Great Turkish trip. Part 3. Antalya
Part 1. Alanya
Part 2. Side
Part 3. Antalya <------
Part 4. Oludeniz
Part 5. Cappadocia
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After Side we became great experts on the color of the sea. Now we know that in this part of Turkey, if the beach is made of pebbles, then the sea will be beautiful, if made of sand, then closer to the color of “Evpatoria-78". Since we have already seen enough of the last option, we decided to live closer to the beautiful Konyaalti beach. And the best-priced accommodation was also on the far side from the center of the beach. So we got long and tedious. But the area turned out to be cozy, I couldn’t even believe that this is still considered the city of Antalya.
We had a two-room apartment with a gorgeous pool, an island with palm trees in the middle of the pool.
So the regime of work with breaks for the pool was not violated. Usually at home for a reboot, I can lie on the sofa for five minutes, here the sofa was successfully replaced by a pool, albeit without slides.
To the sea from our new house 20 minutes on foot. So you don't really walk around. I had to continue the early rise mode in order to have time to swim before the start of the working day. By and large, there are few entertainments in the area, but if you love Antalya, then you will definitely like its surroundings. On the first day off, we had a visit to one of the neighboring mountains on a local cable car. When we arrived, the cable car was not working, even the cabins were not on cables. The manager said that soon the wind would end on the mountain and everyone would start up. But this is Turkey and any problem here can be solved by swimming in the warm sea.
Let them repair it for now, and in the meantime we will take sea baths. An interesting fact, when the cable car was turned on, the cabins began to leave the lower base, they left until they filled the entire long cable car in both directions. I always thought that cable cars were fixed statically, but it seems that they catch them every time the cable car is launched. It is already possible to go skating, but the sea just did not let go, it is very difficult to get out of the warm water. In the evenings we sat in the water until the sun went down.
How wonderful it was. Even in Turkey, I liked the public barbecue areas with brick ovens. We did not use them, but when Turkish families have picnics, you literally dissolve in the atmosphere of the country. We were completely imbued with the spirit of the country: Turkish coffee, served in small cups in local bakeries, evening meals in restaurants for locals with delicious and inexpensive food, and of course the beautiful color of the sea.
Adaptation to Antalya was easy and fast, it felt like we had always lived here and just returned. We got out into the old city itself only once, since there was a large concentration of people.
The old city is still as beautiful as before, the cats walk around with the same unusual eyes, and the restaurants serve the unsurpassed iskander kebab. It was difficult to find a restaurant as they were all full. Oddly enough, we were able to find one in the very center, in which for some reason there was no one at all.
Outside, he did not look somehow special and without barkers, apparently this did not attract tourists. Fortunately, in Turkey, tasty food is prepared almost everywhere, regardless of the level of the restaurant. So during the epidemic, we had our own personal restaurant, where we had a hearty meal.
Despite all these crowds, the romance of the city has not suffered at all, it is still just as cute and romantic. Interestingly, during our stay, one blogger wrote an article about how Antalya is deserted right now and there are no people. I don’t know how we got such different views, but in past years there were definitely no fewer people. Well, even though there is a very long embankment, there is enough space for everyone. And if you get tired, you can always rent bicycles for one and a half lira per hour ($ 0.2). There is a really confusing system with blocking on the card and sometimes the machines refuse to give out a bike at all. But if you figure it out and get used to it, you can spend time with a breeze.
When the blocking on my card was lifted, I could not find any transactions related to renting bicycles at all, it seems that they were generally a gift from the country to us. Living here was super comfortable. If you are looking for a place to stay, then the Konyalti beach area definitely needs to be included in your list. Somehow there is not much to tell about this part of the journey, probably by that time we had already entered the more ordinary everyday life of Turkish life. It was so beautiful and addictive, I wish everyone such a period in life.
And here, on the bus, just a coronavirus party is happening. I tried to calm myself down by saying that maybe she just caught a cold, though the average temperature outside is between 35 and 40. On the other hand, the boy looks completely healthy with her, and at the station they checked everyone’s temperature at the entrance. The bus passed stunning mountain panoramas, but against the backdrop of a grandmother with a cough, I just wanted to survive. My grandmother got off about halfway through the route, but for some time it seemed to me that she continued to cough behind my back. At such moments, even the price for a taxi no longer seemed so unjustified. Perhaps the masks on everyone's faces and the distance of three meters saved us all. Or maybe immunity, now you don’t understand at all.
Definitely not worth the trip. And drivers of local transport need to pass off medals for heroism. We arrived in Fethiye. We ate immediately at the bus station in a restaurant. They really couldn’t understand us there at all, but they fed us. When we saw the bill of 60 lira, we were surprised that it was somehow a little expensive. But we just did not yet realize that we had arrived at a really expensive and spectacular resort. Transferred to a taxi and started to go to the hotel. The taxi driver confidently took us to the mountains, higher and higher and higher. I jokingly asked Dasha: “Are we going to live in the mountains? ”. Dasha nodded in the affirmative. This is a turn, but a pleasant turn, I love mountains. On this trip, Dasha was the main topographer for laying the route and choosing hotels. And on the map it seemed to me that it is generally all in the same plane. We stopped to live near Oludeniz in the city of Ovacik.
Sunset in Antalya
