Kas (pronounced Kash) is a small seaside town of about 5000 inhabitants. We spent three nights, but would have spent more. Kas is set into the mountains that rise steeply out of the sea along the southern coast of Turkey. In fact, any time there is flat land against the coast there is a small city. The road followed the mountains along the coast, which made for a beautiful drive into the city from Fethiye! Kas is very hilly, and the surrounding mountains are capped with snow (just a little bit). Walking around the city, you will constantly go up and down on the roads. Despite the majority of businesses being closed, there was a lot to do in and around the town.
Day ½
We arrived from Fethiye in the late afternoon, checked into our hotel, and relaxed a little bit. After about a half hour of unwinding, we decided to walk around the town. It was mid-afternoon, but not much was open. The tourist season ends around early October, so places had been slowly shutting their doors for over a month by the time we arrived. We ended up finding a small pebble beach where we ran into two fellow Americans (Dennis and Amanda). We got a few drinks and decided to go sea kayaking and get dinner together for Thanksgiving (the next day).
Day 1 – Turkey Day!
We got up early, because we had no idea whether the tour company would want to take four people kayaking or not. It turned out they got seven. So, around 9AM, we headed off to the sunken city of Kekova. We got a crash course in kayaking just in case anyone going was that athletically inept and shoved off. The water was a little choppy, it is the Mediterranean after all, but no one fell in. The Mediterranean has some of the bluest water either of us have ever seen. It was fun just being out there.
We took a short break on the island that is home to Kekova. Only a few hundred meters of the island are available to make landing, because the rest is protected as an archaeological site. After about a half hour, we paddled around to the side of the island where we could see Kekova.
The city looks like it is still slowly descending into the sea. The most prominent thing you can see underwater is the old wall. We actually got our kayak stuck on part of the wall. The guide told us to stick close to the rocks just in case other motorized boats were around, because it is calmer and we would have less chance of getting tipped over. He didn't tell us that parts of the underwater city were only barely so, and our kayak could get stuck on them. Luckily, we got ourselves unstuck without assistance and without tipping over. You could tell it was the wall, because on one side of the kayak was shallow rock formations and the other side was a steep drop off. It was different from a shelf though, because there was no slight curve, just a 90 degree angle straight down.
You can still see the remains of the old Lycian city along the rocks, but we are pretty sure you would need an aerial view to really see the city. Still, kayaking was way more fun than just taking a boat tour out there. We would definitely do it again.
After we took a quick look at the sunken city, we headed over to another small island village for lunch. This village is only accessible by boat and one wildly overgrown hiking trail. We had some sandwiches, because not a single restaurant in the village was open. After lunch, we were given time to explore a little, because there is an old castle on one of the mountains. We walked up to see it, but we didn't go in. Honestly, we're a bit ruined out by this point. You can't walk more than five meters in Western Turkey without running into Lycian, Greek, Roman, or Greco-Roman ruins. Apparently, the smallest amphitheater (we've seen plenty of these too) in Turkey is inside the castle walls. It holds just 350 people, which means the population of the surrounding area was only 3500.
We attempted to hike up to a panoramic viewpoint, but the path was overgrown. If we weren't in swimsuits and flip-flops we would have attempted it, but there were a lot of thorny plants and burs. Dennis climbed up one part of the rock, but he didn't even get close to the actual viewpoint. We eventually headed back down, but the view was pretty nice from that part.
Around 3, we paddled back to the marina and drove back to Kas. We all took a two hour break, and then met back up for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of turkey, we ended up with grilled chicken, lamb, beef, fried mussels, and hummus. Oh yeah, we drank a couple bottles of wine as well. What will make this Thanksgiving memorable though isn't the fact that it was in Turkey, it is because of the terrible music we were subjected to.
Two men came in, one with a drum and one with a horn. They started playing extremely loud. I don't think anyone actually enjoyed the music. We were thinking about paying them to go away. At one point, he was playing directly into my ear, and I was thinking about taking away his horn and breaking it. Playing loudly is one thing, playing loudly and being obnoxious on purpose is another. After dinner, we got a few more drinks and then went home.
Day 2
We decided to check out the open-air market the town holds every Friday. We were both surprised at the amount of fruit that was there. You will be able to see in the pictures just what kind of variety they had. It made us seriously consider moving to Turkey. We just might in the future, you never know. After browsing a little bit, we ate something that could only describe as a Turkish-style quesadilla. They took two very thin pieces of dough and put cheese, lamb, spinach, garlic, and onion in between them and cooked it on a hot stone. It was delicious. We got fresh squeezed orange juice and pomegranate juice to wash it down, and then we relaxed for the rest of the day.
Day 3
We packed up. They were nice enough to drive us to the bus station for free. We jumped on the bus, and five minutes later, we were on our way to Antalya.
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