Another theater:
More beautifully carved stone:
Fabulous statues, architecture, design, blah blah:
It's all Greek to me:
Discreet archway:
Understated stone boulevard with columns and decapitated statue:
Mauling yet another ancient wonder:
My uninspired attitude carried over to our climbing destination, as well, because it would have been pretty exciting to go to Kaynaklar earlier in the trip. The crag setting is nice
and the sport climbing is decent enough, but Kalymnos is a tough act to follow and Kaynaklar is not even close to being in the same league. We tried to climb, but holds felt slippery, the bolts were awkwardly placed, the rock quality wasn't that great, it was hot, and, let's face it, thinking up vague, insubstantial excuses every day for not climbing is extraordinarily tiring. So we had to come up with other ways to entertain ourselves.Thankfully, Dolphin met up with us again carting his tattoo equipment (he had been unable to go to Greece). When he made a moving speech that first evening about how much he enjoyed being with us and how he had racked his brain thinking of a special way to show his appreciation for the way we had accepted him into the fold, the last thing I was expecting him to offer was free tattoos. Tattoos?! I was initially skeptical, envisioning Dolphin in an ominously lit dingy room with a single rusty needle dipped in the ink from a broken ball point pen jabbing away at a twitching arm. Clearly I've watched too many prison movies. My medical fears were put to rest, however, when he whipped out a fully professional and sanitary kit. At least nobody would be dying of gangrene. My artistic fears were put to rest when his mother showed up (she lived nearby in the city of Izmir) and displayed a very impressive seahorse that Dolphin had tattooed on her leg. Game on!
While everyone discussed the endless variations of image, size, and location of a tattoo, Henry was already prepared to add to his collection with a design that Gail had created.
Partially finished. Notice how it says "Hot Rock":
Hannah had a gecko that Gail designed put above her ankle, and Teresa had the same gecko put on her wrist.
Teresa winces while Dolphin goes to work:
Teresa proud of her new acquisition. :
It was a good thing that it took four days to do those tattoos and that Dolphin was getting tired of squinting in the dim light of BiRT because I came very close to getting myself permanently inked. If ever there was a time to get a tattoo with a good back story, that was it. I'll just have to continue relying on my scar stories.
We couldn't spend all our free time jumping up and down on the steps of BiRT trying to break Dolphin's concentration, so we turned our attention to other pursuits. Sam channeled his inner fashionista and spent an afternoon painting his toenails,
Call now for your very own pedicure by Sam!:
I finally stopped procrastinating after 10 months and organized my crap,
How did I wind up with more gear than when I started? And don't ask about the Karate Kid headband -- it's a long story:
and Teresa, Tazzy, and George tirelessly worked on their bodybuilding poses.
Something to aspire to: Teresa at almost 40, Tazzy pushing 50, and George at a solid 60:
A kidnapping, however, abruptly stopped all the fun and games. George had brought along with him the mascot from his mountain search and rescue team back in the UK, an engaging little fellow named Monty that team members had taken turns carting around the world. Though quiet, slightly faded, and rather limp, Monty never complained and was universally liked by everyone on the trip.
Monty and George in happier times:
Then one day someone snatched him from his usual perch at the front of the truck facing out the windows and left this note taped in his spot.
"We have Monty. We want 6 beers or it means certain death. Details follow soon. No cops."
A pall descended upon the truck as we all realized that we had a full blown crisis on our hands.
George searched desperately for Monty, organizing search parties and frantically trying to locate six beers should the kidnappers be serious. The second note that appeared made their intentions clear.
"Drop ransom on roof at midnight and Monty might live."
In these tense times George contacted me to aid in his search and I accepted his plea for help. These were professionals and I knew that threatening the suspects with burning sticks in their eyes would be useless, so I decided to fall back on solid science. The ransom notes had not been handled by anyone other than the perps therefore fingerprints would be the best way to (ahem) finger them. After dusting for prints with some generously supplied eyeshadow, I called up the suspects and used yellow Savlon antiseptic spray (hygiene first!) to capture their fingerprints. Hannah was unusually nervous, dancing from foot to foot and chattering quickly while avoiding eye contact. Come to think of it, other members of the trip had been exhibiting some behavior that was out of character: Aidan had been especially tired 
and Danny had been shockingly quiet. Hunches, though, were not enough.
Unfortunately, I didn't have sufficient time to analyze my findings before we set off suddenly for Istanbul and George was forced to leave the ransom on the top of the truck. A drunk looking Monty was returned unharmed the following morning.
"Thanks for the beers. Ha Ha." 
Unable to contain their glee, the Terrible Three of Hannah, Aidan, and Danny confessed to their heinous crime. Life returned to normal except I was racked with guilt over the fact that if I had only acted on my hunches I could have saved George six beers (and maybe drank them with him). Always listen to your gut!
Yet another gorgeous morning:
Nathan on a climb inside the Grotto. It's only slightly overhung...:
Nathan giving it everything he's got:
Danny sweating it up another climb in the Grotto:
And streeeeetch!:
Danny in the money shot:
No, this picture is not in the wrong orientation -- it really is a roof and yes I am hanging almost upside down. I don't really know what possessed me to jump on this French 7b+ route, but it was incredibly fun:
Where's my next foothold again??!!:
Ah, forget it, I'm just going to hang here:
Wheee! The scenic loweroff:
The world's smallest cabin boat. It couldn't have been more than 7 feet long:
The scene before the soiree:
This was as close as we could get to approximate a column. Top down L to R: George, Danny, me, Hannah, Aidan, Teresa, Diana, Sam, Angie
Let's get a closeup on the incredible cheese happening on top, shall we? George doing his best to look beatific while Danny and I do our best to look like devoted acolytes. Or something like that:
Don't we look like a bunch of ridiculous statues:
Danny and Teresa kick it up a notch:
Tazzy and Angie discover they are both genetic freaks and can touch their nose with their tongues:
Aidan depressed about his arm? Or just a sympathy ploy?:
Ready to hit the town:
cows, excellent bouldering, and very nice locals (the pension owner let us camp for free).
Not my palm, my entire hand. There was not a chance in Hell that I was going to put my hand next to that behemoth to give a sense of scale. You'll just have to take my word for it. There was another, marginally smaller version of the same species 
that made for some cool pics on this bouldering problem.
I don't look nearly as cool on the same problem...:
