Surly They Won't Make It

10/1/25

We woke to another sunny day. We felt a little more rested though we were still feeling pretty tired. After making some Turkish coffee, it was getting better but hard to master, we set off to the centre of Bodrum. We’d left reasonably early and there was still a chill in the air. 

We’d found that google maps was absolutely rinsing our data allowance on the eSIMs we’d bought. We thought 20GB would be plenty, but the included WiFi didn’t exist where we were staying and we were way too reliant on our phones. So we tried to navigate sans maps. We were heading to the castle so it wasn’t too hard. 

We weren’t sure why Bodrum was so popular. It’s not really that picturesque. It doesn’t have that much to do. But in Turkey it’s a very wealthy place, maybe being around the elites is the attraction. The marina was full of fancy yachts, though many of them were for charting and it seemed like sitting on your boat at 9am was a popular pastime. 

Bodrum castle was built by the knights of St. John. Just like the fortifications at Rhodes. It’s an impressive structure. Inside the castle, is the museum of underwater archaeology. It’s a bit of a strange mix. It wasn’t cheap to go in, €23 each. The entrance fee has steadily risen over the last ten years. From what we understood from the signs, it’s much cheaper if you’re Turkish.

It’s a very well preserved castle, and it’s laid out very clearly on maps and with directional arrows. We appreciate that. There was also only one other family there where we arrived. So it was like being completely alone. The castle has three baileys, and there are multiple towers. Although one of the rooms is dedicated to the knights of St. John, the rest have nothing to do with the castle. 

The main attraction are the exhibits on underwater archaeology, something that the Turkish pioneered and are clearly very proud of. They have excavated a number of wrecks from their shore, rescuing countless artefacts from as far back as the 7th century BC. Because dive times were initially limited to 20 minutes each, this was an incredibly longwinded task. Much of what they recovered are amphorae, which are containers for commodities, and copper or glass ingots. One amazing retrieval was actually of intact glass vessels. There were many other smaller objects like ‘scarabs’ which were used to identify people.

The other exhibits were of objects retrieved from excavations of the many ancient cities in the area. The province of Muğla has more ancient sites than any other. The castle had been repurposed many times, and a sarcophagus was found with a skeleton that has been named the ‘Carian Princess’. They think it’s actually Ada, who ruled after her brother Mausolus. She was married to another one of their brothers. Hilarious amounts of incest.

More people had started to visit the museum as we we were leaving, but it was far from busy. We spied the windmills from the harbour and remember we wanted to go and see them. They were a little way away and up a steep hill but we went towards them anyway, they’re described as ‘crowning the hillside’ in brochures.

It was a bit of a shit hole up there really. As usual, because you can drive up there, it was a rubbish tip. Most of the 7 windmills are in disrepair but also semi trashed. More broken glass than you can picture. One of the windmills has been renovated and it’s kind of cool. You can go inside and see the mechanism. But still clearly used as a place to get drunk.

We headed back home for a restful afternoon. We were still pretty wiped and somewhat apprehensive about leaving the next day. En route we hit the BIM and bought the same stuff we’d been having for wraps. It just made sense to have lots of aubergine and peppers in Turkey, it was really cheap and readily available. 

We lounged around eating and watching TV. The time went quickly unfortunately. We didn’t feel ready to leave at all and pondered another night. It was going to rain tomorrow too. Not heavy but enough to be off putting. Also which way should we go? We were considering heading towards the ancient town of Pedasa to the north. That would mean we’d also avoid the busy ‘D’ road, for a bit anyway. We’d have to use it eventually but it should be like the road out of Marmaris with any luck.