Villa Tulipan Hotel - Antalya

The Villa Tulipan was a bit difficult to find, but it was a great little hotel. It is very close to the harbor and a small beach that is through a restaurant. It is also close to a very helpful merchant that will point you in the right direction and then try to sell things to you later.

You ring the bell and when the owner opens the door, you are greeted by him, his assistant, and a very friendly dog. The rooms are all upstairs. There is no elevator here, so it might be difficult for some older people or people with really heavy baggage. Our room was cozy without being tiny. The view was very nice as well. The bathroom might be a problem for some people. It is one of the smallest we have encountered, and we used to live in Korea. It isn't a big deal as long as you aren't picky.

The breakfast is a standard Turkish breakfast. They don't have boiled eggs, but they will fry some up for you. They will also hold baggage all day, which they did for us. A transfer to the bus station only costs 25 lira. It's a nice luxury to treat yourself to if your bus leaves at night the way ours did. The Villa Tuilpan is a nice place for those who aren't picky. It isn't really a true budget hotel, but it is only a step or two above one.

Deep Blue Sea

Antalya is the main city on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. It is a large city of about 1 million people. We spent two days here, mainly exploring the old town and harbor area. There is also a very large and popular beach, but it's far from our hotel so we didn't go.

Our first day we arrived via bus from Kas. The bus station is a lot further from the center than in Fethiye or Kas. We took a tram to the old town; it must be new because it was clean and they spoke Turkish and English for the stations. We found the old city (Kaleici) just fine; however, finding our hotel was another problem. The small, winding streets are lovely to get lost in, but not when you have a backpack or you're hungry for lunch. Unlike Russia, thankfully, many Turkish people speak English, so we asked around for the street or hotel. A nice man helped us find it, but wanted us to return to check out his shop. When we did, he insisted on us buying something. We said we weren't interested, as we had already bought a few souvenirs. Finally he remarked, “What can I sell you?? Postcards? Necklaces? Purses?” “Oh, nothing thanks. We're finished shopping.” And we walked away. He picked the wrong tourists to help! You can read about our hotel in our review (Villa Tulipan).

Hadrian's Gate

Kaleici is a nice area to spend an afte

rnoon wandering around in. You could walk for hours and still find a small street you missed. The streets are lined with tourist souvenir shops, cafes, pensions, carpet shops, and restaurants. Many places put tables outside so you can enjoy the atmosphere while sipping your drink. Along the harbor front are more cafes and restaurants. Along the cliffs on the water are even MORE cafes! This is definitely a place for sitting, relaxing, and having some tea. While walking back to our hotel, we stopped to buy some nuts. The man offered us a taste of some salty and sweet nuts; they were quite good, so we wanted to buy a few. Maybe a small bag, but nothing more than a snack. Well, the man started doing his shtick and 2 minutes later we were stuck with a large, 1 kilo bag of mixed nuts!! They've provided a good snack ever since.

After a walk along the harbor and marina, we accidentally found the main site of the old town, Hadrian's Gate. Built in Roman times, the three-arch gate still retains many of the sculptures that make it beautiful. For dinner, we went to Corner's Cafe. The man who runs the place is so nice and friendly. We only bought two fish, two teas, and a water, and he gave us bread, tomato and spice spread and yogurt and garlic spread, and a salad for free. Not to mention they all tasted great. This is the one thing about Turkey we love: the food is plentiful and always flowing. After stuffing ourselves full, we went back to the hotel and relaxed.

A view of the small beach.

The sunset from the harbor.

The next day we had all day to do everything and nothing, as our overnight bus to Cappadocia was at 9:30pm. We started the day off right with a huge breakfast and a few hours chat with our hotel neighbors; an Australian couple and two Korean girls on vacation from studying abroad in the Netherlands. We talked about Korea a lot, how much we miss the food and how much we miss the culture. It was fun to chat and reminisce. It was the first time Rich and I really missed Korea. We got going around lunch time, where we walked down to the marina and hopped on a boat ride for 30 min. It was advertised in a brochure as one hour, the man selling us the ride said 45 min, but ultimately it was 30 min. No matter, it was a mere $6 for the ride. We sat out front and saw some waterfalls, the cliffs, and a few hotels. The water, however, was a beautiful blue, and the breeze felt great against the hot sun.

On the boat

For lunch we wandered around the harbor, trying to avoid the overpriced cafes and restaurants (most things were listed in Euros, making a normal dish twice the actual price). We finally found a one-room cafe that had four things on the menu: fish, toast, something with pumpkin, and another dish we didn't know the name. So we ordered a set fish menu (fried fish, salad, and a glass of raki), and a cheese toast. Turns out the fish are what we saw the fishermen off the Galata Bridge in Istanbul fishing for. They were tiny, cut open, breaded and fried. They were so delicious and went great with the raki! The rest of the day was spent wandering more of Kaleici, hanging out in cafes, getting dinner with the Korean girls, and finally heading to the bus station to catch our bus.

Tiny cafe and tasty fish

The last sunset on the Mediterranean

There were no problems once we got on the bus (made by Mercedes-Benz of all companies!), but at one point in the middle of the night, around 4am, the bus hit a car, or perhaps the car hit the bus, we don't know. The bus swerved and woke everyone up, and 5 minutes later there was a lot of screaming and yelling going on, two police cars showed up, some other buses stopped, and a few other cars stopped as well. We had no idea what was going on as everything was in Turkish, but it definitely left us with little sleep.

Stay tuned for our next update as we regale you with stories from Cappadocia!

Kas and Carry

Kas (pronounced Kash) is a small seaside town of about 5000 inhabitants. We spent three nights, but would have spent more. Kas is set into the mountains that rise steeply out of the sea along the southern coast of Turkey. In fact, any time there is flat land against the coast there is a small city. The road followed the mountains along the coast, which made for a beautiful drive into the city from Fethiye! Kas is very hilly, and the surrounding mountains are capped with snow (just a little bit). Walking around the city, you will constantly go up and down on the roads. Despite the majority of businesses being closed, there was a lot to do in and around the town.

Day ½

We arrived from Fethiye in the late afternoon, checked into our hotel, and relaxed a little bit. After about a half hour of unwinding, we decided to walk around the town. It was mid-afternoon, but not much was open. The tourist season ends around early October, so places had been slowly shutting their doors for over a month by the time we arrived. We ended up finding a small pebble beach where we ran into two fellow Americans (Dennis and Amanda). We got a few drinks and decided to go sea kayaking and get dinner together for Thanksgiving (the next day).

A small lookout.

Day 1 – Turkey Day!

We got up early, because we had no idea whether the tour company would want to take four people kayaking or not. It turned out they got seven. So, around 9AM, we headed off to the sunken city of Kekova. We got a crash course in kayaking just in case anyone going was that athletically inept and shoved off. The water was a little choppy, it is the Mediterranean after all, but no one fell in. The Mediterranean has some of the bluest water either of us have ever seen. It was fun just being out there.

We took a short break on the island that is home to Kekova. Only a few hundred meters of the island are available to make landing, because the rest is protected as an archaeological site. After about a half hour, we paddled around to the side of the island where we could see Kekova.

The city looks like it is still slowly descending into the sea. The most prominent thing you can see underwater is the old wall. We actually got our kayak stuck on part of the wall. The guide told us to stick close to the rocks just in case other motorized boats were around, because it is calmer and we would have less chance of getting tipped over. He didn't tell us that parts of the underwater city were only barely so, and our kayak could get stuck on them. Luckily, we got ourselves unstuck without assistance and without tipping over. You could tell it was the wall, because on one side of the kayak was shallow rock formations and the other side was a steep drop off. It was different from a shelf though, because there was no slight curve, just a 90 degree angle straight down.

You can still see the remains of the old Lycian city along the rocks, but we are pretty sure you would need an aerial view to really see the city. Still, kayaking was way more fun than just taking a boat tour out there. We would definitely do it again.

After we took a quick look at the sunken city, we headed over to another small island village for lunch. This village is only accessible by boat and one wildly overgrown hiking trail. We had some sandwiches, because not a single restaurant in the village was open. After lunch, we were given time to explore a little, because there is an old castle on one of the mountains. We walked up to see it, but we didn't go in. Honestly, we're a bit ruined out by this point. You can't walk more than five meters in Western Turkey without running into Lycian, Greek, Roman, or Greco-Roman ruins. Apparently, the smallest amphitheater (we've seen plenty of these too) in Turkey is inside the castle walls. It holds just 350 people, which means the population of the surrounding area was only 3500.

We attempted to hike up to a panoramic viewpoint, but the path was overgrown. If we weren't in swimsuits and flip-flops we would have attempted it, but there were a lot of thorny plants and burs. Dennis climbed up one part of the rock, but he didn't even get close to the actual viewpoint. We eventually headed back down, but the view was pretty nice from that part.

