Great Turkish trip. Part 1. Alanya
Part 1. Alanya <------
Part 2. Side
Part 3. Antalya
Part 4. Oludeniz
Part 5. Cappadocia
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Dreams Come True! A short inexpensive tour for 6 nights turned into the longest and no less wonderful trip to Turkey! It was the fifth day of our trip, I was in the shower and thought that in a couple of weeks I would have a vacation, and it would be cool to fly somewhere else, and there was also sadness that the trip was coming to an end. It was then that a brilliant idea came to my mind. In general, the best ideas usually come to me in the shower, apparently water has such an effect. We left the hotel, I didn't know how to invite Dasha and Misha to stay. I was sure that now there would be a number of arguments why we should fly away. I said: “I have one idea, but don’t answer right away, just think how nice it would be to stay and live in Turkey! ”.
We went swimming in the warmest sea, I said: "Speak the answer, I can't take it anymore. " Dasha looked at me excitedly, but there were no counterarguments. Dasha said in a muffled voice that this was a logical decision, it makes no sense for us to return. I did not believe in what was happening, could this warm sea in the mornings and evenings be repeated again and again an indefinite number of times? And we will continue to live in such a pleasant rhythm further? The tide of happiness knew no bounds. In the evening I call my mother, the connection was very bad:
Hello, how are my children? Mom asked
— Hello, we are staying in Turkey!!!
-... silence, the connection was lost. A minute passed, the connection was restored again.
“Well, how are things going with you? ” Mom asked
— We are staying in Turkey…
- Is this some kind of joke? What about return tickets? And when will you arrive in Kyiv???
— I don’t know, haven’t decided yet, let’s better you fly to us!
Do you think mom and dad thought for a long time? After a couple of days, they began to select a tour for them. The first attempt to find something more or less decent ended with the fact that they took tickets to Kamenetz-Podolsk for 4 days. And a couple of days later we were able to catch a good tour, which will begin just after returning from Kamenets. Mom and dad were supposed to fly out five hours after the train arrived in Kyiv. But something stopped my mother, and she took another tour, which will start two days later. As a result, their train was late for four and a half hours. Chuyka did not disappoint. And when they were going to Kamenets, a fire started in the locomotive and it was put out by firefighters. But that's another story)))) In general, my parents had the same experience as ours - first Kamenets, then Turkey. We also wanted to take Dasha's mother to Turkey, but she refused for health reasons. The most interesting thing is that it didn’t work out with my parents in Turkey, since we made ourselves a route through the main part of the country’s tourist cities, and it did not coincide with their tour. We ended up staying in Turkey for one hour less than a month. So this trip turned out to be the longest and the first when we did not have return tickets.
While our intended return plane flew to Kyiv, we splashed in the giant waves of the stormy sea.
True, in order to take photos, I had to return to the hotel for a forgotten camera, and then return again for a memory card forgotten in the room. But that is already the consequences of a turned head due to the fact that we are staying here for a long time!
Let's quickly go over the pros and cons of an extended vacation in Turkey, and then dive head first into our journey.
Pros:
- the products are delicious, even a little cheaper than in Ukraine;
- almost everywhere they accept a card for payment;
- all hotels and apartments have good internet (I was able to work remotely);
- cheap domestic transfers and flights;
- very warm sea in August;
- comfortable country. Even after a month, I did not want to fly home, although on long trips you usually want to return at the end.
Cons:
- expensive accommodation in tourist cities where there is a sea;
- if health problems start and you need to be treated, you will have to understand Turkish medicines;
- many Turks do not observe the mask regime and social distance during the epidemic, while many are coughing and sneezing;
- in August from 11:00 to 17:00 the weather is critically hot, but you get used to it over time.
I remember how a month ago we asked ourselves the question “Will planes fly again and adventure travel continue? I wonder when and I wonder where? And finally it happened! Forward to adventure!
