Welcome to Turkey - Day 3
Monday, May 30, 2005
I woke up on Monday morning at about 9:30 to the sound of birds and the soft murmur of people talking outside. No strange smells, no cacophony of horns honking. Many other countries I had been to have all of that and more, but here in Kaleiçi (the name for the old city of Antalya), it was peaceful. This is going to be an interesting place, indeed. After I acclimated to my surroundings, I got out of bed and jumped in the shower. Or, I should say the bathroom with a shower head on the side of the wall. No shower curtain or door. So, you had to be careful where you left the toilet paper so that it didn't get drenched.
Dick and I were on the third floor and when I took a look out of our open window, I gazed down on a lovely patio with tables and chairs. There was an amazing spread of food on one table and several members of our team was already downstairs eating. I went down the stairs to join them. The patio, or garden as they called it, was a nice tiled in area with a wall around it. There was a huge tree that gave shade to almost the entire area. The air was cool, with a touch of humidity. It was very pleasant. I proceeded to fill my plate with food. There was simit (a ring of bread covered with sesame seeds that looks kind of like a pretzel), bread rolls, strawberry jam, butter, honey, fresh strawberries, fresh melon, 2 kinds of cheese, kiwi, oranges, plain yoghurt, some kind of molasses-type stuff (that was made from grapes), olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers. This was to be our breakfast for our entire stay at the White Garden Pansion - and I was going to love it each and every day.
After breakfast, I** met us in the lobby and we walked a couple of blocks to the church. On the way we passed by a ruins site that dates back to 200 B.C. It was at one time a pagan temple, then a church, then a mosque (camii in Turkish - pronounced "jah-mee"). Somehow a couple of centuries ago, part of the minaret got knocked off and so now it is called the Truncated Mosque. The whole area was behind a large iron fence so that people wouldn't take artifacts (of course over our time there, I observed several people inside). Apparently they were planning on doing some restoration work someday. It was fascinating because you could see the building style of each era and civilization. For instance, the Romans built with perfectly hewn blocks of stone, the Byzantines added decorative touches like fancy tops to the columns, the Ottomans used all kinds of stones just shoved into every crack they could find. You could literally tell when each level of the structure was built based on the levels of construction.
Kaleiçi (the old city) has a very old world feel. Narrow, cobblestone streets. Lots of shops. Intricate stone work, stucco and doors. It is against the law to demolish a building in Kaleçi - if a building is in disrepair, they have to restore it. Because of that, sometimes buildings will sit in a dilapidated fashion for quite some time before they are restored. It was a fascinating walk to the church.
The church - St. Paul's Cultural Center, was a beautiful building. Newly restored, it housed a public cafe/coffeeshop called Paul's Place. This was a lovely cafe with all kinds of coffee, çay (pronounced like "chai" and is the Turkish word for tea), and wonderful cakes and pastries. They also served lunch, which we had out in the garden. This was a beautiful courtyard with flowering vines growing all over the walls and large trees in the center.
Our lunch was tunafish sandwiches. This was probably our most american meal of the entire trip, and it was my least favorite. We also had warm chocolate chip cookies and coke. We were introduced to P**, T****** and L****, who are I**'s teammates. Over lunch, we spent some time getting to know everybody and sharing stories of long trip there.
After lunch, we proceeded upstairs to the main meeting room. This is where 2 churches meet on Sundays. Sunday mornings, the International Church of Antalya meets there. This is a church that is made up of 50 expatriateates (people who aren't from Turkey and aren't Turkish, but have moved to Antalya to work or retire - mostly Europeans). Then on Sunday afternoons, Antalya Bible Church (the Turkish church) meets there. We wouldn't really have any connection to the Int'l Church during our time in Antalya, our relationships were more with the Turkish Church.
Our afternoon was to be made up of training and orientation. We learned what you can say, what you can't say. What you can do, what you can't do. What cultural taboos to avoid, etc. How to share the gospel with a Turk. How to relate to members of the opposite sex. Mostly, be yourself, but be sensitive to the culture. We then met Ramazan, the pastor of the Turkish Church, who shared a bit of his story and the history of the church. He told us that there were probably 100 or so people who come, but only about 60 who are regular. I have to admit that I was surprised that there were that many Christians in this city of 1.2 million. You see, the total population of Turkey is 70 Million and of that, there are only about 3,000 Christians. Almost all of the rest are Muslim. After Ramazan was finished, Alper shared his testimony with us. Alper is a student and leads the youth group at the church.
After our orientation, we split up into 3 groups to hand out fliers in various key parts of the city. James and I were going to perform a concert on Tuesday night at Paul's Place, and we were handing out fliers to advertise for it. The flier said something like "2 American guitarists are here to provide a musical feast for you." I was with I** and our assignment was to hand out fliers in Kaleiçi. We walked all over the old city dropping off fliers at some key coffeehouses and restaurants. We walked through Adrian's gate, which the Apostle Paul would have walked through 2,000 years ago. You could see the ruts in the stones from thousands of years of chariots and wagons passing through the gate.
We walked down to the old harbor, which was full of amazing old sailboats and Turkish men offering "boat trip" (say this is your best Turkish accent, if you have any idea what a Turkish accent sounds like). They kept hassling us to take a boat trip. When we would walk away, they would say things like "why do you not want to take boat trip? Do you not want to talk to me? Why do you walk away?" While walking around the old harbor, I felt transported to another time. I could imagine ships coming in off of the Mediterranean thousands of years ago. In fact, we saw the steps that the Apostle Paul would have walked up to get into Kaleiçi in the Book of Acts. Amazing.
The city was founded by Attalus II, King of Pergamum around 200 B.C., but there are archeological finds near the city that date back thousands of years earlier. We also walked past an ancient castle that would have served as a great lookout to see possible marauders coming in to attack the city. From there, we could see most of Antalya bay. There are huge (9,000 ft tall) mountains on the far side that practically rise right out of the Mediterranean. Between them and us are miles of beaches with tons of resort hotels dotting the coastline. I heard that last year, almost 8 million non-Turks flew into the Antalya airport to vacation there. We could also see miles and miles of apartment buildings just outside Kaleiçi. I never saw a single family dwelling the entire time I was there - everybody lives in flats.
After handing out fliers, we met everybody at Zeynep's Kitchen - a nice little restaurant just off of Attaturk Cadessi. We ate streetside. At one big long table (actually several tables pulled together). In Turkey, everything is extremely community oriented. It is very important for the group to be together. So when you walk into a restaurant, instead of asking you to split up your group like here in the U.S., they will quickly pull as many tables together as necessary to keep your group together. The service in the restaurants is amazing as well - always refilling your drink, bringing more bread, etc. At Zeynep's we had soup, chicken with rice, tomato and cucumber salad (very traditional Turkish), fried potatoes and bread. They usually have crushed red pepper available at the table to season with. Water, tea and Cola (coke) were also available. Very tasty.
At dinner, our team really started to bond and we were starting to get along well with I, T, P & L as well. Laughter abounded. Somebody mentioned that we should go get some ice cream because they had been craving it for a few days. It was then that I had to confess to my sidetrip to Haagen-Daaz in the Amsterdam airport. Needless to say, the entire team gave me a hard time because I had ice cream and they didn't. The entire rest of the trip, if I was gone for a few minutes, they would ask me if I went to get more ice cream.
After dinner, we went back to the church to go over the schedule for our time there. Even though we had a schedule, there was a lot of emphasis on remaining flexible. One night we were scheduled to eat dinner at a restaurant called Marti Mantı (pronounced "martee mantuh"). I** mentioned that we had passed it earlier that day and that there were seagulls on the windows. I then said "oh, do they serve fish?" Someone sarcastically said "no, seagulls are birds, Brett." To that I said "IN DEFENSE - seagulls live by the sea and they eat birds!" And everybody busted out with laughter. Of course, I meant to say that they eat fish. For the rest of the trip, all anyone had to say to elicit a chuckle was "in defense" or "look, seagulls." Much fun.
After our meeting, we walked to exchange some money. Then we went to an internet cafe to email. For some reason, I couldn't get to my email, so I was unable to send a message home that we had arrived just fine. They also had a phone bank where you could make international calls for a nominal fee, so I tried to call home. I got Elise's voice mail, which was a bummer. At least she would know that I had arrived safely.
Then we walked to get some Turkish ice cream (dondurama). The guys that sell Turkish ice cream from these little streetside carts like to play this game with people. You see, Turkish ice cream is pretty chewy and stretchy. So after they dip it up and put it on the cone, they attach it to this big metal paddle and hand it to you. But when you go to reach for it, they quickly flip it upside down. Then when you go to grab the upside down cone, they flip it back the other way. This usually goes on for 30-45 seconds. Thankfully they didn't do it to each person in our group, just the first.
Then we walked through a very nice park to the sea. We spent 30 minutes or so chilling and talking. I walked around and took some pictures of the city from across the harbor.
Then it was back to our Pansion. I journaled about the past few days and then drifted off to sleep with the sea air wafting in my window listening to Coldplay on my iPod.
I woke up on Monday morning at about 9:30 to the sound of birds and the soft murmur of people talking outside. No strange smells, no cacophony of horns honking. Many other countries I had been to have all of that and more, but here in Kaleiçi (the name for the old city of Antalya), it was peaceful. This is going to be an interesting place, indeed. After I acclimated to my surroundings, I got out of bed and jumped in the shower. Or, I should say the bathroom with a shower head on the side of the wall. No shower curtain or door. So, you had to be careful where you left the toilet paper so that it didn't get drenched.
Dick and I were on the third floor and when I took a look out of our open window, I gazed down on a lovely patio with tables and chairs. There was an amazing spread of food on one table and several members of our team was already downstairs eating. I went down the stairs to join them. The patio, or garden as they called it, was a nice tiled in area with a wall around it. There was a huge tree that gave shade to almost the entire area. The air was cool, with a touch of humidity. It was very pleasant. I proceeded to fill my plate with food. There was simit (a ring of bread covered with sesame seeds that looks kind of like a pretzel), bread rolls, strawberry jam, butter, honey, fresh strawberries, fresh melon, 2 kinds of cheese, kiwi, oranges, plain yoghurt, some kind of molasses-type stuff (that was made from grapes), olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers. This was to be our breakfast for our entire stay at the White Garden Pansion - and I was going to love it each and every day.
After breakfast, I** met us in the lobby and we walked a couple of blocks to the church. On the way we passed by a ruins site that dates back to 200 B.C. It was at one time a pagan temple, then a church, then a mosque (camii in Turkish - pronounced "jah-mee"). Somehow a couple of centuries ago, part of the minaret got knocked off and so now it is called the Truncated Mosque. The whole area was behind a large iron fence so that people wouldn't take artifacts (of course over our time there, I observed several people inside). Apparently they were planning on doing some restoration work someday. It was fascinating because you could see the building style of each era and civilization. For instance, the Romans built with perfectly hewn blocks of stone, the Byzantines added decorative touches like fancy tops to the columns, the Ottomans used all kinds of stones just shoved into every crack they could find. You could literally tell when each level of the structure was built based on the levels of construction.
Kaleiçi (the old city) has a very old world feel. Narrow, cobblestone streets. Lots of shops. Intricate stone work, stucco and doors. It is against the law to demolish a building in Kaleçi - if a building is in disrepair, they have to restore it. Because of that, sometimes buildings will sit in a dilapidated fashion for quite some time before they are restored. It was a fascinating walk to the church.
The church - St. Paul's Cultural Center, was a beautiful building. Newly restored, it housed a public cafe/coffeeshop called Paul's Place. This was a lovely cafe with all kinds of coffee, çay (pronounced like "chai" and is the Turkish word for tea), and wonderful cakes and pastries. They also served lunch, which we had out in the garden. This was a beautiful courtyard with flowering vines growing all over the walls and large trees in the center.
Our lunch was tunafish sandwiches. This was probably our most american meal of the entire trip, and it was my least favorite. We also had warm chocolate chip cookies and coke. We were introduced to P**, T****** and L****, who are I**'s teammates. Over lunch, we spent some time getting to know everybody and sharing stories of long trip there.
After lunch, we proceeded upstairs to the main meeting room. This is where 2 churches meet on Sundays. Sunday mornings, the International Church of Antalya meets there. This is a church that is made up of 50 expatriateates (people who aren't from Turkey and aren't Turkish, but have moved to Antalya to work or retire - mostly Europeans). Then on Sunday afternoons, Antalya Bible Church (the Turkish church) meets there. We wouldn't really have any connection to the Int'l Church during our time in Antalya, our relationships were more with the Turkish Church.
Our afternoon was to be made up of training and orientation. We learned what you can say, what you can't say. What you can do, what you can't do. What cultural taboos to avoid, etc. How to share the gospel with a Turk. How to relate to members of the opposite sex. Mostly, be yourself, but be sensitive to the culture. We then met Ramazan, the pastor of the Turkish Church, who shared a bit of his story and the history of the church. He told us that there were probably 100 or so people who come, but only about 60 who are regular. I have to admit that I was surprised that there were that many Christians in this city of 1.2 million. You see, the total population of Turkey is 70 Million and of that, there are only about 3,000 Christians. Almost all of the rest are Muslim. After Ramazan was finished, Alper shared his testimony with us. Alper is a student and leads the youth group at the church.
After our orientation, we split up into 3 groups to hand out fliers in various key parts of the city. James and I were going to perform a concert on Tuesday night at Paul's Place, and we were handing out fliers to advertise for it. The flier said something like "2 American guitarists are here to provide a musical feast for you." I was with I** and our assignment was to hand out fliers in Kaleiçi. We walked all over the old city dropping off fliers at some key coffeehouses and restaurants. We walked through Adrian's gate, which the Apostle Paul would have walked through 2,000 years ago. You could see the ruts in the stones from thousands of years of chariots and wagons passing through the gate.
