Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

No Escaping Lockdown

Holiday Ideas & Foreign Travel
TaurusTheBull
2 Lemon pips
Posts: 113
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:41 pm
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 178 times

No Escaping Lockdown

#369168

Postby TaurusTheBull » December 23rd, 2020, 2:58 pm

Hi,

Turkish ice cream sellers are nothing if not optimistic. I was solicited whilst walking by in pouring Antalya rain on the eve of the country's first weekend lockdown (since earlier in the year), in early December. Benches were tied with tape and the streets nearly deserted. Winter had arrived and a grim reality beckoned.

In fairness, I'd had a good run, with six weeks of sunny skies. Three weeks before, I was in the small town of Kemer, south-west of Antalya. Early November in a pandemic had largely emptied it of mainly Russian visitors, making Moonlight Beach a decent place for an afternoon dip. The town is backed by the craggy peaks of the Beydaglari Mountains, with a good walk up through the conifers to a craggy viewpoint adorned by the obligatory Turkish flag.

Just after 9 a.m. on November 10th I walked through the town square, past many people standing in silence, marking the time and day that Kemel Ataturk died, in 1938.

There is normally a summer ferry from Kemer across the bay to Antalya, and regular buses ply the 60 km into the city. There seems to be a gradual move afoot to make public transport cashless in Turkey, but given the amount of people who neither have the means nor the desire to make contactless payments, not to mention dolmus drivers happy to accept ticketless cash, it will be a long time before Big Brother closes the loopholes.

An hour east of Antalya is the coastal resort of Sïde, which is today effectively a suburb of Manavgat. Sïde is one of the famous old sites of Turkey. Antik Sïde occupies the small peninsula that separates two popular beaches, and was a Greek settlement established around the 7th century BC, an important centre for the Pamphylia region. There followed Lydians and Persians, Alexander the Great, Rhodians and Romans, before Sïde started to decline in the 4th century AD.

Near the small harbour is the most iconic symbol of Sïde, the Temple of Apollon, attracting a few dozen daily tourists, even in late November, as the sun sinks into the sea.

The beaches lie either side, to the north backed by resort hotels and to the south by nothing, a lot more relaxed. There were few visitors around despite the sunny skies and the bearable sea. The plethora of shops selling €5 and €10 shirts, shorts, footwear and sunglasses were doing no business.

Sïde is supposedly derived from old Anatolian, and is Greek for pomegranite, a bountiful fruit of the region. Most of Antik Sïde is free to wander around, with admission fees for the museum and amphitheatre.

I stayed at the quiet Melis Hotel for a week, £6 for bed and breakfast, with no more than 2 or 3 guests. Nearby the parked TUI buses testified to busier times, this year or last.

In response to rising Covid cases, mainly in and around Turkish cities, an 8 p.m. until 10 a.m. curfew was introduced at weekends, and restaurants and bars were limited to takeaways. Stricter measures seemed likely to follow. Winter was coming...

My last hurrah of summer was in Alanya, another 65 km past Manavgat. Settlement here dates back several thousand years, but ancient remains have largely been destroyed by earthquakes. Like Sïde, but in a more dramatic sense, the town has developed between the Taurus mountains and the sea, behind a steep rocky promontory on which sits the Kalesi or Castle, surrounded by high walls, these days including a few houses. The Citadel dates from the 13th century, under the Seljuq Sultanate of Rûm, and is free to wander around, apart from the old Shipyards, the Red Tower and the Upper Castle.

There are two beaches, one either side of the imposing promontory. The harbour lies to the south, and to the north is the delightful "Kleopatra Beach", a big sandy swathe that is popular with tourists and locals alike, but sparsely used in late November. I had possibly my last swim of the year here, perhaps following in the illustrious footsteps of Cleopatra herself, supposedly presented this region as a wedding present by Mark Anthony.

Back in Antalya, the first weekend of December brought lockdown, together with wetter weather. It was time to move on whilst I still could. The options were limited. A friend flew to Spain, those on direct flights from Turkey not requiring a Covid test. He subsequently got another flight to Mexico, one of the few warm countries, along with Brazil, not restricting visitors.

I took a Monday morning bus to the city of Denizli, connecting to a dolmus for the short trip to Pamukkale.

I alighted in the village of Karahiyat, 5 km past Pammukale, with virtually no tourists in early December. There is a small bazaar here, and the so-called red springs which spout thermal water onto mineral encrusted rocks.

