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Published: July 21st 2022
Using Public Transportation in Turkey Is Great
plenty of room and they even serve drinks & snacks!We arrived in Turkey the end of May and have been concentrating on things that needed to be done on the boat. Now we decided we needed to take time to see someplace other than Marmaris. We had originally planned to take a few months to travel extensively through Turkey, but as we have known from past experience, plans can change in a minute.
With Bob trying to turn on the navigational computer “just to check it out”, he found out that even though it was getting 12V of power, it would not turn on. Not good at all. The company we had bought it from has always had great customer support, therefore Bob touched base with them and found that they suggested sending it to their facility in the UK. We could indeed send it to them, but as we have heard numerous times (and remember from our time in Tunisia the problems of receiving a package of books we ordered) it was not a great idea to have a computer returned to us in Turkey. This sounded like a trip to the UK was in our future.
With this new twist, we contacted friends of ours, Sandra
and John, that we had made years ago in Botswana. We checked with them to see about the closest airport to fly into that would be close to where the computer needed to go. Soon after that we got another message back from Sandra informing us on the QT that they were planning a surprise birthday party for John on July 2
nd and wondered if we could make it. With this new information, our plan now was to go to the UK in time to help celebrate.
The question was now, do we completely forget about doing any touring of Turkey now and just pull together the trip to the UK OR do we change again and try to take just a few days to travel nearby to another town. We decided our priority should be exploring so the decision was made – now where to? Quickly we came up with the idea of going to Antalya and travel there by bus. Antalya is by the coast and we could possibly get there by boat sometime, but decided, what the heck, let’s go for it anyway.
Fortunately, our bus trip was during the day so that we were
able to enjoy the wonderful views which included numerous agricultural areas, forested areas and amazing mountains. As Bob said on the trip over, it really hardly matters if we enjoy Antalya, as the trip over is well worth it with this magnificent scenery.
In the end, the time in Antalya was very enjoyable as well. As with so many places here there is a rich history to absorb. Fortunately, they have some excellent museums that help with explaining the history of this area. We spent only 4 nights in Antalya, but we definitely were not lacking in things to do. We were fortunate to have arrived in Antalya early enough to check in to our accommodation and still have plenty of time to walk around to get a “lay of the land” which took us to the “old city” area which was lovely to walk through at night. We had a 30-minute bus stop where we were able to get a tasty but simple lunch so decided we’d find something for dinner in this area of town. We noticed numerous places that catered to the German tourists with snitzel on numerous menus we saw posted. We finally decided on
a place for dinner that had a lovely inner garden dining area where we enjoyed a lovely meal. They even provided an appetizer of various types of nuts at the start and surprised us at the end with a plate of fresh fruit. A lovely way to end our first day in Antalya.
With so much to learn about this area we decided the best place to start the next day would be with a visit to the Antalya Museum. There is a great tram system here and we made great use of it while here. We found there was one that went to the museum directly which was handy and gave us more time to spend inside the museum. We easily spent the day there absorbing as much as we could.
One of the rooms was filled with sarcophus with explanations about the meaning of many of the carvings that decorate them. One in particular that we remember was one that had a marble carving of 2 people on the top – the carving of the woman was quite detailed and the other, a man with his head not completely carved leaving it as unidentifiable. In reading
the description we found it was indeed the woman that was buried inside, and the male was her husband. The note stated that she did not want anyone to out shine her in death so wanted the details of her husband left out. She also indicated that she wanted the sarcophus closed up completely with iron rods so no one else could possibly be buried within. There were many with interesting stories attached either explaining more about the person that died or the meaning behind the carvings that you see. An unusual one was one from the 3
rd C. AD for a dog that a woman owned and loved.
We would definitely recommend a visit to the Antalya Museum if you are ever here as it has excellent signage in English and you can also rent an audio-guide which we did as it was clearly narrated and added to the experience.
Every evening we were in Antalya we took a walk enjoying the views at night – either along the waterfront where there are lovely pathways or down the main shopping streets with the numerous restaurants and shops. Here as in many other countries we have visited the
place comes alive at night. People of all ages with extended families including grandchildren to grandparents are all out walking and enjoying the evenings together. It was always surprising to see small kids out enjoying themselves even at 10 or 11 o’clock at night. It is always a wonderful time to be out and people watching is always an enjoyable pastime.
