2014 - AEGEAN ODYSSEY - FETHIYE, Turkey

It's been a while now since the cruise started & I am into a nice relaxed routine.

Breakfast is either on the terrace or by the Lido pool.

Never the same food twice running. Fry up one day, Cold meat & cheese another. A muffin & Yoghurt. Lots of choices.

The Lido is a 'Healthy' version. Which means no fried stuff.

It should be a nice covered area but is incredibly noisy from the ships engines & it shakes. Not the best place to spend an evening, but ok for a quick bite. Tea & coffee are available all day here so I take a cup from here up one deck to the bar overlooking the pool. They charge 2.80 + 12.5% service for the same thing up there which is bizarre.

Anyway - today I am still in Turkey at Fethiye .... Who knew Turkey would be so beautiful?

This could be a Dolphin ....

Lots of Mosques in Turkey. More Mosques than schools.

There's the Dolphin again ....

The light is changing by the minute. Hardly anyone on deck taking photos ..

The tour today is going to take in these buildings carved into the cliff face - Petra style ...

I stopped into a shop for a snack & came out with a small package of what turned out to be chick pea flour made into little balls. People I offered a bite were a bit wary but it tasted ok to me.

The cat did not get any ...

We have now arrived at a very strange place.

A ghost town ... Really.

The Turkish & Greek governments arranged a swap of their people. Turkish back to Turkey. Greeks to Greece.

The guide told us that this town, or at least the upper part of it became uninhabited because the incoming people did not want to live away from the flat lands or did not want to live in houses previously occupied.

My own guess is there were just less Turkish people coming back than Greeks leaving.

The empty houses can just be seen on the hillside in the glare from the sun ..

Pomegranates ...

Also notice how green it is. A marked contrast with Greece

After the ghost town, time for a pee break & a snack. Some sort of spinach pancake - quite tasty.

The hotel is run by a lady from Blackpool!

Nice pool.

We were scheduled to take a a few hours walking through the woods to the beach but the walkways had been washed away by a recent storm so we went by bus.

A nice looking beach but the attraction here ( apart from the topless tourists which was a surprise ) are the Hang-gliders..

Hundreds of them. Flying in from the top of the mountains. Landing all around us.

Looks like great fun

And back to the ship.

Evenings are also getting a rhythm.

A drink before dinner at the bar above the pool. Hardly anyone visits here. Therese & Paul are regulars. Randy sometimes. Lovely to be able to sit out on deck

Dinner at eightish, out on the terrace at a table for eight where anyone joins in.

and we did actually have Turkey - in Turkey.

I only went to the more formal dining room twice for dinner.

After dinner, the music was pleasant for a few nights but sounds the same mostly every night. A duo or a threesome. I don't linger there much beyond a cup of tea.

There is a film on the big screen in the lounge most nights but I never saw one the whole way through.

I skip the lectures but do attend the odd excursion briefings as Jenny, the excursion girl is very informative, easy on the ear & very easy on the eye.