In Amman....with updates from Antalya!

Today we arrived in JORDAN!! We are currently in Amman Couchsurfing with a lovely American girl named Melanie and her Jordanian boyfriend, where they have a rooftop apartment with a view over the entire city. We took 2 flights today, the first from Antalya to Istanbul and then a wonderful flight on Royal Jordanian from Istanbul to Amman (we had our own personal televisions for a 2 hour flight!) Now to update from Antalya....

We spend 3 days in Antalya, a southern beach city on the Mediterranean, and Couchsurfed with our new friend Caglar. His apartment was a little far from the center and old city area, but the first day we ventured out and found our way to town. A blistering 35 degrees Celsius with a lot of humidity....Antalya was hot!! We walked through the old city and saw the beautiful marina, where the water is a lovely shade of blue and boats hang around offering tours in the sea.

The Marina in Antalya

After a long search for food that was anything but kebab, we headed to the nearest beach called Konyaalti where we slept the late afternoon heat away. Our host worked all day and had gone to the opera that night, so we had the apartment to ourselves. We decided it was time to cook a real meal- pasta and salad never tasted so delicious! We also got to watch another World Cup match....one thing you don't need Turkish to understand.

The second day we took advantage of some free time to visit ancient Olimpos. Though now it is just a small town for tourists, the area has been taken over by many ancient civilizations throughout history, including the Romans. Now only a few ruins survive, but this site is unique from the rest as it is hidden in the mountains and right on the coast. Though a big difficult to get to (2 minibuses and some walking is needed), the site is really unique. You arrive at the entrance gate, and for 3 Turkish Lira (about $2) you can pass through the old ruins. After about 1/4 mile the trees open up and there is a beautiful hidden pebble beach surrounded by rocks and huge mountains, and even still more ruins. We spent the day on the beach, but it again it must have been 40 degrees Celsius outside- over 100 degrees Fahrenheit! We could only last so long.

The ruins and the beach at Olimpos

Unfortunately our host got sick that day so we didn't see much of him for the rest of our time there. The last day we decided to relax before heading to Jordan, so we spent the day at the really nice new pool in the apartment complex and watched football matches. Sadly, Spain (our favorite to win) lost its first match. We are routing for them to come back next time though!!

For the next week we will be exploring Jordan- tales from Amman, Petra, Jesus' Baptism Site, the desert, and more to come soon!