Antalya

It was very, very hot today, and we all know how well I do in the heat––not very. As such, I am quite tired and lethargic and I do not really want to write anything. Fortunately, not a whole lot happened, but I'll be keeping it super brief even so:

Kaleiçi: Super cute

And they hate cars so much you have to go through this
toll gate to even get into it. Those who stay at lodging inside
are absolved the traffic fee, fortunately.

Set my alarm for 8:30 to check if the language schools had responded, went back to sleep until 9:30 when they had not. Got up around 10:00 to eat breakfast, then went back to sleep. Woke up at 2:45, still no response from the schools. Tried to find them on Google Maps, but was completely unable to locate one of them (Antalya Language School). The map on their website didn't work, either, so for all I know, they do not exist. Took forever to get out of the pension, and also awhile to find our way out of Kaleiçi, what with the tiny winding streets and dearth of street signs. Made our way to the other school, but it was closed; seems conveniently located (a block away from the tram), but I don't know if I'd be able to bear going to school here in the summer anyways: the lack of cooling down at night is really a bummer, though our pension owner said this is an unusually hot time, so I'll try not to write it off entirely just yet.

Weird statues of Roman/Greek ancients using modern technology
along Atatürk Blvd

I love this guy's expression

Ate pide for dinner––basically pizza on pita bread, and it was delicious.

Free starter salad

Karışık pide (beef, cheese, and peppers)

Kıymalı pide (spiced ground beef)

Wandered some, checked out some stores, and got some baklava and a weird kiwi slushy.

Subpar, as far as baklava goes.

Total spent on food for the day: 34 TL. Better than last couple days! Drank a lot of water. Now relaxing in our somewhat air conditioned room, though it is still quite humid (and even with a/c on full, upwards of 75 degrees). Tomorrow, we will visit the Antalya Museum, which apparently has all the most awesome finds from the ancient ruins around the southwest Mediterranean, so it should be fun!

Mountains across a harbor

Then packing in preparation for our flight to Berlin on Sunday. Crazy that we're almost done with this leg of the trip!

Next post, I will include all the subject pronouns. 

Bodrum

Yesterday, after our normal breakfast, we drove to Bodrum to take a Blue Cruise, a daily cruise offered by a variety of boat companies that goes around the Bodrum area. 

Blue Cruise, indeed.

Though our hotel was less than 10 km away from Bodrum, it took us more than 30 minutes to get there, as the traffic and lights were not conducive to speed. We found parking relatively nearby, at 15 TL for the day, and walked towards the docks. I decided I wanted a hat, so we got one from a shop on the way for 20 TL (down from 30). 

Seen here, where I am pretending to be a pensive heiress.

It's more than I really wanted to pay, but it's a very nice hat (albeit not quite wide enough for my incognito-movie-star taste), and given how touristy and overpriced Bodrum is, I'm not going to be too bothered by it. 

Parasailer!

Marcos picked up a pair of knockoff Ray-Bans, finally––he's been going without sunglasses this whole time!––but exchanged them for a different brand (Police, ha) after we got back because if he's going to have fake namebrand glasses, he wants them to be a brand you can't get in the US.

We also stopped and got a big thing of water, and should have gotten food, too; the cruise comes with lunch, but 6 months out on the sea is long enough for me to want to eat at least 3 times. Note to self: whenever going on an organized tour, always bring extra food.

View from the top deck, which had squishy pillows.

It was a  pretty big boat, with two floors and a little platform higher up. Unfortunately, only the first floor had any shade, so we stayed down there most of the time (except when doing stock footage or drying off post-swimming). 

View on our way out

Most of the other passengers were Turkish, but we heard some English (not American) being spoken, too. There were 5 stops altogether, and we ate on the 3rd one. I swam at the first bay, which pretty much exhausted me for the day, ha! 

Salt water!

The trip was very, very beautiful, and the water the most gorgeous shades of blue and green, but I was ready for it to be done about 3 hours before it was. 

Seen here: A collage of pictures of the water that I took at various points.
Mama, I thought of you!

I always forget how exhausting being around groups of people is for me, even though it's been, um, nearly 24 years that I've been me. It reminded me that I have to be careful about what I try to do at the conference in Berlin––I don't want to completely overexert myself the first day and be unable to do anything the later days. 

Fellow boat

I'll just have to prioritize! And be okay with missing some things, which is really a fact of conferences in general: when 10 talks are being held at the same time, you're missing out on at least 90% of the information! Oh well.

