Türkiye'de Hoşgeldiniz

When we arrived at the airport in Antalya, we did not know what the sentence above meant. But when we asked it to a inhabitant, he said we were welcome in Turkey. Turkey is a huge country. We asked the same inhabitant how many people were living in Turkey and we were astonished when we heard his answer.. around 74 million inhabitants.

Our first goal today was to find somewhere to sleep. After talking a bit with our Turkish friend (in English of course), we asked some interesting places for sleeping. His answer was: “ Yes, in my house” . We accepted his offer and we followed our friend Haluk to his house. His house was very beautiful, as you can see on the picture. We met his wife and four children. They received us like nobody else. Turkish tea (Çay) was offered as sign of welcome. During the teatime we made meetings with each other.

Haluk is the boss of the house. In English his name means ‘good nature’. His wife Dilek means desire, wish. And then we have the four children. One boy and three girls. The name of the boy is Berk and the meaning of that name is strong, solid, firm. He is the youngest of the family but like his name says he is very muscular. And then we have the 3 girls: Yildiz, Suleand Melek and the respective meanings are star, flame and angel. We liked their way of being so familiar to us.

But we were here to visit Turkey so we asked to Haluk what were the most beautiful places in that country. Living his whole life since he was born in Antalya, Haluk suggested to be our guide in that city and show us the most beautiful places. So we did not know the city so we agreed. Today it was beautiful weather and the fact Antalya is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, Haluk took us to the Lara beach. Lara is a district of Antalya and has the longest beach of Turkey.

After that, we went to Kaleici, the historical centre of Antalya. Kaleici has been restored after the second world war and now it is the most touristic place in Antalya with its clubs, hotels, bars and restaurants. Very beautiful city with a mix of Lycian, Pamphylian, and Hellenistic -but mainly Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman- architecture. In that picture you can see an old clock in the Kaleici.

Everybody was a bit Hungry and to thank our guide for the great welcome we’ve hd, we decided to invite him for lunch. The only thing he had to do is find a typical restaurant where we can eat local things. He knew exactly what we were searching and led us to a very small restaurant at a corner of a street. Apparently he knew the boss of the restaurant and he asked an assortment of delicacies.

First of all, the owner of the restaurant served a glass of Raki. And do you, readers know what raki really means? Well, we will tell it to you. Raki means milk of lion (just because it is white like milk and strong like a lion). And then the great lunch began. Lots of strange things were served just like Kapuska and Sehriye Corbasi (soups), Taratorlu Mydye Tavasi, Kimali Enginar (meats) and Cacik and Zerde (deserts). After 2 hours of talking and savoring those delicious things, we decided to go home. So as you can see, not a very difficult day today but really emotional to see how people are doing everything to make us happy. Once at Haluks’ house in the evening, we ate some other specialties friendly offered by Dilek and the children. After eating, we all went to the living room for a last cup of tea. They were also curious to know how life was in Belgium and so we changed some interesting information about culture, architecture,… Finally we went to bed for another interesting day near Antalya. See you next time ;)