Distance: 32 km
Time elapsed: 2 hr 8 min
Average speed: 15.3 km/ hr
Max speed: 37.4 km/ hr
Temp: 33 C
We woke on a deserted beach near the small town of Demre (Kale), where the 4th century Santa Claus resided as a bishop. Surrounded by so many mosques I forget that Turkey was for a long time Byzantine and full of Christians. The ride into town was quiet along a desolate beach, but full of interesting things such as enormous, docked sail boats, Turkish trailer homes, and a camel.
Because who doesn't have a deve (camel) in their front yard?
Local legend says that Santa Claus lived here and was known for throwing sacks of coins down the chimneys of dowry-less virgins, in hopes that they could marry. Now the church is a crumbling stone chunk of rubble with a modern museum and plenty of kitschy gift shops. And the whole place is packed full of Russian tour groups! (He is Russia's patron saint after all)
Where's Santa??
Surrounding the church are a few streets of Baba Noel Restaurants, icon factories, and billboards of the western Santa character.
Nearby are the three pıllars, I am told they are inscribed with hieroglyphs, early Christian script, and Arabic, thereby symbolizing the town's religious history
We sat for a long time with an extremely welcoming and hospitable orange juice seller; Chris drew him artwork while he taught me some new Turkish words. I asked him about Ramazan and if he celebrates, and like everyone we've met so far he waves his hands and scrunched his mouth. I had been afraid that traveling through Turkey this month might be difficult, but as it turns out fasting by day is not very common, at least here on the western side.
Nice juice man! His wife is Russian! (Wonder how they met?)
Nearby are the Myra ruins, several Lycian tombs cut into the rock wall of the mountains. We arrived too late in the day to get any good pictures, but really enjoyed biking through the outskirts of town where local residents actually hang out.
Actually awesome ruins but I couldn't capture them!
Like most of the valleys we've seen so far, there are greenhouses everywhere- at least one per household- and we learned that this region grows enormous amounts of tomatoes and peppers for export to Europe. I dont know what sort of environmental impact the greenhouses cause, but it's pretty clear that whatever local agriculture that used to exist is lost, and instead the local people rely on income from cash crops and monoculture instead of growing a variety of foods for themselves. (can you hear my heart breaking?)
Everybody's going greenhouse these days! says the corporate economics devil, sitting on their left shoulders...
Export only!
The road out of town stretched flat along the water, shining silver in the twilight sun. We made our way through a couple of kms of low winding coves before spying the perfect beach hideaway. Under a blanket of sparkling stars we shared a picnic dinner and then fell asleep out on our mats, without the tent.
Tranquil waters at dusk...
3 comments:
The left pillar looks like cuneiform.
I went to the St. NIcholas Cathedral in Bari - they moved him from Turkey. It was right across the drink from you in Albania!-alexis
We too remember a great visit to Myra where we bought a woven wall hanging of St. Nicolas made by the vendor's sisters. We still have it. The St. Nicholas cathedral in Bari is amazing as is the story of how they moved his body there
Post a Comment