Antalia

Back in December during the Bayram holidays in Turkey, we went to Antalia. I still remember my first visit to the little city on the Mediterranean coast. When I visited Turkey in February of 2008, Antalia was the 3^rd Turkish city on my stop list, first being Istanbul, second Guereme. The bus arrived from Guereme after a body numbing 13 hour ride, at a ridiculously early time, or at last it would have been had I actually had any sleep on the bus. Once you arrive at the Otogar in Antalia, which is roughly a 30 minutes ride outside the city, you have to take another city bus or one of the local minibuses to get to the city center. The minibus that dropped me off in the middle of town in early February left me standing in completely unfamiliar surroundings at 5am with my backpack on my back, a plastic bag containing half a loaf of yesterdays bread, some slices of salami and goat cheese in one hand and a Lonely Planet Turkey guide book in the other. Thank goodness for those books.

I made my way to the little harbour and had my breakfast in the early morning hours watching out over the Mediterranean enjoying the sunrise, while I devoured the remaining contents of the bag. The roads in the old city were under construction at that time and the place was looking rather rough. Nine months later and the small streets were looking great. The old city center has been transformed. If there was nowhere else to go outside of these few sneaking walkways, the place would have all it needs.

Our arrival wasn’t an early one, but the bus ride hasn’t changed since my visit in February. We rode in from Istanbul so the additional 3 hours of riding actually may have benefited us by numbing us completely to the pain of sitting in one spot for an excessively long period of time. The city was colder than I expected and the light clothing we had brought with us turned out to be completely useless.

If you have any questions regarding living in Istanbul or the city in general, just leave it in the comment section. I will try and do my best to answer your question.