Yassas! Kastellorisoz

γεια σου ελλαδα, hello from Greece. This morning we took the Meis ferry from Turkiye  to Greece, it took all of 20 minutes and as soon as we entered Greek waters up went the Greek flag. 

Kastellorisoz is a tiny isolated island, probably the furthest from Athens in the Dodecanese island group. It has limited cars on the island so it's absolutely peaceful and as pretty as a picture. The movie Mediterraneo was filmed here in 1991 and it still looks like a movie set, it's gorgeous. Approx 500 permanent residents live here year round. Water laps at your feet in the port as you sit and admire the views. 

We had 2.5hrs before the Rhodes ferry docked so we had an early lunch and wandered the little back lanes.

[Delicious seafood shared plate with octopus, calamari, little fish and olive oil cooked hand cut french fries 👌]

If course as soon as you sit down there's always a kitty cat waiting for scraps.

We also saw a huge turtle just cruising along.

The colours of Kastellorisoz are stunning, not the usual sugar cube white houses with blue trim, but a kaleidoscope of vibrant colour. 

The back lanes were equally as interesting as the port. Lots of old buildings crumbling away with a handful of homes clearly still lived in. 

We noticed around the port buildings many old bullet holes in the concrete which led me to look up what happened here during WW2, too much to detail here but fascinating to say the least, Brits, Italians and Greeks battling for control of this strategic port as a torpedo base and radio communications station. 

Even today the Greek Navy has a ship in the harbour, I bet it's a plumb posting to Kastellorisoz!

We had to watch our time as there was only one ferry to Rhodos today and we needed to be on it. 

They don't muck about with the offloading and on-boarding new passengers, it took all of 15 minutes and we were off heading out to the open water.

A short visit to stunning Kastellorisoz

Farewell Turkey

Güle güle, good bye to Turkiye. It's been  fantastic. We started in Istanbul with merino sweaters and down puffer jackets,  and we leave from the Turquoise Coast in shorts and T-shirts. 

Annually Turkiye hosts millions of tourists and you can see why it's so popular. In 2022 there were 46million foreign tourist visitors!

 

 It has it all, Eastern and Western influences, amazing archeological sites, stunning Mediterranean coastal towns and villages, any kind of adrenaline sport, incredible mountains and national parks, beautiful art and culture, the famous mosques and archeological museums in Istanbul, fantastic cuisine, beautiful welcoming people...it really does have it all.

It  may feel a little behind the tourist sophistication stakes in some places but that is part of its charm. We've loved it. The people have been kind, friendly, helpful and generous. Where language appeared to be a barrier, sign language and smiles broke the ice and google translate was helpful too. 

In both cities and villages they care for the street cats and dogs and  treat them as part of their community. Volunteers leave water and food out across feeding stations and in Istanbul we saw shop keepers that had put little shelters for the streets animals under the shelter of their shops. 

We've seen terrible treatment of dogs in Spain so it's heartening to see the food and water spots for the street animals in Turkiye. It speaks volumes how a community, across the board, cares for its stray animals. 

They have a breed of dog, a Kangol, that traditionally was a mountain dog that guarded sheep and goat herds from wolves. It's the biggest dog I've ever seen.  They have the strongest bite of all dogs, allegedly they are the only dogs that can see off wolves. I think the odd Kangol has been breeding with terriers as we've seen so many funny little/big dogs laying around. These odd doggos have large Kangol bodies and short terrier legs ....a new breed is born. All the Kangol's we've seen in villages have just wagged their tails and gone back to sleeping in the sun.

 

As we have  wandered about we've seen turtles, snakes, lizards and butterflies. We were warned about scorpions and leaving our packs zips fully closed and not lifting up rocks but we didn't see any thank goodness. We've felt incredibly safe here, safer than in New Zealand. We've seen car windows and doors left open all day...there appears to be a sense of community trust here that I feel we have lost in New Zealand . We've gotten to grips with bidets and the 'don't flush the toilet paper' approach, well sort of 🤫.

Still processing the role of  women in society, they sure do appear to do a lot of the work with little acknowledgement. Thank you to all the 'mumma's' out the back in restaurants that fed us so well while the blokes sat out front smoking. Thank you to all the ladies who  did the lion's share of the cleaning and organising....I saw very old ladies high in the mountains miles from anywhere herding flocks, almost bent double....where were all the younger men? 

Ramadan ends next week so we won't be able to be a part of the Eid el-Fitr festival's that run for the following week which is a bit if a shame.  We've had a marvellous time in Turkiye and take away some treasured memories, we're travelling light........ so no carpets! 

