Antalya - A Beautiful City on the Mediterranean Coast

Antalya is one of the biggest city in Turkey.  Its attraction is being closed to the Mediterranean Sea and so is part of the Turkish Riviera.  It is Turkey's largest international sea resort.  Although not many Americans know or have heard about it, it is one of the most popular resorts among Europeans and Russians.  

It was part of the Roman Empire and was a center of Christianity.  It was also a major city in the Byzantine Empire.  Later it became part of the Ottoman Empire and then in the 1920s' became part of the new Republic of Turkey.

Near the hotel are several pedestrian streets that have many restaurants and shops.  We enjoyed walking around and looking for places to eat.  Most served Turkish food and are very reasonably priced.  One evening we gathered at a seafood restaurant to enjoy the fresh seafood of the area.

A statue on one of the main streets

A monument in the city

A seaside restaurant

Along the Mediterranean coast

A local restaurant

In the evening we attended a dinner hosted by a local family.  Our group of 11 were split into two groups joining two different families.  The husband and wife are in their mid-forties with a teenage daughter.  This is one of the key features of Overseas Adventure Travel's  tours - enjoying a dinner hosted by a local family.  This gives the participants a chance to ask questions about life as a local - jobs, schools, politics, etc.  There are no limits imposed on us although most of are careful not to touch on sensitive topics.  The families are hand-picked and speak excellent English and understand quite a lot about Americans.  The meals are home-cooked.  We, as guests, bring a gift for them from the US.  The dinner lasted 2-3 hours.

In the afternoon some of us signed up for a Turkish bath.  This is quite common in Muslim countries and it's called a Hammam.  This is different from a massage as is known in the western world.  You are almost all undressed except for an underwear or loin cloth to cover your private parts.  First, you are rinsed with warm water and someone of the same sex will scrub your body with a special hand-worn coarse glove.  I tried this in Morocco and I was scrubbed with a loofah-like sponge.  The whole process took almost one hour and it costs about US$60.  Was it worth it?  Perhaps the experience but not the process.

The Hammam in Antalya

In the morning we were given a talk by a renowned archaeologist.  He explained the history of ancient Turkey and some of the artifacts that we'll be seeing at the Antalya Museum, where we'll be visiting next.  The following are from the Antalya Museum.

We next visited Perge and Aspendos, two ancient sites found along the coast near Antalya. Perge was originally settled by the Hittites around 1500 BC. Although it grew into a wealthy city, Perge was abandoned in the seventh century.  Saint Paul visited Perge in 46 AD and preached his first sermon here. Then, we visited Aspendos, a city with going back to 800 BC during the Hittite Empire.  Below are pictures of the two ruins.

Being by the Mediterranean Sea there is plenty of seafood here.  You see many seafood restaurants in the city.  Our guide picked one with a wonderful view of the sea and served excellent seafood.  This dinner was on our own but most in the group came and enjoyed an evening together.  Later we wandered the streets and enjoyed the local shops and street food vendors.  Americans are always worried about whether the place is safe.  We were reassured again and again that Turkey is a very safe country.  Aside from the occasional street vendors who are pushing to sell their stuff, there is almost no one harassing or threatening you.

One of the amusing things I saw in Turkey is how ice-cream vendors on the street sells ice cream.  Instead of just handing you your ice-cream the vendor puts on a show of trickery.  Watch the video below.

Konya to Antalya

Today we'll be on a long bus ride to Antalya.  On the way we'll cross the Taurus mountains and stop halfway in Konya.  It is a major industrial city in central Turkey.  We will stop in Konya to visit the Mevlana Museum, which houses artifacts of the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Whirling Dervishes.  This must be a very popular museum because it was crowded with visitors.  Below are some of the artifacts:

Entrance to the museum

After we Konya we also stopped at an ancient ruin called Aspendos Ruin and Theater

The Taurus Mountains

We arrived in Antalya in the evening and checked into the Tuvana Hotel.  Unfortunately, they had a wedding reception there that night and the music did not stop until midnight.

Tuvana Hotel

Hotel Courtyard

In my next post I will talk more and show some pictures of Antalya.

Cappodocia - Göreme and Whirling Dervishes

There is more to hot-air balloons in Cappodocia that most tourists don't know about.  Here in this unique landscape there are many rock formations that were used as dwellings or churches in the early days of Christianity.  One such area is called Göreme.

Göreme is literally an open-air museum.  Here we find ancient rock-cut churches, chapels, and monasteries adorned with Byzantine frescoes dating from the tenth to the 13th centuries.  Over millions of years the wind and rain have shaped the soft white volcanic rock called tufa into a  landscape of dripping cones, pillars, pinnacles, and fairy chimneys soaring more than a hundred feet into the sky.  Again, it's a reminder how similar it is to some parts of the American southwest like Sedona, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Grand Canyon, etc.

