Rezart & Mark enjoying dinner in Antalya. We love the raki here, but there was a lot of other great stuff on the table, too. There’s yoghurt with eggplant & tomato, great olives, fennel, and – the best part – honeydew melon that was just perfect. We’ve had a lot of those great meals.
A few weeks ago our Albanian friend Rezart saw a Facebook post of ours from Greece and suggested we come up to Albania to see him. When we explained that we really wanted to explore Greece and Turkey he said “OK, why don’t I come down to Turkey then?” So, two years after we spent time with him in Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro, we spent a short week with him in Turkey.
We’re really enjoying the food in Turkey. These casseroles come with all variety of meats and – perfect for us – are almost always free of rice and potatoes. And they’re great!
The first challenge was just getting to Antalya. Earlier I wrote that we were really enjoying the bus system of Turkey, but sometimes it’s a little challenging. Like when for all intents and purposes there is no AC, in 90-degree-plus weather, which is most of the time. Or when the bus just breaks down en route, as it did on this occasion. Eventually a new bus came along and we were back on the road.
Antalya itself is an interesting city, and a major international tourist destination. In fact, a market research firm called Euromonitor International claims it is the 10th largest international tourist destination in the world, ahead of even Istanbul; I find that hard to believe, but there are a lot of tourists in the city. You might hear about it a bit in November, when the G-20 meets here.
The beach in Antalya, with the Taurus mountains looming in the background. You’ll notice the absence of sand, the kind of thing that in the U.S. is basic for a beach but not so essential around the Med. The chairs were packed in as tight as could possibly be, but still, the water, the views – it’s beautiful.
At any rate, when we were headed out to the bus station to go to Çirali I was struck by how little of the city we actually saw. It’s a city of a little over 1 million people, but we pretty much just stayed in Kaleiçi, the small, historic old city. Entering the old town is the fabulous Gate of Hadrian, constructed in the first century AD to honor his visit. (As an aside, I’m intrigued by how many places we’ve been he got to first….) That and of course the beach, right next to the old Roman port. And the food, and lots of cats.
Mark in front of the first century Gate of Hadrian, still providing an entry into the old city
Çirali was a lot more low key. It’s a quiet, tiny little village next to a long beach. I started to say that there’s really not a lot to do there, but then I realized I should say that except for the beach we didn’t do much. In fact, there are some intriguing tourist sites there – ruins from the ancient city of Olympos and Mt. Chimaera, where escaping natural gas burns and is thought to be the source of the myth of the monster Chimera – but we were really bad tourists and didn’t go go to them. We enjoyed the beach, though. Our hotel, Villa Lukka, was a little Garden of Eden, delightfully quiet, beautiful grounds, nice little cabins to sleep in. The only downside was that breakfast was in their restaurant down on the beach and while the food was good – really good – the flies were enough to drive us crazy. Dinner was fine, but breakfast and lunch ended up being torturous.
The long beach of Çirali. There were nice restaurants lined up along the beach, so it made for a pretty lazy day.
One Turkish peculiarity worth mentioning. I’ve had two haircuts here now and Mark’s had one. Good haircuts, accompanied by a nice massage – shoulders, arms, hands, head … pretty nice. The weird part, though, is when they light a piece of cotton or something and apply the burning substance to your ears, presumably to burn off the little hairs that grow there. Very strange. And not at all pleasant. Oh yeah, and when they wash your hair? They have you bend over forwards into the sink so the water is running over your face and you feel like your drowning. Someday some Turkish barber is going to travel in the U.S., have his hair washed there, and say “Hey, if we have them lean backwards over the sink we can wash their hair without water-boarding them!”
Thus we discover cultural differences. From here we’re leaving the coast to go north to a big lake, as we work our way to Cappadocia.
The beautiful grounds of Villa Lukka, our retreat in Çirali
Our hotel was maybe 300 yards from the beach. The path was through an orange grove, with a patch of pumpkins or something, and roaming chickens. Very relaxed.
Rezart, Mark, and me. It’s definitely fun to catch up with old friends on our travels, particularly Albanian friends!
We’ve returned to Antalya and after the bus ride don’t get to our hotel until 2:00. We’re desperate to find lunch, the temp is in the mdi-90s, but we despair of finding anything good. Then we stumble on this tiny little restaurant in a cute little courtyard that somehow seems cool (as in not hot). The mezzes are great, the grilled food is good, the wine is cold. And there are cats.