Brucato's Turkey3: Our Second Day in Antalya!

Hello!

I am SO happy to report that we had a very comfortable (meaning: We weren’t FREEZING!)

night at the White Garden Pension/Hotel. As it turns out, we found out this morning at breakfast that we weren’t only guests!

Beautiful Ottoman house

All different pieces and periods went into the wall!

Colorful Ottoman houses!

There were at least six Japanese tourists as well as a Turkish couple, who all made it to breakfast before we did, about 8:30 am. In looking over the White Garden, they have a really huge courtyard area, and a wonderful, large pool which I am sure is well used in the warmer months. It’s interesting, from what we could see (and it makes sense!), that this is the time for hotels and pensions to be making repairs and changes. From what we can tell, there are many more restaurants here in the old town, than there were when we were here three years ago.

Breakfast was fine, but not outstanding, with good cheeses, toasted breads, jams, cold cuts and of course, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and a variety of olives, as one can’t do without one’s salad for breakfast. We were offered omelets but we both passed. If I do have eggs any way, it’s scrambled, and that didn’t appear to be a menu option. Also, no hot chocolate, but excellent freshly squeezed orange juice.(Flash! We are getting a Super Bowl report right now on television, complete with footage, all done in Turkish! Hmmmm…we were thinking that we could probably stream the game on our DirecTV app, but not sure if we really want to get up in the middle of the night – somewhere around 1 am as far as I can calculate. Better to read about it after it’s over!)

More parts making up the city wall

Which would take something to scale!

Ancient harbor

The day was very, very overcast and gray, with a forecast of some rain this afternoon. That being the case, we decided to take our walk through, around and above Kaleiçi (Old Town) first. Even with this being our second visit and that we’re staying in a different hotel, I was very surprised to find out how big the Old Town area really is! We followed the suggested walk in the guidebook, and found all sorts of interesting things! Old Roman as well as Byzantine walls and gates, and down into the ancient harbor area. It’s really very attractive – not sure if the pictures will do it justice, but that’s just the day it is. However, as Robert pointed out as we were walking, what goes down, must go up … and we did end up with quite an uphill climb. R wanted some tea when we reached the top, and as we were sitting in a restaurant overlooking the harbor, voila! I spotted a very modern glass elevator … that took people from the harbor to the top of the hill and vice versa, no problem! As R says: “And you see that NOW?!” Sorry!

We walked along the park at the top of the hill for awhile, as we were looking for Antalya’s old bazaar area.

More harbor; ancient amphitheatre

Now that's a red light ...

Ditto with the green!

Robert, being the whiz with maps, brought us right to the area – the problem being, even though it was well along on a Saturday morning, there were very few people there – lots of vendors waiting and trying to vend, but if there is anything I HATE more than people trying to get me inside a shop, it’s the hawking that goes on. Just leave me alone to look at what I want to look at, and I’ll be fine! We did find some throw pillow covers that I liked and we bought, but as R says, we’re going to bargain over a few dollars? Obviously, I’m not the shopper that I once was! (many long years ago!) [A note about the Bazaar: This bazaar, established – according to the guide book – in the 1400’s, was not exactly what we expected. We were looking for shops of spices, cheeses, meats, fish, etc. Instead we found one shop after another selling tee-shirts (probably not made in Turkey), clothes, shoes and other tourist-type trinkets. And, as Margaret said, really aggressive shop keepers who, interestingly, made their initial approaches speaking German. – R]

From there, we walked back along the main street and past Hadrian’s Gate, stopping to get sandwiches for lunch, as we’d didn’t have that big a breakfast, and we didn’t want to be starving by dinner time tonight. Enjoyed our long walk back to the hotel, where we were both able to get nice naps. The apartment is so warm that we even have had the heat off at times!! Yeah! Back into heavy coats today, though – and it has drizzled some while we’ve been napping.

Fountain and "birds" in front of city hall!

Love the lamps!

My last visit's first Turkish bath! Too cold today!

R is reading on the couch, and we’ve got the Turkish equivalent of ESPN on TV playing lots and lots of women’s volleyball! Our friend Ava Louise would love it, I’m sure! (And could probably fill us in on the finer points, which definitely escape us!)

More tonight, after dinner again at Vanilla. As we discussed, when you find a place that is really exceptional, might as well return; no telling when we’ll be back this way! (Also, honestly, I think last night might be our costliest meal yet – something on the order of 225 TL – which equates to something like $60.30 US. Seriously…) Interesting note here! Robert has been writing hotel and restaurant reviews for Tripadvisor, and when I started posting the one for Vanilla, it came up that I had already posted one for the restaurant! It was from 2012, the last time we were in Antalya! We had gone to the restaurant and had salads and pizzas, and they were great. We ate in the large open-air courtyard. Now that I’ve re-read the review, I remember, but boy – it’s interesting how Tripadvisor keeps track of things!

Out into a wet and chilly evening and “our” table had been reserved for us. This time, Robert had their prawn and avocado salad to start with, and I had their panko-crusted warm goat cheese salad; it was wonderful! From there, Robert ordered their beef filet (rare), and it certainly was! I ordered from the appetizer menu – an order of Dynamite prawns, an order of egg rolls, and an order of chicken potstickers. To be honest, the potstickers were not great. Tasty enough, but the consistency of the wrapper was terrible! Very difficult to eat! By this time, we were totally full up, so sorry, no dessert tonight! Back to the apartment about 8:45-ish. Hoping for a warmer and better night tonight!

Much love,