Last weekend my roommates and I went to the Mediterranean to escape the cold, rain and pollution of Ankara. By now we have mastered the transit of Ankara--well at least most of the time. We took the metro to Asti and then haggled our way into getting tickets to Antalya--an 8 hour bus ride--for only 20 lira a piece. We did sacrifice our comfort a bit though by riding with a company called Topcham that no one had ever heard of. We did not get dankek on the bus, but we brought our own, so it was ok.
We did however make a miscalculation. We thought It was a 10-12 hour bus ride, but it turned out to be an 8 hour one. So when we arrived there it was 5AM instead of 8AM. I actually didn't even think we were there yet! (I thought it was just a bathroom stop and I was angry at my roommates for waking me up) It was really dark outside, and it was too dark to to take the tram into the city, so we slept in the bus terminal for a bit and eventually snuck our way onto a metro shuttle bus into the city. Sometime playing the "yabance card" (foreigner card) has its advantages, and since I clearly can't blend in with my blonde hair, I might as well. When we got into the city it was still dark, and as usual the "seemingly easy directions" were not easy at all. We finally came accross someone and we asked him in Turkish where our hostel, Sabah Pansion was, and he started talking in Turkish, and then I told my roommates something in English, and he started yelling at us for not speaking to him in English. It was quite strange--most people in Turkey in random cities don't speak English well, so how would we know? So we finally arrived at our hostel, at about 6:30, and we collapsed on the benches and couches at the place. Finally it became awkward enough for the owner so that he let us sleep in a vacant room even though checkin wasn't until 10:30.
I woke up to the sound of the Ataturk parade at 11AM or so. That was a strange awakening. I tried to get ready to chase after it, but the time I managed to get into the city it was already gone. The city was so beautiful though--the skies were so blue and it was warm enough for shorts, but coming from Ankara my roommates and I were all wearing pants, boots, and thick jackets. The majority of the tourists there, and there were A LOT of tourists, seemed to be over age 65 though.
Eventually after our long nap we got up and walked into the city to find some lunch. We were tired and hungry so we got something slightly off of but still too close to the main road. The place was called Ottoman Garden--like everything else there it was filled with tourists over age 55. (Never a good sign for students wanting to save money) My roommate and I ordered Kofte to share, and our other roommate who is vegetarian ordered an omelette. Even though we explicitly stated we were sharing, they brought my roommate and I two portions of Kofte. This isn't too uncommon in Turkey though--they don't really seem to understand or want to understand the concept of sharing though. It was ok because we were fairly hungry though. They then proceeded to bring us all tea, even though I didn't order any tea. At this point we were starting to get suspicious. The next thing was the issue with the condiments--they brought us ketchup and mayonnaise, which was not refrigerated. After using it for only about 5 minutes they then preceded to try to take it away and ask us how much more we wanted to use so that they could move it to another table. After that we asked for the check, as we were irritated. The incompetent server then tried to bring us more tea, which we would certainly be paying for, and we told him no. When we got the bill they also tried to overcharge us for 3 items, but we weren't the stupid tourists they thought we were, so we asked for a menu and corrected them. The owner wanted to get us out as soon as we could so that his other customers would not overhear, as he likely does this regularly.
PLEASE DO NOT DRESS LIKE THIS IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY! ...or at all!
We then preceded to get our McDonald's dondurma kula (ice cream cone). Lesson learned: Burger King has a better and cheaper one. The Burger King one uses Turkish style ice cream (true dondurma), while the McDonald's one tastes like America. McDonald's does not seem to be halal, where as I think Burger King might actually be. If you want ham in a Muslim country though McDonald's Egg McMuffin definitely has your fix.
We went down to the wharf for a boat ride and managed to negotiate ourselves down to a lower price than all the other tourists after saying we go to school in Turkey and wouldn't pay that much. The boat guy started to fall for us all and kept telling us we would never pay for a boat ride again--we proceeded to get another one for free, but it was the same exact tour, so when he offered us a third we decided for no more. On the boat were about 5 girls who couldn't have been more than 14 with two older guys (around 18 or 20) with a bunch of snacks, cigarettes, and beer. They were taking turns dancing all over the place on the boat while the older guys and other girls were filming it. They looked like they were having fun, but I couldn't help but get the feeling that the older boys were really creepy. Turkey isn't America though so it's not my place to say.
The boat tour was really nice though. They played a bunch of Turkish music like Tarkan that I like. I wanted to dance but I didn't want to take lead after those kids. Normally I wouldn't think twice though. The waters of the Mediterranean are truly beautiful--so turquoise and calm--nothing like the Pacific. The strange boat guy wanted us to go to "a bar or cafeteria" (how classy) with him, so we got apple chay and made our exit--which was so obvious. It was funny though.We had a really nice dinner. We tried the local sauce that consisted of a spicy sesame oil when I ordered a rotisserie chicken. It was really good, but I really didn't expect for it to be half of an entire chicken. After we had this really good pumpkin dessert that the restaurant was famous for. We were kind of nervous about the restaurant over charging us because it seemed really nice, so one of my roommates flipped her glass over so they wouldn't keep pouring us water, and the owner came by and asked us the meaning of that. We felt bad at first because we thought we offended him, but it turned out that he thought it meant we thought the food was superb---he asked us if that was a tradition in our culture. We didn't really know how to answer that one though... The pumpkin dessert was absolutely amazing though!