One of the cave structures

Pictures showing the inside of caves, which are churches

Standing rocks

A big cave housing another church

This could be Bryce Canyon NP

More Cave Structures

Many of the churches were built into small caves.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs of the inside.  This area is one of the most touristy places in Turkey.  Before the 1970s' it was hardly known but with ballooning and ancient rock formations and churches it has become the economic lifeline of most of the residents of this area.  Göreme National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We also had the opportunity to visit a local farming family.  This part of OAT's program for better understanding of the local culture and tradition.

One of the most interesting tour was to witness the legendary “Ritual of Sema,” a traditional religious dance wherein dervishes (Muslim religious figures akin to monks) spin faster and faster to summon the divine.  This is a religious order also called the Mevlevi Order.   This is popularly known as the Whirling Dervishes.

The Ritual of Sema

Whirling Dervishes

Poster Program

The next day we'll be driving to Konya, which was a center of  Seljuk culture and home of the Mevlevi, or Whirling Dervish. We’ll visit the Mevlana Muzesi (a museum dedicated to Mevlana Celalettin Rumi), as well as the former tekke (dervish hall) that now holds the tomb of Celaleddin Rumi.

Cappodocia - Underground City and Hot-air Ballooning

Hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia - that's how much I know about Turkey.  It's in almost every travel photograph about Turkey.  Yes, I was excited about going hot-air ballooning in Cappodocia but there is more to it in this part of Turkey.  Over millions of years, rain and wind have shaped the soft white volcanic rock of the Anatolian plain into an interesting landscape of dripping cones, pillars, pinnacles, and fairy chimneys soaring more than a hundred feet into the sky.  It reminds me of parts of the southwestern United States where I live.  The hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park (NP), the arches in Arches NP, Sedona, Arizona, and of course, the Grand Canyon.  The difference is instead of the red rocks in the US, the color here is mostly off-white.

We took a short 1-hour flight from Istanbul to Kayseri, one of the airports near Cappodocia.   We are now in the central part of Turkey.  From here onwards all our travels will be in the Asian part of Turkey. Our first stop is the underground city of Ozkonak.  The landscape at ground level are mostly farms but there are about three dozen of these underground cities in the region.  They were used to hide from invading armies in the early days.  As we enter this underground city we start to see the different quarters - kitchens, living quarters, food storage areas, stables, etc.  These are all ventilated by giant air shafts.  All the doors have heavy millstones to seal off the inside to protect against enemies.

Entrance to the Underground City

Our guide Furkan with one of the ancient pots

A passageway down

Entrance to another room

Ventilation Shaft

We drove to town and saw some interesting sights.

A memorial in the city

Above-ground cave dwellings

We checked into the Misty Cave Hotel that evening.  We'll be spending 3 nights in this hotel.  Interestingly, most of the hotels have the word "cave" as part of their names.  That's because most of the hotels are partially built into existing caves.

Courtyard of the Misty Cave Hotel

The next morning we will be doing something that I have been most excited about - Hot Air Ballooning.  This will be my third time for 2024.  The first was in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and the second was in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.  Although the ballooning is the same, the views are totally different.  Instead of wild animals we will be seeing the unique landscape of Cappodocia.

The thrill of of a ballon ride is watching the sun rise in the morning.  We were picked up in the dark in a van, way before sunrise, to a location where all the balloons are being launched.  This is a highly regulated industry because lives are at stake.  However, accidents are rare.  Balloons don't have controls like airplanes or helicopters.  You are at he mercy of the wind and the skill of the pilot.  I learned in Kenya that a balloon pilot has to train for several years before being able to fly solo.  We are flying in the morning because the wind is calmer and there are few thermals, the hot air drafts moving upwards from the ground after it's warmed by the sun.

Heating up the balloon

Ready for takeoff

Amazing landscape

Sunrise over the horizon

Balloons are all colorful

Hundreds of balloons in the air

Passengers in the basket

We started at about 6am and were finished by around 7:30am.  However, it seems like we were up in the air for a long time. It was quiet and peaceful up there.  No engines.  No motors.  Occasionally, the pilot would fire up the burner to take us higher but basically, we were at the whim of the wind.  When we were ready to land, the ground crew would follow us and when they find an open spot the pilot slowly lowers the balloon.  With knowledge of the wind and direction the pilot was able to land the ballon on the trailer behind the truck.  This shows you how skillful the pilot is.  There are no steering wheels or paddles to steer the balloon.  As we get closer to the ground the pilot threw some ropes over to the ground crew and slowly pull the balloon to land on the trailer.  The cost for the balloon ride?  US$300.  In Kenya and Tanzania, they were about US$500-$600

Landing precisely on the back of the truck

Getting off the balloon basket

A traditional champagne toast after a successful ride

A very happy crowd

There are many places in the US that offers hot-air ballooning rides, especially in touristy places with nice weather.  There are also many Hot Air Balloon Festivals around the world.  It's a photographer's delight when you see so many color balloons up in the air at the same time.  One of the best known is the one in Albuquerque.