Above: Antalya eateries in the evening.
Most on board had had a bad night sleep but I was OK. I woke around 0700 and breakfast was served at 0800. We had a last swim in Gokkaya Bay before doing a short hop to Demre harbour around 1000.
Our arrival was much earlier than expected as the website indicate an arrival after lunch. But this actually suited me better for my onward travel to Antalya. We settled our bills and said our goodbyes.
I felt that (either by fluke or good planning), we had a good crowd on board. We were diverse in backgrounds and ages, which meant that. I had learnt some new things:
- Nutella is pronounce as “new-tella” amongst some Europeans. Recently when the product was introduced in the US, the publicity material mentioned this pronunciation to the surprise of much of the English-speaking world. But to the Europeans on board, the didn’t even think of “nut-tella” as a “nut” product.
- I asked the Chinese lady (whose family are active in the Communist Party) how they reconcile Communism with the fact that China is so enterprising and capitalistic nowadays. She acknowledged it but she says the government try to say it is “socialism with a Chinese flavour” or otherwise sweep it under the carpet.
We all felt that we had enjoyed ourselves more than if we had been on the party boat. The Iranian guy (who is only 20) said “those people are without culture … are they from a zoo in Australia?”
We disembarked on to a tender which took us to land. A shuttle took us to Demre bus station where a bus was available within 10 minutes to take me and Robert to Antalya.
The 3h journey was sickly windy at first (funny I felt sick when I was OK on board the boat), then inland and finally along the touristy Antalya coast. I decided to have a light lunch at Antalya station but what seemed like rolled up gozleme turned out to be like dried cardboard.
I taxied to the Oscar Boutique Hotel. I bought some ayran (yes, it was salty) and had it with muesli and called it lunch. I had chosen the hotel because it had a very nice pool and offered half-board for a little more than the room-only price.
It turned out to be the right choice as the pool was indeed very refreshing and the air-con in the room worked well. I didn’t leave my room till dinner time. I walked off the buffet dinner by walking along the promenade, the town and parts of the old town.