ALANYA –
THE CITY OF GOLD
„you come
as a stranger, but you leave as a friend“ this proverb proved as totally right.
A bit more than one year ago I had visited Turkey for the first time and I told
my friend who came with me “I definitely want to live here, at least for a few
months”. That’s what I did. From the end of March until June I’ve been living
and working in Alanya, “the city of gold”, as my Turkish friends usually call
it. And they are definitely right, because from the first time I’ve been there
I fell in love with the castle on the mountain in the middle of the sea, the
bays, the harbour, the little bars and restaurants, the bazaar, the sunset but
most of all with the people. In the beginning I was shy and insecure because it
was kind of a different world for me and I didn’t understand anything in
Turkish. But in a few weeks I’ve learnt the most common phrases to communicate
with natives and I’ve also acclimatised to the Turkish culture and their
characteristics. Çay (tea) is the most important drink in Turkey and I haven’t
been drinking as much çay as in Turkey in my whole life before. But if you want
to get a good cup of coffee, you have to make sure that you order “Turkish coffee”,
otherwise they’ll serve you a Nescafe. You make this kind of mistake just once,
trust me. There’s nothing more romantic than sitting on a lighthouse, drinking
çay and watching the sunset. After the sunset Alanya is more alive than during
the day. In the night time you should visit the harbour. There are hundreds of
bars and discos next to each other where they play real good music, international
charts but Turkish pop as well. It’s really gorgeous. My favourite bar was
called “cello”. It was a Turkish bar above the harbour with only Turkish people
and Turkish live music. It will always keep these moments in my mind when I was
sitting there, drinking rakı and having great conversations with natives.
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| Alanya by night |
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| my brother & me on the Castle of Alanya |
