Antalya... the Miami of Turkey. It is a city full of palm trees, modern buildings (with the exception of the old city) and intrusive salesmen lining the streets.
The Alp Pasa hotel is in the center of Old City, Kaleiçi, and is set amongst the local homes, stray dogs and cats, and the "modern" bazaar. We did not leave the old city, except for the beach and getting lost at a random bus stop...
Our day in Antalya began taking a taxi to the beach and relaxing on a bed sleeping next to the crashing waves. Around 5:00 we headed back to the hotel, very relaxed and sunkissed. We showered and cleaned up and left the hotel for a stroll, wandering around and stumbling upon the city's most touristy bazaar. The salesmen were following us and trying to figure out what language we spoke by yelling off a series of memorized phrases until we responded. We were rather rude to most of them, just ignoring them or saying Hello without turning around. We did stop, however, at the sight of a Kilim hanging in the street. As we slowed down, the owner of the shop, who had been following us for a while, began to show us the rug. He took the Kilim down and we went into his shop to look around at some more. After talking with him for ten minutes, I bought one! Yeah! The one souvenir I really wanted from Turkey. After we made our purchase and haggled the price down to almost cost;), we sat and had tea with Ishtar and he invited us out for wine. Come to find out he was hoping to court Emily. This was interesting, because we had to avoid the conversation while "enjoying" our wine. Twice he said to me, "I like your friend very much" and he kept telling Emily how captivating her eyes are. He was very nice, however and a great person to buy Kilim from. The view at dinner was almost worth the torturing conversation.
Off to bed after a relaxing start to a stressful afternoon.
(On the way home two French men offered to buy us Corona, and we could not figure out what they were saying so we talked to them longer than we probably should have)
On a side note, we have been very surprised at how well people speak English here. It makes us feel a little more guilty for not trying to learn more Turkish.
Quote of the day (Pazartesi) "I can't think of anything better to do for five hours than walk." -Treanna
The second picture is of how the buildings have been restored, before and after, in the old city as they were in the Byzantine era. The architecture is gorgeous and just how emily and I picture london being in Medieval times.
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