Turkey
Cumhuriyet Meydanı

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    • Day 1

      1. Day Antalya (at Night)

      August 9, 2022 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

      Unfortunately, due to the delay of the SunExpress flight, we arrived shortly after midnight and could no longer use the metro. So we went to the bus station at the airport. Once there, we first got an AntalyaKart. There are two cards, one for one-time use, very suitable if you only want to get to your destination, and one for permanent use. The difference is that the first card is made of paper and the second is made of plastic.

      We took line 600 to Yener Ulusoy Station and then 10 minutes walk to our accommodation.

      Unfortunately, the accommodation is a flop. It is clean but very dingy and somehow uncomfortable.

      A small highlight of the night was the Sampiyon Corbasi, which makes incredibly good Turkish soups.
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    • Day 2

      2. Day Antalya II

      August 10, 2022 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      In the evening, Theresa and I went to our Corbasi again and it was incredibly delicious. I can recommend the Tavuk, Iskembe and Mercimek soup with a clear conscience.

      Since Theresa was too tired, I went to the nightlife district alone and went to a bar to watch the Super Cup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt. Unfortunately we lost. Despite everything, I met nice people again.Read more

    • Day 11

      Kayseri to Antalya by air

      April 24, 2022 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      It was sad to leave Göreme this morning as it is so beautiful and there is so much to explore and see. It was lovely to once again experience the glorious sight of the hot air balloons as we left the region and headed 1 hour to Kayseri to cat h a plane to Antalya. With a population of about 1M, Kayseri is a smaller inland town with a small but fairly efficient airport, shared with some of the country’s military aircraft. We have discovered that domestic travel is quite well organized and reasonable within Turkey - and you can expect to get fed - at least a sandwich and a drink - on a 1 hour flight!

      We happily landed in Antalya and felt the Mediterranean vibe right away! Much warmer here - we were happy to feel some summer weather! Ollie was happy to discover the hotel room and to buy some snacks at BIM (like Aldi) and chill out. I found some terrific chill time in the hotel’s hammam and spa! Here I spent time in the sauna, the lovely hammam, had the week of dust and travel scrubbed off of me before being treated to what could be best described as a WWF massage! I slept well ;)
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    • Day 42

      Turkish Haircut

      August 21, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

      I had a little time to fill so I decided to clean up a little. I'd skipped shaving long enough that using a disposable razor was simply not feasible... So I figured I would pop into a barber for a quick shave and haircut.

      The barber spoke only slightly more English than I do Turkish, which is to say that after overlap we had about 7 words total between us and he had a razor. What could go wrong?

      We started off with steaming water and fragrant soap, applied more than liberally with a nice brush. Then applied a second time, until I had a solid inch of foam all over the lower half of my face. He was thorough. Then he carefully straight-razored away the 2 weeks of beard I've been sporting. Reapplying soap with frequency.

      Soap, it seems, is key to the process. Which is fine because it feels good to have my fave lathered.

      Once he got through with the shave he hot waxed my cheekbones and ears. After a few moments of talking his cellphone, he came back and added some globs of wax to my nostrils and nose, too. This was a first for me.

      As the wax cooled, I was served some apple tea. A nice touch, but hard to enjoy with my sniffer stuffed with wax - an experience I was about to discover gets significantly less pleasant with the undoing. Ouch!

      He followed up with a quick rubdown with some sorta toner, and then applied a nice layer of mud mask.

      With my face fully defuzzed and painted dark gray with mud, he got to work on my hair and without much communication I feel like we did a good job. I saw later that he missed one little spot but I think I can fix that myself if I can find some scissors.

      The cut was pretty standard except that he used the straight razor as a final step, with the comb. Not sure what that does but... Ok.

      As the cut ended and the mask dried, he had me lean frontward into the sink and washed both my face and hair very thoroughly, with a lot of soap. A LOT of soap. It gets a little tricky to breath while facing down with a constant spray of soapy water cascading downward over one's nose and mouth. But I *love* having my hair washed and enjoyed every moment of it.

      I thought I was nearly done but... Not even close. We took a tea break, then the assistant went to work on my shoulders with an electric massage machine and the barber proceeded to tone, oil, wipe, tone and... Something else my face. I lost count of the steps and products but it smelled great and each application was like a mini facial massage, while the 14yr old assistant went to work on my legs.

      Once my face and hair were done, both the barber and the boy went to work in earnest. My limbs were stretched and twisted, my neck cracked, my chest stretch and my spine adjusted. I was bent forward again so that they could get to my back and it turned out to be a pretty good massage. Unexpected and a tremendous experience.

      There were tea breaks now and then, but I barely remember when.

