I had a vague image of what I thought Antalya would be like, but when I looked out the window for the first time from the ship and saw the towering mountains, it was clear I was wrong. Antalya is difficult to describe, it has beaches and a tourist scene like Cancun, lovely gardening and a spattering of flowers like Florida, and massive gray rock covered mountains like Colorado. All of this was wrapped up in a quaint Turkish town where people offered you tea in their shops and gave you more Turkish Delight than you could eat. The city hardly seemed Muslim aside from the colorful pastel mosques scattered around and I frequently forgot where we were. During our time in Antalya we went to the beach, walked around the old town markets, went to a mosque during prayer, and saw ruins.
Our ruins visit was quite the adventure, and it began in the middle of Antalya. My friend Lori and I decided we wanted to see Termessos, so we started into town to get directions. After following many wrong directions, we eventually found our first stop, the rail station. Issue number one: Turns out the ticket booth was broken. Lori and I went up to the guard monitoring the gate and tried to explain with exceptionally loud voices (as if that would help him understand), that the ticket booth was not working, and we wanted to ride the rail. Without saying anything he stopped a lady going through the railway and after a word or two he took her rail card, scanned it twice, and waved us through. We stood with the confused lady looking at us, and the guard held up three fingers. We quickly paid her and hopped on the train towards the bus station.
Issue number two: We had no idea where to get off. We pulled out our GIANT map and stared at it with a WTF look on our faces hoping the rails station label would suddenly appear next to the bus station. A local woman noticed our tourist troubles and tried to help. Wordlessly we pointed to the bus station and she tried to tell us the stop. With my synesthesia that was about as helpful as the map, but she said it enough times for us to finally figure out we were eight stops away.
At the bus station we boarded a white, slightly sketchy short bus, and headed up into the mountains. Local men, women, and children surrounded us and we had no idea why they were on this hot tiny bus, but the driver said we were going to Termessos, so we went with it. Things got weird when 20 minutes later the bus pulled over, and without instructions the driver dropped us off at an unmarked pace on the highway and pulled away. We looked around and saw a highway sign for Termessos and headed up the empty drive trying not to think about how we were going to catch the sketch bus home when it came "maybe every thirty minutes or so".
Shoving that idea out of our minds we made it up the road to the ticket booth and got tickets. Issue number three: it was 9km up the mountain to the ruins, and the area was deserted. We sat on the side of the road waiting for a taxi when a man and woman pulled up in a car to the booth. Like any vulnerable young college girls would do, we stuck out our thumbs. A few minutes later we were zooming up the mountain with the German couple.
When we finally reached the top we were more than satisfied with our choice to come. The ruins were beautifully hidden in green foliage and gray rocks. There were hardly any people there so we hiked alone for hours in the high mountains. Issue number (wait what): How to get home. Lori and I had a vague fear of how we would try to get back to Antalya, but those ideas were quickly interrupted with, "take my picture on that column!" It was in the theatre where we met an older man from New York. He was super friendly and when he found out we had no way of getting home he offered us a ride home if we met up with him later. Then he mentioned he was with two other men. My thought process went something like this, "stand on the side of the highway and wait for the sketch bus that may or may not come, or take on three men in a sedan". We agreed to meet them in the parking lot at 4:30.
At 4:30 Lori and I sat in the lot and made a game plan. If things got bad we would roll out of the car and hope for the best. Before we knew it though, we were packed into a tiny car cruising down the mountain with our three new flamboyantly gay friends. The ride was fantastic and we were so sad when we had to say goodbye to them when we got back to Antalya. The timing was perfect and we made it just in time to catch the shuttle back to the ship.
Sadly, we did not expect to see our friends again, but while walking around Antalya later that night with our SAS friends we bumped into them. Lori and I ran up to them while our friends stared with confused looks as we hugged and kissed these random middle-aged men. We introduced everyone and our SAS friends loved our gay friends as much as we did. This time we got pictures and exchanged emails before we said goodbye. Thinking back on Antalya with the mosques, beaches, ruins, and various friends, it really could be anywhere in the world.
P.S. I arrive in Crete tomorrow for two days and then we are back to Turkey.
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