Traveling days on the bus are opportunities to learn about the culture of the country and towns we are visiting from our tour leader. Throughout our tour, Nuri shared a lot of interesting information about Turkiye. The following are a few completely unrelated tidbits:

English Language: Although English is taught in the schools beginning in the fourth grade and continues through university, there are no English-speaking countries surrounding Turkiye. In the small towns where English-speaking tourists rarely visit, there are no opportunities for the locals to practice conversational English, so they end up losing what they learned.

Homelessness: There are very few homeless in Turkiye, because of their belief that every Turkish citizen has a right to a home. The only homeless seen in Turkiye are most likely Syrian refugees.

Health Tourism: Turkiye is one of the top eight countries for “health tourism.” IVF costs only $5,000. Need more hair? A full hair transplant will set you back only $3-4,000. Prefer eye surgery or a dental implant? Turkiye is popular for those reasonably-priced procedures as well. In all, approximately five million people travel to Turkiye for health tourism each tour. The numbers spiked post-COVID for vaccines and health care.

Godiva Chocolate: In 2018,the Godiva company was purchased by Ulker, a Turkish brand of chocolate and cookies. Currently, all Godiva chocolate exported to the U.S.A. is currently made in a small city outside of Istanbul.

Longest Cable Car in Europe: From the Turquoise Coast, known as the “Turkish Riviera,” there are beautiful views of the Taurus Mountains, which we saw during our bus ride. On Mt. Olympos, they have the longest cable car ride in Europe, descending from an altitude of 7,759 feet and traveling 14,301 feet. You can throw snowballs at the top and go swimming in the sea when you get to the bottom!

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Along the way to the Turkish Coast, we stopped in Demre, the birthplace of St. Nicholas, to visit St. Nicholas Church. Built in phases beginning in the 6^th century, the original building was damaged during an earthquake as well as attacks. It was then reconstructed in the 9^th or 10^th century. The wall paintings in the church date back to the 12^th and 13^th centuries and were remarkably well-preserved.

While in Demre, our group had lunch at Ipek Restaurant, a popular restaurant for local workers on their lunch break. From what I could tell, we were the only tourists. For U.S. $10.23 per person, we feasted on appetizers with hot pita, salad, and chicken kabob with rice and vegetables. Baklava was included for dessert, and it was all delicious!

Onward ho to Fethiye we go to embark on a four-day gulet charter from Okeanos Yachting. After settling in to our tiny cabin, we motored to a protected cove for the night and enjoyed dinner on deck with views of the setting sun. Lovely!

Coming up next: TURKIYE #12: HIKING KAYAKOY, A GREEK “GHOST TOWN”