Travelling is at the top of my list of passions. It helps me understand the world better and widens my perspectives on how people around the world live, think and see the rest of the world. Many of us don’t have the luxury of travelling due to obligations, finances, and dare I say it, fear.
Well, some of you might be wondering why would fear be a reason to not travel. In fact, fear, from flying to terrorism or being exposed to kidnapping, plays a huge part in some of the reasons why people don’t travel often. But the more I talk to people, the more I realize that the biggest fear that holds people back from travelling, is doing it alone.
I get it, I do because at some point in my life I had the same feeling too, but the thing is you’ll miss out on some great experiences if you wait around to travel with someone. And now, without further ado, here is how I spent my first solo trip to Akdeniz, Turkey.
Akdeniz refers to all regions in Turkey that are close to the Mediterranean sea. I couldn’t to all those places but what I did instead was to pinpoint places that people usually recommend to visit. So, I booked a morning bus ticket from Izmir to Marmaris on July 8th 2017. I left my friends’ house early, packed everything I needed and started my journey. I was joyous but highly cautious due to unexpected turns that involved in travelling alone.
By 2:30 p.m we were already at the bus station in Marmaris. I have to admit that for the first time since I came to Turkey, I felt like I wasn’t in a typical Turkish bus station because Turkish was less spoken. All I could hear more was English, Chinese, French, and most probably Korean as well. By 3:00 p.m our second bus to Datça arrived and my starts. In that bus, I sat beside a very interesting person, Deniz. We had a long conversation till we reached our destination and promised to keep in touch. By the time we reached Datça, I needed to find a perfect spot where to set my tent.
The following day at 8:30 a.m, I took a bus to Içmeler (45 minutes away from Datça), a place where I had planned to do my first ever scuba diving. On my road, I met a guy from Manchester, England, who usually comes to Turkey to enjoy summer because it’s cheaper here. We had a long discussion on Politics, travelling, football and lifestyle. When we reach the coast, there was a boat that was going to bring us closer to a rock in the Mediterranean sea where the actual scuba diving takes place. It was an experience to remember.
When went back to Datça, I came across Deniz again and she invited me to dinner together with her family. We joked, laughed and talked about everything and anything. The following day before continuing my journey, I wanted to feel the calmness of the sea in the morning, meditating for a moment and read my companion book. So, I got up earlier and went to encounter the sea.
After that, I warmed myself with a nice Turkish tea then took the bus to my second destination, Fethiye. I’ve heard many stories and legends about Fethiye, but nothing could be greater than experiencing that place by myself. I took a bus form Datça at 9:00 a.m and by 12:00 p.m we were there. I needed to refresh myself, so I went to the closest market and bought some snacks and drinks before heading to kelebek vadesi. On my road, I meet these two awesome guys from Antalya. It happened that the way they had planned their road trip was closely similar to mine, so we decided to carry on with the journey together.
We spent the night at Kelebek vadesi, joined a reggae night concert close to the sea, talked about Turkey and its culture, our future plans and of course lots of men talks. After spending two days at Kelebek vadesi, we continued the journey together and our next destination was Kaş. Kaş is one of the best destinations in Turkey for summer. We camped at a place called Olympos Mocamp where I met the only amca (uncle) who could speak three languages: Turkish, French and Flamish.
The following morning, I woke up earlier and left my friends to experience yet another thing from my bucket list “Bungee Jumping”. Getting to the bungee jumping site wasn’t as easy as I thought. First I had to catch the bus that goes to Kemer, then the driver dropped me somewhere and told me to walk for 20 km, no way. I had to find a solution, and hitchhiking was the only thing that came to my mind. Fortunately, a generous family picked me up and it happened that they were also going to the same destination. Bungee Jumping was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life that I had to write an article about it.
After Kaş, Kumulca was our next destination. We had to visit Yanartaş, a geographical feature near the Olympos valley. It is the site of dozens of small fires which burn constantly from vents in the rocks on the side of the mountain.
At the end of the day, all I needed was to get in touch one more time with nature, the sea, the soft wind taht blows close at the coast, experiencing the sunset and the sunrise but mostly feeling alive.
I ended my journey in Antalya where my companions had to get back to their duties and I had to go back to Izmir before heading to Trabzon two days later.
(To be continued …)