Hammock Time

I'm writing this post now but I don't know exactly what the point is. I have done as little as possible and I haven't moved more than a few miles in the last 4 days. I've been staying that the Bayram's hostel in Olympia and I don't regret a moment of it.

I can't remember exactly what I did on each day, so I'll just go over the list of activities and let that stand on its own. Chief among them is drinking beer. The hostel sells them for about $3 each, and they're pretty big, but the shop on the way to the beach sells them for $2 so I stop by there a few times a day to fill up. Of course when you're at the hostel it all goes on my tab so I kind of lose track though I try not to drink too many. I think 5 or 6 big ones a day is fine. It's a good way to pass the time during the heat of the day (which there is a lot of), the tepid of the evening, and the frigidness of the night.

The other activity that takes up my days is hanging out at the beach. Of course working on my tan is important, but I don't work on it very hard so I always seem to be hopelessly white. Mostly I go there to chat with the other backpackers from my hostel and to watch the swimmers. It's not the swimming thats so entertaining as much as the getting out of the water. See, the beach is made of small and large pebbles and they're quite painful when you're getting out. So, people tend to wince and walk very awkwardly when they're climbing out of the water and it's good fun. Another pleasure are the guys walking up and down the beach selling stuffed oysters. They're slow cooked and mixed with a bit of rice in the shell and finally topped with fresh lemon. Very nice.

One day me and some guys spent a good hour just throwing rocks into the water and we all threw our shoulders out. Last night we dragged logs and combed the beach for wood to set up a small camp fire. We were only there for a couple hours very late in the night but there was almost a full moon and the light was very nice. Also, it went well with beer but that goes without saying.

There's the ruins too. The path to the beach takes you through a narrow canyon and there are paths leading to different sets of ruins branching off in all directions. I saw some new ruins since the last update. I saw some temple door dedicated to Marcus Aurelius... I think that he's the old emperor in the movie Gladiator. Also I saw some smaller random buildings and tombs. I really like that all the ruins here are grown over with vines and turtles and such, but it makes me wonder where exactly the admission money goes to. I think that it's kind of a scam.

Another good activity is the Chimera. The fire breathing beast of legend was buried in the ground here after being defeated by somebody, and to this day fire vents from the earth in abundance. I guess that if you wanted to be technical about it you could say that it's a natural gas blend that ignites on contact with the air, but the signs are very clear in specifying that it's in fact a monster. There's a tour that leaves from the hostel at 9pm but it's $14 each and they just drive you to the base of the hill and give you a flashlight. Instead of paying, a couple people and I decided to walk there based on the scant directions that I had received from another traveler. Well, we were able to walk there but it was pretty far... 7 km each way and a steep climb up the hill side at the Chimera.

On the way there we ran into some wildlife since it was so late at night. We found a hedgehog curled up next to the road in a defensive position. It was picked up, but the next animal, a 5" camel spider, wasn't so cute as to be lifted for a better view. I've seen them on the internet before since they're ugly enough to have created many urban legends about their supposed aggressiveness but this one didn't really want anything to do with us. Other than these short interludes it was a long night and we got back at 1 am, pretty fatigued.

What else did we do? Well, there were lots of games of Uno, Backgammon, and other card games... mostly a games called 'Presidents and Assholes'. I can't really think of much else accomplished... it was mostly just hanging out with people, chatting, and drinking. I guess that I also started learning to play Hotel California since that seems to be the most requested song of me for some reason. I think that its got a lot to do with my homeland.

The plan is to leave tomorrow. I think. There are some Australians that that taking a boat from here to the town of Fethiye which is a 4 day, 3 night ride away. The boat provides the food, lodging, and makes stops at several places to snorkel and view ruins but it's not too cheap... like $200 not counting beer. I'm trying to wait until the last second to book it so that I'll have a stronger haggling position since they're not budging so far when I know about a guy who did it for $120. It's all part of the game. This last image is strange... I think that one of the panels bans blowing up buildings. It's hard to say.