Attempting to snooze on the boat; a brief light doze
was achieved.

Oh yeah, I also dropped my iPad while reading an article (about MEGs of harmony violations in Turkish! interesting stuff) and the display was wonky for a while, but it seems to be back to normal now, knock on wood. 

Being studious, pre-drop.

I definitely need to get a case that goes straight on the body rather than the current one I have that slips over it (and adds a lot of weight and size, hence why it was not on at the time). And also, just don't use expensive toys on boats: it's bad news bears.

Another excessive shot of the beautiful water

And another!

One of the stops was at the Black Island, which has thermal springs and (at least used to) yellow healing mud. Cleopatra supposedly hung out there back in the day. It was very dark and humid in the caves, and there was no clay to be found, but it was still pretty cool. Though the water was not noticeably warmer?

Just like Cleopatra did

And a uniquely me take on the experience.

After we got off the boat at around 6:30, we headed to get dinner at a little stand recommended by Lonely Planet. 

I got the bread döner and Marcos got the dürüm döner. It was closer to what I remember döner kebaps being in Berlin, and I imagine the pitta döner would have been even closer. At 5 TL each, they were quite affordable, and very delicious. 

Bodrum Castle from the water on our way back in

We had hoped to wake up early the next morning (aka, this morning, on the date of posting) and go to the Underwater Archaeological Museum in the Bodrum Castle, but were both too tired to drag ourselves out of bed at 7:15. I ended up sleeping through breakfast (a first here!), and the 11 hours of sleep definitely helped recharge me.

I'm on a boat!

Yalıkavak

ETA 7/24: Pictures added!

We left our hotel in Selçuk this morning after the usual breakfast-and-shower routine. We paid the bill (less than we were expecting!), left, then at the gas station realized we hadn't paid for our laundry. Even though Marcos' clothes had a funky smell, he still felt like we should go back and pay for that, so we turned around. The man (the grandfather of the family, from what we inferred; he spoke very little English) only charged us for 1 load and gave us a bunch of grapes plucked straight from their vines. It was very sweet!

I am so excited about free grapes.

We decided to visit Mary's house after all, because Marcos imagined his grandparents would not be very pleased to find out we were so close and didn't go. 30 TL later (ugh), we made our way down the path to her supposed house.

The exterior from the front

We evidently got there between tour groups, because there weren't too many people, and I was able to go into her house without waiting.

Unlike these poor suckers.

Pictures aren't allowed inside, but it was a very simple display with a statue, some art (I have a terrible visual memory, sorry), and a candle. Even as a non-religious person, I thought it was a very nice display.

You could take two candles, but as I was not sure what I was
supposed to do with said candles, I did not do so. Apparently you
light them and put them in these boxes?

I'm bothered by the emphasis put on her virginity, of course, as though her "purity" is the only impressive thing about her; I would much rather we celebrate her for her clearly stellar parenting skills (say what you will about Christianity [let's face it, the Crusades weren't the best], but Jesus was a class act). Still, I'm glad we went. There's a wishing wall of sorts, where you tie something to the strips of cloth and pre-existing knots and make a wish; Marcos and I both did so with a half of a receipt each.

I retroactively changed my wish to something more relevant to the site, but I hope Mary would be okay with that!

Then we headed down the road, stopping at a roadside "diner" of sorts to eat, as my tummy was rumbling. We got gözleme again (3rd time in 3 days, score!), this time potato and cheese (me; turned out the potato was in the dough itself, not as a filling, which was delicious) and spinach and cheese (Marcos, though I ended up eating about a third of his, too) with a side of tomatoes, olives, and peppers.

Potato-cheese (upper left), spinach-cheese (upper right), and assorted veggies (bottom)

Altogether? 8 TL. Plus 4 TL for iced tea and a 2 TL tip––a very filling lunch for $3.50 each! Not too shabby.

I did work in the car, and the inability to figure out how to format a spreadsheet made me grouchy, but the return of seaside helped!

Oh hai there

Such a gorgeous color.

Pretty!

Prettyyyyyyy.

Yalıkavak is a town on the Bodrum peninsula, so named for Bodrum, the "St. Tropez of Turkey".

Some buildings (presumably part of the same development complex)
on the way to Yalıkavak

We decided to stay here instead of in Bodrum proper because it's somewhat quieter––Bodrum is known for being a rather wild scene at night. It's very pretty, with palm trees and lapping waves, and feels very resorty.

