Antalya Quick and Clipped
Departed Moscow on time … Moscow Schools on vacation and therefore the airport was clogged and the planes to the sun all filled. We had a little kid placed between us, his parent behind us. He had a DVD but no headphones and the noise was horrible until a flight attendant told him to turn it off. He slept for the rest of the flight.
There was a mass rush to get visas at airport. I was in a line and another one opened and I was between the visa agent and a hundred Muscovites! I was almost trampled to death in their effort to get into another chaotic line. Finally got the visas and made it through immigration and left the airport and entered into a perfumed sunshine in 75 degree weather.
It is a beautiful city. We are in the old city, which was walled in the old days and is now a tourist paradise. Lots of Greek, Roman, and Ottoman influence and monuments, all within a short walk of our hotel. The hotel is comfortable and the rooms small; nothing seem to work but we really don’t care. Internet access is difficult and I’m typing on the computer, which is balanced on a small mini-bar since there is no desk in the room. Our first room had the bed on a type of pedestal, which was very difficult to navigate at night. The new room is smaller, but better laid out and we are happy campers.
The first night we went to a restaurant recommended by a rug merchant who told us it had the best seafood at good prices. It turned out to have very average tourist grub but the wine was cold and plentiful. Dinner came with a free dessert that was like eating erasers covered with powdered sugar. A Turkish delight!
The rug merchant told us the next morning that he doesn’t eat meat or fish! So why would we buy rugs from him? I guess because he knows rugs better than food. We spent ninety minutes and two cups of teatime while he gave us lots of information on rugs and unfurled a few dozen for our viewing. Ended up with $1400 worth of carpets which is a lot but is a whole lot less than where we started in terms of price. We’ve made little effort to adorn our Moscow apartment so putting more rugs on the floor should dress it up a bit.
We take long walks along the corniche before reading menus for dinner. This is not a cheap town but we are here and we are not looking at prices. Old Town is very lovely but filled with aggressive salesmen pushing everything in five languages. It has great architecture, a beautiful harbor and lots and lots of sunshine and blue sky. We run - well Cindy runs - every morning and then we have a relaxed breakfast before heading out on excursions. We have so far managed to have a light lunch every day someplace special. We nap in the afternoon, eat dinner at 8, and sleep for at least eight hours a night. What a vacation!!
This town is far more Muslim than I thought and the call to prayer has surprised us five times each day. It is quite loud and very annoying and goes on for many minutes, far longer than the calls to prayer in Bahrain. You can put any adjective in front of Muslim you want, secular, moderate, European, but they are still Muslims and they want a Muslim Turkey and Europe, and the entire country of Turkey is like this. It is no wonder that the Europeans do not want to allow them into the EC.
Today’s excursion included the official museum of Antalya – after a little detour to the opposite side of town. We were told the museum was at the last stop of the tramline but somehow we both missed the information about which end of the line that might be. The ticket taker saved us from getting off and then collected our money again for the journey back to the other end. Ah well, we sophisticated travelers enjoyed the ride! The museum is very well done and contains more huge ancient statues of Greek gods than you can count. Some are damaged but many look nearly perfect and most have been moved here from the nearby ruins of Perge, which among other reasons is famous because Paul the apostle was there twice. The excavations are relatively recent, mostly done in the 2nd half of the 20th century.
We have taken many photos but have no way of downloading them to the computer. For the time being, you can take a look at these, which give you a nice feel for this town and the immediate area.
Best to all, Cindy and Wm
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