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Published: January 22nd 2011
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Antalya 01
(Antalya Marina - The Mediterranean Sea) am in a city where no one knows who I am. I sit in the cab and tell the driver to take me ‘wherever’ and he drops me at a place where there is a bit of life in what appeared to be a dead city.
It’s a wonderful feeling. I don’t know where I am and I don’t want to know either.
I keep walking on the streets.
(Entrance of a Bazaar in Centrum)
I am not asking for directions because I don’t have to go anywhere. I cross a food-street and indulge myself in another Doner. Much tastier than one I had in Istanbul and custom made.
I keep walking on dark streets. I realize that I am walking opposite to the direction where majority of people are going. I stop for a bit and ask myself ‘do I care?’ The answer is ‘not really’.
I keep walking. The temperature is going down. I put the hood of my jacket on my head. I see a courier service guy on his bike stopping to drop some envelopes in a bank. He must be one dutiful employee for serving his company so late in
Antalya 02
(King Saljuq, The first conqueror of Antalya) the night. I wait for him to be free.
“Hi. DHL? I ask him when he turns to me.
“Yes…” he looks surprised.
“I just wanted to know if you have any letter in my name.”
“What’s your name?”
I tell him my name. He searches through his envelopes and then shakes his head.
“No sir… there is no letter for you.”
I thank him and move forward. But what if he had said ‘Yes sir… I have one letter for you. Here it is.’ Whose letter it would be? What would be written in it?
I am walking late in the night in an unknown city. Nobody knows me and there is no letter for me at the courier. What kind of a feeling is that?
(King Saljuq, The first conqueror of Antalya)
And then I find Antalya. Antalya was not there in the Liman Beach in front of my hotel. Antalya was right in front of me in Centrum, Meydan and Marina. Filled with Turkish music, people of all nationalities, marvelously sculpted statues and the sights you only see in photos on the internet and wish you were
Antalya 03
(Centrum again) there.
(Beautiful metal work. Check out the small slippers. Centrum, Antalya)
There is a mini D-shaped stadium filled by different groups. One of them is rehearsing a play. It looks humorous and they are all having fun. The other is of some junkies who are drinking and smoking. Two girls are sitting in a separate corner and whispering to each other with beer bottles in their hands. The fourth one is listening to a one of their friends playing flute. I sit with them for a while and enjoy their music.
(Antalya Marina - The Mediterranean Sea)
I keep walking.
I cross a few night clubs. I go upstairs in one of them and find it empty. The bouncer tells me that I am early and that I should come after midnight. I thank him and leave the place. While coming out I am approached by a few pimps.
“Maadaam… want maadaam?”
“No thank you”. I laugh and pat them on the shoulder. “I don’t want madam.”
“Come. See first.”
They hold me with my arms and when I still walk off; they say something in Turkish at my back.
Antalya 04
(Beautiful metal work. Check out the small slippers. Centrum, Antalya) I keep walking and finally I am tired. The cold has also increased. I approach a coffee shop and ask for Café Latte but there are no paper cups. I don’t want to sit inside so I leave and reach a bench on the streets ideally located on the intersection of two major streets of the Old City. I sit there and watch people coming from both sides.
Fur jackets and fur boots of ladies. Overcoats for men.
A few people withdraw money from the ATM in front of me.
A group of young college student girls. One of them is crying and others are trying to pacify her.
A group of Asian men and women with their cameras and tripods.
I hear an ‘ssshhhheee’ sound from behind me. I turn back and see a group two girls pretending that it was not them who made that sound. A game you play in schools when you call someone’s name and start looking here and there to pretend that you did not call the name. Then they say something in Turkish but seeing the puzzled look on my face, they walk off.
(Centrum again)
Antalya 05
(Entrance of a Bazaar in Centrum) The weather becomes unbearably cold and I have been on streets for four hours. I lie down on the bench and close my eyes.
I could be some big shot and a very important guy in my own accord but tonight, in a city where no one knows me, I am lying on a wooden bench after midnight and sleeping.
I know nobody can find me here but I have found Antalya.
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