My goodness, that place was unreal for real!
Imagine a holy place, which was a church years of years ago, has managed to stand until now to say hi us as well. The Saint Nicholas Church on The Saint Nicholas Island in Fethiye, Ölüdeniz was just remarkable. You can't just take your bag and hike on that tiny island to get to the top, you have to join the ship tours or have private jacht or something like that to get there, at least. When you finally arrive that hidden bay, first you get stunned by the amazing turquoise water of the sea then you get off your ship and pay little money to start hiking. All of that little island was once the area of the Church. Despite the fact that only some parts of the building have remained today, it still has that "wow" feeling to catch your heart.
When I saw the anchient stairs, I drunk some water, turned around and looked at my ship then my watch as I realised that I had only fifteen minutes to go to the top, do a little photo shoot myself and turn back before the ship stuff leaves the bay without me. I said "ok then, challenge accepted" and started taking the stairs.
The higher you get, the steeper it gets and the road is so old that sometimes there is a huge rock standing in front of you and you have to take other side through the sharp bushes and a-ha yeah, you have lost the path! However, during the way I never stopped to look back at the view, even at the times I wanted to take a picture, I just insisted that I had to go to the top then it would mean I deserve to see it. I thought "How did they use this Church back then?".
On the way I also saw the graveyard but not inside for sure it was locked,
and there were signs saying something "the 10th gate" as far as I remember now, basically they tell where you stand. I believe the 11th was the last one and when I was there, for the first time I turned behind and then all of a sudden I was just able to hear some insects talking in their language, the sound of the wind and my heart's crazy beating which I hadn’t realise until then,
but -absolutely- nothing else. I remember standing as if I was one of the remainings there. I stared at the beauty of the combination of pure nature and the history for a good while, maybe five minutes or a bit more.
Then I felt that my skin hurt because of the sun, found a shadow of a tree and sat down for another five minutes. I had six minutes or so, so I started taking the path down and at the areas I thought I would get a nice picture, I took short breaks and lots of beautiful images which I will always love remembering. This adventure of mine wasn't just special because I visited an anchient Church and had the chance of praying there, but because I was just on my own, taking decisions for only my self and enjoying the moment, not trying to share it at that time.
All in all, I believe sometimes we forget what it really feels like living that experience, whatever that is, not just capturing it or sharing or commentig on it for other people or for our future selves.
These moments I have shared with you will definitely not be lived again even if I go there and do the same things at the same time in the same order. Once it is gone, it just becomes a memory, so I think I made mine very good.. bloody good. How do you make your experiences unique for yourself?
