Turkey is one of the place I always dreamt of going. Every time I read news about turkey, the history and the food always remind me that I should visit this country once in my life. Even sometimes while i was looking for jobs to work in different culture, Turkey is on my top list next to the europe. I had so much expectation also because of the connection with the ottoman ruling, the unique nature as a muslim country comparing to middle east and rest of the world. Due to the belief and root connection of myself as a muslim, Turkey is always a question how come one of a unique country which doesn’t have conflicts in middle east, has a growth in economy and business par to western countries but still with a image it speaks for everyone in the muslim majority countries. Am thinking about the positive side of everyone and not what’s the bad stuff everyone has done in their part of history.
so while i was booking my flight on decemeber 2017, I was not completely sure how am going to make Turkey and guess Turkey was not in my list at all. To recall the ticket was a one way ticket from Stockholm to Singapore. but when I start to change the plan that am going to a long break instead of a few weeks break, I changed my ticket. while i trying to change, the only of the best possible way to fly from scandanavia to Turkey via Norweign airline is from oslo to Antalya. As usual I have no idea how Antalya is going to be and how important this place was in the history of the world. To further share, lot of the people only know istanbul when they think of Turkey 😄. Anyway so i spoke with the customer service of norweign airlines and changed my flight to Antalya with extra fee of $100(if am not mistaken).
Reaching the Antalya was not that easy though :) :) . I boarded the flight from oslo with Haada Bra (Good bye) from Norway to Antalya. I sat with a old couple who just got retired from their job and going to spend their first holidays in antalya, Turkey. Then i start to wonder why this guys are going to Antalya? I mean i have a wrong perception of why the scandanavians need to fly Turkey and why not like US or other part of the world. I start to learn from that Turkey is one of the prominent destination for the elders mostly due to the sunny beach and the special sea of Antalya. Might be because they have been all day living in the dark weather and cold climate in norway especially in winter. Millions of people from the cold weather areas especially Russians (Huge numbers) also come to Antalya to enjoy this sunny view. Apart from the istanbul, I have no idea how it’s going to be.
I landed with a high hope of love from Turkey. The hitchhiking mode was still on my mind, i put up my 19kg backpack and started walking out of the airport. Everywhere i see is a stall shop where they are trying to sell holiday services. You can see them everywhere because according to one news there are 1.5Million people coming to Antalya for tourism, that’s a big business! Adding to that the Turkey lira was on steady fall due to Trump currency war with Turkey. This currency value lowered the barrier for developing countries who has also low value currency encouraging to enter.
i started waving my hand for almost 1–2hour from a different spots. No body care to stop. It also seems the distance to city is far from the airport. i put down my stuff on one side and start to wash my face and started thinking about finding a public transport. Yes there is no public transport because it is almost 2–3am if am not mistaken. One sad thing for me is this guys mostly don’t speak english at all. Am not sure why. Finally one guy stopped, he told me that he has finished his duty and going back home, so he offered me to drop at a train station near by. With his help, I went there and found a good coffee shop to sit and relax until the first train comes. I used my credit card to buy a coffee and that shop free wifi allowed me to research about where and which bank i should withdraw money from my card. I found it, withdraw money , bought the Antalya Train card and took some pictures of me with the help of train station security guy :)
It was an early morning with sun getting out of its blanket and the blue sky. After many days of dark light in norway, I saw that! It was very fresh to my eyes until the time reaching 11AM where it made you to feel like why did you choose this place! DAMN HOT BRO.
it’s a very big city, I kept looking at different stations, everywhere is occupied with offices and residential buildings. I got down at the old town of Antalya, this place is been preserved with high significance due to it’s history. it’s a very old town where people (citation needed to refer the historic facts) from different generation has lived in those places. The outer architecture of each building still says the same according to my observation but the interior has been modified according to the current needs. For every budget to luxury travellers, this city has more than better to offer(the hotel interior with screens photo). With white screens, fully wood based architecture and simple white/antique color based painting, this costly hotels are for luxury travellers. It was a good time for me as i just came back from landscape full of norway which always use the wide eye. this city needs detailed based attention with deep looks. The most historic cities has deep details in their architecture which needs our high attention. The way they design their windows, the handle of a door, the fan design, color, patterns, etc. It’s totally different on how we live now in new cities. If someone is an architect or very interested in design, antalya is a must place to go next to istanbul in turkey.
Hamam Bath is called in different name in central asian, caucasian countries which are built on the empire ruling time for multiple reasons for free. In Turkey, it is hygiene purpose as not everyone home has bath facilities in their time. In Azerbaigan, they had this public bath in entry gate of that empire, so the visitor need to take bath before he enter into the city to avoid any disease spread from other country
My first goal is to go and take this Hamam Bath which is special in antalya to clean off myself. I assumed it’s going to be something bit similar like massage where they going to use some sort of scrub and other treatments to get the impurities out of the body. When i entered, I learned it’s especially used on winter time as this is more like a suana bath where you get the sweat due of heat and the sweat will take out our impurities. The guy who providing that service understand my ignorance and told that it may not be useful. He even told that am not going to charge you if you just want to go inside that hamam and sit there for a while. I kept thinking about whether i should do or not and end up not doing that as that guy word doesn’t seem to be encouraging.
