When I think about Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, I think that I need to go to Italy or Greece to see them. I never think that Turkey would have so many. In fact, I never think that Turkey was arguably the center of the world for many years (Istanbul/Constantinople being the capital of the Roman Empire), the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire all the way til after WWI. Troy, Ephesus (home of the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World), and Cappadocia are all cities I need to get to. Germans, Russians and Iranians are amongst the most common tourists there...there aren't too many Americans that get to experience this. Hopefully I can blog about those in the future.
I went to Turkey mainly for work...a week near Antalya in an all-inclusive beach resort for a training for the PwC guys from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. I definitely can't complain about this set up...
Of course, with a trip to Turkey, I had to make the most of it. I spent an extra few days around Antalya, and a weekend in Istanbul...the trip in total was 12 days.
I stayed in a hostel in Antalya (Sabah Pansiyon) for a few days before the training, where I met some nice Germans and Indians, and spent some time with them at night. One the first day, a girl I met on couchsurfing, Ilkay, took me on a tour of the old town and to her favorite restaurants. But mostly I toured around on my own. I arranged two tours...one to Perge, Aspendos, Side, and Kursunlu Waterfalls, and another to Demre, Myra, and Kekova. The weather was in the 90s and it was humid. Everyone was sweating around me, so I didn't feel so bad pouring water on my head every hour or so. I even paid 10 lira ($6) to jump into the water for a few minutes.
Hadrian's Gate - the entrance into Antalya's old town (from the 2nd century)
Where I paid $6 to jump in the sea
We visited a few of the 60+ ancient Roman cities around Antalya. It's strange to see ancient sites every few miles when driving around...it almost looks like Disneyland after a while.
The Perge tour was all couples and me, each from a different country. It was sad when people asked 'are you alone?' The tour guide started out as a grumpy old man, but turned out to be very nice and informative. It goes to show how we (I) judge people on the first impression. Perge was a Roman city around 0 (yes, zero is a year), then became Greek after some time. The remains are mostly Roman, and they are restoring some of it. There is a large main street that used to be lined with shops, walls and watch towers, a stadium we weren't allowed to go into, fountains, baths, columns, the market, and a gymnasium where they athletically trained naked (hopefully not too many jumping jacks or rope climbs). Of course none of this exists now, but some of the detail is still visible in the columns and building "trim".
Using the tripod in Perge
View of the main road of Perge
Side (see-day) was the next stop, on the water. There is a stadium there, columns from Apollo's temple on the beach, a harbor and tons of souvenir shops. That's all the town is...plus it's more expensive than Antalya. But I got free samples of Turkish delight to tide me over til lunch.
Temple of Apollo in Side
The Aspendos theater is very much intact. They even held concerts in there until recently. I climbed around, then chickened out on a jumping picture because everyone was watching (I was standing on the stage), including a gladiator with a big sword. If the gladiator with the big sword wasn't watching, I think I'd have a nice jumping picture right now.
No jumping picture on the stage...
On the Demre tour, the tour guide spoke English for half, and then Romanian for the other half. I was impressed by this, but his numbers were a bit off. He held up 4 fingers when he said "20", said there were 17 of us, when there were 10, and said "20 years ago" was 1998. Interesting math... But he was super nice...gave us candy, pins, and pieces of carob to chew on. And thanks to his candy, I had chocolate on my nose for half of the tour. When you're traveling alone, nobody stops to tell you when you have chocolate on your face.
The first stop on Day 2 was Kekova. We stopped in a small town, boarded a boat, and went out to Kekova and Symena islands. Kekova is an old city that is now mostly under water after an earthquake around the 1st century. Symena is still home to a few, but the island is mostly for tourists to visit the old city that sits on top (inside the city walls). We even got to jump in the water for a while...it was so refreshing, and the water/islands were beautiful.
Under the water you can see the old Kekova city wall
Symena, with the old city wall on top
Cruisin' around in the boat
Demre was the home of St. Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus (3rd century). Even though most churches in Turkey were changed to Mosques when it became Muslim, his church did not. It's funny that we imagine Santa in the North Pole and in snow, when St. Nicholas may not have seen a single snowflake in his entire life.
We also visited some old tombs in the mountains in Myra, next to an old theater. These were from the 6th century BC-ish. I wonder how they chose who gets which tomb...and how they even climbed up there!
Lycian tombs in Myra
I kept falling asleep on the bus...and because I was the only single guy, somehow I got stuck in the middle seat in the back. The one where if the bus driver slammed on the brakes, I'd go flying down the aisle to the front. I kept falling asleep and waking up whenever my head would touch the shoulder of the guy next to me. Whoops. There were friendly guys from China, Malaysia, Switzerland and England, and an obnoxious American who lives just a few blocks from my San Fran apartment. I think some of the guys on the tour didn't even speak English. Weird, when it's an English tour.
One thing about Turkey that I didn't expect is that there really are kebabs on every corner. I thought this was a "Western" exaggeration, but really...there are kebabs everywhere. But I don't mind, because they were great. And in general, I was looking forward to every meal...such good food (although after a while my stomach wanted a break). There was also fresh OJ everywhere...and I was able to develop a strategy of negotiating a free OJ every time I bought a souvenir. One guy only offered me a half a cup, and when I walked away he said "OK, FULL CUP!". That's how you do it.
Other treats were Ayran (yogurt drink), Kofte (meat balls), Iskander (sliced meat in a red sauce with pita, rice and yogurt), and of course Lahmacun (Turkish pizza). The raki with water (a licorice liquor) was nasty. They also had some rubber-ish ice cream that they toss around like pizza dough. I never tried it because I thought I would turn into that really bouncy stuff (what's that old movie? Flubber?)
Kebabs
Iskander
Other observations
- There are stray cats and dogs everywhere. They need Bob Barker to ask everyone to have their pets fixed (like he did on every episode of the Price is Right).
- They have a special way of telling fortunes based on the coffee "mud" after flipping the cup upside down.
- There were many more guy waitstaff than girls (especially in the bars)...I wonder if it has to do with the Muslim culture?
- Like in many countries I've been to, people are confused when I say I am American. They insist that I have an Asian face. Even the Asians say this.
- I saw 2 different guys wearing "Seattle - King County" t-shirts, who were definitely not American. I want to get one!
- For being a big tourist place, not many people speak fluent English. They get more Russians, so I think they learn Russian more (signs are even in Cyrillic in some places)
- It's strange after getting so used to seeing Polish people (mostly blonde, blue eyed), seeing darker skin in Turkey was a change.
- When it's crowded, there's a reason the seats in the sun are free...it's damn hot!
- Americans pay $20 for a visa in the airport after you land. It's super easy.
- They love their rugs and spices
Rugs
Spices
- A few years ago they cut 6 zeroes off the end of their currency. So 1,000,000 lira became 1 lira. I would love to carry millions in my pocket everywhere I go, kinda like I do now...right.
If you want to see more pictures, check them out on facebook!
Antalya - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100584635742188.2874357.10732812&l=50c007692c&type=1
Perge, Aspendos, Side, Kursunlu - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100585002616968.2874465.10732812&l=9180878c00&type=1
Demre, Myra, Kekova -
The next post will be about my weekend in Istanbul!
Awesome Trisbo. I'm envious in a way cause i've never been to Europe. Hopefully i'll get to go some day and use your blog to go to the best food places. Glad you're having fun. Hope you come back to the states soon.
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