Alanya
I have a goal - to visit all the resort places that are advertised on the banners of travel companies in Kyiv. The banner with Alanya for several years on the way to Boryspil seemed to be mocking me. So you go on a trip to Malaysia, you see a banner and remember that you have not been there yet. Not in order in general. And finally the time has come! The guide said that it would take three hours to get to our Green Life hotel from the airport... In general, “that hour” would come only after three hours. After one eternity, we got off the bus. The very first thing I remember was the sizzling heat. It's only 10:30 on the clock, and the sun is no longer kind. How will we survive here for 7 days? At the reception, we immediately put on bracelets and said that they would check in after 14:00. So much the better, you don’t need to go to the room and settle down, but you can immediately run to the slides in the pool! There were only two hills. One is quite fast and winding, the second is straight, very steep, for those who have nothing to lose in life. Of course, we started with the one after which you do not have to collect the bones. How I waited for all this! Wooooo!
The general feeling was that I was in a dream. Are we abroad again? Now, moreover, there is a celebration of Eid al-Adha, so the immersion in the country went as quickly as possible. The main part of the hotel was occupied by local residents. The animation was in Turkish format, with very pleasant music and folk songs. That is why it is impossible to put such animation for Russian-speaking tourists, instead of songs of the “Alcoholic” format and the like? I don't know what exactly the Turkish songs were about, but the tempo of the song is clearly about something good.
When the holiday ended two days later and more and more Ukrainians came to the hotel, the staff began to observe hygiene standards more and look neater. For some reason, for foreigners, they are much more trying to impress than for their own. In any case, visiting this hotel during the coronavirus is pure madness, as these measures were clearly not enough. The hotel management seems unaware of the epidemic. Unfortunately, when you choose a hotel, you can never know their attitude to an urgent problem.
An hour later we were settled ahead of schedule. Now you can go check the sea! The road to the sea takes 7 minutes. As long as you pass through the heat, the desire to climb into the water increases several times. And here it is - sea !! ! Very beautiful, very warm, very affectionate. How good, I'll never get out of it! Why have we never paid attention to a beach holiday before?
Apparently, having spent four months without a foreign country, now we will enjoy a peaceful rest at sea. I wonder what kind of river flows into the sea? Let's go check it out. When I touched the river, all the heat instantly vanished. The river was very cold, although because of the convulsive pain in my legs, I could not fully understand how icy it was. How can this even be, 10 meters away the sea is between warm and hot in temperature, and right there it is so cold.
It was already difficult to imagine the warm sea. And when we went back to the sea, it was hard to imagine how cold water could be in the river. In such a half-lazy state, the first day of light passed. Now it will be possible to walk normally in the evening city. We left the hotel, and it did not get colder outside. The heat hasn't gone anywhere. This is Turkish August. Let us get used to the new conditions of existence. The Dim Chai River flowed near our hotel, the same one that flowed into the sea in a cold stream.
In the evening, fog rises over the river, and Turkish families gather on the banks for a barbecue. I especially appreciate walking in such places. This is a sign that you are not just in a tourist place, but in the very center of local life. What is the view of double kettles on the coals. I have already begun to feel sad that in 5 days I will fly back home. But there are so many seemingly important things to do in Kyiv upon arrival.
Our daily routine was now as follows: the morning began at 6 am, we went to the sea to meet the dawn. Then there was an hour and a half walk along the embankment, and just in time for breakfast we returned to the hotel. After breakfast, swimming in the sea, and after that I had working days, I worked remotely. Working in this mode is quite comfortable. At any moment, slides with a pool are waiting for you. Especially when there is a long meeting and a ten-minute break is announced, I immediately change into swimming trunks and eight minutes of peas. But who am I kidding, I was in swimming trunks and sat at those same meetings. And of course, unlimited overeating of Turkish watermelons. Thus, Dasha got a challenge - “Not a day without a watermelon”.
I liked my work before, but in this format even more. Development and prosperity to my employers. Exactly at 18:00, the laptop was closed, and we ran into the warm sea and swam there almost until sunset. Then dinner and evening festivities. And so on in a circle and these are the best weekdays that can only be. Sometimes, instead of the morning or evening sea, we had different activities. Today is Sunday, which means we have the whole day free. In the morning we went to see Alanya. The main task of this venture is to adapt to the gradually rising air temperature. I always thought that Alanya is a big and uninteresting city.
