{"id":119,"date":"2011-05-20T06:45:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T18:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/?p=119"},"modified":"2011-05-20T06:48:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T18:48:35","slug":"antalya-to-konya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/2011\/05\/20\/antalya-to-konya\/","title":{"rendered":"Antalya to Konya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 18th<\/sup> \u2013 Day 5: Antalya<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well we got another sleep in this morning.\u00a0 Staying two nights in the same hotel is good as you have no bags to get outside the door before breakfast.\u00a0 It was a good breakfast and we are starting to realise bacon is going to be a rarity in a Muslim country.<\/p>\n

We are in the bus for nine and already to go when it starts raining, our first in Turkey.\u00a0 Everyone is given five minutes to go back to their rooms for umbrellas.\u00a0 It is only twenty minutes to Perge, our next pile of old rocks.\u00a0 This one is renown fo having the best preserved Roman Baths.\u00a0 It also has a couple of round towers at the Hellenistic gates, older than the Roman Gates to the city.\u00a0 The baths are impressive and you can see all the water\u00a0 & steam systems under the floor.\u00a0 It has a really nice curved main street that would have been impressive in its day.\u00a0 It rained the whole time we were here so my coat and leggings got an airing.\u00a0 However it did clear up after this to be hot and sticky.<\/p>\n

We were then off to a Leather outlet and treated to a fashion show and the opportunity to buy expensive Armani coats at one fifth of the cost.\u00a0 A bit like the Jewellery place, not sure why we were there until I got suckered in to buying a jacket.\u00a0 Not too upset as it is a nice jacket made of beautiful silk leather.\u00a0 Very light and thin like a shamie.\u00a0 I also managed to get it reduced by over 60%.\u00a0 I\u2019m told I got a bargain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in the bus and off for a nice lunch at a traditional Turkish place.\u00a0 I had a really nice spicy kebab which made the juices flow.<\/p>\n

We then went to the Antalya Archaeological Museum which had most of the findings from Perge and was considered one of the most important in Europe.\u00a0 It was impressive and well laid out.\u00a0 All the same old gods though.\u00a0 We decided to walk back from here to our hotel as the weather was now beautiful again. \u00a0We were able to follow the tram line as we knew how to get from that to our hotel.\u00a0 We think we walked through the old city, poked around some markets where Doug brought some Sultans tea which was going to heal everything and make Ngaire happy.\u00a0 I heard her complaining the next day that it hadn\u2019t worked.\u00a0 We made our way back to where we had had drinks the night before going back to the Divan Antalya for dinner.<\/p>\n

Thursday 19th<\/sup> \u2013 Day 6: Antalya – Konya<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is a holiday here today as it is the anniversary of the beginning of the struggle for independence for Turkey in 1919.\u00a0 We were up and away by 8.30 although I did go and dabble my feet in the Mediterranean before we left.\u00a0 Almost everyone on the bus has Doug\u2019s cough now.\u00a0 We have an hour to Aspendos where we see supposedly the best preserved Roman theatre in the world.\u00a0 It is pretty good and would have seated some 14,000 people.\u00a0 It also has the stage which differentiates it from the Greek theatre.\u00a0 There are also some interesting Roman aqua ducts here where the water was transported to the town.\u00a0 Ngaire got on a camel for a photo but was worried it was going to get up and she would be charged for a ride.<\/p>\n

Back in the bus and head in land where we are going to stop at a traditional Ottoman style house and be their guest for lunch (not the main course I hope).\u00a0 The lunch was disappointing, the salad was sitting on the table when we arrived and we spent time chasing the fly\u2019s away.\u00a0 It was yoghurt and herb soup and a hot pot type beef thing.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t have a clue what desert was, some pudding soaked in something.\u00a0 It was made to look like an invite to a locals home but I think was pretty commercially run.<\/p>\n

Back in the bus with another for another four hour drive to Konya and over another mountain pass.\u00a0 We were in the snow this time and really rugged country. Not a lot of vegetation.\u00a0 In Konya we head to the Karatay Koran school from the 1200,s\u00a0 where the students went to study the Koran.\u00a0 It was then a short drive to the Meviana Museum and Mausoleum.\u00a0 This was the home of a mystic sect called the Whirling Dervish.\u00a0 They obviously did some whirling dance in white costumes and have a high profile in Konya.\u00a0 It is a lot cooler here and we got thunder and rain but fortunately managed to avoid getting wet.<\/p>\n

Our Hotel was the Rixos Konya, a 25 floor hotel that almost seemed to be out in the country.\u00a0 It was a very flash place that towered against anything near it.\u00a0 We had a set menu for dinner that was far from flash.\u00a0 Bodes well for breakfast tomorrow.<\/p>\n

There was a flash bar on the 25th<\/sup> but when we went up there no one wanted to serve us.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think they appreciated my shorts.\u00a0 Our room was on the 10th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 18th \u2013 Day 5: Antalya Well we got another sleep in this morning.\u00a0 Staying two nights in the same hotel is good as you have no bags to get outside the door before breakfast.\u00a0 It was a good breakfast … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}