It has quickly become Friday in Antalya

I haven't posted since Sidney arrived. He was glad I showed up to pick him up, nothing like a friendly face in a new town. Then he was sick a day or so, jet lag combined with perhaps a bit of flu.

We took a mini bus to the old town of Antalya. One of the main street boulevards. There must be a trolley but we never saw it.
Walked around, saw a few sights and had a bite to eat and then the adventure began. We got on the bus for home, it was VERY VERY crowded. Interesting fact - people enter in the middle of the bus and then, in order to hand their money up to the driver, it has to go hand over hand over hand to the driver, then he starts the process in reverse to hand back the change. Very polite.

After about an hour we thought we might be on the wrong bus and asked a woman who happened to speak English. "Oh, you are on the complete wrong end of Antalya, you'd better get out here." We got out and immediately another mini bus came barreling along with its door open, crashed into a garbage bin and knocked the whole door off. Everyone had to pile out of the bus while the driver picked up the door, stuffed it inside and headed off. It began to rain and Sidney held his umbrella over a young woman with a sleeping child in her arms. We finally got on what we thought could be the correct bus (I'll save the suspense, it was) and it now became darker and darker and we were still driving, with many people and fogged windows and trust we would ever see the hotel again and yelled out the hotel name to the driver, who said to get out "here". "Here" was a pile of mud and we had to cross the busy highway to get to the hotel, I crossed myself in thanks, and we walked in. Not until I got to the room did I realize we'd tracked mud all over the clean white foors and the dark blue carpets in the room hallways!! I change my shoes and reported the infraction to the reception people and within minutes the carpets were being cleaned and the floors mopped. I assume we were not the only mud people, ever.

While in the old town we visited a restored old home fromthe late 19th century here. Very, as you'd expect, Turkish, with people lying around with a Black servant, beautiful stone courtyards, which they poured waer over to keep it evaporating and cool during the hot summer.





Pottery from the era, only interesting because it was labeled "sugar bowl."





The Hadrian's Gate (or Hadrianus Gate or Üçkapılar (meaning "The Three Gates" in Turkish)) is a triumphal arch which was built in the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited Antalya in 130 A.D.
Here is Sidney looking casual