Meet Me in Antalya (Antalya Part 1)

Well, friends, it's been about a month since I've written a post, but the good news is that I'm about to make up for all of that with a big time blog blowout! I just spent three days in Antalya on vacation and just arrived home in Trabzon, and there's a lot to share about the trip! So I present part one of three: Meet Me in Antalya.

First, let me begin with how I even ended up with a vacation in November. Nope, nothing to to with Thanksgiving. This is Turkey, people!

In Islam, every year there is what is called the Kurban Bayramı (well, that's what it's called in Turkish, but not in Arabic), one of the most important religious festivals of the year. Here's some information about it in a nutshell, as presented on turkeytravelplanner.com:

The festival celebrates the Biblical and Kur'anic account of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son on Mount Moriah, proving Abraham's complete obedience to God. In the story, God stays Abraham's hand at the last moment and provides a ram for sacrifice instead, praising Abraham for his faithfulness.Following this tradition, the head of each Turkish household hopes to sacrifice a sheep on the morning of the first day of the holiday period. A lavish meal is made from the meat, friends and family are invited to feast, and the excess meat and the hide are donated to charity.

It is important to note that while turkeytravelplanner.com equates the Biblical account and the Qur'anic account of Abraham's near-sacrifice, they are not, in fact, the same account. In the Bible, Abraham is prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, whom his has by his wife, Sarah. In the Qur'an, Abraham is prepared to sacrifice his son Ishmael, whom he has by his wife, Hagar, before the birth of Isaac.

So on the first day of this holiday, which moves around with the lunar calendar, just like Ramadan and other Muslim religious holidays, families prepare a ritual sacrifice, and then for four more days, things basically shut down around here. Everyone gets this time off from work and students get the time off from school...so I got my first real opportunity to travel!

After much debate and hoping that I wouldn't just end up watching Netflix alone in my room for five days, I ended up arranging with my ETA friends Annika and Margot, who teach in Yalova (outside of Istanbul), to meet in Antalya, a southern paradise and big tourist destination right on the Mediterranean Sea. Here it is on a map:

While buses are both economical, popular, and comfortable options in Turkey, Trabzon is not really conveniently located to make bus travel feasible for short trips. So I bit the bullet and booked flights, willing to do anything if I could just avoid solo Netflix loneliness, and at five o'clock in the morning on Sunday--the first day of the holiday when sacrifices were being made--I groggily rolled out of bed, got dressed, made myself a cup of tea, and ate a spoonful of peanut butter before putting on my packed backpack and walking to the airport. KTU is extremely close to said airport, so the walk was a pleasant--if brisk--fifteen minutes. Traveling with just carry-on luggage really is the way to go...everything happens so quickly and smoothly! At seven o'clock my flight to Ankara took off...and I was on vacation!

Easy layover in Ankara led to my second flight, straight to Antalya. As it turns out, there was actually a non-stop flight from Trabzon to Antalya that Sunday with another airline, but if I had taken that one, I would have missed out on what happened next...

There I was, minding my own business, thinking about how desperately I wanted a snack because all I'd had to eat was a pastry on my earlier flight and that swipe of peanut butter before I left campus, when I noticed that the woman sitting beside me was reading a guidebook on Turkey...in English. Who could this mysterious English-reading woman be? I felt a sudden surge of comradery, in the midst of a morning when I had tried my best to speak Turkish and see if I could get through the morning without everyone's "Yabanci" ("foreigner" in Turkish) alert going off. After spending a good ten minutes trying to work up the courage to say something, I finally used the opportunity when they gave us our snacks (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED) to casually say, "I see you're reading English..." and kind of left it hanging there.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I can tell you that I was not expecting her to be Italian and employed at the Italian embassy in Ankara. But, both of those things are true! Her name was Rosanna, but I swear I almost called her Sophie Devereaux, because she looked almost EXACTLY like Sophie. If you watch Leverage, then you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, here's what Sophie looks like...and what my new Italian friend looked like, too:

So Sophie...achemm...sorry...I mean Rosanna...and I chatted for a while about why I was in Turkey and why she was in Turkey and how we liked it and things like that. She, too, was going on holiday for the Bayram, but this was her third or fourth time in Antalya, and she said I was going to love it. I believed her as soon as we started passing over the Mediterranean...MAN is that water BLUE! The Black Sea is great, don't get me wrong, but the color of the Mediterranean...the greens and blues and how clear it is when you're actually standing next to it...just mind-blowing. And once we got off of the plane, I discovered that, unlike Ankara and Trabzon, where I had needed my sweater and jacket to fight the chill, Antalya was actually warm. You know how people fly to Miami during the winter to get some sun? Yeah, Antalya's just like that. With a bay framed by dramatic mountains and incredible clear weather...I was already sold.

Rosanna had come to Antalya with a friend--also from the Italian embassy--and the three of us hopped on the Havaş (the airport shuttle) with the intention of getting to Kaleiçi, the old town in Antalya steeped in some amazing history and populated by winding streets with old Ottoman houses restored and turned into pensiyons (a pension--as Rosanna noted it is spelled in Italian because it is, apparently, an Italian word--is a bed and breakfast). Rosanna and her friend didn't yet have a place reserved to stay, so I told them that they could come with me to the Urcu Hotel, where Annika, Margot, and I had reserved a room, and see if they had a place for them to stay.

