Antalya

Books | Project Ninety | Perge | Training

6 March 2022 - Evrenseki

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This morning began at 6AM with the Muslim call to prayer. I have to say that this noise pollution is just like the movies except broadcast here in Turkey at a volume that ridiculous. So, yes, that plus the sewer gas smell coming from bathroom made me start off the day cranky. So then I went for a run.

Last night when we arrived at our hotel near midnight their was live music in the piano bar. So naturally we stayed up fro another hour enjoying that (Antalya is 2 timezones later than central Europe), and then went for a walk enjoying a cigar. It was a Honduran one, but not bad. Ergo, at 6AM I'd had about 4 hours sleep. Of course I was cranky. Running along the coast was the perfect cure though. They were running a race today, but the packet pickup was yesterday and they wouldn't make an exception for me so I wasn't in it. Still, I ran 12km of the course to Lara beach and back to the hotel. It was beautiful and the volunteers senting up the race for several hours later cheered me on. I though Turkey would be more of a rough place, but the people are really nice here. The wild dogs, however, are more of a problem and will bite at your pockets trying to find snacks. A small blow to the head will dissuade them of their purpose though.

After the run and breakfast Iwona and I headed out to the incredible ruins at Perge, one of the great cities of the ancient world. It dates back to the Hittites and also has Hellennic and Roman architecture from its later history. Today we walked around with Turks, British, American and Russians. It is somewhat strange to encounter the Russians while their country is engaged in an aggressive war against a democratic European country.

Our first Turkish dinner was a delight and we headed east to a resort in Evrenseki. Turkey has seen a staggering amount of inflation the past year, so for foreigners things are quite cheap. For example, our two venti drinks at Starbucks this morning cost less $3 combined. Here we are definitely going to destress!