I've been back in Cairo now for about five days, but thought that I would write a few more stories of how we finished up our time in Turkey.
As you know we skipped out on the last part of the trail opting to spend a few extra days in Antalya, a city located right on the sea. What a beautiful place to kill some time! Our hostel was located in the old city of Antalya, complete with cobblestone streets, and city walls. It is certainly an area catering to tourists, because it has basically been converted to all quaint hotels, markets, and shops. Though we were staying there past the end of tourist season, we were surprised at how dead the place became, especially once the sun went down. There would be a tour group here and there during the day, but it really made me wonder how much money these shopkeepers had to take in during the months of high tourism to keep their doors open.
I can't say that we did anything extra special while here. Most days were spent reading, drinking tea and instant coffee (which is all you can really find in a cafe that isn't a Starbucks or other chain) and eating. I should comment on the restaurants in Turkey. First off, I thought the food was great! Turkish pizza or a chicken kebab sandwich were a staple of my time in the city. But finding a restaurant can be stressful if you don't know exactly what you want. Imagine a row of restaurants on the level of Perkins/IHop, and each one has a man standing outside their doors. You walk by and even without making eye contact, you are approached and an attempt is made to direct you in. "Hello, you want kebab, chips, chicken?" they ask. After kindly thanking them you take a few more steps where you are accosted in the same way at the next restaurant. This time you thank the person less kindly, because it is only the second restaurant in a row of five and the exact same thing is going to happen at the next one. And you had better not take too much time standing outside any one restaurant, because then you will have two people from competing restaurants standing there in what feels like a bidding war for your business. Luckily, I found a place early on that I liked and just headed there.
Our last day in Turkey was spent in Istanbul, and we really didn't see too many of the sites there before it was time to leave. The domestic flights in Turkey do not fly into the same airport as the one we were in on our way over from Egypt, so it took a bit of time to navigate our way into the city (the domestic airport is east of Istanbul). Upon getting in we found our hostel, which was a real treat as it had a wonderful view of the Haggia Sophia from the rooftop dormitory we were staying in. After dumping our stuff we took off down the street to see the famous Blue Mosque and explore a bit. We had an angering experience with a shoe shiner, ate a great meal for half the price it was worth, and went to bed with some anticipation of getting back to Cairo the next day.
Overall I found Turkey a wonderful country, and one that I would love to return to someday to see more of the sites, and maybe even finish the last 100km of the Lycian Way.
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