At breakfast time we wandered down the main pathway
through the property leading to Mama Aysun and Papa Apo's home. We walked
under boughs of vines and bunches of grapes hanging and past their sizable
garden. We'd read that they provided traditional Turkish breakfast foods
straight from their garden. We later confirmed this, feasting on the
freshest cucumber and tomatoes we'd had yet, homemade butter and jams (cherry
and strawberry), honey, a walnut butter, walnuts, dried apricots, watermelon,
olives, bread, and two types of cheeses that tasted fresh as well.
When we arrived at the terrace Mama Aysun greeted us and
shook our hands. She also introduced us to Apo and her neighbor (a very smiley
and friendly older gal named Zenit). Seren was there too. Very nice
people.
After we'd eaten, as we left, I tried my hand at some
Turkish phrases I'd been muttering for mastery on since we'd been here. I
told Seren, "Nefesti (neh-fees-tee; meaning that was
delicious)". She shrieked and lit up, "How do you know
this?!?" "Tessekur ederim (teh-shuh-cur eh-duh-reem; thank you
very much)", I said and I turned and walked away as she replied in Turkish
and I hadn't a clue what I'd started.
The most taxing thing we did in the afternoon (aside from
exist in the heat) was snorkel around the porous underwater rocks along our
little private stretch of the Mediterranean. The sound of the water was a
crackle, like a live and exposed power line. Below the surface, the Sea
came alive. More fish than I would've ever guessed were all around us
each time we dipped in. Most pecked at the plants on the rock faces
repeatedly.
My favorite fish flashed many neon colors. At the top of
his back on both sides was a neon green in a pattern reminiscent of audio waves
along the length of his body. Below that was a deep, thick purple stripe along
each of his sides. Outlining that stripe and his lips was a neon blue. And,
finally he had neon orange flourishes around his cheeks and elsewhere. He had
pizzazz. Other fish were cool too, namely for their ability to
camouflage. At times, I'd just do a dead-man float and breathe easy so I
could catch a glimpse of a camouflaged critter moving along the surface it was
imitating so well.
At one point I found myself in the midst of a bait ball
of hundreds of tiny fish, not even as big as half of my pinkie finger. It
was fun to swim around them and watch them change direction and adapt as one
big body.
Walking up to and out from our tree house it became
commonplace to see lizards ranging in size from tiny to pretty big. Also
I came face to face with a cicada on a small tree and I thought it was a frog
with wings for a second. Freaky.
Eventually we decided to continue our search for good
seafood in Kas. It occurred to me that asking Seren was probably the easiest
way to accomplish that goal. She recommended a place in the center of town,
just off the water--Bahce Balik Restaurant.
We'd read in the guidebook that when a restaurant in a town
or city gains notoriety, other establishments work a part of the name of the
notorious establishment into their name. We knew about this and we still
fell victim to it. There are apparently at least three fish restaurants in town
with the word Bahce incorporated into the name of each restaurant.
I use the word "victim" extremely lightly,
because we had grilled octopus at the restaurant we ended up at that was either
the best we've ever had (Becca's opinion) or tied for the best we've ever had
(my opinion).
At any rate, once we realized our mix-up on restaurants
and found the restaurant we'd meant to go to--we made a reservation for the
following evening. No harm, no foul.
After dinner we walked through the city center of Kas and
it was not a war zone. It's a nice little laid back touristy beach
city. It's amazing how context matters so--in this instance driving
versus walking.
Once we got back to home base we laid back on the terrace
and looked up into the starry night sky.
Only one shooting star spotted this time (as opposed to
five the night prior), but that wasn't the takeaway.
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