December was here and we wanted to go somewhere new. One of my regular climbing partners grew up in Istanbul. She had always told me about how amazing the climbing was in her home country. Robin (my girlfriend) and I have been living on opposite coasts while we finish up our respective educations. We thought: lets me up in TURKEY! It turned out that my flight there from Chapel Hill, NC was only a few hundred dollars more than a flight to California!!! So we pulled the trigger and went.

Our trip was to be as follows: 3 days in Istanbul, 6 days in Geyikbayiri, 6 days in Olympos. Geyikbayiri is located in the hills above the southern city of Antalya. Olympos is located on the coast ~100 km south of Geyikbayiri.

I will let the pictures so most of the talking, but I must say, it was a fantastic trip. We met many interesting people, ate fantastic food, and checked out some fascinating ruins. Turkey has been the crossroads of civilizations for 3,500 years and ruins are EVERYWHERE.

I had a little more time for the trip then Robin, so I flew in a couple of days ahead of her. I spent a couple of days wandering around, but saved the real sights to share with her. The pictures start just after we met up.


We got to watch midday prayer inside the Blue Mosque, which was one of the more magical experiences of either of our lives. I was raised Jewish, and it absolutely amazed me how similar the services are to each other. Why cant we all just get along!


Istanbul was cool, but we are mountain folk. So we were pretty psyched to get on our way down south. We took a 45 minute long Turkish Airways flight to the city of Antalya.


Getting from the airport to the little town in the mountains was kinda difficult. Especially since we spoke no Turkish (aside from: "Thank you", "Please", "What is your name", "Beer", and "Goodbye"). After witing at a street corner for ~5 hours, we caught one of the 2-3 daily buses up to Geyikbayiri. We stayed at a climber's camp run by a childhood friend of my Turkish climbing partner.

We woke up in sport climbing paradise:


The rock took some getting used to. I had never climbed on limestone. It was SEVERELY overhung tufa climbing....which is basically the opposite of my style. Fortunately it is bolted with mathematical precision, so you could push yourself as hard as you wanted to. Nevertheless, I needed to seriously recalibrate myself!


After 4 days of these shenanigans, we were DESTROYED, so we took a rest day.


We caught a ride with a couple of Spaniards to Olympos. On the way we stopped at the ruins of the 2,000 year old Lycian city of Phaselis.



We got to Olympos and it started to rain! 4 days of rain! Fortunately there was plenty to do: climb in a cave, explore the 2,500 year of ruins of Olympos, visit the tomb of St. Nicholas, and see the flame of the Chimera.


We visited the "Flame of the Chimera", one of the wonders of the ancient world. It is a natural gas seep up through this spectacular band of fault breccia. We met some Turks who were cooking food on them!


The next day, we went to the city of Myra. Myra is located ~80 km south and west of Olympos. It began to look like the rain may stop! We were getting pretty psyched!


We briefly stopped by the tomb of St Nicholas. Apparently St. Nick was a Byzantine monk who gave gifts to kids. Pretty different from the image of St nick most people know...


FINALLY! The rain stopped! We went to a crag we had been eyeing for a while. It is called "Cennet" - Turkish for "Heaven". Dead vertical limestone glory over the Mediterranean. We got to climb here for 2 days before we had to leave.


We got to meet a couple of climbers from Dresden who climb on those sandstone towers where you are not allowed to used metal protection. They showed us their "textile friend"


The next day was our last day, and my birthday...so we had to go big!

Then we had to go home! We had a 14 hour layover in Istanbul, so we went downtown and hit the spice market and the clubs!


Overall, it was a fantastic time. A way cheaper and more interesting alternative to the other European destinations. 2 thumbs up!

Tushuker Ederem! Hosh Cha Khal!


(Now everyone can get back to guns, boobs, aliens, and worrying about who is a fascist)