Today was our first hike: 10AM start to Olympos. Olympos was a Lycian city of great wealth and influence. The Lycians, in general, it seems, were not interested in war. They were interested in selling their regular massive crops of grain and wine. Usually this meant aligning with whoever the big dog on the med was (Alexander the Great, Rome, Byzantium, etc.) and selling them their food under imperial protection. This was a sweet gig, and they got really wealthy. Another thing made Olympos special compared even to other rich Lycian cities was its location in the shadow of Mt. Olympos. There are 29 mountains named Mt. Olympos across the ancient world, but this Mt. Olympos has FIRE COMING OUT OF ITS SIDE DUE TO THE SLAIN CHIMERA UNDERNEATH. That was enough to make it interesting to all kinds of visitors. At later points, of course, the Romans had about as much belief in corporeal gods as we do, but still, due to its wealth and location, Olympos managed to be a sort of spiritual center into the late empire. Strangely enough, philosophers in this town were very wealthy men, as evidenced by this tomb, which is perhaps the finest in Lycia, and belonged to a philosopher. Also quite impressive (and unique, but I won’t go into that) is this tomb a man had made for his uncle who was a sea captain. The inscription in Lycian is translated (one presumes badly) in the sign.
After Olympos we had lunch on the beach. You know, no big thing, just grilled bread with fresh cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and beer. AND RAD.
After that, the real hike. This was up a mountainside to see chimera’s fearsome fire-tongue. Up the mountain side (a seriously long climb on stone-cut steps), there were the ruins of a temple complex and several spots where fire came straight out of the ground. Pretty cool. Later on, at the “upper flames” there were some more, smaller chimera flames, but also a goatherd and a herd of goats! That was cool. Herds of goats really are quite fun to watch.
Down the other side and across a river, we had good views of Mt. Olympos, which is quite impressive. A REAL mountain. Then we had dinner at a trout farm.
Dinner started with 4 meze, which are Turkish simple cold appetizers. Ours were yogurt with dill and mint, red pepper salsa, shepherd’s salad with tomato, onion, cucumber and field greens, eggplant stew, and green stuff that was really good. John told us food was gonna keep coming out, that it wasn’t a race situation. But we ate hard anyway, getting fresh hard sheep cheese with walnuts, mushrooms stuffed with goat cheese, flat roasted bread with cheese, wine, and the piece de resistance, wood-oven roasted trout. The trout was divine. Ultra-simple food, but preferred with perfection. And the dessert: Tahini, sweetened with honey, and roasted on top. This was served with a tray of bananas, oranges (We spent most of the day seeing and smelling orange trees.) and apples that you dip in the tahini. Tahini? Once the stupid, hard-to-find second ingredient in hummus, now elevated to these levels? The first person to market this as a health-food dessert is going to make a zillion dollars.
The restaurant, as I mentioned, is an adjunct business to a trout farm. Their kitchen is interesting. Some people in the area still practice a nomadic lifestyle, following their herds from the high country to the low country between summer and winter. They would have, to assist these journeys, set up stone oven houses at strategic points, so they wouldn’t have to carry cooking stuff. They could just pick some veggies, catch a fish, make a fire in the fire building and have dinner. The kitchen of the restaurant was one of these things, where they then built a restaurant next to it. Thus the simple shepherd food, but these shepherds WIN HANDS DOWN for good cooking.
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