Day 4

A Rest Day in Kas

We woke up early to the sound of roosters (we can’t seem to escape them) and left our campground, Kaş Evren Camping, to explore the harbor town of Kas (pronounced Kash) before it was fully awake. The streets were quiet in the early morning as shop owners carefully laid out their wares and hosed down their cobble stone store fronts. Equipped with a bag of cat food we took to making feline friends and ensuring all cats spotted had a little nibble for breakfast. 

Cautious not to walk too much on our rest day we took ample stops in cafes, lunched on gozleme (a savory, thin, stuffed pancake) and ended up at Büyük Çakıl Plajı, Big Pebble Beach, where we enjoyed a cold drink. Kas isn’t recognized as a beach town, it’s a holiday harbor town, but there are two rocky beaches nearby, Big Pebble Beach and Little Pebble Beach (Küçük Çakıl Plajı). Kas has a different vibe than other popular costal towns to the west; it’s larger and the majority of tourists are domestic vacationers, not foreigners. Prices in the restaurants seemed a bit more reasonable and the food more authentic.

Returning to the city after our beach excursion we noticed a lot of commotion coming from a cafe in the city center. Lured by the sounds of music and platters of free food, we entered the cafe to check out the spread. We were enthusiastically welcomed into the cafe, asked what we wanted to drink and handed an endless supply of bite sized pastries, sandwiches, nuts, and fruits. The language barrier made it a bit challenging to figure out what was going on…at first we assumed it was the grand opening of the cafe but a server relayed that it was actually the celebration of “Bayram,” “like halloween.” While we were familiar with Ramadan, we hadn’t heard of Bayram before. Turns out that Bayram, at the conclusion of Ramadan, is a “sugar feast" to end the fast on a festive note. People generously share sweets and desserts with others to celebrate. It was our lucky day; we’d accidentally stumbled upon a feast of sugar, the scene our of dreams! We indulged in the steady stream of sweets then took notice when a ribbon was stretched across the entrance, a camera crew appeared and a man, dressed in a suit, wielded a pair of scissors. The server, eager to communicate in English, pointed and commented, “Kas Trump.”

Our time in Kas was brief but restful. We’ll be back on the trail tomorrow!

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