Desperately seeking Bodrum spirit!

How exactly does one define the spirit of Bodrum? Once, it was the sleepy little fishing village, with its main income being sponge diving. It was a typical idyllic Aegean town adorned with a magnificent castle, a remembrance of a distant glorious past. Known in ancient times as Halicarnassus, it was once home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Halicarnassus' Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

The town initially attracted intellectuals, writers and artists, then slowly turned into a hub of tourism, especially the favorite destination of celebrities and jet-set. The first nucleus of intellectuals, mainly writers and painters, flooded the town following the writer Cevat Şakir Karaağaçlı, later famed with the pen name Halikarnas Balıkçısı, literally the Fisherman of Halicarnassus were sent to exile here. His fellow artists passionately painted the typical cubic white-washed stone houses with blue doors and windows, occasionally spotted with a cascade of fuchsia bougainvillea aka paper flowers. The spirit of Bodrum was captured in those paintings, creating a romantic nostalgia for a pure tranquil remote sea town, reminiscent of times when Leonard Cohen discovered the Greek island Hydra. Eventually, Bodrum gained undisputed fame being the ultimate tourism destination.

However, we all know tourism is a two-sided blade. Change was inevitable. Today, even the newcomers to Bodrum claim that it doesn't have the old spirit anymore. Constantly changing, constantly being built up with new constructions, with brand new places opening up every year, Bodrum is certainly no longer the Bodrum of old times, and it is doubtful that it belongs to Bodrum locals now. The true spirit of a place can only be preserved with its inhabitants, the people who are the ...