One thing I have been looking forward to doing in Turkey is a Blue Cruise. Rod was the first to tell me about it recalling how much fun he had doing one last year. A Blue Cruise is a kind of cruise on board of a Turkish gullet along the Mediterranean or Aegean coasts.

I booked mine while I was in Antalya for 4 days/3 nights departing from Olympos arriving in Fethiye. This Cruise seems to be the one favored by most backpackers and it is also easy to find a cabin on one of the charter boats that cruise this way.

I was departing from Olympos and since the guidebook and some other people were raving about it, I decided to go to Olympos earlier in order to check it out. I had planned to arrive the day before, but because my tour of Aspendos, Perge and Side ended late, I decided to wait until the morning so that I could catch the last 1st round game of France. So I arrived here yesterday morning.

Well, it was probably a good thing.

Olympos is composed of pensions organized around a main dirt road leading to the ancient site of Olympos and its famous beach. The pensions usually offer tree houses and wood cabins with shared bathrooms and showers, as well as restaurants, bars and sometimes nightclubs. It is definitely a backpacker’s hangout with a mixed international and Turkish young crowd ready to party hard. It has a bit of a feel of Dahab actually and you could say it is close to what Dahab was 5-10 years ago. The restaurants have cushioned areas just like in Dahab and you can even spot some cats too!

The comparison for me stops here though. Unlike in Dahab, I did not really get hooked. The beach is great looking but it is a pebble beach and I don’t really like pebble beaches (it hurts my feet ;)). And except for swimming, there is not much else to do. The ruins have not been restored and are not maintained either. I was quite disappointed.

The only interesting thing to see might be the Chimera flames not too far away which you can visit in an evening tour. You reach the flames after a 20 minutes hike in the dark. It is quite fascinating to know the flames have been there for thousands of years. They are weaker than they used to be but still going. If you extinguish them, new ones re-ignite seconds later.

After that, the only thing left to do was drinking a lot and getting pissed. I think I am over that so it did not cut it for me. I guess I am becoming too old for these kinds of things!

Even so, it was only when the whole pension became muddy in the evening, after water spilled in between the cabins, making walking around not so inviting, that I was set on my not so crazy opinion of this spot. Still, people are very friendly and the place does have a nice hippie feel to it.

I am quite happy to have stayed only one night though and to leave now for my cruise. Hoping to have a lot of fun.