Antalya ended up being one of our favourite places we visited in Turkey, and definitely seems like a city that’s worth a second stop.

Aka, Merry Christmas.

Our last stop in Turkey was in the town of Oludeniz. Which was a mistake. Oludeniz is a dead-in-winter fake town without a soul. I chose it because of its proximity to some pretty things (Blue Lagoon, Butterfly Valley), but that’s not really enough to sell the place. If I went again, I’d stay in the nearby town of Fethiye.

Following our first day in the Istanbul, in which we mostly moped around the Old Town, we spent the Istanbullian evening in the slightly livelier Taksim area.

Featuring a Gateway to Hell! “Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell.” (Strabo)

In the southwest of Turkey, just a few km south of the town of Fethiye, is an abandoned ghost village consisting of hundreds of empty stone houses…

Google ‘where to go in Turkey’, and the top hit is almost always Pamukkale or Cappadocia.

The first day or two in Istanbul I was still a bit sick.

aka, frozie toesies.