Kas

After the trip health & safety officer made the call it was too hot to be climbing up steep mountains with heavy backpacks we hit the coast road to Kas. We took a little dolmus/minibus that hugged the beach road and I think it has to be the cheapest most scenic bus route in the land. The views were spectacular and check out the colour of the water in the picture above (taken through dirty minibus windows😃).

What a gorgeous marina/port Kas has. Our last night in Kalkan was the night of the local elections and the town was certainly happy with whatever the outcome was, I think it was the CHP party that was the winner. From about 8pm that night all manner of cars, trucks and taxis were driving up and down, tooting their horns, fireworks were going off until the wee hours and we think we heard gun shots....quite a night when you add in the call to prayer from the nearest mosque. 

Needless to say after our journey from Kalkan to Kas we were a bit tired so we saw the sun go down in Kas and hit the hay. All ready for a good night's sleep until we discovered we were very close to the neighbourhood mosque which had super loud speakers. It was just across the road, ah well, we're getting used to the call to prayer at 0448hrs, 0613hrs, 1249hrs, 1912hrs, 2031hrs🙂

We have a cute little studio which has a snazzy outdoor kitchen and patio and we have a glimpse of the sea. Perfect spot for us to plan our onwards journey in a few days.

The Kas harbour side is a pretty as a picture. It's getting all spruced up for the season proper starting in May,  so in places it's like a building site, scrappy and a bit grubby.

The locals tell us the weather is very warm for this time of year  -  great for us now we have revised our Likya Yolu walking adventure. We did take a walk to Antiphellos to see the sun go down, it was just perfect, a pinch yourself moment. 

In the town today there was a celebration for the successful election candidates. It was chaos but marvellous to see and be a part of, albeit at the edges. The main road was clogged with cars and the obligatory horn honking, police cars with flashing lights, tv cameras and the local party faithful bedecked the town with bunting and banners.

They had these terrific floral tributes outside the municipality offices.

There was a great deal of speechifying and then it all went quiet as a lone trumpeter played this beautiful tune which we think was akin to The Last Post. All the men in the street stood silent, horns stopped, a moment of silence.

This was promptly followed by hearty  singing and cheering. Wonderful to observe.

Some night shots just to prove we do venture out after dark 🙂

Local cuisine

We've been asked what the local food is like, I'll think I'll let the pictures do the talking🙂 remember you can click on the picture to zoom in mum😁.

Man cannot live by bread alone but they sure give it a try here. Fresh bread of all shapes and sizes, simmet bread, gozleme....too much!

So much fresh cooked street food which is delicious. We had amazing grilled fish wraps in Istanbul. We always ensure it's cooked fresh in front of us.. just in case 😃

You can get fancy-schmancy cuisine, it's all pretty good,  fabulous to taste new mixes of herbs and spices. We love the sumac mix they have in the spice options, delicious!

A couple of times in small villages we ate where the village people ate, canteen style where you point at what you would like and it's plated up for you. We've loved the stuffed capsicums and a leek vegetable mix 👌

A favourite discovery is menemen, possibly could be described as a cross between shakshuka and scrambled eggs with green capsicums, sumac and spices.... delicious!

Most days start with a healthy Mediterranean breakfast, it sets you up for the day.

The fresh squeezed juices are great, especially pomegranate and OJ mixed.

It is great to watch the gozleme pancakes being made on these big round burners, the mix of spinach, dill, goats cheese....mmmmmm!

You hear chickens wherever you are, even in the old  town in Istanbul so it follows fresh eggs make great omelettes. After a long day hiking an omelette never tasted so good.

You won't go hungry in Turkey, there's so much to choose from and we're doing our best to ensure we try a range of different flavours. We're not complaining 😃😃😃

Farewell Kalkan

 

We had a planning day and revisited the next four days on the Likya Yolu trail that would take us to Kas, our intended jumping off point to the Greek islands. 

The next four days on the trail looked to be  pretty much the same as the ground we had covered. There would be distant sea views from the cliff tops,  open ground with no shade,  sparse mountain villages and with no parts of the trail taking us close to the actual sea shore. Taking all this into account, and the next four days weather forecast of temps in the late 20's°C , the trip health & safety officer made a call to ditch the trail and instead find our way  along the coast roads by public bus where possible. 

After our planning meeting we wandered along the little lanes of the old town. Of course lunch was needed and we had a superb lunch of grilled octopus, local caught sea bass, grilled calamari and salad.

You can see the why it's called the turquoise coast, the water is crystal clear.

Farewell Kalkan, a very chilled out little seaside village. We were lucky to have stayed pre season and enjoyed the quiet, laid back vibe.