Monday morning I decided to go to Arti Apple Reseller in Sislı to have my Mac checked out. On the way there an African man stopped me and asked why I was in Turkey and all that other jazz. In the end he told me that he was Nigerian and had lived in Istanbul for 6 years. Only one person that I could see spoke English in the store because of this I had to wait on one man to act as my translator. The workers did a brief diagnostic test on my computer finding out that my logic board had crashed from overheating. I was told 4 weeks because the parts had to be ordered and that my computer would cost over 900TL to fix. My Mac turned 4 years old in September so it made no sense to get it fixed. I knew deep down that I should have given in and purchased a new Mac before coming abroad but I didnt want to let go of the computer that got me through college, the computer I paid for with the last of my fathers memory.
I was a bit depressed after hearing the news. But on the way back I cheered up when I saw cows grazing in front of flats near Koc. When I arrived back to campus I used the laptop in the basment to ask another exchange student who's computer crashed what did he do. Tim, replied that he had purchased an Asus netbook for 500TL ($375). I decided I would probably do the same but I wanted to get a few other opinons. At dinner I spoke to Josh, a Canandian exchange who worked at the Apple store. After talking with him I decieded to wait until January to buy my Mac. I was on my way to the dorms when I met Tyler, a Critical Langauage Scholarship (CLS) reciepent. After getting the inside scoop I decided that it would be worth applying for CLS to learn Turkish intensively for seven weeks this summer. The rest of the week was pretty busy as I was focused on writing the four essay requirements for the CLS application. Other than that, the exchange office helped Becca and I order a 20lt bottle of Pinar water to our room for 24TL ($16).
Thursday Melissa, Lexie and I headed down to Antalya, a beautiful southwestern city with every activity you can think of. We flew from Sabiah Goken airport (the airport on the Asian side) while there we saw a nice German woman with red hair green highlights and a a brown bang. We flew Pegausus air which only took 50 minuets compared to the 15 hour bus ride so of our coherts were embarking on. Once we arrived we took a shuttle bus for 10TL to center city Antalya and walked to Sabah Pansyion, the place where Jasmine and three others stayed in the begining of October. The three of us paid 70TL for one night and Turkish breakfast. After unpacking we headed out to tour Antalya bay, get food and see some sights. The bay was filled with lots of yachts and breath taking views of Anatalya. After taking in the scenery with a few good shots we headed out on the search of food. Along the way we met Fredy a nice çay (tea) vendor who gave us 4 cups of free tea and had a bit of a respectable crush on me. For dinner we ended up in a nice jungle like restaurant where we had seafood dinner platers (whole sea bass filleted at the table, calamari, shrimp, salad and fries) for 50TL ($). This was actually a bit pricey since a fish dinner was only 20TL ($). Nonetheless it was well worth the expense. After dinner we went to a museum, purchased a bunch of scarfs for 10TL each and went to the Hamam. The Hamam location was 600 years old and deced out with marble everything. Lexie and I paid 35TL for a Turkish bath, peeling (scrub), a soap massage and oil massage. For the Turkish bath Lexie and I pretty much washed out skin with a piece of soap wrapped in a t-shirt and then rinse off from water out of a marble fountain. Once we were done a man by the name of Doktor came in to do our peelings and soap massages. He decided to wet my skin first and throw a bucket of water on my freshly twisted locs. Needless to say I was abit annoyed. We then layed on a huge marble table and allowed the doctor to peel our skin and was it with soap several times. After this was done we left the marble hall and drank apple cay u until it was time for our oil massage.
The next day we had breakfast at Sabah, were I ate the sweetest green grapes in the history of my life! Then we hopped in our hired taxi (disco taksi) to go to Termesos, Karanian cave, Pegme and Aspendos all for 160TL ($106). Before going to Pegme we had lunch Antalya salad (white beans, eggs, parsley, tomatos and olive oil) and tavuk (chicken) sandwics at a local Turkish restaurant. At Aspendos there was a near perfect stadium which was beautiful to see. When we arrived back to the hostel it was around 7pm. We had dinner from the kitchen and met a nice Southeast Indian Frenchmen named Robert. He's such an awesome guy with a wealth of knowledge. He shared a bottle of red wine with us and shared stories from around the world.
The following day I had those same amazing grapes and hopped in the hired out cab to take us to Antalya museum, Side, Managavt waterfall and Alanya and a in cave for 200TL ($133). I watched the sunset in Alanya while swimming in the Mediterrean. Alanya is such a beautiful city surrounded by mountains. I would love to vacation there one day. I stopped by a restaurant to use the bathroom before leaving, there I met a Turkish Mel Gibson look alike named Nahim. On the way back we stopped at a gas station and drank cay, eat Magnums and danced to traditional Turkish dance music in the parking lot. There was alot of traffic when we entered Antalya so we decided to have karoke and dance to the blue disco lights in the car. For dinner that night we had balik emeke (fish bread) for 6TL at a nice karoke resaturant. After dinner I decided to window shop and I ended up sliding down the tile and falling on my tail bone. Many thanks to the two Turkish men who were helping me up as I literally laughed my butt off.
We decided to roam around the city a bit in the day time to see the harbor and other parts of Old Town. After that we took the tram to the otogar for a bus to Olympos. Unfortunatley we ended up waiting at the top of a mountain for a bus to take us 11km down the mountain to Olympos. Olympos was filled with tree house pansyions and beach side ruins. Once we got there we whipped out our handy dandy museum cards for free entrance. Our first path led us to Orange groves were I picked four softball size oranges. Yummo! Shortly after we ended up at the beach which was without sand but filled with lots of smooth ocean rocks. The beach was such a beautiful site becuase there were ruins right on the waters edge, an inland river and in the distance I could see a snow capped mountain. Before leaving Olympos I decieded to use the handicapped bathroom because that is the only one in Turkey that will always have an actual seat and not a whole. I guess my theory had bad luck that day because I found the toilet but I left with 7 misquito bites which eventually swelled up and became inflammed when I reached the airport.
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