So, after spending 4 days in Istanbul, we traveled via overnight bus to the Bodrum Peninsula along the Agean Sea. The Peninsula is a very popular tourism spot for Europeans because of the hot climate, location to the water, and the relatively lower costs of living here. The intense tourism growth has caused many issues such as loss of productive agriculture land and a lot of 2nd home development on hillsides. Our main project is working with the municipality of Bitez to come up with a tourism plan which can integrate agriculture and tourism. The historic town is inland a bit, and there is some really productive agriculture land between the town and the beachfront touristic development. The ag land consists of a lot of products, but olives and tangerines are the main thing we are hoping to tie into the touristic development.
To better understand other communities, we spent the last 7 days on a boat visiting several communities along the way. The experience has been awesome — the crew made some ridiculously good meals while we were there.
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| From Boat Pics |
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| From Boat Pics |
And I have enjoyed swimming every morning. It has been great to just jump off the boat for the morning swim. A couple other people on the boat have been enjoying long swims with me, and everyone on the boat has been having fun just jumping in the water.
We started out by exploring Bitez – the town we will be working with. The town has some issues and really isn’t as nice as some of the other towns we visited.
A 400 year old olive tree in the agriculture area on one of of the paths through the agriculture land between the beach front development and the old town.
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| From Bitez – Day 2 |
We experienced some awesome sunsets. So much so that we had a contest one night for the best sunset picture. 11 were submitted and mine won based on our judges, the captain, cook, and 3 other crew members.
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| From Boat Pics |
Next we visited Turgutreis which has a pretty good walkable waterfront area but has some intense auto oriented strip development a few blocks out. This town seems to be oriented towards 2nd home development and locals due to the large amount of household amenities such as furniture and electronics.
Walking around town with my group in TURGUTREIS
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| From Bitez – Day 2 |
Next day we visited Gumusluk – a really quaint small town which I thought was great. Not much music and noise, and the tourists there seemed a bit more tasteful. Several really good restaurants right on the water and a lot of open hillsides due to the historic preservation of the area — a lot of ancient civilization has ruins located under this place.
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| From Gumusluk – Day 4 |
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| From Gumusluk – Day 4 |
Yalikavak was the next town we visited. This place was great — much bigger place but well manicured and some good pedestrian walkways.
One of the many covered shopping areas in town.
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| From Turgutreis – Day 3 |
The last town we visited was Turkbuku
Found these 4 ducks and it made me think of the 4 little kwaaks.
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| From Turkbuku – Day 6 |
The rich and famous like to hang out in the fancy clubs and bars. Some are a little over the top.
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| From Turkbuku – Day 6 |
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| From Turkbuku – Day 6 |
It was great working on the boat. A perfect mixture of school and vacation. Here I am working hard with a nice glass of wine.
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| From Boat Pics |
Now we will spend the next day and a half living an Aktur which is right next to Bitez. We are staying in 2 bedroom units which overlook the water — pretty nice. We are doing our own cooking now as well, so we’ve decided to do potluck dinners every other day or so. Last night my room (3 of us) cooked an eggplant ratatoulle dish which turned out pretty good — we did make about twice as much as we needed for all 13 of us though (4 potfuls). We’re finishing up our comparative analysis of the towns by creating boards which categorize the economic, social, and architectural qualities of each town. Then we’ll work more specifically with Bitez to come up with a plan.
My group just finished up two posters for the Businesses in all of the towns we visited with recommendations for Bitez. If you’re interested — the file is Group 1 Boards – Economy . Brushed up on my InDesign skills for this one.
Tomorrow we are meeting with the planning director and the mayor of Bitez to get a little more direction on what we’re doing. Earlier in our trip, we had them on our boat for dinner one night when we were docked outside Bitez. Language is a difficulty, but Korkut (our professor) does a pretty good translating for everyone.
Overall I am having a great time. I wish Jess were here to enjoy this experience with me, but we will soon meet up in Cairo to enjoy another journey together.
really cool nick. you are convincing me that turkey would be an awesome place to visit someday!
great work too, by the way.
So amazing. Sounds like you are having fun. I love reading your posts.
wow nick, that looks really amazing!! Esp the boat, wine, food, sunsets! Do you have power and running water there? Cuz I don’t and that’s pretty fun
I’m glad you are having a great experience …. I’m excited to see you in Cairo too 
Nick, your pic of the ducks made me smile. “Four Little Kwaaks” is still hanging in our upstairs bathroom. It’s been with us for a long time……from hanging on the back of our Starcraft tent trailer, to hanging on our front porch, to hanging in the bathroom. Somehow, we just can’t part with this relic! Sounds like a great time, Nick! Only one more week to Jess!
Hi Nick, Hi Jess,
Your dad gave me your blog address so now I’m “in” on your trip. Was most curious about the Bodrum penninusla. What a crack up! Your first picture of Bietz is the hotel we stayed in June 12 – 20th. Missed you by days! It is the Toloman hotel. Very quaint and excellent staff. I so wanted to get with you before the trip to go over your opinion of the area but it sounds like you are taking it in like we did, day by day. We visited some of the other resort towns by car and liked Bitez the best! Interesting that you didn’t feel the same about it. Much smarter to go by boat as you may remember our last rental car experience together a few years ago! Thank God Doug is a human G.P.S. so we stayed on course for most of the excursions. Well, I’m just getting into your blog and I am enjoying it so much. We would love to have you over to share some photos! Jess, you have my number so call when you return and get settled. Have a great time, Kim.
Amazing, Nick and Jess! Thanks for sharing your adventures–both the challenges and wonderful moments–and the pictures!! I’m living through you from Michigan