NEW YEAR | ANTALYA | TURKEY | TRAVEL
A New Year’s To Remember In Antalya
My Weeks In Photos — Week 42 — December 29, 2022 — January 4, 2023
After our rather un-Christmassy Christmas, we had our sights set on having a better New Year’s Celebration. The week around the hotel was busy with workers, and we waited patiently for the owners to make a decision about what they wanted us to paint next. Each day we were eager to get going on the next project, and each day we didn’t hear a word about it.
So instead of waiting around, we headed out to explore more around Antalya.
On December 29th, according to my camera roll, I took just one solitary photo. We had gone for an evening walk through Kaleiçe, the old city, and came across this mosque minaret silhouetted against the sky. The purple/blue colors of the sky were dazzling and I loved the contrast of the green tree lit up by the street light that had just come on in the darkening of the day.
On Friday we headed off on yet another walk along the cliff tops of southeast Antalya. The last time we walked in this direction it became dark before we reached some sort of waterfall that we had heard about in this area, so we were determined to find it this time around.
Because it is about a 2-hour walk to get to where we had turned around the last time, we decided to take a city bus to the same general area, then meander slowly along the cliffs until we found it. We did find a small trickling waterfall almost immediately and weren’t sure if it was the famed one or not, but decided to keep on going anyways.
It was a beautiful day and the waterfront of Antalya is so spectacular that we knew we had nothing to lose.
After walking for about a half hour or so, we had actually all but given up when I finally said, “Let me check the map to see if something is marked on it.” Who knows why I hadn’t done this sooner?
Sure enough, just a little ways ahead, there was a massive park marked, Düden Park Selalesi. On the map, I could see a large river heading to the sea and a commenter had pinned it on google maps and said, ‘I don’t know, I think this is the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen.’
Of course, we excitedly kept going after learning this tidbit of information.
We meandered our way along the clifftop taking in the scenery. We were amazed at how the tops of the cliffs overhung the sea, and even more amazed that people trusted them enough to be standing and sitting on them and even fishing from them.
We kept on wandering along oohing and aahing at pretty much everything until we rounded a corner and BAM! There it was! A spectacular sight that we never could have imagined!
We walked closer to get a better look.
We were thrilled with the size and power of it and marveled that such a spectacle could be just sitting in the middle of a city for all to enjoy.
After wandering up to the top to see the river and where it all comes from, we continued along the edge of the cliff for a ways before we finally determined that we wanted to take the bus back home, and not walk the 2+ hours.
As usual in Turkey, there were many cats along the way. This orange one was really enjoying the last rays of the sun for the day.
Saturday brought New Year’s Eve. We had plans to meet our Ukrainian friend Yarik at 7 pm to start our festivities. Yarik had brought a bottle of Ukrainian Vodka with him from Bulgaria and was saving it for this special occasion. Because drinking alcohol is permitted in public, we made a plan to purchase some snacks and find a nice place to sit outside to bring in the New Year.
We made our way back to Kaleiçe (the old town) and found a bench in a park that was high up and overlooking the Marina. There were already party revelers there that had started a small bonfire, and we could see that it had the potential to be a great spot for the evening.
We were thankful to get the last bench available so we could spread out our picnic.
We hung out and slowly drank the bottle down as we approached midnight. Many people came and went from the location and we had great fun people watching plus talking to other party revelers.
Some sort of fire brigade officials showed up at one point and I was sure that the fire would get shut down, but surprisingly they just chatted with a few people and then made their way out of the party again.
The three of us all commented on how calm and chill this party was. Despite the fact that there was alcohol being consumed, we didn’t see anyone acting out of line or over the top drunk. There were Turkish and Russians and somebody played music from a boombox that included classics like Abba, modern electronic dance music, to even Turkish and Russian traditional songs that a few of the locals sang along to.
🎶 Ra Ra Rasputin🎶was one popular song that got the attention of many.
A police helicopter (we assume) flew over us multiple times through the night. I’m sure they were just keeping an eye on things. It certainly wasn’t a huge party and I think there might have been no more than 200 people in the location at any given time.
Next to us was an elderly couple that lit a sparkler at about 10:30 pm. They told us they were finished and wished us a Happy New Year as they made their way out of the party. But before they left, they stopped at the neighboring bench to chat with others and it was then that he put on the cutest glasses. I couldn’t help but run over and ask if I could have a selfie with him.
