Antalya

A doldrums day, because I had to wait until 2030 to catch the overnight bus to Göreme. There are usually one or two days like this in every trip. And no pictures for this day, so I'll finish this post as fast as possible. After breakfast, the owner's wife didn't understand that I wanted to leave my backpack with them until evening, so I had to wait for the owner to come back from shopping. Not that I had urgent things to do anyway.


I thought of visiting the Antalya Museum, but the idea didn't attract me. Toy Story 2 was showing at the Kaleiçi but I'd seen it already and it would probably be dubbed in Turkish. I could visit a bookstore, but I was saving that for the end of the trip to avoid lugging weight around. I wandered into the tourist office after lunch to see if there were any half day trips or similar. No luck. I was familiar with old Antalya, I knew the narrow neighbourhood streets well. I had even spotted a Chinese restaurant and wondered how authentic they were.


Somehow I got through the day and had dinner at the pension to give the owners some income before going to the otogar. The bus left as dusk fell. Turkey is east of its proper meridian.

Side

Side is a name that tempts me to entitle this posting Sunday in Side, A Side Trip, or any of a number of puns. Ok, we'll leave it alone. Side would be the furthest east along the coast I would go in Turkey. There is more than half of Turkey beyond Side, but it's gets harder to tour as you head east, and even dangerous near the borders with Iran and Syria due to insurgencies. So no encounters with Lake Van cats on this trip unfortunately.

I slept well thanks to the fan. The jeans I washed the evening before were almost dry so I decided I would wash my underwear next. There seemed to be only a few other guests in the Pansyon. Seemed a slow season for Turkish tourism. R the British journalist, from Kaş, said they didn't advertise enough. This time I found the otogar where I bought my onward ticket for Tuesday night. The bus to Side wasn't full, so it cruised slowly in an attempt to pick up more passengers along the way. I din't know why they bothered to seat passengers by allocated places when there were so many free. We got dropped off in Manavgat, inland from Side. Sometimes they don't tell you that you have to change buses. There I caught a dolmuş towards the coast. I didn't know which direction the beach was, but I spotted some Swiss (I think) tourists and I figured that I just needed to follow them. And so it was.

I found myself at the eastern end of a long beach. The beach was lined with umbrellas and recliners galore. There were lots of sunseekers here. I made towards the town in the distance. At one place I made the mistake of following a path up some old walls out of curiosity and then finding no way back down to the beach except by climbing down a difficult wall. I was relieved when I reached the sand. Whew, I could have been hurt, I thought. After that hard work, I was soaked in sweat and deserved a beer, so I found a beachfront bar. A pleasant breeze wafted through and cooled me down. A couple of Turkish girls, probably family, were playing. Prices were also listed in Deutschmarks, sometimes in USD too, which tells you something about the clientele.

This hawker boat is serving balık (fish), köfte, and ekmek (bread). Side has ancient Roman ruins and a Temple of Apollo which Anthony is supposed to have given to Cleopatra. I didn't feel like visiting another ruin so I caught a dolmuş back to Manavgat. I found lunch in a restaurant opposite the otogar. Unfortunately I made the mistake of picking a dish from those ready to eat on display that was made from liver. To compound that mistake, it came with a fierce tasting green as a salad. Oh well, I suppose they were healthy for me.

Back in Antalya I spent the rest of the day wandering around. These are some ancient buildings within the city.

Locals feeding the ducks in the gardens.

The marina in the harbour.

I asked the Pansyon owner about trips to Olimpos but the agency trip only went once a week, on Wednesday, too late for me. So I would have to do that trip myself. With that done, I thought, I can end the Mediterranean Turkey segment of my holiday. I was getting tired of sea and sand anyway.


The garden was lovely to sit in while writing postcards in the evening breeze.

To Antalya

It was a good idea to tuck in the edges of the mosquito net and to sleep clear of it; I got bitten less. For once I was woken by the alarm clock instead of normally. It had been a warm and humid night. After a shower to wash off the sweat, I went down for breakfast. The other guests were all Germans again. The hotel had a cat but the waiter chased it away so that it wouldn't bother guests.


I decided to leave earlier rather than later. There wasn't anything else I wanted to see in Kaş and better to travel while the day is cool than warm. I had intended to get off at the turn off for Olimpos, but I missed it. I should have told the bus driver of my intentions. I decided to do Olimpos as a day trip later. At Antalya, I got dropped off on the outskirts of the city. I think it was the closest the bus approached the centre on its way to the otogar. Not happy. I walked a little and finally found a dolmuş to the centre. The hotel I wanted didn't exist anymore, a familiar story. I ended up in the Hadrianus Pansyon. It was a bit drab but had a nice garden. At least the room had a fan.

I had a late lunch of a tavuk (chicken) pide in the market area. After that I bought an ice cream and a coke and cooled down. I missed the public spaces of Australia and Europe. But Antalya seemed less hectic than Istanbul.

Later in the afternoon I walked down Atatürk Caddesi and found Karaalioğlu park at the end busy with people strolling on a Saturday evening.


I walked along the cliff promenade back towards the pansyon. This part of the coastline is rugged.

I watched the sun set over the west facing harbour.


One of the specialties of this region is tandır kebap where the lamb has been baked in a oven. (Yes, tandır and tandoor are the same word.) After some searching I found a restaurant in the market place serving it. As expected it was greasy. It was worth trying once.