Another normal day on the road

I left Istanbul by bus, a very comfortable one. The service was like in an airplane, I even had my own mini TV. Channel 12 was my favorite one since it was hooked up to a webcam next to the bus driver. The whole journey took about 11 hours, but with all the nice mountainous countryside floating past me eyes the trip was quite a pleasure.

At one of the larger bus terminals along the way there was a Turkish delight shop where you could watch them make this delicous looking stuff. I could not resist buying a small selction, and even though it was very rich, it lasted me only a day and a half.

My reason for going to Antalya was the ruins of Termessos, an ancient city up in the mountains that I had read about. I had also read that it was possible to go there by bus and hike up to the site. So when I woke up the next day and the weather looked great, I decided to just go and do it.

After having breakfast at my pension I bought a tram ticket to the main bus station outside town. Only after buying the ticket I realised that there wouldn't be another tram for a considerable time and so I got on one of the mini busses which are much more frequent and also turned out to be a lot cheaper. At the bus station I had to ask twice to find the right bus that stops at the trail head to Termessos. Half an hour later I was already there, and there was a taxi waiting, offering to take me the 9km to the entrance of the actual site. I declined the offer, walked to a nearby restaurant to buy some water since I had forgotten to get any earlier in Antalya, and then I started hiking up the access road. After half an hour a Spanish coulpe passed in a car and offered a ride - I didn't say no this time. We chatted on the way up and I learnt that the guy was doing an Erasmus year at Istanbul university. Apparently all his courses are in Turkish, which he didn't speak, and the lecturers kept asking him what they are supposed to do with him.

The access road ended into a car park and that is where we split up. The following few hours I meandered though the ruins which have been left in a natural state. Quite amazing what you can find there behind bushes and trees.


In the afternoon I started walking back down the access road. This time I got picked up by two Israelis who happened to go all the way to Antalya which was perfect for me. The woman was working in Antalya for a tomato seedling company (tomatoes are really big business in the area) and we talked a lot about the pros and cons of plant crossing and manipulation.

In the evening I had a tasty homemade kebap at my pension and then had the host explain me the stories on the TV news. It seemed to be a very exciting day for Turkish politics: some generals from the military had been arrested for planning to throw over the government in 2003, whilst somewhere in Spain a Syrian Kurd tried to throw a shoe at the Turkish prime minister. And after reading on Spiegel online a bit more about these latest current affairs, I fell asleep... what a nice day it has been!