As I was staying in the old city itself, everytime i walk for food or something, I was able to observe the architecture, organised pattern of houses, etc. The famous spots in the old town are different masjid and madrassah built on different ruling time, the one being specific is Yivliminare Mosque(picture goes) which is 6-domed mosque(with 129-ft high minaret tower) dating from the 13th century. I spent almost every day of my prayers in this masjid as i stayed like a week+ plus time there. There is always a imagination going on my mind this masjid is not just masjid but a place different ruler wanted to improve further, giving speech and other activities. some ruler would have thought about leaving a legacy of positive impact to the society. Even the madrassah or the bazaar outside could be because of them, so i felt that place look special to me to immerse myself and learn how they would have thought about at their time. It’s a very silent place, with so much of fresh air coming from every corner and the trees outside them giving chilled breeze against the hot weather on the whole city. It was very peaceful moments where I was able to think about my life, ask some prayers from the God and also remembering back all the positive moments I had in europe.
I start to walk outside of the old city on further days on early morning after the prayers. While i walk sometimes I used to have some office morning huddle calls with my collegues, those moments are lovely as it allowed me to think with more freedom and how to improve everything I took care of from personal life to professional life. Sometime I start to jog and reach until the Konyaalti beach and then swim for a while. It was a good productive days at Antalya as I was able to spend equal amount of time to work and also seeing around the city.
After few days of city, I want to go further. I kept seeing the promotional posters of perge, some water fall, beach,etc. Perge seems to be an interesting as it was one of the old greek/roman city and also been ruled under Alexander the great for a while. And also the lot of cycling stories I seen from Norway seems to be very interesting to me. So I was thinking about a cycling trip from Antalya to Instanbul but I wanted to try a demo of my ability. so i rented a cycle for one day and decided to cycle until Perge.
The Cycle Ride to Perge
That was one of the great decision i made in my life. My target was 60KM on that day. I rented the cycle the day before and try to woke up early morning to start my ride to avoid the hot sunlight but ya started on 9am:) I start to feel bit of the hot sunlight with my hands skins are burning and fortunately outside of the city there was Decathlon shop! I stopped my cycle and plan to buy the long sleeve hand cover(thin cloth) but was able to buy the available one which is the basketball knee protectors for foot knee and the whole hand as well. It’s a worth of investment for that day and also understanding what are all the things I need to be wearing when cycling. Then i started again my cycle with some ayrans in between. the one way was 19.29km from my place(a photo). I felt so satisfied when i reached the place and got a confidence that i should be able to make a trip like this often.
Ayran : The turkish drink
Then i went to see the city of perge and started cycling back on 5:45pm, It was an exactly an 2hour ride with 27km with lot of up and down highways. Every time I cycle up the highway, i get a lighter knee pain and when cycle down, it’s an extra ordinary pleasure as i don’t need to do anything :D I stopped at a bakery for a while to eat something, that moment I never had any conscious about sugar, i eat everything i seen like a crazy boy because that heavy ride looked for a strong taste of sweet and coffee. I finished it fast as I need to give back the cycle on 7pm. I am aware it’s impossible within that short time but if i can’t I need to pay one more day rental. That made me to ride fast and also it’s getting darker as well because I don’t have any light in myself or for bicycle. Still remember those moments when i was riding faster on the city road keep switching between the proper cycle route and on the highway and how I was waiting in the traffic signal to fly faster. Also one more thing is I need to take the longest route to do a minimum of 50Km per day and also taking a different route along the sea. When i reach inside the city that was on interesting a ride as well along the local train route where you have all the grasses and it felt very smooth to fast the ride. I reached by almost 8pm after few notification of my delay to the cycle owner. He was a nice guy who accepted my late and helped me to take this pictures :) :) That journey was important milestone in my career that i can cycle if i want. WE DID!
The City of Perge (Take some notes from facebook post)
The urban planning/smart cities are always my passion. Before even i start the trip, I had a interest in this while i was doing research for ideasforsocial.org to improve rural areas and developing cities in different part of the world. Also after visiting Aarhus, the newly developed city with main objective of being a smart city, I am very much interested in seeing how the ancient time the city planning was done. Perge amazed me on the way they have done the city planning. (Notes from the video)
This was like a grid based system instead of a circle based planning. where you have Markets, business center, sports complex, religious places, ______ etc.
As i believe in the environment impacts the mind and health of a generation of the people. In a developed world community centers are being built to serve the people by having a shared features which allow everyone to access them and grow using them. This always stay as an reminder to me how i wanted to keep my home, my office, my community,etc.
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The sales Man
A tall, firm and strong look with smile always in his face. he kept running around his restaurant to welcome and please everyone who is about to think which restaurant they should do go. If people look his charming face and firm look, they will stop there and listen what he is to offer. I kept watching this guy while eating my food at his restaurant. It happened for few nights as i spend my dinner time there, it was almost end of my time there in antalya, So i decided to speak with him. “You should look at their eyes, when you speak with them, speak firmly with warm smile and body language” he replied what is important while he does his sale. He was true when he was speaking with me, his eyes were looking at my eyes and I couldn’t distract myself. I felt his skills are very important to me while i try to pitch any idea and other stuff in my company or anywhere. i told him a good bye and left the place.
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The final moments
Antalya broke my expectation in negative than my expectation of love i expected from Turkey in few way.s As am writing this at the end of my trip, I have learned the cultural difference of east and west of Turkey. So initially where I was unsure about the whole Turkey, Antalya seems to be bit rude to me in my experience. Not everyone but some people made a black spot of my view about Turkey. Adding to this, the hot weather which is even hotter than chennai has added flame in the existing fire. Imagine a situation until yesterday you have been enjoying the weather of 2degree weather in alta, norway and the next day is 30–40 degree. That weather was worse, I decided all the places am going to choose on the further days is going to cold or very warm weather.
So i booked my bus to Istanbul. The last evening has a tragedic event. As usual am late and running from the hotel saying bye to Karaman, the norway guy and the dutch people.
(The bus missing time)