So the bus driver dropped us off at the "Kaleiçi" stop...though it didn't look "old town"y at all to me. That's because we were supposed to turn left and walk straight ahead and we'd be there in no time, apparently. Well, Turkish estimates of time--just wait until part two of this Antalya series...man have I got some Turkish Time stories for you!--are not, well, let's say they're not always spot on. This one definitely wasn't. After asking countless people for directions and noting how empty the streets were because of the bayram--the only sound on many streets was that of my Italian friends' suitcases rattling on the sidewalk stones--we finally came to the Kale Kapısı, the highest point of Kaleiçi where Antalya's famous "fluted" minnaret stands. At least in the right vicinity, we forged ahead, asking more strangers for directions...or rather, I asked strangers for directions because I actually spoke the best Turkish in our trio. Rosanna and her friend don't do a lot of Turkish speaking in Ankara, apparently. But they do get to drink Starbucks! Feel my jealousy!!!

Eventually we met a man who asked where we were staying, and when I told him the Urcu Hotel, he got up off of his stool and told us to follow him. This is very typical Turkish hospitality, where people just go out of their way for complete strangers, and since this guy said his friend ran the Urcu, it all made sense to me. However, I was greatly disappointed to find that my new "friend" was just in search of a tip. A five lira tip, at that. Too tired to haggle or to protest, I gave him his five lira, but I was extremely upset to find that, now that I was in a tourist area, people were just going to treat me differently. I actually missed Trabzon for a second.

But waiting for me in the courtyard of the Urcu were Annika, Daniel Drucker, and Ryan Fordice and so my mood immediately lifted! Daniel and Ryan have to be two of my favorite Fulbrighters...two absolutely hilarious dudes who, when put together, create more goofiness than even I can handle. I was SO pumped to find out that they were going to be joining us in Antalya. Annika told me that Margot had to stay behind in Yalova because of an unexpected visit from her boyfriend, but that she had already checked into our now double room and I could drop my stuff off. After doing so, taking a quick shower, and debriefing with my friends, I was ready to take on Antalya! (Oh, and for those of you waiting to hear if Rosanna and her friend were able to get rooms at the Urcu...yes, they were!)

We got started immediately with some exploring of Kaleiçi. Here are some examples of what we saw:

Kind of awesome. The old city itself is so beautiful and really magical feeling. At one point we all discussed how it sort of felt like Disneyland. Later, we found out that maybe we weren't so far from the truth. Dun dun dunnn...

But before I tell that story (see? There's so much to tell about Antalya!), let me sum up our next couple of hours. First we caught a cab down to a nearby beach, where Annika and Ryan swam but Dan and I opted for profound conversation and building rock sculptures with the stones of the beach (no sand). Then, when we all started to get hungry, we took another cab back to Kaleiçi and got ready to search for some grub. We ended up dining at the Otantik (as in...authentic?) Pension/Restaurant, which was sort of pricey but seemed very European, and after months of Turkish food, we were all glad for some more familiar tastes.

I opted for pesto tortellini that was mostly creamy, but it WAS delicious. We also ordered very expensive appetizers that came with very little food, but they were also delicious. The only thing we really had to complain about was the quality of our cocktails, which we ordered under the auspices of "Happy Hour." Both the mojitos and margaritas ordered at our table neither tasted like either of those beverages or like they had any alcohol in them at all. But it all turned into a fun joke, and we left feeling satisfied, though we were now in search of dessert. Well, according to my Lonely Planet guidebook, a restaurant in Kaleiçi run by a Dutch expat has a locally-famous apple tart...or apple pie. So we all said YES and high-tailed it to that restaurant, ordering four apple tarts and four teas. Well...like our cocktails...the "pie" slices were nothing like the original. The filling of the tart was a combination of apple something with tons of chopped peanuts, of all things, and the crust was like the world's blandest, driest shortbread. Nonetheless, we got another good joke out of it...and something amazing.

As we finished our "pie" and realized that, contrary to our belief, it was not 9:45 at night but rather 6:45--yes, we really thought that...the sun goes down early in Turkey!--we began to hear very loud music, just as one would if walking around--you guessed it--Disneyland. Music coming from big speakers somewhere. We asked our waiter what was going on, and he said it was a celebration for the bayram. If we wanted to see it, he said, we should head up toward the Kale Kapısı and follow the music. So that's just what we did.

As we followed the music through the winding streets of Kaleiçi, we got more and more excited...because they weren't just playing music. They were playing AWESOME and RANDOM music. They played Bohemian Rhapsody, a song from Sesame Street, some intense classical pieces...it was as if a monkey had been let loose in someone's iTunes. Well, once we reached the square near the Kale Kapısı, we realized what all the hubbub was about. A long fountain, with at least twenty different moving water nozzles, was spraying water that was literally DANCING to the music. It wasn't just fountains starting and stopping in time, no. The nozzles changed angles and rotated in circles and sprayed shapes...it was absolutely one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. Then, the water choreographer--whoever that person is, I salute you--did the one thing that could have made this water show ever more mind-blowingly amazing that it already was...the finale was choreographed to the final battle music from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I tell you, I nearly fainted from shock, awe, and just plain happiness. Thank goodness Annika had the good sense to bring her camera with her, or I'd have no proof of this incredible twenty minutes of my life. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of that video yet, but TRUST ME I will put it up as soon I get access. Just thinking about it makes me happy!

Already knowing that this vacation was going to rock, we went back to the courtyard of the boys' pensiyon and talked over beers for a while, and then we parted ways for the night, heading back to our own hotel. As we drifted off to sleep, we could only imagine the adventures to come...

STAY TUNED FOR DAY TWO!