I
have decided to stop being lazy and start blogging again! With two more weeks to go before the season finishes it is generally
quiet round here and I have time to write.
Then, after we close the hotel and I start giving Turkish lessons I will
just have to organize my time a bit better.
Yesterday,
I left Kaan in charge of the hotel and had a lovely day off with a friend. We went to Patara and walked round a small part
of the ruins. Patara was the main naval
and trading port of Lycia, as well as the birth-place of St Nicholas. During Roman times, it became the home to the
Government of the Lycian League and the Assembly building has been excavated
and repaired in recent years. Although towns
in the League acted autonomously on smaller issues, they came together by
sending representatives to this Assembly to decide issues that affected the
whole region, such as trading terms and security. The city of Telmessos, situated where Fethiye
is today, was a medium-sized town with two representatives on the council;
Patara, as one of the largest towns, had three.
Close
to the National Assembly building is the theatre and the main street but the
ruins cover a huge area and include many temples and baths, and a granary built
in 131AD during the visit of Emperor Hadrian – he of wall-building fame. Excavation of Patara is an ongoing process,
but when you look around at the visible remains and imagine what else is hidden
beneath the ground you understand that it won’t finish any time soon – and this
is just one of hundreds of such sites in Turkey!
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| Patara |
Our
niece, Yagmur, is studying archaeology at Konya University and has spent the
last two summers with a group of her peers and their professor, working at
Knidos, near Datca. Knidos was a Greek
city located on a promontory where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean and was
well-known as a centre of wine production.
I used to think I should have studied archaeology, but I’m not sure I have
the patience for it! Nor do I fancy
working as she did moving barrows full of earth in temperatures of 40°C.
Anyway,
after our bit of history yesterday we went down to have a drink on the beautiful
sandy beach of Patara, then went on to Kalkan which is one of my favourite
places for a day out. We had some lunch,
then browsed the shops. Kalkan residents
are very good at taking care of stray animals and my favourite shop is always
host to a variety of cats and dogs who take advantage of the warm welcome.
Kalkan
has stunning views and some great cafes and restaurants; I always used to think
it had much nicer shops than Fethiye – boutiques selling lovely clothes, art
galleries and shops selling tasteful souvenirs (rather than stuffed turtles and fez!). These days, however, I must say that Paspatur
– the Old Town in Fethiye – is just as nice.
The buildings have been done up, there are some fantastic shops and even
the streets have been improved with attractive overhead lighting.
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| Paspatur (Fethiye Old Town) |
Did
you know? They say that if you drink
water from the spring in Paspatur you will return to Fethiye. Well, there are many people who return year
after year, but I think there is a little more drawing them back than the
water!