We walked down to the old harbor, which was full of amazing old sailboats and Turkish men offering "boat trip" (say this is your best Turkish accent, if you have any idea what a Turkish accent sounds like). They kept hassling us to take a boat trip. When we would walk away, they would say things like "why do you not want to take boat trip? Do you not want to talk to me? Why do you walk away?" While walking around the old harbor, I felt transported to another time. I could imagine ships coming in off of the Mediterranean thousands of years ago. In fact, we saw the steps that the Apostle Paul would have walked up to get into Kaleiçi in the Book of Acts. Amazing.
The city was founded by Attalus II, King of Pergamum around 200 B.C., but there are archeological finds near the city that date back thousands of years earlier. We also walked past an ancient castle that would have served as a great lookout to see possible marauders coming in to attack the city. From there, we could see most of Antalya bay. There are huge (9,000 ft tall) mountains on the far side that practically rise right out of the Mediterranean. Between them and us are miles of beaches with tons of resort hotels dotting the coastline. I heard that last year, almost 8 million non-Turks flew into the Antalya airport to vacation there. We could also see miles and miles of apartment buildings just outside Kaleiçi. I never saw a single family dwelling the entire time I was there - everybody lives in flats.
After handing out fliers, we met everybody at Zeynep's Kitchen - a nice little restaurant just off of Attaturk Cadessi. We ate streetside. At one big long table (actually several tables pulled together). In Turkey, everything is extremely community oriented. It is very important for the group to be together. So when you walk into a restaurant, instead of asking you to split up your group like here in the U.S., they will quickly pull as many tables together as necessary to keep your group together. The service in the restaurants is amazing as well - always refilling your drink, bringing more bread, etc. At Zeynep's we had soup, chicken with rice, tomato and cucumber salad (very traditional Turkish), fried potatoes and bread. They usually have crushed red pepper available at the table to season with. Water, tea and Cola (coke) were also available. Very tasty.
At dinner, our team really started to bond and we were starting to get along well with I, T, P & L as well. Laughter abounded. Somebody mentioned that we should go get some ice cream because they had been craving it for a few days. It was then that I had to confess to my sidetrip to Haagen-Daaz in the Amsterdam airport. Needless to say, the entire team gave me a hard time because I had ice cream and they didn't. The entire rest of the trip, if I was gone for a few minutes, they would ask me if I went to get more ice cream.
After dinner, we went back to the church to go over the schedule for our time there. Even though we had a schedule, there was a lot of emphasis on remaining flexible. One night we were scheduled to eat dinner at a restaurant called Marti Mantı (pronounced "martee mantuh"). I** mentioned that we had passed it earlier that day and that there were seagulls on the windows. I then said "oh, do they serve fish?" Someone sarcastically said "no, seagulls are birds, Brett." To that I said "IN DEFENSE - seagulls live by the sea and they eat birds!" And everybody busted out with laughter. Of course, I meant to say that they eat fish. For the rest of the trip, all anyone had to say to elicit a chuckle was "in defense" or "look, seagulls." Much fun.
After our meeting, we walked to exchange some money. Then we went to an internet cafe to email. For some reason, I couldn't get to my email, so I was unable to send a message home that we had arrived just fine. They also had a phone bank where you could make international calls for a nominal fee, so I tried to call home. I got Elise's voice mail, which was a bummer. At least she would know that I had arrived safely.
Then we walked to get some Turkish ice cream (dondurama). The guys that sell Turkish ice cream from these little streetside carts like to play this game with people. You see, Turkish ice cream is pretty chewy and stretchy. So after they dip it up and put it on the cone, they attach it to this big metal paddle and hand it to you. But when you go to reach for it, they quickly flip it upside down. Then when you go to grab the upside down cone, they flip it back the other way. This usually goes on for 30-45 seconds. Thankfully they didn't do it to each person in our group, just the first.
Then we walked through a very nice park to the sea. We spent 30 minutes or so chilling and talking. I walked around and took some pictures of the city from across the harbor.
Then it was back to our Pansion. I journaled about the past few days and then drifted off to sleep with the sea air wafting in my window listening to Coldplay on my iPod.
posted by
at 9:33 AM
2 Comments:
In defense...
By
James Miller, at 5:07 PM
wow, antalya sounds like a really neat place. do you think you will go back? if so, short-term? long-term?
By
shauna, at 3:07 PM
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