TURKEY 2009: Americans in Turkey – Day 14 . December 31, 2009

Smarladik (Goodbye) Turkey
Happy 2010

Hi everyone –

Just finished packing as we leave tomorrow at 5 am for the Havalamani (Antalya Airport) – to fly to London via Istanbul. Back in California on Saturday afternoon. We are headed to a late dinner by the harbor to celebrate New Years (and my birthday).

We ventured outside our pleasant little neighborhood — Keilici (the old section of Antalya) — into the real Antalya with traffic, crowds, noise, trams, and mostly very ugly new buildings. But it was a good chance to walk in a real city where everyday life is more apparent than here in this idyllic section of town.

We did find out a bit more about the Tuvana Hotel buildings.. They are actually 350 years old and have been in the same family for 16 generations.

Once you walk out of the Keilici (which we now refer to as the “under-world,”) you climb about 250 feet and emerge at street level of the city..which we refer to as the “real world” … which is edged by a park with lots of restaurants all overlooking the harbor and the old town. Then if you cross the street (taking your life in hand) you cut across traffic, a tram line, more traffic.. and enter a fairly cosmopolitan but disjointed city. Today was probably especially busy with people getting ready to ring in the new year.

We ventured into a very non-touristy store where everyone was buying Turkish Delight (us too) in huge quantities – we assume for parties tonight. The poor guy behind the counter and other customers were frustrated (but sweet) as we asked a million questions and since no one spoke English, it was a combination of our little teeny knowledge of Spanish, Italian, German, French, and English from us and them — most of the time if you ask if anyone speaks English, they say yes.. but then they really only know a few rather random words.. and then flip into another language with another few random words… ) trying to decide which jams and which Turkish Delight to take home to the states. We settled on Eggplant Jam (??) and the Rose jam which is very popular. And a general mixture of Turkish Delights.

Strolling through the markets on the city side of town you find a strange mix of totally manufactured low-quality goods and then very very pricey jewelry and other stuff. They also sell Viagra Tea (which was certainly a new product). There’s also a lot of Viagra (don’t know how real it is) sold on the streets, together with spices!

The general markets are less exciting than Morocco, but fun nevertheless.

We chose to eat at the harbor tonight because we think it will be more lively than our rather precious hotel. We wound up eating at the hotel’s restaurant last night because it was really late and we searched  for a restaurant we had read about.. which alas, when we found it.. was closed for the winter. By the way, weather has been fantastic, so I think we either lucked out, or global warming has hit us in a way that had at least one pleasant consequence (good travel weather for Fern and Mike).. Anyway, the hotel’s restaurant called Saeson (I think) was rather formal.. very pricey… and very continental .. more French than Turkish.. So we are venturing to a very informal place (which means no raw fish  — did that once in a hole in the wall place in Mexico and paid dearly for four days..) We tried to go back to the restaurant we ate at the first night, but they are turning the entire place into a disco for New Years.. bands and snacks and drinks.. no food. They expect 1,000 people at that place. Needless to say we opted for something else. Maybe we will be surprised and the food will be better than expected.

In any case — Happy New Year. See you in 2010. Peace!
Fern