Blogs from Antalya, Mediterranean, Turkey, Middle East - page 4

Today, we went to visit my grandmother up in the village called "Geyikbayiri". They've lived in the same house for years. My mother grew up here. In the back of the house there's a garden that my grandmother maintains at the age of 82. She's still going strong. We have cherry trees, apple trees, plum trees, pomegranate trees, and a couple of hazelnut trees, as well as cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, banana peppers, peppermint, spearmint and cabbage in the garden. For breakfast, we stopped by a local bakery and bought some bread to go. This bread is made locally. You can't find it in the city. It is delicious with butter when it is hot. I've added some pictures of it so you'd have an idea how they make it. After the breakfast, we grabbed some ... read more

Holed up in our windowless dorm in the hostel, it was only when we first stepped outside that we realised that the warm sun and blue sky of the previous day had been replaced by cold rain and a wicked gale, as we sprinted from the hostel to the small cafe on the pier at seven in the morning. I had left all the organising the girls and in my sleepy stupor had no idea what was going on - one minute we were in the ferry ticket office, the next we were bundled into one of the local's cars on a ten minute drive to another pier. We pass a small booth en route to the pier who demands a payment from us, one that we weren't expecting. The old man who had driven us ... read more

Today was an optional tour to the ancient city or Perge (pronounced pear-gay). I, of course, was not missing any ruins so off we went. Perge was founded as a Greek city in the 12th-13th century BCE. It's on the waiting list to be a UNESCO site. Although originally Greek, most of the ruins here are of the Roman era, since Romans built on top of or modified the Greek structures. This is true of most of the 2685 ancient ruin sites in Turkey. The Bible mentions Perge briefly saying St. Paul sailed here. It's not on the coast but there is a river he could have sailed that is still the primary water source for the area. the oldest level of strata found here was dating back to the 15th century BCE with Hittite period ... read more

It’s amazing how much a little bit of sun can change your mood and make you see the world in totally different colours. Clear, blue skies, sun slowly setting on the horizon adding a beautiful glow to the buildings we were passing by… You don’t realize how much you have missed the sun when you actually have the chance to experience it again. Having lived in Ireland for the last couple of years, makes me truly appreciate every ray of sun I can get, that’s for sure! On the way to our hotel we got to see a part of the suburbs of Antalya, I was actually very surprised how clean and new everything looked like. It seems like the city must be doing well as we were passing by a few development projects on the ... read more

Today started with a nice breakfast at Hotel Rumi. This was the first time breakfast included fresh fruit, and the first time the hotel restaurant was located on a rooftop terrace, which was very nice. The terrace had a view of the mosque and Melvana museum. After breakfast we checked out and walked to the Melvana museum (which includes the Melvana mausoleum). It was really interesting. The mausoleum was very beautiful but we couldn't take photos so you'll have to take my word for it. We bought a book at the gift shop, so I've included some of the photos from the book here. The museum included many beautifully decorated books and calligraphy. I love Arabic calligraphy. The gift shop was especially nice, so Susan and I also bought a t-shirt, magnet, shopping bag, apron, spice ... read more