Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

  The museum trip inspired me to go on a tour of the immediate area where the artifacts were found. I was picked up near Adrian's gate and after picking up a few more passengers at other locations, we were off. The stops were: A waterfall The seaside town of Side (pronounced see-day) Aspendos Perge We drove out of Antalya central and through the suburbs. It was interesting to see many small mosques (Mini-Mosques or Mosquettes as I call them) where smaller populations don't need bigger ones.  There were these weird signs along the main road. They had a round sign on a pole with numbers on them. 60, 70, 80. Since most of the traffic were doing 110 they couldn't have been speed limit signs, but apparently they were and I checked my seat belt was fastened properly. First stop, the waterfall. Oh dear... The water running over our retainer wall in Witta in summer was more impressive. It was 15m wide and only a 2m drop. Wondered if this was going to get better... Next stop, Side. ...

Wanting to learn a bit more about the area, I took a brief tram ride in Antalya to the Antalya Archaeological Museum. There were some impressive displays of artifacts found in the surrounding areas including Side (pronounced See-day) Aspendos and Perge. Here are a few snaps taken.  I decided I'd like to visit those sites and I'll be booking a trip this afternoon...

  We spent two nights at the Ruin Atalya as we had to bridge two longer accommodation places. It was pleasant enough and the staff were excellent. The hotel is aptly named as there are ruins directly below the hotel. They were discovered when they started digging to put the pool in! You can see the glass flooring in the above picture which gives a view to the archaeological diggings right under one's feet. The artifacts have been dated circa 300AD. Here is another pic showing the glass flooring throughout the grounds. Varol, the hotel concierge was kind enough to take us on a tour of the diggings. Its taken 13 years to get to this stage. The photos below are from the diggings directly under the hotel. It was fascinating. Our host was charming, however many of the staff were devastated, waiting for family to contact them and not knowing who was still alive as communications were down. A time of mourning for many Turks. 

'Aftershock' is not only a seismological term, it's also a state of being for the people here. Even though we were a significant distance away, (not feeling any tremors) we can feel the local community's sadness and disbelief at the level of devastation. Even though in a few weeks the media will have moved on to other stories, the dear people here will still be literally picking up the pieces for a lot longer. As we know, with natural disasters, the initial death and injury toll is only a small percentage of the actual numbers to come in the next week. Watching a young waitress at our hotel crying at the counter reading updates was heartbreaking. Our concierge had family members in that region and luckily, were fortunate to escape. We will be leaving Türkiye on the 13th of February for our next destination. At this stage, it will be Malta or Sicily. We've also noticed the airlines have more than doubled their airfare prices on flights leaving Türkiye... The red dot ...

Just a quick update to say we are fine.  Didn't feel a thing on the southern coast.  The locals are devastated  Hopefully no aftershocks. Will keep you posted.

  The view from our apartment in Antalya was spectacular. This pic was taken in the early morning and the combination of palm trees, the mediterranean sea and snow-capped mountains was mesmerising. The flight from Istanbul took less than an hour at a cost of under $130 for both of us. And suddenly having cabin luggage only made a huge difference.  We got a taxi from the airport to our apartment for about $18. We had chosen this particular apartment (not the one the above pic came from) because it was in the middle of the old city and had a high rating on Air B&B. We had it booked for a week. A perfect combination.  Or so we thought.  When we got there, we found out there was no hot water in the kitchen or the bathroom sink. When testing the shower, it was an 'Instagas' system that kept fluctuating temperature from absolute freezing to scalding hot. Then water started gushing out of the electric heating element section. 😟 And so, with as much politeness as we cou...

  We caught the local train to visit the Grand Bazaar in the south of Istanbul. The train system is efficient, clean and cheap. Each trip you take in Istanbul costs the equivalent of 75 Australian cents and is  a much safer mode of transport than taxis and ubers. 😱 The city is massive and it's the only way to do it.  We learned our lesson the first time we took an uber in Istanbul central. Given the city's population of 22 million, the traffic is diabolical.  While negotiating the traffic, blaring horns and no use of indicators, drivers are busy texting on their phones! After seeing our lives flash before our eyes on a few occasions, we took the train. The bazaar was huge. You practically need a map to get around. To be honest, I was expecting it to be a bit more traditional with fez-wearing carpet traders and wandering salesmen selling 'genuine' ancient artifacts but alas, the 21st century has made its mark. Even though there were some eye-catching stores, with a m...

 We woke in the morning and I went for a walk to check the area out while Max was planning her escape.  To my unexpected delight, 50 metres away were local stalls selling produce along a cobblestoned alleyway. One hundred metres further down was a wider street with large retail shops housed in beautiful old buildings. There were branded department stores and food stores a plenty.  Even though Türkiye is over 90% Islamic, the people we saw on the street were more 'western' in their appearance rather than having the traditional Muslim look. We found the locals to be friendly, especially if a little effort is made to speak Turkish, albeit badly. 'Hello' and 'thank you' in Turkish helps break the ice when haggling. I must say, even though I'm not a fan of 'Google' per se, the Translator app is a lifesaver. You can type or speak into it in English and it translates it and displays and speaks it out in the chosen language. You can even take photos of text ...