funny business at Kalkan and people were very elegant. Spent the afternoon at the their small public beach and head an amazingly delish dinner at Aubergine restaurant. My friend Gurcan recommended this place and he was spot on as far as the quality of food and the service. Right be the harbor overlooking at a sunset we experienced the best food so far that we had in Turkey. As the night got closer we headed to our destinatin -Kas. Finding our hotel for the next two days was easy as Kas downtown is a very small to get around. We headed to the centre right away to get a feel of the town. Sunday night @ 10pm there were no seats available at the famous celebrity spot Mavi Bar. We walked around the cobblestoned streets and ended up sitting at Cafe Barcelona, which had the most international crowd in Kas. Talking to the owner who opened the bar in 95' and he says that there were bearly any bars or restaurants then and Kas was even smaller. Ellen got too excited about Kas that her body needed some adjustment as she started feeling nausea.

View from our room at Kas Otel

Delicious Levraki (Levrek with Raki saace) at Nereid Meyhanesi

The next day we didn't want to do the all day boat trip but rather spend a day doing nothing. Kas' water is interesting in that it is really calm in the morning until abut noon and it gets very choppy until the evening and it gets calm again later in the evening. Hotter the weather gets more wavy the water becomes. Our Kas Otel did have exactly what we wanted. Decent rooms and a beach access. As Ellen finished her book and I got closer to the end of mine we didn't think that we would be tanning under the shade - at least I didn't:) it was a hazy day too so I didn't put any sunblock. My legs didn't appreciate that as I couldn't toss & turn when I was sleeping at night. The 2nd evening in Kas we wanted to have a dinner at Bilal's place but apparently you needed a boat to get to where the restaurant was. The day before I noticed a quaint little Greek taverna called Nereid meyhanesi which had old Turkish and Greek songs playing. We were given the best seats of the restaurant up at the terrace overlooking the entire Kas village. Had a great large Levrek (Sea Bass) with delicious local mezes - Borani, Selaniko, warm local vegetables and zucchini and yogurt dip. Ended the night with a Turkish tea nd hookah (one of the best hookahs i had) as it was still hot in midnight. Way to cool off just like the Egyptians:) it wasn't hard to fall asleep that day lemme tell you that. By the way, the book that I'm reading is called Oracle of Stamboul by Oakland resident author Michael David Lukas. It takes place in Istanbul in around 1870s as the Ottoman Empire collapsing. For suspense and thriller lovers with a cultural spin I highly recommend the book.

Kaputas Beach at Sunset

Kaputas Beach

Our last day in Kas was completely spent in Turkey's most amazing little beach - Kaputas. The turquoise water, warm sands, good looking waves made the place live uptomits expectations. It was a Ramadan Tuesday in Kaputas Beach so we didn't have too many people around noon. Yet again, we decided to do nothing but lay by the beach. Kaputas will always be special place for us. This was also the end of our beach part of the vacation. We were off to Cappadocia tonight dropping our 10 day friend/ car to the Antslya airport and taking the latr plane directly to Kayseri. As we drove we stopped by our Kas Otel again, and even though we checked out, our favorite guy there allowed us to take a shower in one of the empty rooms. Making good connections always helps. Drive to Antalya was long and windy but we made it to our flight in last minute, thanks to the rental company guy, who dropped us to the domestic airlines drop-off. He was so kind and Europcar is a great company to rent a car in Europe. I have rented from them in Barcelona as well and they don't charge for drop off fees so you can leave your car any Europcar location. Checked in to our hotel around midnight in Kayseri. Kas, we will always miss you...