Meanders

July 10/Friday, Antalya: Greetings from the Mediterranean!

I think I last left things off in Cappadocia. Yesterday was mostly consumed by a very long bus trip that was surprisingly easy to take. I wasn't looking forward to a bus trip that takes up the entire day (nine hours), but I figured catching the night bus (Turks generally like to do the long hauls at night) would be even worse. One way you lose the day, but the other you lose both a good sleep AND the next day.

Anyway – all the connections were easy and the scenery was magnificent for most of it. What I particularly remember was the haul up up up into the Taurus (Toros) mountains. That is a very high and very steep range of mountains running along the southern coast of Turkey. I think these are the mountains that have kept Lycia more or less cut off from the rest of the world -at least by land.

The mountains were made of something like granite with soft rock eaten away by erosion so what is left looks like an enormous pile of granite bolders with pines and cypress clinging to it. Rocks and scrub trees- nothing else. The road is mile after mile of hairpin turns both up and down.

We got into Antalya in the evening. It was ghastly hot and humid, really life sapping. The hotel we stayed in was gorgeous; a renewed Ottoman mansion. I like the architecture. Its very open and breezy and designed for shade with big overhanging eaves on the roof. There is lots of stone work and big patios and terraces. The hallways are open to courtyards and the construction is a post and beam style up top with stone work nearer the ground. Windows open everywhere, and there is often a pool or fountain in the front court.

The hotel itself was oddly aggravating Maybe it was the heat but I felt like I was on a bad cruise ship. It was crowded and the meals were big banquet affairs and they seemed to have lots of rules and procedures. Also, Antalya has limited any car traffic into the the old city (Kaleici) in the very center of the sprawling and enormous new city. This means it feels like you are in this little cobble stoned, winding street, Ottoman/Roman city with a beautiful harbor below. Another result is that it turns it into a tourist compound with the attendant street touts hawking all the same kind of trinkets. So, I was happy to get out of there this afternoon although we did have a nice walk about and a very nice lunch under an olive tree at a cafe overlooking the old harbor.
We shelled out the big bucks for private transfer down to Cirali from Antalya (80 Euros!) but that price makes sense after seeing the hour long drive out of that city and then up and down these hairpin turns following the coastal road south past Kemer to Cirali. The litle road to Cirali itself was a winding drop down to this little beach village.

But what a place! Gorgeous beach with crystal clear water rolling in over rounded pebbles. The mountains roar up just behind. Our hotel looks great. A two room place with a little porch in the back. You follow a stone path through these gardens of flowers and fruit trees, about five minutes walk to the beach.

It's pretty nice – but more on that later.

Most Remarkable Thing: I could write about Turkish driving, but those mountain and city roads and the fact that Turkey has an accident rate 14 times higher that Europe says it all. Rather, I will doff my hat to the great bus system. The travel didn't even feel like half the time. Stewards come up and down the corridor offering tea, twinkies, mints, towelettes. The busses are clean and they wash them at every stop. The service is constant ; frequent busses run off in all directions all the time. Most amazing of all – the fare for our nine hour air conditioned (sort of) ride was 40 YTL (about $30).

Photo: Here is a shot of Hadrian's Gate in Antalya from our walk yesterday. This was a Greek/Roman city -and ultimately the port which launched many of the Crusades to the Levant. The gate was built for a visit by Hadrian.