Around 3, we paddled back to the marina and drove back to Kas. We all took a two hour break, and then met back up for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of turkey, we ended up with grilled chicken, lamb, beef, fried mussels, and hummus. Oh yeah, we drank a couple bottles of wine as well. What will make this Thanksgiving memorable though isn't the fact that it was in Turkey, it is because of the terrible music we were subjected to.

Two men came in, one with a drum and one with a horn. They started playing extremely loud. I don't think anyone actually enjoyed the music. We were thinking about paying them to go away. At one point, he was playing directly into my ear, and I was thinking about taking away his horn and breaking it. Playing loudly is one thing, playing loudly and being obnoxious on purpose is another. After dinner, we got a few more drinks and then went home.

The island and the restaurant.

Another castle

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 2

We decided to check out the open-air market the town holds every Friday. We were both surprised at the amount of fruit that was there. You will be able to see in the pictures just what kind of variety they had. It made us seriously consider moving to Turkey. We just might in the future, you never know. After browsing a little bit, we ate something that could only describe as a Turkish-style quesadilla. They took two very thin pieces of dough and put cheese, lamb, spinach, garlic, and onion in between them and cooked it on a hot stone. It was delicious. We got fresh squeezed orange juice and pomegranate juice to wash it down, and then we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Fruit!

Tea and spices.

Turkish quesadilla.

Day 3

We packed up. They were nice enough to drive us to the bus station for free. We jumped on the bus, and five minutes later, we were on our way to Antalya.

The Mediterranean Diet

We got into Fethiye around 9PM on Monday November, 21^st. The bus ride was quite the cultural experience. When we left Aphrodisias, there were only four people on the bus. So, the bus driver would honk at any pedestrians along the way, slow down, and see if anyone was going to Fethiye. We picked up a half dozen more people this way in the first half hour. Eventually, the bus got pretty full. Every time he passed or was passed by a mini-bus, they would honk horns at each other. The strangest thing that he did was randomly stop by the side of the road where a guy had a bunch of gas cans, get gas with the mini-bus still running, and smoke near the gas pump while all this was going on. It wasn't a normal gas pump either. It was a mechanical pump with an improvised funnel and a hose that went into the mini-bus. In addition to this, his cell phone was never out of his hand. He was either texting or talking the entire time. That is whenever he wasn't flirting with the girl sitting up front. At first it was frustrating, but then all we could do was laugh at the absurdity of it all.

When we finally got to Fethiye, we went straight to the hotel (see Alis Hotel Review). The next day, we got up, showered, ate breakfast, and went about wandering around the town. The very first thing I did was get a barber shop shave. It was the first time I had done it, and I was a little nervous. They move pretty fast with that sharp little piece of metal next to your throat. I can definitely say though that it is the closest shave I have ever had. It was worth the $6 I paid, and I'm hoping to do it again before we leave Turkey. Perhaps I'll get a Turkish shave complete with fire and threading.

After that, we walked along the waterfront. They have a lot of very lovely cafes lining the harbor. We stopped in a couple for tea and pomegranate juice ($1.50 for a large glass). We also saw the tourist boats, but it is low season, so they were all docked and not in the mood to try to lure us in for tours. We did a little shopping in the old district and ate lunch.

Not a single one of these boats was running.

That's a large glass of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice for around $1.50

This was one of many outdoor cafes along the harbor.

You can definitely tell it is low season

This is where the Mediterranean diet part comes in. We decided we should take in some of the fresh caught fish while we are here. For lunch we had sea bass for the rock bottom price of $11. It was accompanied by a salad. It was in the middle of town near the boats, so it was “expensive.” Dinner is where we got a really great deal. Emily got moussaka and I got swordfish steak. The swordfish steak was also $11, but it was the size of Emily's face, about an inch thick, and came with fries and a sizable salad. This was all accompanied by fresh baked flat bread, naturally. Emily's moussaka was the size of a football, and came with a separate dish for sides at the bargain price of about $9. We were absolutely stuffed after, but managed to squeeze in some baklava and Turkish coffee. We're trying not to gain too much weight, but that will be a difficult task over the next week or so as we eat make our way through the Mediterranean.

Eggplant with potatoes and meat as a cold starter. On to Turkish pizza and sea bass for lunch.

The coastline at night

Swordfish steak and moussaka

Outdoor dining in November. Nothing better.