💎 Hidden gems remaining: 10
Ölüdeniz – or "blue sea" translated – is a district Fethiye of municipality Mügla. Complicated? Yes, as we are used to so small municipalites in Slovenia. Mügla became a municipality in 2015 and since than improved many things – the most important one being public transport. We had no problem navigating dolmuses here due to the existance of an app that contains all the routes and schedules. Plus the frequency is just insane. . As per its name, Ölüdeniz has continuous lagoon beaches with blue-skyish water that is just a pleasure to swim in. Other than that, Ölüdeniz is also known for paragliding – something we sadly did not try.
A medium-sized bus took us from Denizly to Fethiye (operated by Göltur). It had no power supply so we had to decrease our display brightness to the lowest level to be able to "watch" the whole movie (it turned out more of a radio play ...). There, we bought ingredients for our cooking feat: tortillas. Meat and vegetables were packed in huge packets (close to 1 kg of chicken and 0,5 kg of each type of vegetables). We knew right from the start that that would be to much for us, but we cooked all of it anyway. It was enough to keep eating it for two consecutive days – we ate it for dinner and for breakfast, and our host helped us. Legend has it some of it still remains in the refrigerator.
Özel Oda private room
Our accommodation was located in the top-most floor of a building and was quite comfortable. We had a shared kitchen and a shared bathroom, which were both empty most of the time, so we had plenty of time for our cooking project. Fun fact about the shower: water flowed through the boiler after the mixing tap, which meant it would always be boiling-hot – no matter how you mixed it. Well-done cooked Marko. For dinner we ate him instead.
After a good-night sleep we hopped on a minibus to take us to Ölüdeniz. We had a few problems finding our accommodation because we walked blindly past it. We found it eventually. And a Sok shop just 100 m away.
Upon arrival we unpacked ourselves – it was finally a place where we were staying more than one night. Quickly we made an agreement to relax on the beach this day – and so we did. On our way to the dolmus station we made a stop at a local Müglakart retailer. That way we could avoid paying every dolmus with old-fashioned paper money and insted have a card that we can top-up using the app. We spent entire afternoon relaxing on the beach. It goes without saying that it was not our last visit – we kept coming back to this place everyday. Of course we mixed in some other sights, but more on that later.
Vera's shared apartment (something is sour in the photo)
The beach is nice, but it can get pretty loud, so you may want to make an escape – and Kayaköy ruins are one of many possible places to do so. Here the remains of cohabitation of Greeks and Turks still stands strong and teaches you a lesson of harmony between people themselves and so between the people and nature. You can reach it via a dolmus. But do not rush for the first path you will see, or you will finish somewhere in the wild, far off the beaten track. Of course it has its own charm, but legs will say the other way after some close contacts with . Finding the official path may not be as easy as it seems, but will be much better for you in the long-term.
Is this the right track? /
Windows still
Who is he waiting for?
The name of the sea won't disappoint you. It is said to remain blue even during storms (though storms don't seem frequent here). The water is pleasantly warm (some would disagree, khm khm, Marko) so you don't need to worry about getting cold. The showers are a different story, though (khm khm, Žan).
Be prepared to run away from landing paragliders though, as there's a promenade along the beach. Just kidding, enjoy watching the wonders of them landing. And explore the thermodynamics if you wish.
Ölüdeniz beach
Inaccessible by any other means of transport than a boat, the valley still remains in its pristine condition – almost pristine. The only other option to access it is via a climbing route ascending to/descending from Faralya, but it is said to be dangerous. You won't find butterflies in late summer here, but they are said to thrive in spring.
In comparison with other beaches, you can actually find natural shade of bigger bushes and smaller trees here. Pack your picnic belongings and hop on the shuttle boat, but keep in mind that the waves are strong and the boat might swing the breakfast out of you.
The long one of the boat approaching the
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight
Very pristine
If you want to watch a sunset from a special location, we cannot recommend that place more. Majestic sculptures built inside bare rock, being shone upon with golden light – just wonderful. Be sure to enter on time though, as the place gets closed just around that time. The cashier was very kind and let us jump to that place for 5 min after the place had already been closed to enjoy the view and snap those georgeous photos. Then we climbed the "castle" on the other hill, ascending via some steep stairs that were later a to descend. From there we enjoyed the blue hour and the city dripping into the night. All of a sudden, a batch of random goats approached us.
Amynthas Rock Thombs
So... We were eating our sandwiches, photographing the beautiful landsacpe of Fethiye in the meantime, when some sheep or goats approached. It is still not known to this day what they really were, because on the outside they had characteristics of both. But this is not important. They had one interest and one interest only – our sandwiches. So this is how the battle of Sandwichgrad began. We stood our positions steadily but were outnumbered. Marko retreated first, protecting our treasury and Žan followed, covering his back. Somehow we survived the descend and ran for our lives. Goats were never to be seen again.
Contemplating life choices
What about ME?
Where's my sandwich?
View from the top of "Castle" just before the battle of Sandwichgrad
Home-cooked tortillias
As we mentioned before, we starved for tortillies and here was the place that our wish had been granted. We went to two shops only to find all ingredients necessary – all in great abundance. It took as a while, but we were more than happy with the outcome. Tortillas were delicious and, acocmpanied with a fresh yoghurt, made well worth the wait.
As everything was in such a vast quantity, we offered some to the host and it is still a mystery whether he tried it or if it is still waiting for him in the darkness of the fridge.
In Ölüdeniz we dined at Shiraz restaurant two evenings in a row, thanks to their fair portion sizes, tasty food and enjoyable atmosphere. Each time, we got a starter on the house.
Starter
Moussaka
Bayram Special
Spaghetti Bolognese
Spaghetti with meatballs
They have a good sense for presentation style. We returned next day for some pasta. They were not over-generous with parmesane, but the sauce was tasty enough, so there was no need for it.
Last night, we went to the old city centre of Ölüdeniz, but it turned out to be a bit of a ghost-town. Many restaurants were closed (temporarily or permanently). We ended up walking by a waiter from a Chinese restaurant who invited us to eat there multiple times, but we were looking for something traditionally Turkish. He then recommended us a restaurand named Cheers, of which he knew the owner. He asked him to take care of us – and he did. There was no Turkish food on the menu, so he made up something just for us (and so were the prices 💸). It was delicious!
The dish with potatoes (we don't know how they write it) reminded us of Greek gyros last year. The moussaka had a great amount of cheese. As the father of one of our readers once said, "There's no such thing as too much cheese". 🧀
A dish with potatoes
Moussaka, again. I liked this one better.