Pınarbaşı

Our tour leader helped put together a day tour of the area today as none of us had further plans for Antalya. I think we'd explored most of the old town and the old marina already the previous day. The weather this morning didn't look too promising, but we were hopeful that it would hold up.

Ascendos was our first stop of the day. It's home to the best preserved Roman theatre in the world, and up until recently, still held local concerts. I can't remember the last time I saw complete arches still at the top behind the audience. Lucky for us, the last remnants of rain gave us the place to ourselves.

Next a quick stop at 2000 year old aqueducts before lunch in the village, more gozleme, but the fresh orange juice was out of this world good! They grow their own oranges there so it's as fresh can fresh can be. We wanted 2 glasses of juice for lunch instead of lunch itself XD

The ancient ruins of Perge was next, as we had quite a bit of time to roam the site. It was really informative to have our guide explain the history of the city and the parts that are seemingly common in the Roman plans for a city. The hippodrome, the gates, the agora and so on and so forth. Restoration work is ongoing and you can see new marble installed at the base of some columns. There was also a very cool mosaic.

Waterfalls - I don't think the site was the one we were thinking of, but it was nice to get out and walk in nature, even with the manmade path. I headed a bit further than the rest of the group to find Lotus Waterfall, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Got back into the van just before the rains came down again.

We really lucked out with the weather timing today. Dinner on our own again, roommate craved non Turkish food so we headed out to McDonald's where I tried the Kofta Burger, a local design and not one I'd repeat. I thought about having another balik ekmek (fish sandwich) but alas, some other time. Ended the night with a pomegranate cheesecake from Just So Candy. The pomegranate "pudding" bit was a bit weird, but overall it was tasty. So if I don't get cake on my birthday in a few days time, well, I've already had some ;)Read more