The Aegean Coast

Right so it has been some time since i have last updated this blog but with my limited access to a computer that can hardly be helped. As so much has happened since my last update i have decided to split my trip into relevent sections the first of which is the Aegean Coast.
Having met in Istanbul and having spent some time there David and I set off South along the coast of the Aegean Sea we took the train to the Istanbul bus station and found a chaotic mess the likes off which i had not seen before or since. It was a vast warren of industrial archıtecture plastered with the signs and advertisments of half a hundred bus companies we had decided to first travel to ıznik a small town some ways South and East of Istanbul itself. So we set out asking at each ticket office that we passed if they had any buses to Iznik only to find that there were very few buses going there and those that were would not leave for another five or so hours. Facing this adversity we promptly gave up on Iznik and set our hopes on Burgama, further South, these hopes too were quyickly dashed with shaken heads and broken Turkish.
We had by then been in the sun for some time and were quite ready to get out of the heşş that is the Istanbul bus station and so we again compromised our plans and turned our prow even further South to the major cıty of Izmir to which we quickly caught a bus and were on our way.
All of this fanagling however, coupled with an excrutıatıngly slow ferry ride across the Bosphorous, lead us to arrive in Izmir, city of some four million at three AM. With surprisıngly little diffaculty however we managed to catch a shuttle into the heart of the cşty and arrange accomodations which we found with the help of an old Turkish man who was up and about at that hour for a reason far beyond my comprehension.
That is how we ended up at the Hotel Imperial, a flamboyant name for such a dingy place but the price was low and it was, after all, three in the morning. we stayed at this hotel for two nights. On the first of our days in Izmir we headed back to the Otogar at which we had so recently arrived and caught a bus some ways North and east to the diminutıve twon of Sart a sorry remant of the once great city of Sardis where gold flakes left from Midas's bath in the river were collected with woll seives. For that matter a sorry remnant is all that remains of the ruins of Sardis we saw all of six other tourists throughout the day examining the bathes and fortification walls that still stand there and wandered for some time along a rural backroad accompanied by a group of rather unsavoury children constantly asking us for money and showing us what I must assume were self inflicted roomes along each of their fore arms.
On the second day in Izmir we headed West to Cesme a resort town cum port from which I was to travel to Greece in order to renew my Turkish Vısa upon reentrance. I spent an enjoyable if dull day on Chios loıtering in the Museum and at a harbour front cafe before boarding the ferry back into Turkey. The most interesting thing that happened that day was noticing the utter lack of security at the Turkish customs. Oh there was a medical detector and bag scanner but I walked around them without noticing and went back through them of my own violition and upon beeping was simply waved through onto the other side. I was not searched at all on my way back in.
Worn out from our travels and disappointed with the only site we had visited David and I turned South once more leaving several sites for later and heading to the tourist Mecca of Fethiye where we spent a day enjoying the turqouise waters of the Bşue Lagoon (And gettıng hidieously sun-burnt, I am still peeling) and then taking a day trip to Saklikent Canyon a hike which had a sign warning us to bring submursible shows as we would "occasionaly walking through water or mud" I of course flouted such a wewakly worded statement and found to my distress that there was no path it was merely a hike through a river. This did offer spectacular veiws and climbing up small waterfalls was good fun but having to do so in bare feet was less so, david opted to wear his shoes underwater and has since decided to through them out due to mold.
After that less than spectacular but still decent adventure we boarded our Gulet (small wooden boat) for a four day cruıse to Olympos which will be the subject of my next post.