Konya —> Antalya

We had a delicious breakfast at our homestay before saying goodbye to our lovely hosts and heading for the Mediterranean coast!

Along the way, we were given a crash course in Turkish coffee and the culture surrounding it. Coffee was first introduced to a Turkish sultan when visiting Northern Africa and he brought the coffee beans back to Turkey. From this, Turkish coffee was developed and was initially free for everyone. It was then banned as Turkish people enjoyed the experience so much that they stopped doing their daily jobs as it was taking up too much time! It was then reintroduced as an after breakfast drink, with the coffee culture being so prominent that the Turkish word for breakfast means ‘the meal before coffee’. In fact, Turkish delight was actually developed as a sweet treat to have to counteract the bitterness of the Turkish coffee. In weddings, traditionally there is a pre-wedding ceremony where the bride to be would have to make coffee for her future in-laws and would have to be at a certain standard otherwise the wedding would not go ahead!

We arrived in the hotel in Antalya in the early afternoon. Antalya is the 5th largest city in Turkey. We had finally arrived to the Mediterranean region (which is actually 80% mountains!) We went for a walk around town, enjoyed some Turkish ice cream with a show and went for a walk down to the harbour. There were a lot of shops around selling jewellery, clothes and souvenirs. We ended up in a carpet store speaking to the owners and bought a few goodies for our home and then enjoyed a Turkish tea with the owners who were very kind.

We then went for a much needed swim and chilled by the hotel pool for a bit before going out for dinner with Tommy, Marissa, Babs and Amy. We all enjoyed large meals of different meats with bread and vegetables.

It happened to be a National holiday in Antalya and so we went out to see the big concert that was happening in town. After pretending to sing Turkish for around 30min (and probably witnessing the national anthem, minute's silence to trumpets, a Turkish pop band and the mayor of the town giving a speech), we were very hot! It was still so warm in the town late at night. We bought a balloon for Hazal as it's her birthday tomorrow and retired back to the comfort of our air conditioned rooms to sleep!Read more