Turkey 2008 - April 21 - Konya to Antalya

We had a huge breakfast buffet this morning. There were even omelets and scrambled eggs along with the olives, cucumbers, tomatoes and other Turkish breakfast delights. I was able to have one of my favorites again - yogurt mixed with molasses and honey. The coffee was made in a machine that could produce espresso, cappuccino, cafe latte and many other styles.

We checked out of our hotel and got onto the bus for our long journey to Antalya. The weather was sunny and the temperature fairly warm. We stopped at a truck stop for a potty break, and wandered into its market area where they sold dozens of types of candy (which we didn't buy) and several kinds of raisins ( of which we bought one). We shared tastes with other tour members.

Our next stop was what Sidar called a surprise. It was a cave visit in an area that very few tourists go to - Tinaz Tepe. When we walked into the cave, there was a large group of school girls just finishing their visit. They were a typical group of giggling teenagers dressed totally different than American girls. The cave was long with large rooms and (happily) high ceilings. At the far end of our walk-through was a small emerald-colored lake. It was very picturesque. The cave didn't have many stalagmites and stalactites which made us think that it was a "young" cave compared to others we have seen.

School Girls and a Cave Scene

After the cave visit, we had a picnic lunch in the grounds near the cave entrance. The meal consisted of grilled lamb, fish, chicken or meatballs. Salads were optional as were desserts - rice pudding, yogurt pudding or pure honey comb. I opted for the latter and shared it with our table.

Lunch at the Cave

The rest of the bus ride found us climbing up to 6,000 feet into typical alpine terrain - evergreen trees and lots of rocks. Then we began our decent to the Mediterranean. We quickly entered fertile land where they were growing oranges and bananas. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought some.

Roadside Fruit Stand

We got to Antayla around 5:00. Sidar had a plan where the bus would drop us off near the pension (the streets are too narrow for a bus) so we could schlep our bags. The police wouldn't let us stop and take time to unload, though, because there was an Independence Day function going on - a children's walk. We drove around for awhile a finally got off of the bus to do some walking around. After about 20 minutes, we found the bus again close to our pension, got our bags and marched to our rooms.

The Ninova Pension is in a very old building with creaking floors and unique rooms. Our room is very small with a queen-sized bed. Hot water takes a long time to get to it.

Our Room

After a brief happy hour in the beautiful terrace behind the pension, Sidar lead us on an orientation walk to get help us to not get lost when we were on our own. After that, we strolled to a fish restaurant for dinner. Our waiter chose the meal for us - a large salad and small grilled white fist from the Black Sea. It was good and reasonably priced.