Turkey - Olympos & Konya

Olympos:

We spent the Bayram holiday (the end of Ramadan) in the town of Olympos. Olympos has a pretty beach, behind which lies the ruins of an ancient city of the same name. It was filled with young Turkish people on vacation and had a New Year´s Eve type vibe. It was definitely the ´party´ portion of our trip - we went out every night with the people from the cruise and the new Turkish friends we made, dancing to Turkish house music.

Lounging at the hotel:

Ancient Olympos, built by the Lycians around 2nd century AD. It was very Indiana Jones, with ruins half hidden by vines:

Chimaera fires - some sort of gas seeps out from these mountain rocks and supposedly there has been these flames here for over two thousand years:

Konya:

We were told that the western and southern (Mediterranean) part of Turkey, which borders Greece, is more 'westernized,' and the eastern part of Turkey, next to Syria and Iraq, remains more traditional. After the cruise and the partying, we were ready for some cultural sightseeing, so we took a long bus ride to Konya, the founding place of whirling dervishes, a mystical sect of Islam.

Whirling dervishes (picture courtesy of the web):

We were walking around the historical part of Kornya, with cold air jolting our system (Kornya is much colder than where we have been before), and the mosques and pilgrims giving off a calm, spiritual air...wait, is that a guy peeing next to that tree? Due to the unfortunate viewing of the public urination, the mystic atmosphere was ruined for us, but the Melvana Museum (former lodge of the whirling dervishes turned ınto a museum) and the adjoining mosque were still an impressive sight:

Inside the mosque:

Lunch - Turkish pizza (pide) and tea (çay). There are crushed red peppers at every table - I put it on everything!: