Travel and Myra

Our wake-up call came at 5:30 and we had eaten and checked out by 6:45. We had a bit of panic when it seemed that one of our bags had been lost, but we finally got them to unload some of the bags and it turned out that ours was there after all. The drive south was unremarkable until after we passed through Finike, when we found ourselves directly on the Mediterranean coast - directly on it meaning a few feet away from the cliff straight down to the water. The road is twisty and turns alarmingly sharply, and we’re right behind the driver today so we had a Disneyland-like view as we approached each curve. It’s probably fine if you’re in a car, but our big bus was frequently on both sides of the road and there were a couple of times I got really scared because somebody showed up right on the other side of a blind turn. My girlfriend said it was similar to the Pacific Coast Highway, but I’ve never seen that. The water we’d have plunged into, though, was an incredibly brilliant blue. I found the Church of St. Nicholas almost boring - I didn’t need to spend more than a few minutes there to see everything. Fortunately our guide didn’t talk very long, and when he gave us 20 minutes for looking around and taking pictures we went back out to the street to look at the trinkets in the shops. At a rest stop I had my first experience with being given tea by a shopkeeper. That’s actually fairly common here, and while they’re hoping to get you to buy something it’s still done mostly to be friendly. I had been looking at a package of apple tea mix they had on display, and the owner brought me a small cup (the tulip-shaped glass seen everywhere in Turkey) of tea, indicating it was the same as what I was looking at. Obviously this was to let me see if I liked it before buying it, but at the same time there was no pressure to make the purchase. They do this no matter what you’re buying, too - our entire group was given tea at the carpet school, but nobody would have expected all of us to buy a carpet. I sometimes feel that the custom is a way of kissing up to the buyer (which it is), but I suspect it’s because I’m an American that I have a hard time accepting the possibility that they’re just being friendly. At the same stop, we saw an adorable kitten not more than a couple of months old. He wasn’t really into being held, but he walked around and mewed loudly at everyone. When other members of our group saw me with him, they said “I knew it” - they’re getting used to seeing me playing with stray cats everywhere we stop. The locals probably think I’m crazy for playing with the rats, but my girlfriend and I agreed I can’t help it. She pets most of them too, but I’m the one actively seeking them out. At Phaselis in the afternoon she found a sweet calico with a habit of nibbling fingertips. It didn’t hurt, she’d just gnaw and lick a bit. Phaselis itself wasn’t really interesting; most of the site hasn’t been excavated yet, so the main thing we saw was yet another ancient theater - but we had to climb up a rocky hill to get to this one. The stop at Phaselis also brought us to a small harbor on the Mediterranean - I didn’t get to touch the water, but my shoes got a bit wet. I was glad to get to Antalya; while I love the countryside, suburbs, small towns etc., I find that I just prefer cities. This holds true for anywhere - I like downtown DC, and I love the confusion and constant hectic state of Manhattan. I’m perfectly happy living in the suburbs as I do, and I’d be happy living somewhere rural and isolated, but I like to be in cities. Unfortunately, within an hour of our arrival in Antalya, we heard a series of gunshots from somewhere less than a block away. I didn’t count them, but I suspect it was as many shots as the gun carries, fired in rapid succession. Our guide sat with us at dinner and said he’d heard the victim was the owner of the currency exchange office on the corner just behind our hotel, and that it was probably a personal issue. That didn’t make us feel much safer, but after we finished chatting my girlfriend and I decided to venture out to find an ATM anyway because I wanted to get some cash from my own account. The one right beside our hotel turned out to lack any networks, so we couldn’t use that one. We walked past the currency exchange, which had a long line in front of it and some police tape up. The next ATM we found had plenty of networks, but the intake mechanism was broken and it just hummed a bit when I tried to put my card in. We walked a bit further down the street and came to a large Yapi Kredi building, very well-lit. I’m pretty sure Yapi Kredi is a bank - maybe a credit union. In any case, their ATM was in a little room with its own door off the main entry. I was able to withdraw 10 million lira as a Cash Advance, supposedly from my credit card - my girlfriend says a Cash Advance means you have to pay interest on the amount. I’m still not clear how that works in a normal situation, and I have no idea how it works for me - as I understand it, my check card can masquerade as a credit card, but I don’t actually have a credit account so I’m not sure how they’d be charging me interest. I’m glad I got 10 million lira of my own money, but I’m still nervous about the Cash Advance thing. I wrote up two postcards before going to bed; I’m now all out and will have to get more for the nineteen people still on the list. I hope the cards are making it to the U.S. okay - I pretty much trust the USPS, but I worry about them making it that far. I think I’ve been using more stamps than necessary, so even if rates go up again (which is entirely possible) I should be okay for postage. I spoke to my parents for a bit the last night we were in Pamukkale, and they hadn’t received the one I sent about a week ago. That’s probably not enough time anyway; I’m comfortable believing all of them will make it eventually, but it may not be till after we get back.