TRAVEL | WEEKLY WRAP-UP | ANTALYA | TURKEY

Wrapping Up 5 Weeks In Antalya

My Weeks in Photos — Week 43 & 44 — January 5–18, 2023

The weather has been moody in Antalya for the past couple of weeks. Photo Credit: Author

Well, here I am again skipping weeks. Sorry for the delay.

The truth of the matter is that life got a little bit busy. As you may have read in previous weekly wrap-ups, we have been waiting for the owners of the hotel that we are staying in to decide what sorts of art they want to be painted on their walls. Days and weeks went by without them deciding, and then all of a sudden they needed things done, and now.

It’s so typical.

On top of this, after three weeks of beautiful blue sky days, the rains hit Antalya in full force and it rained pretty much solid for 6 days straight. It was during these 6 days that we had to travel by bus for about 40 minutes (both ways) to another property that our current hotel owners own to paint some artwork on the walls for them there. Let's just say that we got very wet a few times during this period.

Waiting for the bus in the rain. Photo Credit: Author

The other location is a hostel and it had been closed for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year's so they could do some renovations and fumigating. But just three days before they re-opened, the owner asked us to go with her there so that she could show us what she wanted us to paint.

Of course, with just three days left, time was tight anyways, but to make matters worse, we had to use oil paint. For those that don’t know, oil paint takes about 12 hours to dry fully, so you can only really do one coat per day, then you have to return the next day to do the next step. This makes for a long and tedious process.

We were painting the insides of 3 toilet rooms and 2 showers. She wanted the walls to have a textured sponge look, then asked for some abstract, bright and happy designs to be painted over the top. It was to be similar to the art that they already had in the bathroom area around the sinks.

Some color was added to one shower stall. Photo Credit: Author

I was thrilled to be able to do this as it is very in line with the abstract art style that is familiar to me. But knowing that we were using oil paint, I knew that we would not get it finished in time for the re-opening, and I told her so.

“That’s okay, we can keep one toilet and one shower closed until you finish.” She said.

Of course, we did as much as we could before opening, but we just weren’t able to complete it all in three days and had to come back for 2 more days after they re-opened to finish it all. I think on a couple of days we spent more time on the buses getting back and forth than we actually did on location painting. It was a bit of a drag in all honesty, especially with the weather the way it was.

Some of the other designs. I wanted to add more to the one on the right but we just ran out of time. Photo Credits: Author

In the meantime, they finally decided on what they wanted us to paint here at the hotel, so we got busy getting all of that completed as well. We told them that we were thinking of leaving soon, so that lit a fire under their butts a bit.

On the walls opposite the elevators on each floor, we painted different silhouettes of deer and a moon, complete with the floor number.

Outside of each elevator door on each floor. Photo Credits: Author

I had to laugh when they finally decided what it was that they wanted because, on the very first night that we spoke about what they wanted us to paint, I suggested painting silhouettes of deer outside the elevators.

“No, I don’t like that.” She told me.

Sigh.

We are happy that all of this is finally finished, and we now feel as though we have officially earned our keep for the past 5 weeks that we have been staying here for free.

This past weekend, the sun finally came out again and we decided to head inland to see another waterfall. After seeing the waterfall on the waterfront, we learned that the same river has a fall that is about 12km inland as well. Once we realized that we could take city transit there, we decided that we would find time to do so before we left.

We asked our young Russian friend, Lani, if she wanted to go with us, and we made a plan. The morning started out bad, however, as we boarded a train going in the wrong direction, then had to reconfigure our transit to suit the new route.

After getting off the train, we decided to find a spot for lunch instead of eating at the falls because we were all hungry. So we did that first, then we waited for almost an hour for a bus to come. A few other buses came and went, but not the one that we were waiting for, so we finally decided to give up and take a taxi. It only cost us the equivalent of $3 each, and we realized that it was definitely worth it. As it was, we arrived at about 4:30 pm. Had we caught the bus (if it ever came) it would have been closer to 5:00 pm.

After paying just 10 Lira each ($0.50 USD) we entered a beautiful park setting. I was already impressed at how nice and organized it was and was further impressed with the beautiful walkways that wound throughout the property, and we hadn’t even gotten to the waterfall yet.