But how can there be uninteresting cities in Turkey? Alanya is another Turkish masterpiece, with all the beauties of Turkish streets. There is a fortress, and waterfalls, of course, a cable car, a small beautiful beach, a large beautiful beach, there are fig trees on the trees, which are literally waiting for us to eat it, and early in the morning there are no people at all.
You go for a walk, and you hear from the tree “Hey friend, ps ps, this is a ripe fig, eat me! ”. Misha even opened the swimming season in the city waterfall here. Then they went to buy dry shorts) From the current trends, antiviral shops appeared in the city, in which there is no place in the middle.
There are seating boards only on the sides. But that's not all, there is also an innovation on the cable car. Before you get into the trailer, they let in disinfectant gas. That is, they turned on the gas and after five seconds you get into the trailer, so you also undergo lung disinfection.
The whole idea of cable cars and trips to the city was a risky business anyway, and we understood it. We liked Alanya very, very much, but we could only hold out until the middle of the day, the body began to smoke. Now urgently cool down in the hotel. Moreover, a bunny, a chicken and a dog are always waiting for us at the hotel.
We had an eco hotel and these were our permanent residents of the green zone. The dog was really unlucky, she constantly barked and tried to attack the bunny. From time to time I had to ask at the reception to turn off the barking dog. Oddly enough, they succeeded. The hen, on the other hand, was less agile than the bunny, as a result, someone constantly walked with a hen in his hands. Since today we had a morning Alanya, the next day we had an evening one.
We immediately realized that Alanya is beautiful at any time of the day. In the evening, there are mass celebrations, orange juices and luminous pirate ships. There are clearly more ships here than all the pirates of the Caribbean combined.
The first working day has begun, I opened my laptop… No, it's boring, my first working day in Turkey should start somehow in a special way. We went to a mountain reservoir, which is located in the mountains near the Dim Chai River. I did a couple of important tasks in advance at night to unload myself in the morning. First you need to travel by bus for about 30 minutes, then arrange a small trekking through the mountain valleys. Halfway there, Misha suggested that we leave him, and he will join us when we go back.
We decided not to torment the child with hiking from the very beginning and left him in the mountains near a closed restaurant at a table. He did not know yet that dozens of more difficult ascents await him ahead) And we still had no idea what was already there.
There are many restaurants along the entire river, with gazebos right on the water. So after the lake, we had a romantic Turkish breakfast in one of these restaurants and, of course, the icing on the cake - Turkish coffee. No matter how good food your hotel has, breakfast in such an interesting format, right in the middle of the river, is a must.
There is also a great cave nearby. But there wasn't enough time, so I had to go back to work. We went to the cave the next morning. We just miscalculated a little, it opens at 9 am, and we arrived an hour and a half earlier. Now we had time to study in detail every pebble in the neighborhood. And there are a lot of pebbles, I can tell you.
Trekking routes found us on their own, and we went for adventures to climb mountains. Then we had a picnic. To pass the time and add adventure, we tried to get into the cave earlier, but the sleeping guard had good hearing. As a result, exactly at 09:00 we were the very first and only visitors to the cave.
It's really spectacular and spacious. Especially if your child is a fan of minecraft, then the cave with its appearance will come to him like nothing else. This was Misha's first cave, he was delighted, however, like us. We were so charged with the cave that we decided to walk to the hotel, but we did not calculate the strength relative to the air temperature.
To say that around 10 am it was hot is an understatement. We urgently found a taxi car, but, unfortunately, without a driver. So, where is that driver when you need him the most. This man here is quite similar to the driver. I asked if he was a taxi driver by chance. He said that for us he could also be a taxi driver, he was just on the way. He put us in his personal car and took us to the hotel at a light rate for 15 lire ($2). Well, then the day continued according to the standard scheme work-hills-work-hills-once again hills-work, and so on until the evening. To be honest, this mode really affects me positively, this week we made a lot of progress on the project. You need to write down a recipe for the future - a little water park in the middle of the working day. It also apparently played the fact that I clearly defined what needed to be done for today, and sometimes before going to bed I made preparations for myself to unload the morning.