Living the high life.

While I rested, Marcos went into Bodrum and got reservations for our boat trip tomorrow, and when he got back we went down to the waterfront (a 3 minute walk) and wandered some. We ate at a Bosnian place not on the water (as good Lord were the ones on the sea expensive), but Marcos said it was not the most authentic Bosnian he'd had.

The sea is the same color as the ring I bought myself!

I forgot to take pictures, but it's cool, it wasn't Turkish food (that's the logic I'm using, anyways). We got meatballs––mine were in little sausages, Marcos' was one big patty––and pseudo-pita, which was a bit greasy for me and the portions were disappointingly small, but it was food and relatively filling. I wanted baklava, but we weren't able to find any place that had it for less than 10 TL for 3 or 4 pieces, and I was not about to pay that much!

Jetty! (iskele)

Now we're watching some Turkish TV and winding down for the night. We have to wake up relatively early for the boat tomorrow, around 8:30, so an early bedtime is imperative! 

İzmir

Today was a very laid-back day. We started with an enormous, amazing breakfast at our pension (Pergamon Pension, highly recommended), then drove south to İzmir, the third largest city in Turkey with 2.7 million inhabitants. The drive was calm and uneventful, at least until we got closer to our hotel and encountered, once more, very narrow, bumpy roads. Our lodgings are in what Lonely Planet deemed an "unsalubrious" neighborhood, though we had no issues walking back after dinner. The price was great (~$40, including breakfast), but the hotel is definitely not what you'd call a looker: they're either remodeling or it's very ramshackle, and there's a single window in our room that overlooks an airshaft ("a la New York," said Marcos) and does absolutely nothing for light, which worked out quite nicely for my midday nap. Which was rudely interrupted by some musicians in the street outside, because there is absolutely no soundproofing. Everything seems clean, at least, but I'm glad we're only spending one night here!

Marcos went to the bazaar and clock tower while I was resting, and after we both showered we headed out to the waterfront (kordon). It was sunset, and the view was beautiful:

Sunset over the harbor

I was really hungry, and we ended up at some cafe along the waterfront, which had Italian food––not what I really wanted, but at that point I didn't much care. We ordered (pasta for me, a wrap for Marcos) and ate, but when we asked for the bill, they told us the prices had been in Euros. This was a lie, and Marcos requested to see the menu again and proceeded to argue with the waiter about what the symbol (, not €) meant, and ultimately triumphed. I was worried they would bring out an alternate menu with the prices in Euros, but they were not clever enough for that, thankfully! Should we ever eat at a nice-ish restaurant again, I'll be sure to photograph the menu we order from ;-)

Tomorrow after breakfast (no way it'll be as good as today's was, and I'll try to get the photos from Marcos soon!) we're heading to the Turkish Language Center so I can check it out, should I decide to study Turkish in Turkey next year. They said they have a break from 10:30 to 11:00 so I can talk with the students and teachers. Depending on how that goes, I may visit the Royal Turkish Institute as well, though they are much more expensive so I'll only do that if I don't like the TLC. Then we drive to Selçuk, where we'll be for 3 nights (hurray for continuity! and laundry!) to visit the ruins at Ephesus, and possibly Pamukkale (though the 7 hour round trip drive makes it less appealing). For now, to bed!

Troy! And Ayvalık!

Today, we visited our first ruins: Troy! Yes, that Troy. Everything I'd read was like, "Troy is super disappointing and boring and only go if you love Greek mythology". Perhaps it was because it was the first we saw, or maybe I'm actually a fiend for Homer, but I really enjoyed them! It's so mind-boggling to see walls that were built nearly 5000 years ago, to look at streets used for nearly 3000 years. That shit's cray.

Along the drive to Troy from Çanakkale

We did not leave as early as planned, because one of us (me, obviously) wanted to sleep in later, but we did get up by 8:30 and were downstairs eating breakfast by 9:00. Another delicious Turkish buffet, though there was less cheese at this one than the Burçman's––they made up for it with cake, though (I was particularly fond of the custard one), and oven-melted bread-cheese-tomato slices. And simit! Which they translated as "bagels", hahaha. I still feel like we should buy simit from somewhere that sells it fresh, because the bit we had was rather dry. So that's still on the to-do list!

