Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 November 2006 19:48:22
It is going to take me a long time to write this post due to all these foreign letters and symbols so I hope you appreciate it! I decided to leave my laptop in the Netherlands so I am at the mercy of internet cafes. As a consequence, I am not able to upload photos of Turkey because I just do not know how!
Anyway, as I stood at the airport taxi rank, completely overwhelmed and looking (and sounding) utterly like a foreigner, I had a guardian angel come to my rescue. This was in the form of Tarik, a Dutch/Turkish man who had come to Antalya on business. He offered me a bed at his house for the night but to appease my mother (I could just hear what she would have said), I politely declined. He did however drive me to the city, take me to his favourite restaurant for dinner, find me a cheap room to sleep in within the city, take me out drinking (since he is Muslim, he did not actually drink but I managed to down some of the very potent local drink Raki), AND take me for a walk around the harbour! Phew. I collapsed in bed at about 3am.
The next morning I went and had a traditional Turkish breakfast with bread, cheese, cucumber, tomato, salami, olives etc (I did not actually know what I was getting, I just said I was hungry and out it came). I then met Tarik after some haggling at the markets. We went down to the beach and shared a mint flavoured Water Pipe. I must admit that I did very little smoking of it as we sat by the beach. He then went off to an appointment and I have been on my own since. It is nearly 10pm here and I have a bus to catch at 12 midnight which will take me on a 8 hour bus journey to where my friends are staying.
I absolutely love it here! (Photos to follow.....)