      What I thought was a "quick" visit to the barber turned out to be nearly 90 minutes. I emerged refreshed and relaxed and about $20 lighter. I wish my hair grew even faster- I'd do this every week!
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    • Day 166

      Konya —> Antalya

      August 30, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

      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!
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    • Day 6

      Auf zum letzten Urlaubstag

      October 5, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

      Die letzten Stunden sind nun angebrochen und der Urlaub neigt sich so langsam dem Ende zu. Am Mittwoch kam nix von uns, es gab auch nicht wirklich aufregendes zu berichten. Der Tag bestand im wesentlichen aus relaxen, baden und essen 😉.
      Gestern dann der erste und auch einzige Ausflug der Woche. Es sollte per Bus nach Antalya und anschließend ins Sagenumwobene Land of Legends gehen. Naja was soll ich hier schreiben dazu, am besten wohl in kurzen Worten, es war mehr oder weniger eine Verkaufsveranstaltung...... weniges hat es dir Show zum Schluss dann noch ein wenig rausgerissen.
      Ansonsten ist Antalya auf der Altstadtseite wunderschön der Rest jedoch wie in jeder Großstadt laut , bunt und überfüllt.

      Heute wird hier nochmal der Pool und das Meer in vollen Zügen genossen. Morgen geht es ja schließlich wieder nach Hause.......
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    • Day 35

      Antalya

      August 1, 2022 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

      Visitar la ciudad, que nos ha gustado bastante, y cortarnos el pelo porque hace mucho calor y aunque lo ĺlevamos corto, sudamos como pollos.
      Ya vamos de vuelta a Europa
      Dormimos como a kilómetro y medio del centro, en un aparcamiento. Tan tranquilamente.Read more

    • Day 13

      Antalya

      September 20, 2012 in Turkey ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

      This morning we left the Emli Valley and the Aladaglar Area and drove for 5 hours to Konya. In Konya we had lunch and visited the Mevlana Museum. The Mevlana museum is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Sufi mystic also known as Mevlana or Rumi. It was also the dervish lodge of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes.

      The members of the Mevlevi order had a prolific impact throughout the Ottoman Empire in classical poetry, calligraphy, visual arts and music. Afterwards we continued driving until we arrived in Antalya.

      It is uncertain when the site of the current city was first inhabited. Attalos II, king of Pergamon, was believed to have founded the city around 150 BC, naming it Attalia and selecting it as a naval base for his powerful fleet. However, excavations in 2008 in the Dogu Garaji district of Antalya have uncovered remains dating to the 3rd century BC, suggesting that the city was founded earlier than previously supposed.

      Antalya became part of the Roman Republic in 133 BC when King Attalos III of Pergamum willed his kingdom to Rome at his death. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period. The city includes sites with traces of Lycian, Pamphylian, and Hellenistic -but mainly Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman- architecture and cultures.

      We spent the Night in the Old Part of Antalya at the Kaleici next to the Harbour.

      Here is my diary entry:
      Friday 8.30 am. Arrived in Antalya on the Mediterranean Coast late last night after our climb in the Taurus Mountains. It was certainly the toughest trek I have done (harder than any I have done in Nepal and tougher than the Inca Trail in Peru).

      We had up to 10.5 hrs of walking each day with huge altitude gains on unstable and exposed slopes. For some it was a little too tough, but I was amazed at the way the group worked together to assist those who were struggling. We even had our first helicopter evacuation when one of our group got sick and could not continue. The first rescue helicopter circled overhead but could not land because of the high altitude.

      It then took a call to get the Australian Embassy involved and a huge Turkish military helicopter and a full blown military operation to lift them out.

      Because we are relatively close to the unstable border with Syria the copter was very keen to load and take off without delay. Turkish fighter jets have been regularly flying overhead. A reminder that this is a very volatile part of the world.

      Now that they are well again, I am sure they will have a great tale to tell. When we finished the trek, everyone was thrilled with what they had achieved. That is the amazing thing about these sort of trips - ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I am sure that we all with come back with a revised idea of what we can achieve.

      Now we are in the easy and relaxing part of the trip. We are relaxing on the coast and will soon head off on a cruise to explore the nearby underwater city. We will be following the Mediterranean coast all the way back to Gallipoli and Istabul over the next 8 days. Along the way we will be visiting a number of famous historical sites.

      The group is fabulous, all getting along very well and having truckloads of laughs. We will all have so many stories to tell when we return to Australia. I can't post images yet but will set up an album later.
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    • Day 7

      Schmuck, Leder und Antalya

      March 19, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

      Aufgrund des beliebten Hafens, der urig verwinkelten Altstadt und des mediterranen Klimas zählt Antalya zu den schönsten Städten der Türkei. Über viele Jahre hat sich die Stadt zum beliebten Ankerplatz für Yachten aller Bauarten gemausert. Am Hafen bestaunten wir die imposanten Schiffe. Das Rauschen der tosenden Karpuzkaldiran-Wasserfälle blieb uns im Ohr. Und diese Aussicht - beeindruckend! Im Laufe des Tages haben wir ein Schmuck- und im Anschluss ein Ledergeschäft besucht - mit Modenschau! Ich bin aus allen Stühlen gefallen.

      Mein Lieblingstag der Woche.
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