As a result, the day turned out to be not so busy. There was, of course, a funny nuance when, after lunch, I returned to the room for an online meeting, and the battery in the door lock ran down and it stopped opening. At the reception somehow inactively began to solve the problem. I said that I would go to the meeting anyway and would open the door myself if they didn't open it now. Moreover, the castle began to squeak in the morning, about which I warned them. The manager quickly took out a drill with screwdrivers, and we ran to unscrew the mechanism. I made it to the meeting on time. Then there was another side effect with the bumps, we got an ear curse. My ear began to get very stuffy, and attempts to clean it led to temporary deafness in one ear. Then, of course, I read on the Internet that if you suspect a sulfur plug, you can’t do anything with cotton swabs or fingers, but it was too late. It got really scary. How people used to be treated abroad without the Internet is a mystery to me. First, I asked the reception to collect insurance, the girl announced the cost of the franchise to me, my ear literally immediately began to lay out.
The next day the problem returned and we went to the pharmacy. But since Eid al-Adha is a rather long holiday, then go and find that working pharmacy. No matter how well we know English, medical terminology is harsh. In the case of a cerumen plug in my ear, even the translator was powerless. The pharmacy nodded in the affirmative and found the best earplugs for me. Having explained with gestures, in the end they gave me glycerin. He didn't help. Most of the advice from the Internet came down to a solution of peroxide. Well, traditional medicine should help. And yes, I cured my ear completely in a couple of procedures. But I was only the first victim of the ear curse. We will return to the ears on this trip.
Now is the fifth day, which means the day after tomorrow home. . . Well, then, as I already wrote, a lot of excitement and the decision that we do not want to fly away. Since I need to continue working remotely, we will change locations on Saturdays. We came to the reception and paid for one more night at the hotel. We found a guide and said that we were staying, although we didn’t tell him that we had arrived) He phlegmatically said: “OK”. I thought they should note something to themselves, who and where does not fly. But in fact, they generally don’t care who flies where and where they don’t fly) At the reception, we were told to write a note for the transfer that we don’t need to be picked up in the middle of the night. I even turned off the phone at night in the room so that they would not call me. So they started banging on the door. Well, at least the transfer didn't care that we weren't flying. And at the reception, they were also surprised by our decision.
How and when do you plan to return home? I checked that you can definitely stay in Turkey for up to 90 days. So we still have plenty of time to figure out how we'll be back.
- To be honest, we don't know yet. True, before such a loud statement, just in case, I checked that Pegasus flies to Kyiv from different parts of Turkey and even at reasonable prices. Return tickets with one luggage cost us 5150 UAH for three. It was significantly cheaper than flying somewhere on vacation again.
The advantage here is that you are not limited in movement around the country and you can fly at the most favorable price from any part of the country.
Now a number of issues need to be addressed. First, where do we want to go? Let's visit the best resorts! Now you need to deal with booking accommodation. Booking in Turkey for some reason does not work. That is, you cannot create new bookings. With VPN, this task was also not so easy. Dasha went to the reception and found out where the locals generally book accommodation. We wrote a Turkish site. Now you need to wash things. There is no laundry at the hotel, but someone agreed to take things to some city laundry for $ 5 and then bring them to our room. Maybe he just washed at home. So, things are now all as good as new. We make a route so that the crossings are rational in length.
We will book hotels on Wednesdays. That is, every Wednesday they were looking for a hotel for the next location. The nearest interesting resort is Side. The good news is, there will also be all-inclusive! The most favorable price was right on the hotel website, where we made the payment.
The last evening swimming in Alanya is somehow sad. Why be sad? The sea continues indefinitely! But all the same, some kind of sadness, already accustomed to this place. But there is one unfinished business, near the hotel there is a karting center, where there are no visitors at night. How can you miss something like this. Misha was delighted, but no one had ever ridden karts so carefully.
Now everything in Alanya is over, we can continue our journey. I also noticed that as soon as you plan to stay further, something is bound to go wrong. The sound on the laptop is broken, which is critical in remote work. But after a while we realized that these are trifles. My temperature started to rise. There was no thermometer, as it is not customary to measure it in this hotel. I feel good about it. Okay, let's see what happens in the morning. But I feel more adventure now. In the morning I woke up fresh, without fever. Phew, passed, or is it not accurate?
