journey of three seas
this is from my newsletter, a journey of three seas
TRAVEL NOTES | AT A GLANCE
time: 3 weeks, but it felt like 3 months
distance: 6,940 km (4,312 miles)
the weather: september was perfect - you can easily swim in the seas without it being too clotted with tourists. the black sea region can be very chilly.
the roads: ranged from very good, smooth, paved highway toll roads - to squiggly mountainous dirt roads. on the highways, people drive on the right side of the road, with different lanes for different speeds.
the car: we had car trouble. and it broke down on the road on day 3 (a whole saga), requiring a toll truck, hours at the mechaniac's in the middle of nowhere, an impromptu last-minute airbnb stay, a new car. then we continued on.
the accommodations: experienced every configuration: campsites, pre-fab homes, a variety of airbnbs ranging from shitty to not bad, hotels, mountain lodges - most of which I booked last minute, or at most, a week in advance.
the food: village food is, by far, the best food in Turkey, and worth driving extra for. I used Google maps to find the most homestyle, local places. Turkish people are particular and vocal -- so if you see high rated reviews all in Turkish, it's certainly going to be good.
fruit stands on the side of the road: is absolutely worth stopping for, and fresh from the farms in the region. bring cash.
ancient ruins: range from well maintained and protected, to very abandoned and just left there.
the seas: I swam in as many places as I could. my favorite places were in the southern aegean / mediterranean -- in the little villages around the Antalya region.
the richness of the land: is even more impressive than I expected. both in terms of natural resources (the mountains, the sea, the olive trees, fruit trees) as well as the history, culture, and culinary cuisine. you feel, clearly, why early civilizations settled and flourished here.
I. THE AEGEAN SEA | SLOW VILLAGES, ANCIENT RUINS
after leaving the hilly black hole which is Istanbul, all the little villages down to Izmir blur together - or maybe it's because we drove so fast. they have a slow, sleepy pace of their own - such that you can easily imagine spending a month in a house by the sea, eating watermelon, reading books.
this is the seaside promenade by Izmir - (unfortunately lined with trash) - but there is a sense of openness and spaciousness yuo don't feel in Istanbul. from here, we look into Greece.
south of Izmir, the very impressive ruins of Ephesus -- an ancient Greek and Roman settlement. it is unbearably hot to visit in the summertime.
eating figs in the car, which we bought from a boy on the roadside fruitstand.
driving along winding mountain roads, during sunset, somewhere in Datça.
II. MEDITERRANEAN SEA | RIPE SUN LIFE
my favorite stretch of land is between Marmaris (which is still the Aegean) to Antalya. there is a ripeness you can feel in the air as the sea blue appears a little deeper, the sun feels more golden, and figs, oranges, and pomegranates hang from trees in bounty -- such that if you stick your arm out the window while driving through villages, you'll touch some.
halfway down winding mountain roads to Cleopatra's Baths.
swimming with Luna in öludeniz - apparently world-famous for paragliding
one of my favorite villages: Olympos, which is both densely forested, filled with ancient ruins, and by the sea. the kind of place where I could easily live in a treehouse bungalow, and chill out for a month.
III | THE BLACK SEA | MISTY DARK MOUNTAIN LIFE
the black sea region is beautiful in a drastically different way. it's rainy, wet, misty, and lush with foliage. mountain life means: long, winding drives to grocery stores. waking up with the sun. retreating into your lodge after dark. there is an introspection and seclusion here -- the hardiness of mountain people.
in Artvin, a wooden mountain home airbnb, where we could lay in bed and see this view out the window; the fog rolling in and out, like living inside a cloud. the hill overlooks their tea garden.
in Rize, an old black sea home turned into a cozy mountain lodge - with a warm hostess who cooked us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. it smelled like wood. the kind of place I'd imagine doing doing writing retreats in.
I was so impressed with these paintings on the caves in Soumela Monastery - a Greek Orthodox monastery built into the dark mountains, in Trabzon.
here's a creek running through the forest, in Rize.
