Good afternoon, Citizens. The Yank again. After reading Aussie's Stereotype Menu, I think this trip could be fun after all. Noticed that he hit the Kiwi's harder than the the others? Coincidence? I think not. . . We might have uncovered some really stinky actual cultural bias.
Today, I'm celebrating yet another American League victory in the All-Star Game. This time it only took 15 innings and more pitchers than I can remember. At least the Sandman held it down, unlike one Mr. Papelbon. . . Anyway, as Aussie can confirm from living with me and watching me watch baseball as he tries to understand what's going on, I'm not a big fan of J.D "Nancy" Drew. The guy just annoys me on a very basic level. Something about the hero complex that most of the Red Sox walk around with makes me want cram my head in the oven. Other than Youkilis, he's the worst. At least Manny and Ortiz have a little bit of style. With that being said, I would like to congratulate him on his performance and especially his clutch hitting last night. He gets a one week pass on derision from me. After that, he's back in the chair.
If you've read the itinerary for the Crawl yet, there are probably two stops that stick out as not really major cities like the others. They are also extra-day stops. I'm talking about Antalya, Turkey and Cartagena, Colombia. These two were my choice. I've done some business in Turkey over the years and its one of my favorite places to visit. Antalya got picked as the destination because it's a relatively large city in between three Turkish destinations that I want to visit.
We'll set out from Antalya by bus and head to Kas (pronounced kahsh), on the tip of the Lycian peninsula. Kas is a tiny little seaside town, built against the cliffs and has a few good bars in the town center. Its relatively quiet, but you have a few good bars in the main town square, overlooking the Mediterranean. I figure that we might need a day of relative quiet on the beach after coming in from our first African destination. There's also good diving there if we're so inclined, and not obscenely hungover.
From Kas, we'll travel back towards Antalya, stopping at Olimpos. There is no town here, only a ruined ancient city. There are little camps built on the road down to the harbor, and you stay there in a treehouse. You read that right- they rent out treehouses that you get to stay in. Meals are included in the prices- which was a whopping $7 a night last time I was there. The most famous of these camps, called Kadir's, has an outdoor bar called the Bull Bar which is very highly rated internationally. There's a huge fire pit with a giant statue of a bull at the center and a bunch of Turkish style lounges set around the dance floor. Every time I've been there, the bar has been packed and always a good party.
What makes Olimpos popular as a destination, other than the treehouses, is that its set at the base of Olimpos Mtn. I'm a bit of a history buff (a bit being an egregious understatement), and this mountain is the birthplace of a good part of ancient mythology. There is a trail there that you can hike up for about two or three miles and you come to cracks in the ground that spew fire. Supposedly, the scientific explanation is that there is methane, or a derivative gas that rises from inside the earth and ignites on contact with the air, but apparently there has never been really complete scientific study of the area. They say that in ancient times, the flames rose a lot higher than they do now (about up to knee level, currently), and to the ancient Greeks, it would have looked like the mountain was spontaneously bursting into flames from from the ground below. Hence, lots of myths were born to explain these frightening flames. The most famous is Bellerophon and the Pegasus.
After Olimpos, we'll go back to Antalya and head further west to a little place called Side. It is pronounced SEE-deh. It's a little peninsula, maybe 25 acres, that juts into the Mediterranean. It was an ancient Roman provincial capital and there are a lot of ruins throughout the city. There is actually a bar build in the ruins of a basilica called Temple Bar. At the top of the city, just inside the wall there is an ancient theater that they've been trying to restore. I actually did some work on it years ago and I want to check the progress. Its a cool resort town with a lot of good bars. The guesthouse that I normally stay in is also owned by Australians, so Aussie can get a taste of home and not sink too deeply into foreigner-shock.
That's it for the Antalya stop. Not much in Antalya at all. . . Actually we'll probably drink one night in the old city by the harbor. Its a pretty cool experience tying one on at the base of the huge crusader walls built around the harbor.
Cartagena is the other stop. As I said, I like history and, other than the ancient stuff, I'm into pirates as well. Really, who isn't? They sail around, take stuff, and drink rum. The Ciudad Cartagena was one of the main Spanish port cities of the 16th and 17th centuries, when pirates were everywhere, and the world was a much cooler place. One of the most awesome pirates was obviously Sir Francis Drake. Drake rolled up to Cartagena, knocked on the door, then took the place over and demanded the modern equivalent of $200 million dollars as ransom. What's more amazing is that they actually paid every penny of the ransom quickly and then he burned a chunk of the city down anyway, including the governor's palace and a brand new cathedral and went on his merry way. The Spanish spent literally 200 years after that building walls in Cartagena to prevent the same shenanigans from recurring. I would like to see those walls. Sue me.
So that's my little chunk for the day. The idealist is a douche.
Proceed,
Yankee
2 days ago
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