Antakya (Hatay), Turkey

I am writing this post in an internet cafe in Turkey. I got here today, took a minibus from Aleppo. Border 'formalities' took an hour but the driver was really fast so the whole trip took three hours. Carlos and Dea saw me off at the bus station before going to the airport to catch theır airplane back to Damascus. I'll see them again when I get back to Finland because they are flying home on Friday.

It's going to take me ages to write this entry because the keyboard is in Turkish and I keep getting letters like ç or ş or ğ or ı and I can't change the language settings because EVERYTHING is in Turkish, I mean I just signed in to messenger and something came up asking me what I wanted to do and I didn't even know which button was cancel and which was continue! Really exotic :)

Our two days in Aleppo were really nice. The souq lived up to our great expectations although we took a while to find it. The hotel was top class without being flashy - an old courtyard house converted - and the food in Aleppo was really good, too! I also got the impression there were more tourists around than in Damascus. We visited the citadel yesterday - it was extremely hot! All in all, a successful short trip. All I can say is I hope Dea gets her chocolate crepes soon before somebody gets hurt ;) And I'm sorry about the ıPod cable!

Anyway, so I took the bus to Antakya wıth four other passengers. Some new people got on at the border. Instead of arriving at the bus station I had circled on my map, we ended up way outside the city at a huge bus depot with connections all the way to İstanbul! I was told I can take a minibus to the city but of course I didn't have any Turkish money and there was no bank at the station. Fortunately, one of the other passengers changed 15 euro for me, and at the right exchange rate - but I didn't need it because then the company gave me a lift to the centre for free.

Antakya is bigger than I expected. There are lots of shops and restaurants and the suburbs climb onto the surrounding mountains. I had a good walk around the city looking for a hotel - there's also a small bazaar and while the river that flows through the city is hardly idyllic, the bridges crossing it are a nice place to stroll. I ended up in Hotel Saray, in the middle of the centre. The room costs 15 euro one night and is very comfortable with air conditioning, a private bathroom and shower, a tv (only shows some crappy Turkish programs) and a fantastic view on the surrounding mountains.

One feels really hopeless here without knowing how to speak one word of Turkish. We're pretty much in the middle of nowhere so hardly anyone speaks English. It felt really great to find some ATMs - we found only one in Aleppo and it wasn't working. I had some kebab - well, this IS Turkey ;) and got some biscuits and water from a supermarket.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to visit the Archeological Museum which has one of the best collections of Roman mosaics in the world and is the prime attraction for miles here - in the afternoon I'll continue by bus to Şanlıurfa, a trip of about 6-7 hours. I was going to do it on Thursday but now that I'm here I feel like moving on towards the final destination. I wish I could post some pictures but I didn't bring my card-reader and this computer doesn't have a slot for my memory stick.

So here goes - my first ever post from Turkey! Good night, world!