Enjoying Antalya

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After short flights, we arrived in Antalya, a beautiful city situated on the Turquoise Coast. We exited the airport and searched for our name being held by one of the several shuttle drivers. Hmmm. No luck. We waited and kept looking as new drivers arrived. Still no sign bearing our name. Not quite sure what to, do one of the shuttle drivers noticed us and asked where we were staying. He immediately called our Pansiyon and within about 5 minutes a driver was calling out to us. We followed him and soon piled our bags into a taxi. Antalya is a huge, modern city. The drive took about 30 minutes and then we entered Kaleici, the old town of Antalya. Here the streets narrowed to cobblestone lanes. Our driver was a little unsure of where our place was located and kept stopping to ask others. Pretty soon we noticed the sign, Sibel Pansiyon up ahead. We hopped out and registered in our very quaint spot. Sylvie is a the owner, and what a wonderfully gentle lady. She is French but has lived in Turkey for 40 years. Her late husband was a pharmacist here and now she runs this beautiful guest house. It has a lovely courtyard with a fountain, trees, and lots of flowers. She makes a point of getting to know her guests and chatting with them. Her English is limited but she speaks fluent French, German and Turkish so Curtis was able to practise a bit. After unpacking a few necessities we headed out to explore. Our first impression was not the best. Being a travel day, we were both tired and a bit out of sorts. Not far from our place we encountered a man in front of the Broken Minaret who had a shoe shine stand. He called us over and so we stopped. He showed his product. Curtis politely said, "no thank you" but he suddenly began slopping this goop on his running shoe. Again, "No thank you" but he kept at us and was almost yelling! We quickly left. On our way down to the marina we were then approached by a carpet store owner who was trying to get us into his store. We smiled and said, "No thank you." Next we headed down the steps to the harbour where we had our first glimpse of the Turquoise Coast. We were absolutely amazed at the beautiful sight before us. The most surprising was that there were huge mountains right across the water, reminding us of one we had seen in Alberta! There are tons of boats in this harbour, several made to look like pirate ships and offering sunset rides. We were stopped several times and offered "great deals". We finally spoke to a tour operator who told us they offered 6 hour rides along the coast, complete with a swimming stop and lunch. This is what we were looking for! We asked the departure time for Sunday and headed back to our room for a short nap to chase away our grumpies. Refreshed, we wandered just down the street to a wonderful restaurant for dinner.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in our courtyard. Sylvie and the young man she has working for her were very attentive and friendly, making sure we had enough to eat. They just kept bringing food! Soon we made our way back to the marina. We got to the place that offered the cruise and spoke to a different man who told us, much to our disappointment, that they only do the 6 hour cruise privately (meaning more $) and they don't do group ones for another 15-20 days! Because we were hyped to get out on the water we decided to do the 2 hour cruise which ended up being wonderful. Our small ship travelled on the spectacular coast. The towering cliffs look like wax dripping down to the the turquoise water below. Hotels, restaurants, and a walkway were perched along the edge. We got to see at least 5 waterfalls, the biggest one was spectacular. With the water roaring down from above, the mist gently sprayed over us. The boat's photographer took pictures of us with the falls providing a great backdrop. We then turned around and headed back to the marina. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking along the walkway that runs on top of the cliffs. Parks were full of families playing games, flying kites, and picnicking. One thing we have noticed is that there are cats everywhere! People leave out bowls of water and food. In fact n They never bother you at all. After 4 hours we headed back to our neighbourhood. On the way we came across a store that sold camera lenses. Our beautiful Nikon camera lens had finally given up the ghost. It was taped together and came complete with several loose parts which rattled around inside. My husband was starting to exhibit symptoms of withdrawal since he was relegated to using our small camera. We went in and set aside a new lens, half the price than in Canada and with over a month left of travelling it was the only logical choice. Shortly after we returned with our camera and "Snap Happy" was back in business! He practised by taking umpteen dozen pictures!!! We enjoyed the sights at night and roamed the streets.

On our final day we spent walking through the newer, and busier, streets of Antalya. Again, parks and shops were filled with people. We went back to Hadrian's Gate in order to get some better pictures and sat in the little parkette right next to the gate. A lady was walking around selling tea so we sipped away under the shade of a large tree surrounded by locals chatting amicably. We noticed a homeless man sleeping on the bench. He soon awoke and opened a plastic bag out of which he brought his food. It was evident that he had found the things in the trash. Sadly, he was attempting to scoop feta cheese out of a container using the lid. Curtis walked over and gave him a plastic spoon from the package we had in our backpack. Later in the evening we stopped for a drink before dinner at an outdoor restaurant. We got chatting to a man beside us who was just about to smoke a hookah. He was sitting with another man and a younger one. It turns out he is American and is a pilot. He regaled us with stories of his adventures as a former journalist for the Washington Post. We learned about his family. The young man with him was his wife's nephew who was studying in Antalya. The other man was his wife's brother and he was from Iraq. He told us that in order to come to Turkey, this man had to take a very long trip around Syria and that his wife and children had stayed at home. He also explained that He cares for his sister-in-law and her five children as his brother had been killed in the fighting. I noticed this Iraqi gentleman had worry beads on the table. I commented on them and he handed them to me. The American explained that there are two types of worry beads, a long set to pray with and a shorter one they manipulate. Intrigued, I played with the beads and as I went to hand them back he told his brother-in-law that I could keep them as a gift. I was so touched to think a complete stranger who has suffered so much loss and lives in a war-torn country would just give them to me. This kindness of people never ceases to amaze me. He had more need of those beads than I did for sure.

Monday morning we enjoyed our breakfast and packed up once again. Our lovely hostess, Sybil, arranged a taxi for us. Driving through the city we noticed, that for the first time, we could see the mountains towering over the water. There were no clouds and no haze blocking our view. We whipped out the camera and the nice young taxi driver pulled over so we could get some shots. We arrived at the airport and soon boarded our plane for Izmir. We flew Sun Express, a company we did not know. The plane was great but there was only food and drinks available for purchase. As it was a short flight we opted not to buy anything. Fve minutes later the head flight attendant leaned over to us with two boxes in her hands. She said, "Mr. and Mrs. Coyne? Here is your lunch. You also get two drinks."! Not really sure how that all came about but I can only imagine that it had something to do with the travel agency that we booked our tickets through in Turkey. Others were looking at us as we opened our boxes as no one else apparently received this treat!

Landing in Izmir we headed out to take a train into Selcuk. This station is right across from the airport. There are only two tracks, one north, the other south. There were no posted schedules, only the one I had printed off that said the next train to Selcuk was at 4:02. We waited the two hours and soon headed out to the platform to wait in the sweltering heat. A train approached and as I went to get on an older man and another lady stopped me, indicating that this was not the train for Selcuk! I thanked them and before along our train arrived. We boarded the very crowded and hot train. There were no seats available so we dropped out things between the cars and stood. Soon the ticket taker came along. I handed over my rail pass whereupon he proceeded to study it. "Where is your ticket?", he asked. I told him this was our ticket and showed him where it said the Turkey TDCC trains were covered. He looked at it a bit longer and handed it back. I'm sure they don't see Eurail passes too often. As I counted off the stops before Selcuk I knew we had one more before disembarking. As the train stopped lots of people were getting off. We were a bit confused when a young man asked, "Where are you going?". We told him Selcuk and he said, "This is it!". We quickly dragged our bags to the door and literally threw them out. Whew!!! Thankfully we were helped again by a complete stranger once again. We made our way up the steep hill to our Hotel Bella where we settled in.

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