Hello, from a very, very large city, Atalya!
Whew…boy, what a day – I feel like most of it was spent driving in circles around and through the metropolis known as Atalya.
So, to start…up about 7, and down for breakfast about 8 a.m. All packed and ready to go by 8:30 a.m. – didn’t really want to leave the Yacht Classic, but supposed that we did need to move on at some time…so, set our sights on Atalya (not having ANY idea it was a city of more than a million people…). We had decided to stop at Myra, one of the major Lycian cities, along the route.
The drive itself was absolutely stunning. The mountain ranges were incredibly beautiful, and at times we ran up into them, and sometimes we were down by the coast. Traffic was light (outside the city) except for the fact that today was Sunday, and it seemed like picnicking must be the national pastime!
Literally anywhere where there was a bit of shade, there were entire families and what looked to be family groups barbecuing. Lots of plastic chairs, but some had much more elaborate arrangements with canopies stretched between trees with all sorts of luxuries, like hammocks, being put to good use! The interesting thing is that at some points, people just stopped their cars at the side of the highway; I thought that was a bit scary, but if there was shade…
We found Myra, which has almost been subsumed by the city of Demre – and much to our surprise, the site was absolutely PACKED with tour buses and tourists! Unreal! And many of them were Russian! We also started seeing all sorts of signage in Russian, of all things. Apparently, from what we can understand, Myra was the home of St. Nicholas, who is the patron saint of Russia! But we’ve never seen large groups of touring Russians before…Saw the tombs and amphitheatre, and decided it was too crowded to do much more, so had our daily dose of Magnum Classics, and headed out again for Atalya.
Not knowing much more about Turkey than Istanbul and Ankara, we were really surprised to come to such a large city – and of course, I had managed to book a hotel in the Old Quarter – thought we would NEVER find it! Turns out, between road construction and one-way streets, Emmy had a very, very difficult time trying to guide us in…Finally, we pulled into a parking lot, and Robert got out to find the hotel. As it happens, there is an actual parking gate that you have to go through to get to the hotel. Robert found the hotel, and then came back to get me and the car. However, it still took us two passes to get inside the old town area…finally got to the hotel, stopped the car to unload, and then someone from the hotel took it down the street to their parking area…incredible!
So, here we are at the Mediterra Art hotel. It is NOT the Yacht Classic, but will be fine for the next couple of days. (To be honest, I was so unhappy about the difficulty of finding the place, that I was ready to throw in the towel, head out of town, and find a place somewhere in the suburbs!) However…our hotel is in a renovated mansion in a very lively part of town; the old city walls are just outside the hotel! We have a shower that came from another planet – truly – and enough room to move around; high ceilings; hardwood floor, dark furniture. My only concern is how we get out of town tomorrow to hit some more sites…and get back…
Once we were settled, we had a glass of wine to recover ourselves, then took a walk around town. I realize this is Sunday but all the stores were open and there were people everywhere! (And I thought they were all at Myra!) We had a quick dinner at the hotel – nice restaurant, next to the pool in the central courtyard. R had a vegetable wrap to start; I had very good mushroom soup. We both had pasta – mine was bolognaise (yes, again!) and R had penne aribiatta; both very good. Skipped dessert, as I wanted to get back and write, and I’m SO tired from a long day, I need to hit the hay!
So! That’s it for now from a VERY big city!
Much love,
m
xxxx
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