Week 45: Kemer

"Getting the work done in the winter sun" at the Coworking Camp Turkey. Definitely rings true, we've been very productive. Having sunshine, sea views from our office and good all-inclusive catering doesn't hurt either.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for November 7th -13th, which is week 45, 2014

Memorable moment: One day, when the day was turning into a night we climbed up a mountain. Well, only 25 minutes worth of it. But at the end of the path we found something magical: flames playing around the mountainside. At Chimera the natural gas leaks from the mountain and alights, forming small campfires all around. On ancient times people thought a fire monster, Chimera, lives inside the mountain. Who knows? At least the place still attracts visitors, many of them much well prepared than us, carrying marshmallows and wine with them. Even without preparations, the experience was mesmerizing. Sitting there in the dark, with the fires around us... Also the way back down the mountain was an experience, trying to use a phone screen light to see where the path goes.

Chimera fires


Surprise of the week:
That the ruins of Olympos are such a great place to explore. For some reason I was expecting a few buildings on the beach, but it is actually a whole city. Someone didn't do her research... Anyway, it was a great place to find your inner Lara Croft (in a safe setting). Nature had overtaken the ruins during the years, and while they are in parts renovated, in many places the plants have been left intact.

Olympos ruins


Tip of the week:
 Olympos area is a great place for a day trip! You can chill out on the beach, explore the ruins, have lunch/dinner in one of the small restaurants and finish the evening at the nearby Chimera fires. We rented a minivan for this and paid total of 100€ for it, so if you're a group you can do your own tour. There are also organised tours or you can just use the not-so-frequent public transportation.

Olympos beach sunset


Random thought:
What a weird feeling it is when someone else washes you! Good, but weird. I went to the hotel Hamam (Turkish bath) and had a scrub + wash session. I laid on a towel over a stone platform in a warm an steamy room, while the washer first scrubbed me with a glove from head to toe (literally, including my ears and between toes). Then I was covered in bath bubbles and massaged, and at the end buckets of water were thrown all over me. Good and weird yes, and also very relaxing.

floating in sea


What I've learned:
Before I had just seen Antalya's modern side. Now I learnt that the city also has quite an interesting old town. It's aa mixture of crumbling, aging buildings, "hey-friend-where-are-you-from" men in front of their small stores selling tourist trinkets, and surprisingly hipsteresque cáfes here and there. The streets go up and down and it's easy to get lost. But it's also as easy to find your way again, since the place is not that big.

Antalya old town


Food love:
We've been eating from the all-inclusive buffet for over a week now. While I was a bit worried beforehand about doing that for 6 weeks, it seems ok so far. Enough of variety, especially plenty of different salads. Let's see what I think in 4 more weeks though.

Our all-inclusive coworking hotel


Workwise:
Three evenings a week we (=Coworking Camp participants) are doing a challenge session, where one of us presents a current challenge in his/her business and then we all give feedback. these have been super interesting! And at the same time, I've got plenty of practice of taking visual notes.

Coworking Campers


And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Antti and Mirje

We are Mirje and Antti, a 30+ digital nomad couple, entrepreneurs with restless feet and passion for experiencing the world. more »