Antalya Archaeological Museum

Friday, March 28th, 2014 Antalya

 Anita's friend Karen has said that she'd come back to Turkey just for the breakfasts. We understand why. The included breakfast consists of  eggs, fresh oranges and strawberries, feta and some other cheese, great bread, bowl of olives, butter, jams, honey, mystery meat & coffee served in the hotel walled courtyard among palm and orange trees. What's not to like?

 Oranges growing by the breakfast tables in the courtyard.

 After breakfast we took the old tram (1.25 lira each) to the Antalya Archaeological Museum which is recommended in all the books. It's well worth the 15 lira ($7.50) admission. There are several rooms of marble statues that have been found in the old cities around Antalya. Plus there are lots of other exhibits. It took about 2 1/2 hours to see everything.

 This is a larger than life-size statue in the museum.

 Just across the street from the museum is the beginning of Konyaalti Beach. A few people were  swimming but not many. It's still a little brisk (about 20C) with a cool breeze off the ocean.

 When we took the tram back to the old town, we sat with an older retired professor who chatted with us about Canada and Turkey. Everyone here is very interested in the upcoming election on Sunday. We don't know much about it but people are taking it very seriously and look upon it as a big step in the direction that Turkey will take for the future.
Back near the old town, down some side street we searched for and finally found "Can Can Pide", a small diner recommended in Lonely Planet. We thought we had ordered lamb kebap in a pita wrap but we got a sort of minced lamb meat pizza thing and a salad, along with 2 yogurt drinks. At least we got the drinks right. Anyway, it was really good and really filling for a total bill of 12 lira ($6).
On the way back to our hotel, some shoeshine guy tried to scam us. He spoke politely to Anita & pointed at her black leather shoes. We said we didn't want a shoeshine but he quickly bent down and put some cream on each shoe, then beckoned her to put her foot up on his little stand so he could wipe it off. He ended up quickly shining her shoes, all the while telling us about his 5 children. Then he wanted 10 euros (30 lira or $15) which he said was "normal". We said no way. After some discussion, we finally gave him 4 lira ($2). It was a good shoeshine but he was lucky to get that. This is the first guy who's tried to scam us. Everyone else has been extremely polite and helpful.

After a quick stop at the market around the corner for supplies, we relaxed on the hotel rooftop terrace. It's also a great spot for our hand washing to dry. We were so full from lunch that we never bothered to go out for dinner. Clouds are rolling in and it looks like it may rain this evening anyway.