Antalya (April 23-25)

Me decked out in my backpackers backpack. I was an official backpacker in Turkiye...Magnum!


This spring break adventure has been accompanied by Kristina and Lessa. We took a cab to the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul and got on a cheap flight to Antalya. The flight departed late at night and the in air time was only one hour. We arrived in Antalya around 9:00pm. We then had to find our way to Sabah Pansiyon located in Kaleiçi, the old historical part of the city. We had to take a bus all the way to Magavat and then walk from the bus stop to our Pansiyon in the dark for a couple of kilometers. It got to be a bit draining. It was interesting navigating though. We eventually asked a policemen where to go and he guided us. Thankfully I understood the basics of how many lefts and rights I needed to make (solda = to the left, sağda = to the right). We eventually found our way to the pansiyon, and then went out to get a little dinner. We then decided to hit the sack since we were all plenty tired.

We woke up early the next morning to explore the old city and to look at the city from the side we were on. The geography of the area is absolutely something to die for. The city is on one of the clearest bodies of water you will ever get to see and close by are mountains with still snow at the top, and it was in the high 70s. Perfect weather!


We then hooked up with our friends Merve and Mert, the locals who acted as our guides to the city for the entire time. It was great having them around. Regretably, I checked my email that morning to find out that I was rejected for a position next school year as being an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA), which I know I deserved considering knowbody has been able to beat me out in economics at ISU for the past three years now. Thankfully my peturbedness didn't last the entire day, and I cheared up with the scenery. It was just when we weren't doing much or in between doing things did I start getting a bit more morbid. I have a feeling that my friends noticed too. I hope I didn't affect them.
Either way, the old city was by far one of the most elegant examples of human civilization possible. All of the houses were white washed with red clay-coned roofs. They all had courtyards and inside was decorated with flowers, fruit trees, tables, and great conversation with wine or çay complimenting it. If I ever have a house, I am going to model it after what I saw here in Kaleiçi. There was this one that was set up as a restaurant and tea place that had a small pool filled with turtles, and old fashion lamps that would light up the courtyard/garden with their candle lights. Also, the old city is surrounded by a series of ancient walls that are still standing today. Many of the structures are actually ruins themselves but just built up, and upgraded. For instance many of the courtyards and houses still had ancient statuary from the Roman period. Hadrians Gate was also extremely impressive. Se pictures at the top for a better look.
Another cool thing that I got to witness in Kaleiçi was a lot of old craftsman still living and working in the city. For instance the man below the text has been making glass art all of his life and he is very talented. He made Kristina an interesting vase with a blue Nargule (All Seeing Evil Eye) created inside the glass. It was worth it watching him do it for us. We decided to go down to the famous marina built by, I believe, the Romans. We just sat around to admire the view, take in some sun, and for chit chat by the water. It was incredibly peaceful. I got to do some much needed relaxing here. The picture below is Con (like John), the little baby boy kitten whose mother abandoned him after one week. Merve found him that day, and was unable to let him go. Con was cute. He pretty much slept all day until he got hungry. Regrettably, it still only wanted to take food from its mother's tit, and the bottle was something Con didn't want. He would turn his little head every time we tried to make him drink. We had to force formula on him a couple of times. Poor little guy. We started to grow weary of the old city, and we asked Merve and Mert if there were any places in Antalya that are must sees that aren't too touristy. They immediately came up with an awesome idea. They took us to the Duden Falls, a relaxing set of waterfalls helped created by Roman aqueducts and the river under it that is about 10km north of the city. We actually got to eat lunch there, and Mert drove us to a fanstic, hidden-away place that offered fresh sea bass as their specialty. It was somewhat expensive, but this is fish and I am me. I dug in! After we finished Lunch we walked up bit to get to the actual main set of waterfalls. They were located inside a park that did require entrance fee, but we had our Muze Kartlar (Museum Cards) that provided us free entrance. We walked around and took in the beauty that surrounded us. It looked like Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings to be honest. We were able to go behind the waterfall in series of caves.

After that, Mert had to go run an errand so while he was out Merve guided us along the coast so that we could explore more of the city. We went to Ataturk Park where we got to see different busts, pictures, and statues of all his achievements throughout the park even though I swear I have heard of all of them already...he's literally everywhere! This area of the coast however lies on cliff edges overlooking the bay. It offered us a fabulous view. Too bad it started to rain on us. Thankfully we were able to ditch inside a restaurant where he had çay to wait it out. While there we also attempted to feed Con but he was resisting as usual. It would whine when we forced fed it, and it whined when we took him out of his blanket...

The beach was somewhat impressive but it is not like the beaches in Florida that are dominated by sand. These beaches are dominated by small rocks of different kinds. A rock hound would be in paradise here where as a sun bather might have to bring an extra towel to cope with the rocks. Mert however soon came back to pick us up and they took us back to their place to meat their parents and to have dinner with them. This was by far the most interesting part of the day. Their parents were very welcoming and I got to experience a real Turkish dinner with a Turkish family. I also got an opportunity to brush up on my Turkish but that was incredibly difficult with Kristina being with us. She studies and lives in the land of the languages, and she is picking up Turkish really fast. Therefore, she is the first to answer any question directed towards us enabling her to practice more. The dinner was delicious. We had Kofte, meatballs, with several other sides and appetizers. I am a huge fan of the eggplant here, and the rice with chickpeas in it. The salad was alright. I miss the Thousand Island Dressing though back in the states because salads in Turkiye usually just come with Olive Oil.
After dinner it was like Turkish Nights with an Arabian twist. We started talking about Turkish folk dances and Mert busted out his labtop to show us different folk dances performed in different parts of Turkiye. After that we started talking about belly dancing and then I pushed Lessa into showing off her belly dancing capabilities. She was a dancer for a majority of her life so I figured belly dancing would be no problem with her and it wasn't. She performed marvelously well! Mert was obviously into the atmosphere of the evening so he decided to add an Arabian twist to the festivities by dressing up as a stereotypical Arab and doing a Walk Like An Egyptian Dance. He then proceeded to perform his own version of the Belly Dance. I was definitely better then mine (but that isn't saying much). We then proceeded to go out on the town, so we went to a disco overlooking the bay. It was a fun and happening night of Efes beer, different assortments of nuts, and dancing to Disco Disco Partizani!

The next day we walked around the old city some more after we checked out. We then decided to hit up Termessos and from there go on to Olimpos. I wish I had more time in this city. It is a definite must for anyone traveling to Turkiye. For more pictures visit here:

Antalya and Termessos