The first sign we saw pointed us down some stairs and said ‘cavern.’ We were all excited to go down a spiral staircase and were even more excited when we found ourselves in a cave behind the waterfall.

The spiral staircase that brought us down and the view of the falls from behind. Photo Credits: Author

The cave had some tunnels and walkways built into it and we spent a few minutes wandering around back there before we found an exit that took us out and down along the river.

Because of the immense rains that we had for the previous days, the river was very muddy and running fast. I can only imagine that in the dry season, it is a nice clear blue color like many of the other rivers we have seen photos of from around the area.

I used my long exposure setting on my iPhone for these cool photos. Photo Credits: Author

We wandered the lovely trails and found ourselves down below by the river's edge, and also at the top of the cliffs that looked down onto the falls and the river below. We all much preferred being down by the river, and in the canyon, since it was lush and dense with plant life and you could just feel the extra oxygen in the air.

There were nice stairways taking us up and down. I loved the foliage hanging off the cliff above the people down below. Bridges crossed the river making for nice photo opportunities. Photo Credits: Author

At the end of the trail along the river, there was an exit gate that took us to the entrance of a restaurant that sat right along the river's edge. Of course, we couldn’t help but sit next to the running water to have a cup of Turkish tea.

A beautiful setting for a restaurant. Photo and GIF by author.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as it was just starting to get dark as we exited the restaurant and made our way out to the bus stop. Thankfully the bus came this time, and in 30 minutes we were back down in the center of Antalya and were making our way home to our hotel.

It’s amazing to think that over the course of the last 2 weeks, this was the one singular enjoyable excursion that we took. With the combination of the weather and the painting that we have been doing, we just didn’t have the time or energy for much more. But I’m glad that we at least got to see this as it has surely added to the many reasons why we truly love Antalya so much.

Last night we managed to get out to the clifftop to sit and watch the sunset. As I stared out over the beauty of it all, I couldn’t help but start to get pangs of sadness bubbling through my belly, knowing that we are leaving soon.

Another stunning sunset over Antalya. Photo Credit: Author

This happens to me every time I fall in love with a place. I am always sad to be leaving, and I know I will miss this beautiful city and the fantastic scenery. But it really feels like our time here is up, and it is time to move on. Plus I know that new adventures are coming and I am also excited to be on our way.

On Friday we will be pulling out of Antalya and will be heading back west, making our way to Bodrum where we will be taking the ferry to Greece. Yes, we are certainly excited about this next chapter and I do have the feeling that we likely aren’t finished with Antalya just yet. There is more we want to see in Turkey, and I can imagine that stopping here for a night or two will likely be part of that agenda in the future.

So this is what has been happening in our lives for the past couple of weeks. As usual, there is always lots going on and life is certainly never boring.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of adorable frog sculptures that we recently discovered and somehow missed seeing these past few weeks.

Fun frog sculptures in Antalya, Turkey. Photo Credits: Author

I hope everyone has had a great couple of weeks and you are all settling nicely into 2023!

xo Jill and Chris

Another nice evening watching the world go by. Photo Credit: Author

Stories written in the past couple of weeks:

My Answers To 10 Quick Questions

I Accidentally Took a Week Off Of Publishing On Medium

Reasons Why Turkey Should Definitely Be On Your Bucket List

E is for Essaouira — My A-Z Of Favorite Travel Destinations

Sometimes Travel Plans Don’t Work Out

A New Year Brings A New Globetrotters Banner

How Does It Feel To Be THE Top Writer In A Topic?

Why We Will Never Use Airbnb Again

I’m tagging those who have requested to be tagged in my weekly wrap-ups. If you would like to be tagged, please let me know and I will add you to the list.

I write a wrap-up each week on my personal publication Artistic Voyages News. To see all of my weekly wrap-ups:

Weekly Wrap-Ups - My Weeks In Photos

I joined the Weeds and Wildflowers publication prompt "My Week In Photos" in March 2022. Later in the year, I decided…

artisticvoyages.medium.com

If you like my writing and want to read more, subscribe to Medium through my referral link (I will earn a small commission) to get full access! Plus sign up here to get my articles by email!

We have been nomadic since 2017! Join our journey by hitting the links below!