A Visit to Turkey, Part 1

Group trips are a bit challenging - you're always on someone else's schedule, you are pretty insulated from interactions with locals, choices are basically nil and it seems we had to get up too early for my taste most days.  BUT you get to see so much more than you would on your own, someone else has done all the leg work for hotels and transportation and food and there's someone to introduce you to the sites and lead you through them.  And if you have a group like we did, you get to make new friends and have a few laughs and enjoy the camaraderie.  So, on balance, a very good trip to Turkey, specifically Antalya and the region.

In our first hotel, we had our opening cultural shock. You know how in US hotels you almost always have a Gideon Bible in the bedside table?  Well, in Turkey it is a Quran (Koran) in the drawer!  I have to say, that was a jolt.

 

FOOD 

Of course food is the first thing I think of!  Everywhere it was plentiful, and fresh, some of it very, very sweet and some of it very, very salty. 

 

Every breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet had some combination of fresh tomatoes, lettuce, arugula, parsley, mint, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers, olives, cheeses, yoghurts plain and fruited, fruits in season, huge bowls of honey and jams.  It seemed everything was in season and in abundance!  Warm dishes were eggplant and zucchini with tomatoes and meats or fresh grilled fish.  Desserts were cakes and honey-soaked yummies and fresh fruit.  Once we even got Turkish Delight!  I think they must have thought Turkish Delight all too common for the buffet, but I love it.  Some of the cheeses were so salty and most of the prepared dishes tended that way, so we learned to be choosy.  Or put honey on it! We were never, ever hungry.

At every little rest stop (otherwise known as a potty stop) there was tea, fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh-pressed pomegranate juice.  It was all wonderful. Prices varied considerably depending on location - juice ranged from 1 to 2.50 euros. But there was always, at every stop, a rack of Lay's Doritos, Potato Chips, Cheetos (have never seen them in Germany!) and such. Pomegranate juice is better.

 Once we had fresh steamed crabs on a boat tour, delivered as we were underway. Wonderful they were.  I last had those in Baltimore about 12 years ago.

And so many trees laden with ripe fruit - dates, olives, oranges, limes and lemons, pomegranates. It was a sight to behold.  Our guide told us 80% of all exported pomegranates are grown in Turkey.  I would not question that.

And also a sight to behold, but not nearly as eye-appealing, were the acres and acres and acres of greenhouses where the peppers, zucchini, eggplant and such are grown. All of the white you see there are greenhouses. MAJOR industry here, growing veggies.

HOTELS

The hotels were pretty great, I have to say.  Most were big to huge, catering to families and groups; rooms were generous and there were pools - large and multiple - at each of them. But I cannot imagine spending a long holiday at any of them.  They were all a bit like cruise ships - you're there and there's no where else to go!  But at one night per hotel for our group, that was OK. Again, no complaints about food or service.

The views were uniformly lovely.  The mountains remind me a bit of the west we saw on our last trip to the US - rocky, almost bare of vegetation, seeming to rise out of nothing to so high! 

And there were beaches, but not what we know in Florida. Small rocks, pebbles, coarse sand, and gray.  But it was a beach!!

SITES/SIGHTS

Here's the amulet that will protect us from the evil eye.  Here on a boat.  There was one on the bus, of course, several at every restaurant where we ate, and we all got small ones as a gift from the tour guide.  Protection is primary.

Our first day we saw the church of St. Nicholas, yes, THAT St. Nick.  He seems to be quite revered in Russia and by Orthodox Christians and there were many pilgrims there praying at what was his tomb.  The remains were taken to Bari, Italy during one of the many wars in the region.  

Next stop, antique Myra, the site of cliff tombs dating from about 1000 BCE, so 3000 years old and the first of several theaters/amphitheaters we'd see. We are visiting modern-day Turkey, but there are remains from ancient Anatolia, Greece, Rome, often all in the same place!

When Europeans first discovered the tombs in the 19th c, the tombs were still wearing bright red, yellow and blue paint.  That must have been a feast for the eyes!

The amphitheater from Roman times looks pretty good, as did the other stadia and amphitheaters we saw.  I assume since they weren't temples built with columns, they fared much better when the earthquakes hit.  

Lots of fallen fragments from the entrances and such were all around, many with carvings of the masks actors wore during performances. Maybe this is Oedipus.  He looks distressed enough.

Next day we are up and out early for another boat ride to see more cliff tombs and some underwater remains from the ancient resort. These glass-bottomed boats are not nearly as good as the ones at Wakulla Springs, though!  And there's no jumping fish, either!

Another beach!  This one is famous as a turtle nesting ground.  We arrived early (though it is not turtle season) and got the first glance of the lovely beach completely empty.

Later there were hordes!  Day tourists, kids with boards, families with picnic baskets.  It was the middle of the week and the place was full by noon!  Boats ferrying folks non-stop.

On the way back we had another look at the cliff tombs.  It looks a bit different when you place the boats in front of them, don't they?

When we got back to the dock, there  were of course little stands to buy stuff and this wizened woman caught my eye. How could I buy something from the big burly guy next to her instead?? No way.  I got some wild thyme and some dried herbs for tea, passed on the bracelets of shells and the honey (honey is too heavy!)

 

More time on the bus to our next hotel with more amazing views along the way.  I sometimes had to close the curtain to avoid seeing the precipitous drop from my window and wonder if the swaying bus would keep on the road.  I'd taken plenty of needlework to wile away the hours, but snoozing and looking were entertaining aplenty.

Parr 2 to follow.