Antalya has a great tram service and we were fortunate that one of the stops was close to our Airbnb so we took advantage of it which helped us in covering more of the city, but we also enjoyed the many wonderful green spaces they have with lovely flora and pathways to enjoy.
In the days here we also visited the Ethology Museum and the Suna Inan Kinac Kaleici Museum which added more to our understanding of the people that lived here. We not only enjoyed the exhibits and information provided on the excellent signage, but the buildings themselves. Both were housed in residential homes from the 19
th C. with wonderful architectural details to admire. The later mentioned museum also had a previously active Greek Orthodox Church which you could visit.
We have seen gravestones in
other locations but here we learned more about the meaning of the markings on the stones. Those that had headgear on top of the stone indicated it was a man that died. There were 3 types of headgear – the turban, fez or tarekats crown. When a woman died the gold necklace that she wore on her forehead or the jewelry she wore was duplicated in stone carvings on the gravestone. If a flower was seen on the stone, it meant the person died young, a palm tree meant the person was a pilgrim, while others such as an anchor, pump, arrow and arch would tell you the profession of the person that died. If you saw a rope around a neck, it clearly indicated that the person had died by hanging. The executioner’s gravestone was plain with no inscription at all. If a young woman was unmarried and died her stone would be in the shape of a veil and a rosebud carved at her feet. Even the level of literacy of a person could be shown by the carving of a pencil on the stone. As mentioned, we had seen numerous stones in other places, but this is
Closer Look at Marble Quarry
as well as plenty of agricultural fields & green houses the first time we learned of the various meanings to the carvings we saw.
We also took advantage of the beautiful days to explore some of the beauty of the area. Antalya had been a walled city like so many others. Parts of the wall still remain and can be seen in many places. It was most obvious as we walked to the old Roman Harbor that is now still used by the many tour boats that take people out to see the city from the water or to go out fishing. We always chuckle at the many tour boats that have “Pirates”, “Wenches” and “Johnny Deeps” on board to try to entice you to book with them. When we are asked many times if we are concerned with pirates, these are the ones that you need to watch out for when in a town with many tourists! When you are walking in the old harbor it is much more obvious to see the remaining city walls protecting this area.
When we were at the Antalya Museum the first full day here, we also could see the amazing stretch of beaches here. On our last day we took
a trip out to the beaches. There is a glass sided elevator you can take for free down to the beach area or you can walk down on the sidewalks next to the roadway down. We walked down and discovered that at the bottom it was a wonderfully active park. Many were out having picnics, playing games, swimming, biking, enjoying the numerous restaurants here and just having a great day outside. This area attracted the local people as well as the many tourists that come to this area. High on the hill here are numerous hotels where people can stay and easily get to the beaches via the free elevator.
We also had to see Hadrian’s Gate which was built to honor his visit here in 130AD. It was built in honor of him, but also became one of the gates through the city wall. You could see the deep ruts in the roadway through the gate showing the years of use it had. It is the only remaining gate to the city here.
When walking home one evening after having dinner out we passed a place that had live music playing traditional music. A woman that owned
Anyone For a Stove For Your Place?
numerous designs to choose from here the place came out to us to try to get us to come in. We were tempted as we definitely enjoyed the music but as we were quite full, we told her we would come back another night. On the last night out, we put it into our evening plan to do just that. The woman was very pleased to see that we had come back. We were the only ones there that evening, but there was live music again, a different group of men playing. They asked what we wanted and we knew it was not too much as we had dinner already, so they suggested fruit and grappa which we agreed to. We thought we would get a small glass of grappa, but instead one of the staff went out quickly to another shop and brought back fresh fruit and a small bottle of grappa for us! We always enjoy finding a place that is geared more for the locals (as that is what we saw the previous evening) as it was quite a distance from the “tourist area” of the city. It turned out to be a wonderful way to spend our last evening in Antalya.
Even though it was only 3 full days, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Antalya. It was a wonderful break from being in the marina with all of our time concentrating on the boat and what needed to be done. Not only did we learn more at the wonderful museums, but also thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful scenery that we could enjoy from the comfort of the bus.
We knew we were packing in this trip before our next trip to the UK, but we are very glad we took the time to make it a priority to do. As we keep telling ourselves, this is why we travel!
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