The next day we proceeded to try to explore other parts of the city. They had a bazaar but honestly none of the bazaars have been as good or as cheap as the one in Istanbul so we just have been holding off. We walked to the edge of the city and turned down a different road to find ourselves walking into another world, the one that tourists don't go to. It was kind of ghetto. The rest of the city was a resort in comparison. They had really cheap grocery stores with off-brand food of the off-brands. It seemed so authentic though at the same time, but it started to get more and more sketchy with gecikondus right and left, so we turned back. Before turning back though we saw a crazy homeless man with large dent in the side of his head being hit with a broom of a shopkeeper at the shop in front of us. She was telling him to get the F@&@ off. When he saw me he started to walk near me and say "I LOVEEEEEE YOU LADY!" The female shop-keeper started to hit him again and yell so that we could walk by and get away from him. It was quite strange-we crossed the road and turned back after that.
That night was Ataturk day, and the city went WILD! There was a parade and sort of an Ataturk/Turkish nationalism techno party in the city center. It was so intense. Nothing like anything you would ever see in America.
Getting dinner was interesting that night. As usual we were attacked by restaurant greeters on the main streets with the usual phrases of "Hello Yes Please," thrown in with some extra ones like "Hello Charlie's Angels," and "I have what you want." My roommates and I got so fed up that we started yelling stuff back at them as we have gotten so tired of the harassment, which sort of threw them off. The next day when we walked by there with our new friends they mimicked some of the things we had said though, which was both funny and irritating. The strangest experience that night was the fact that one guy actually tried to have us bargain for our dinner. That was too weird--we left.
Also--the continental buffet Turkish breakfast at our hostel was AMAZING! The hostel had too many overaged people--it was kind of strange. They kept listening to our conversations--which were very loud so it wouldn't have been too hard---and trying to give us advice. However, it was kind of amusing because we have already been here over two months already seen the majority of sites and had much more experience than they had. There was actually a really old man in a walker at the hostel--that was sort of strange.
We found the park and explored the city more. The park was pretty--very tropical--but sort of strange. It had some really odd statues and exercise equipment. We found a tea garden nearby the waterside that overlooked the Mediterranean from a cliff and sat there for about 6 rounds of chay. It was nice. After walking around more we went back to our hostel to lounge outside on the deck that was covered with cushions and mats. It was so beautiful and pleasant. We ate our snacks on the deck while reminiscent about our day and time with Turkey--there were many bellyaching laughs.
There were two white guys who kept walking around and kept looking over at the seats, but my one roommate kept blocking them with her legs. Finally they got brave enough to ask to sit down. We found out they were two Americans of Fullbright scholarships teaching English in Turkey. They were both really funny. It was interesting to hear the experiences of people in similar but also very different situations to us. Unlike the other people we had met, they were not tourists--they like us lived in Turkey, but they weren't the annoying and privileged Bilkent Erasmus either. After five minutes of talking to the one that lived in Yozgat we realized that despite the troubles and incredibly odd situations that we have had with our living situation that really our problems were not so great. One of the guys actually took out his laptop and showed us Yozgat and his school. He actually has to walk about a mile uphill to get clean water! His school is also way far from the city, and his living quarters are really substandard. His kitchen is outside and he has a tiny tiny bathroom that has a water heater directly attached to the shower so that if he wants a hot shower he has to be quick so that he doesn't burn himself. At least he could manage to find laughs in it all though--I think I might cry. The two American guys were really funny and fun though. We decided to go out with them that night. There friends came too--five girls located all over Turkey also teaching English for Fulbright. Unlike the boys the girls had it much easier. They all lived in the Med, while the boys lived in the East, which is not so glamorous. None of them were from California though---all Midwest or East coast, so there perspectives were additionally even more different than us. It was interesting to hear their stories though. My advice to others: Don't do Fulbright in Turkey! They have had many problems getting paid so far.
We went to a really nice restaurant for dinner--very traditional Mediterranean Turkish . We also went on a quest for waffles, which were AMAZING. We also taught the American boys about the amazingness of "INTENSE BROWNIE." One loved it, one wasn't so crazy about it. My roommates wouldn't accept that anyone could not be in love with it--it is pretty amazing though. I also discovered that Efes makes chocolate beer that night. Pretty good--sort of like Mexican chocolate soda.
We all really wanted to celebrate Halloween so we went around looking for a club or place with a Halloween party. We realized quickly that Antalya in winter is not really the place to party. The boys said that there had been a sign for an 80's party, so we looked all over the old part of the city in the dark with it for no luck for quite sometime until finally seeing the cardboard sign with balloons pointing to a dark and narrow ally. The party which was called "Alper and the 80s" appeared like a private party, but actually it was not--it was just some guy named Alper doing Turkish 80's music---a little anti-climatic but memorable. The guy from Yozgat had to get his alcohol on though because he can't drink there, so he used the opportunity of the cheap shots to his advantage.
On the way home we tried to find a decent bathroom--we tried to go the restaurant we had been the day before in hopes of using their bathroom for free, and who did we run into?!! THE BOAT GUY! We asked a stray dog that the American guys had befriended where the bathroom was, and it actually led us up the hill to a bathroom!
This night continued onward until we went back to the hostel. We regrettably got up early next morning to find out too late that Turkey INDEED does daylight savings time. Sleeping FAIL. We waited in the Otogar for three hours, but I must say it was the nicest cleanest bus terminal I have ever waited in in my entire life--in Turkey or America--or anywhere!
As usual the bus ride home made way too many stops. It was a delightful weekend though!
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