The real gems, though, are the old Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis ("Holy City"), dating from the 3rd century BC, and built around the thermal springs that are the source of the pure white Pamukkale ("Cotton Castle") travertine terraces.

I first visited Pamukkale before it became a World Heritage Site in 1988, and though still impressive, it has clearly suffered from too many un-controlled visitors, and hotels siphoning off much of the thermal water that is needed to keep the site flowing. Now most of the natural thermal pools have dried up and a few artificial ones have been created alongside a visitor walkway.

Hierapolis has been extensively restored, most notably the large amphitheatre, this alteration more pleasing than the un-natural calamity that has befallen the cotton castle.

Philip the apostle spent his final years here and was later martyred on the site.

After three days I headed back to Denizli, 130 km west to the city of Aydin, and another 60 km by dolmus to the coastal resort of Kuşadasi ("Bird Island"), set along a scenic bay. I stayed in the 51-lira (a fiver) per night Hikmethan Otel, for an ensuite room with balcony overlooking the town, plus tasty breakfast. I settled in for an extended stay.

Güvercinada ("Pigeon Island"), after which the town gets its name, is a small but lovely retreat connected to the shore by a causeway built in the 1960s, lined by ferries, anglers and cats. The island was first established as a 13th century Byzantine citadel, with the outer walls added over 400 years later. It has been extensively renovated since the causeway was completed. The island is peppered with information boards outlining its history, fauna and flora, and inside the castle is the skeleton of a rare fin whale, washed ashore in 1998.

Kuşadasi is normally a gateway to the island of Samos in Greece, but times are not normal. To the south is Dilek Peninsula National Park, and the town itself sees some seals and loggerhead turtles, the latter known to lay their eggs on nearby beaches.

One day I took a dolmus 20 km to Selçuk, well known for it's castle and old walls, the poor remains of the Temple of Artemis, and as a base for visiting Ephesus, not to mention the apocryphal house where the Virgin Mary supposedly spent her last years.

The weather turned cloudy, so I walked 7 km up the hill from Selçuk, past many olive groves, to the quaint old village of Şirince, dotted with shops selling local fruit wines and tourist paraphernalia. It must be a lovely spot in warmer months, but the commercialism seemed a little incongruous on a quiet, overcast December day.

The next day dawned blue skies, so I again headed towards Selçuk and alighted 3 km before, at the turnoff to Ephesus. This famous site has so much history that it would be a tricky subject on Mastermind, and guides are on hand if desired.

Dating back millennia, Ephesus started seriously developing in classical Greek times as a port on the River Cayster, long since silted up. It was occupied by Cimmerians, Lydians (under King Croesus), Persians (led by Cyrus the Great), Alexander the Great, Romans, Goths and Byzantines.

Under Emporer Augustus, Ephesus reached its zenith, replacing Pergamum as the capital of proconsular Asia. The illustrious Strabo noted that it had become second in importance and size only to Rome. St Paul, St John, Mark Antony and Cleopatra walked its streets.

Throw in the occasional earthquake, invasion and sabotage (Herostratus), and it makes for a colourful history.

Much of the site has undergone restoration in the modern era, the large amphitheatre currently blighted by a large crane.

The entrance fee is 100 lira, plus 45 lira for the Terrace Houses, incongruously covered from non-paying eyes. The main draw, at the intersection of sloping Kuretes Street and flat Arcadian Street, is the Library of Celsus, re-constructed between 1972 and 1978. The whole site is populated by friendly cats, wandering around and basking on pillar stumps, the eternal Ephesus tribe.

On December 19th, the tide turned, and Britain became an international pariah, care of its world-beating viral analysis. The newly identified Covid variant resulted in the UK passport becoming a liability. Bulgaria not only banned flights to and from UK, but may well have closed its land borders to Britons who have provably not been in the UK for many weeks. The British Embassy in Sofia was unable to say whether I would be allowed in. I don't care for such gambles.

I still have a few options, including the nuclear one of overstaying my visa and facing a probable fine for the crime of where I was born. Frankly, and with due sympathy, given the outlook, I'd rather be out of Britain for the forseeable future. And for that I will have to suffer another weekend lockdown, and a 4-day lockdown over New Year. These are regular or pre-warned restrictions, nice and simple to understand and implement, unlike some countries, and tourists are allowed out un-impeded. I've had a good run and can hardly complain. With sunny skies ahead, I may even summon the courage for a Yuletide swim.

Current circumstances notwithstanding, Merry Christmas!

Cheers
Taurus

Return to “Airport Lounge”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests