24. Pics from around Antalya and goodbye Turkey

Antalya is a lovely city to visit. The people are friendly and the food and accommodation are both reasonably priced, especially for a coastal tourist area. Here are pics from around the place. We were there off season so that probably helped. 

For some reason, a few streets in the area had umbrellas hanging everywhere.

Quirky restaurant seating. Maybe remnants from the covid panic!

The old streets were tastefully renovated.

Another quirky restaurant.

Never a truer word spoken.

I always wanted to try one of these!

One of the many trinket shops.

We saw this guy getting around. Nice balance!

Adrian's gate at night.

Orange trees growing in all city's main streets.

The colour of the beach sand was unusual.

 

The most photographed bench in the area.

A guy was walking around with these bunnies. Insisted Max hold them whilst he gave us two folded fortune notes.

Here they are. Wise words indeed!

The Hot Chocolate here. Just wicked....

Herbs and spice shops were common

After leaving Antalya we had one more night in Istanbul and the best thing about that was the serving quantity of the glasses of wine! And only about $6.50 AUD a glass!

So that ends our stay in Turkey. We had an adventure that we never would have imagined. We had some great times and we had some sad times as we experienced the grief of a nation in mourning.

One more experience that we hadn't mentioned in fear of worrying many of our friends and family was the warning we received from the Australian authorities about potential bombings in Istanbul in the immediate area we were in. Apparently, there are factions fighting amongst themselves. Two months ago, eight people were killed and scores injured when a bomb went off in the busy street we frequented daily, however, we refused to live in the fear that it may happen while we were there. There was one incident where I got nervous after seeing a backpack sitting in the middle of Taksim Square unattended. We didn't stick around to find out!

When travelling, rather than holidaying, especially if not in the confines of luxury hotels and package tours, you have to keep your wits about you. For us, it's a survival instinct that kicks in when ungrounded and out of one's comfort zone. There are people who want to get the better of you, however, most do not. Most locals love meeting people from other countries and smile (and appreciate) as you attempt a greeting in their language. We had some wonderful interactions with people here and, in fact, wherever we have been.

I write this post the day after landing in Catania Sicily. More to come on that!