Leg 3: Day Zero

Hi! I arrived in Antalya last night and got a bus from the airport; a long way - half an hour, though the bus was doing a fair lick. And I was astonished at the extent if the suburbs.. and the urbs. The new town looked very brash and glitzy with shopping malls and big brand name stores.

My "pansiyon" the Camel, is in the Old Town or Kaleiçi. The Old Town, full of narrow streets, crumbling monuments and vintage buildings, some dating from Ottoman times with wooden loggias and wrought iron window bars, has been "gentrified" for the tourist, rather as I found Kaß had been.

Early in the season there are not so many tourists and last night the local youth (under thirties) populated the bars restaurants and clubs. Surprisingly the air was ringing not with electron funk but acoustic, live singing and playing of guitars. It was not however that great, with vocals off-key and musicians not very "together"!

I'm trying to remember my one previous visit, in 1986, when I was travelling with Karen Osborne . I remember the Museum (outside whose entrance I am sitting to write this), and the gardens where, much to our delight, a locust landed on her. I think there was a white marble-lined hammam that hosted a rug merchant's shop. And I have this dream-like memory of walking behind a boy leading a bear on a chain through streets of the Old Town.

The weather has been cool today, in the low teens I'd say and positively chilly during the rain that fell while I was in the Museum. In the small cafeteria by the gift shop visitors were entertained by a white cat going stir-crazy, chasing a stray bead around the flor and finally pulling a pink plastic mac off a coat-hanger. The cat was enveloped in the pink plastic but visible, and seemed to settle down; it was rather put out when the cafe girl came to rescue it and went for her ankles with " open claw"!

The Museum is at least 3 times as big as it was in 1986. The spacing, signage and mounting of exhibits is great, the lighting a little inconsistent, and sadly there is no labeling system for individual objects; unless they are specially featured their specific origin, date and function has to be guessed at. But on the whole I felt it was well worth the 20 Tl (£5.88) admission fee. The Roman statuary form Perge is the highlight, and I enjoyed seeing this in the flesh, but there was some interesting pottery (!) and a good Ethnographic section with objects from the various ethnic cultures that have contributed to Turkish history.

The rain was heavy enough by leave pools on the streets, pavements and tramlines. I rode to the Museum by tram, which was fun, but walked back as the rain seemed to have occasioned a cessation of services. Wrong kind of rain?

I start walking proper tomorrow.. when the forecast is better!