Sick Bay in Antalya

Helma suddenly suffered of lower back pain, Ed had a strained shoulder, Evert had a sore tummy and we were stuck in Antalya. We have to admit there are worse places to recuperate. Antalya has a wonderful old city, with lots of historic things to see and to do. So it was time for a time out!!

We are staying in a nice pension with a swimming pool in the middle of the old town. But tomorrow everyone is ready to move on because we still have a long way to travel.

The Mediterranean Sea

Camping again, sunbathing, swimming.The water was crystal clear, fish everywhere. After 2 days we had to continue to ...Antalya. Only 400 km, but it took us a full day. We camped at Side with sea view. But otherwise it is filled up with package tours. So there are nicer places, although without sandy beaches. But something came up..

Uchisar rock citadel

Castle at UchisarLunchtime!

Again we climbed a rock citadel, but it was well worth it. We had a beautiful over the whole area. the next day we visited the underground city. it was very impressive, very deep underground there was a church cut in the form of a cross. the boys thought it was great, but for Ed was it a little bit too much so he climbed out of the city as soon as possible.

Hard work on the field

We visited the Ihlara Valley, which is a beautiful canyon full of rock- cut churches. The road to the valley was wonderful. But Ed and the boys will the Valley always remember as the place where they all got stung by wasps. Helma was lucky this time. And in the background we saw the Mount Erciyes, a huge volcano like mountain with snow!But it was time for relaxation again so we headed for the coast.

Fresh apricots for sale.

Kapadokya

Deep in the heart of the country lies a fairy tale world. There are ancient churches, cave dwellings and all kind of geological wonders. And suddenly you are in the middle of it. It consists of a soft volcanic tuff that has been sculpted over thousands of years into fantastic shapes by water and erosion.. There are huge stone mushrooms, deep valley, pigeon holes, caves. It was a wonderful place to explore and just look and walk around. we slept in a cave. most pensions are built in caves. Although it was hot outside we needed our duvet in the night because it was chilly.

We slept in the middle of a town called Goreme. In the area are so many things to see. It was a good thing we had our own car and visited some lovely villages like Urgup, the Zelve Valley and Mustafapasa.

Adana

The lake at Adana

Along the road fruit stalls with veggies and fruits

Finally, we are in Turkey. Jordan is not big, the distance we have to cover in Syria is also limited, but who ever thought we would be home once we reached Turkey is wrong! it is a huge country and there are so many historical things to see and to do. But our party notices that we are a little bit tired. Thus we have to be realistic and only do and see some things in Turkey and skip the rest for another time perhaps.

Turkey is modern, good roads, nice people and for the first time Helma can walk in shorts without problems. Turkey is great!

The Adana Mosque
Our first stop after the border is Adana where we tried to camp, but the campsite had ceased to exist, so it was a room again with a very nice swimming pool. The swimming teacher used the boys as guinae pigs to demonstrate all the strokes for their pupils. we noticed that is was humid hot, but nice. Our lights of the breaks were not working so we stopped at a Nissan dealer where we treated, with lunch, watermelon etc. What a service and they fixed the car as well! After all that it was time to move on to Kappadokya.

What can you buy in the souq?

You can buy everything at the souq. here is an impression, but mind you, it is only an impression. You don't smell the odours, hear the noise and feel the heat. They make soap from olives, they have lovely spices, silk and brains.... just enjoy.

Lattakia and Aleppo

After the castle we headed to the Mediterranean Sea. It was a highway so we arrived there very fast. We couldn’t find a hotel that was at a beach because in town it was all harbour, so we went into an apartment. We went to the public beach. You could go to a hotel but then you had to pay 10 euro per person. Well, it is unlike Jordan, high season. It was very crowded and the water was in the beginning very dirty and not refreshing, it was warm. At the beach you could also smoke a sheesha (water pipe) and no one lay on the beach they sat on a chair. Helma bought some tomatoes, onions and cucumbers to make our dinner. After a delicious home made macaroni meal we went to bed. But it took a long time to sleep because the Syrian people enjoyed their holiday with disco’s everywhere. The good thing was that they stopped at 11 pm.
The next day we left to Aleppo. It was a beautiful trip in the mountains with some fantastic views according to my parents. Bart and I were reading (!). Halfway we tanked at a petrol station where a man was smoking while tanking as if there was nothing wrong, rather scarry, but luckily no accidents occurred.

When we arrived in Aleppo we could not find the hotel but a friendly man helped us to find the way. The streets were very narrow and it was difficult to find a parking space. They have especially for Aleppo very small trucks that can even drive in the souq. At last we managed to find a parking spot at the tourist centre. This was especially for tourists, but the people of Aleppo were a little bit annoyed, too many cars with an Iraqi number plate use it as a parking spot. They are refugees and definitely no tourists, but they have a nice parking spot in the city centre. We settled in and went for a walk in the old city. It was a lot like Damascus, although here the souq is world heritage site. The things they were selling were incredible. One butchery shop even sold sheep’s brains. We also saw the lungs, liver and spleen, heart and windpipe. Helma thought it was a nice biology lesson, but Bart was not interested. Helma enjoyed it a lot and bought some silk and apricots but Bart and I didn’t find the souq much and we did not stay long. Aleppo also has a citadel, but we saw enough I guess, or we were a little bit tired and left it. We drank something at a very famous historic hotel ‘Baron’ and ate on top of a roof of another restaurant. The waiter did not understand English but he was very nice. He brought Helma some fresh fruit while she expected some fresh fruit juice. We stayed in a backpacker’s hotel and had a room with 4 beds for 15 euro, basic but OK. Lots of backpackers slept on a roof mattress. It was a mattress on top of the hotel with no privacy at all. I think there were about 20 mattresses. The good thing was that it was very cheap and cool because of the blowing wind. Unlike our room that was rather warm.

Your reporter: Evert