HelsinkiRigaIstanbul: Discovering Antalya

Antalya.

Wednesday, June 3.

Another very agreeable breakfast with a view. But the main agenda item today is the highly spoken of Museum in this city. We are briefed by the reception staff that we can catch a tram just outside the old quarter. However, when we get there, we find we have just missed one. So we spend some observation time at the stop.

I confess to being enraptured by this grand mountain backdrop to some of the city.

Exploring the contemporary city along the tram route.

The Atalyan day seems to start a little later than in Australia.

When Roman Emperor Hadrian visited in 130 AD, a special gate in the city wall was erected for him to enter.

We are on the tram which runs along the high shoreline. It has parks and some fine views of the bay and beaches.

We do not know just how to pay our fare. All the locals use electronic prepaid cards. I take our money to the driver and he fixes us up for the grand sum of 2.5tl for both. It seems that the one standard fare for each journey, no matter how long, is becoming standard practice in many cities. There is no concern about getting off at the right stop because the tram only goes as far as the Museum. Easy!

An almost universal scene along waterfronts.

The park opposite has a curious exhibit - a hedge plant shaped into a grand piano.

We enjoy some elevated views over their ‘beaches’ but feel sorry for the folks down there. It is rather pale looking and no surf. It reminds us of Crocodile Dondee’s retort when someone pulled a small knife on him. He produced a crock hunting knife with the phrase “THIS is a knife.” If the Med people want to see what a beach looks like, come to Queensland. However, the rugged mountain backdrop of this part of the bay is grand.

Now for the Museum which is very well sign posted.

Early Bronze age - 3000 to 2700 BC.

This is craft and artistry nearly 2000 years ago (200AD). It is truly like socialising with the ancients.

Right from the first of the many rooms, the displays are quite awesome, very well presented, even if not with sufficient English explanations. What is also quite overwhelming is that much of the stuff here was excavated just in the neighbourhood which at one time was a rich, active and much prized part of the Roman and Byzantine world. While some of the displays are of almost pre-history, what most people come for is the abundant and very fine Classical Greek and Roman remains, artefacts and especially sculptures. We have all seen pictures of finely carved marble but to see it close up is quite humbling. The artistry and skill of the craftsmen is truly amazing.

Apollo is on the left.

The depiction of drapery is beautiful. Only fine silk could hang like this.

The detail is almost to showing wrinkles.

Roman items from under the sea.

Exquisite Roman glassware.

The 'original', immaculately carved Roman lettering.

The coins of Justinian I.

To top a most impressive few hours, we have our best Espresso coffee in Turkey in the Museum shop.

As we emerge quite overcome by what we have seen, we strike up a conversation with a young Chinese couple. He is an architect and has been on an exchange project visit to Sydney while a student a few years ago. Their English is passable for a simple conversation about ourselves and our respective travels. They seem to be impressed that a couple of wrinklies like us travel far from home.

Archeological leftovers, each worth thousands.

On the way back, we are lucky to catch the tram just as he is pulling away. I think he paused just for us. At our stop, we do a small detour for another wide view of Kaleici. If we knew just where to look, we could probably see our lodgings.

On our casual stroll back from the tram stop, we encounter some other very colourful parts of this city, just outside Kaleici.

It would be interesting to know the story behind the stonework as well as the pieces of embedded timber.

As we meander back home, we have to pass the carpet shop where we looked at a few samples last night – in fact about most of his stock of smaller Kilims. We have a look at our short list in good daylight. We play it cool. We like it but we have fallen a bit out of love with it – at least not in love enough to pay just over 1200tl. We know that the place here is pretty quiet right now – in fact rather dead. We are in a good bargaining position, especially as we have not got ourselves too attached to any one of the three. As we are about to walk out, he asks Lois what is her best price. He reminds us that we should not cut off his arm because in any exchange, “one hand washes the other and both get clear” (also an old saying of my mother’s). We assure him that we understand the message but cannot help offering him only 600tl. Somewhat to our surprise, he accepts because it is his first sale of the day at 3pm and we are about to walk out. We think we have done pretty well having bought this piece for Aus$300 with the intention of hanging it on the wall. We even get a certificate of authenticity. We don’t want to doubt it but who knows how it can be verified, not that we want to. We conclude the deal with a 20tl tip to his ‘apprentice’.

Back home, some R&R, writing up, mail, booking accommodation for tomorrow night and arrangements to get us to the airport to pick up a car.

Some of these old streets have probably never looked better than now.

We are trying to move away from indigenous food to something a little more exotic. Lois finds the Vanilla Restaurant well written up somewhere. We set out for it but even with Mrs Google, end up going completely around the block only to find that it is just a few doors away in our street. The food is indeed interesting. We have a white bean, tahini and egg soup, an open ravioli with chicken livers and a seafood risotto. It was a good choice with all dishes very tasty. We both agree that the calamari and the mussel in the risotto is among the best we have had.

The tastiest dishes since arriving in Turkey.

Some Turks have an interesting sense of humour. There is a mini rubbish truck gently squeezing its way through the narrow lanes, playing a refrain from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, just to signal that they are coming. Not only would that not happen back home but the streets would have to be designed so that a big truck could get through with minimal skill of the driver. It is too obvious to do it the other way and design the truck and the refuse collection to suit the urban setting.