We checked out and left most of our luggage in the hotel's luggage room and drove the 40ish minutes to Troy (/Troia/Truva; Marcos' summary of why people care about it: "this is the story where Orlando Bloom wants the pretty blonde woman, right?"), where we bought our tickets and lugged our camera gear into the ruins, stopping for the requisite photos in front of the Trojan horse statue (not as cool as the one used in the movie, though, see previous post). 

We assume the windows were not in the original model, ha!

It took us about 3 hours to make our way through the site, though it could have been done in half that time if we hadn't been taking stock footage. 

Here you can see the different layers of the site––Troy was rebuilt many, many times,
and has been separated into 9 main different stages.

A beautifully maintained road

Little theater! Supposedly used in Roman times for musical performances

Temple

Sponsored by Tibalu!

While Marcos was doing his filmmaker thing, I read up on Troy in the guidebook he'd purchased and did a wee bit of recording myself. The area around Troy is just beautiful, rolling hills and trees and sunflowers, and you could see the sea out off on the horizon. I took about 50 photos, but this one pretty much sums them up:

Innit purty?

While it was very sunny and quite warm, it was for the most part entirely comfortable because there was crazy wind. Which was awesome for wicking away the sweat, but not so awesome for 

WHOA we just encountered a huge herd of goats on the road. Here's some pictures!

Hey goats

Bye goats

anyways, not so awesome for not blowing up the dust. The heat relief was definitely worth it, though! Then we drove back to Çanakkale and ate (I had spinach Turkish ravioli in yogurt, Marcos had tavuk kebapı (chicken kebab), after which I went to a pastane (patisserie) and got various desserty goodies (all for 5 TL!). 

Oh, right, and I spoke German, first with a random Turkish dude (who also lived in Berlin! and whose grandfather moved to Pennsylvania), then with one of the customers in the pastane when I failed at ordering in Turkish (note to self: next time, just point). So yay! My German came in handy. Now I just need to work on the Turkish!

After spending several hours in the sun, I was very tired, so once we had picked up our luggage and gotten on our way, I fell asleep in the back for about an hour, then woke up in time for some nice road time. Marcos stopped several times to take stock footage, and we got stuck behind a very lumbering, precariously loaded hay truck and were not crazy enough to pass him on the blind curves, unlike a few drivers behind us so the supposed 2+ hour trip ended up taking nearly 4, but now we are almost in Ayvalık––arrived just in time for sunset over the village! Which Marcos managed to get some footage of, score!

And I got a picture :)

/Later the same night

We found our pension after much wandering on extremely narrow, extremely bumpy cobblestone roads––Ayvalık used to be a Greek seaside village, and its roads (and much of its buildings) have not been modernized. 

Inscription inside our pension––if anyone speaks/reads Greek, I'd love to know what it means!

Everything is so squished together!

Our room is in the second pension, down the hill from the main one, and seems to not have wi-fi, so that is why you are reading this after the fact! (Also, sorry about the post deluge.) We ventured out on foot to find someplace to eat, around 9:00, and stumbled upon a street fair that took up a few blocks. I had initially neglected to bring my camera, as I didn't want to carry it (plus, we were just going to eat, what could I possibly need it for?)––the walk to pick it up once I realized things were worth photographing (duh) convinced me to not make such foolish assumptions again. 

The street fair apparently runs every night from 8:30 to 1:00 (at least, I think that's what the sign said...)

We wandered some around the waterfront before settling at a restaurant on the sea that was rather overpriced for what we got, but as we'd eaten a big late lunch it was not as bad as it could have been. 

Oily meatballs (köfte) and French fries, which were at least very fresh!

Also, vişne juice is fast becoming my favorite drink!

So many boats! To go to the islands across the sea, which belong to Greece

Neon green palm trees, as promised

Name of a clothing store, which made us lol

Now Marcos is showering in preparation for bed, which I will soon do as well. We're waking up relatively early tomorrow for breakfast at 9:00 so we can get on the road to Bergama in the morning and visit Pergamon in the afternoon––I've seen the (stolen) ruins in Berlin, so I'm looking forward to seeing their original home! Now, off to write yesterday's post, which has already been posted by the time you're reading this (haha, so disorganized).

As the internet here is slow and I am very, very tired, I will have to put off the post about today (Bergama/Pergamon!) until tomorrow. We're headed to Izmir, about a 2 hour drive, and have nothing else planned for the day except resting, so I should be able to get all caught up on posts! And hopefully do some other work, too––reading articles in the car is all well and good, but there are some things I need internet for!