Just before midnight, a bunch more people filed into the area, presumably to see some sort of firework show. I was also excited at the possibility of that. Yarik said that he spoke to somebody that assured him we would see fireworks.
The countdown started and we all joined in.
At midnight we did indeed see fireworks but most of them were far away from us along Konyaalti Beach. There were also a few behind us that we glimpsed through the trees. They lasted about 2 minutes and it was all done.
The three of us hugged and cheered and that was it. As we looked around, the crowd was quite stoic. Nobody really seemed to be celebrating at all. The music was turned off and it was quiet as people started to clean up and head off.
I told Yarik that if this was Canada, the whole crowd would be running around hugging each other in a drunken and slobbering fashion. He agreed that in Ukraine it would be the same. But not here in Turkey. I guess the Turkish and Russians aren’t into hugging.
Nevertheless, the three of us had a great time and it will surely be a New Year celebration that we will remember for some years to come. We couldn’t help but think back to New Years 2021 that we celebrated in Istanbul. Because of Covid, all bars were closed and they had even roped off the alcohol sections in the grocery stores so nobody could purchase it before New Year's Eve. We watched fireworks from our hotel room windows and celebrated, just the two of us.
I also now realize that we celebrated alone in Botswana for the 2022 New Year. I guess that has been the way it has been for many people these past few years as the world has dealt with Covid.
We like being around a bunch of people much better!
We said goodbye to Yarik shortly after midnight then we went back to our hotel where we knew that the Russians were having a party. We had been invited to it, but because of our commitment to Yarik, we couldn’t attend. However, we didn’t realize that they don’t even start partying until midnight when they start eating their big feast.
We came back to 6 people sitting around the most fantastic table of food that I think I have ever seen. It was quiet and they were quite stoic. We were still walking on our cloud of energy and excitement as we came bareling through the doors. In that moment we were thankful that we had done what we had to celebrate the special night.
We went to our room to take off our jackets then came back down to join them. It turned out that they had made enough wine punch to get all of Moscow drunk, so they didn’t hesitate in offering us some. We even sampled a few of their delicious dishes. I’m very annoyed that my phone was low on battery and I left it in the room to charge. Sorry, no photos!
Before we knew it it was 4:00am! We staggered off to bed, high on life, and slept hard.
New Years day was rough on me, I will admit. It took until about 2:00 before I felt good enough to wander out of the hotel. We had planned to go swimming at Konyaalti Beach and were going with Yarik and our young friend Lani. But when we met up with them they claimed they weren’t going to swim, so with no pressure to get to the beach, we did a leasurly stroll along the clifftop again. Neither of them had seen this section of the city and we were thrilled to act as tourguides.
By the time we got to where the beach is, it was getting too late to swim. The sun had lost it’s heat and we would have been cold had we tried to do it then. So we decided to just wander around in a park for a bit and found a bench to sit on while taking in the last rays of New Years Day.
Monday was largely a non-descript day. Again, we were waiting to hear about what the owner wanted painted. That evening we started talking to one of the hotel workers that has worked with the owners for a few years in their hostel which is located in another part of Antalya. We told him that we were a bit frustrated with the fact that we weren’t hearing from them about what they wanted us to do next.
Of course, with it being the holidays, and the fact that they are trying to get the hotel finished and opened, we didn’t want to be bothersome by bugging them every day. But we were also feeling like if we weren’t going to be doing something creative here, then we could find another place that would be happy to have us do something. Also, knowing that our time left in Turkey is ticking down, we didn’t want to sit and do nothing then have to scramble at the end before our visa expired.
It’s a bit of a long story but by airing our grievances to the man, one thing lead to the other and we finally were able to solidify a design on Wednesday night. However, though the design was decided, the colors weren’t, so that delayed us for another day while those details were worked out.
Either way, I’m thrilled to say that my next update will have some new artwork in it, and we are happy to be painting once again!
We hope that you all enjoyed a great New Year celebration with friends or family (or both.) I really do feel that 2023 is going to be a good year and I hope that we can put the war in Russia/Ukraine behind us and move forward into a more peaceful future.
We send out much love to you all and hope that you have a fabulous 2023 filled with joy, happiness, prosperity and abundance.
xo Jill and Chris
Articles written this past week:
Surprise — We Are Going To Greece
Watch Fireworks Displays From Around the World
How Starbucks Ruined My Christmas Spirit
2023 Tips To Help You Write a Great Travel Story For Globetrotters
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