Day 9 Thursday October 02, 2008 Antalya Submitted By Cathrine Barr
 This was a day I was looking forward to ever since we received our itinerary and I realized we would be taking a boat cruise on the Mediterranean. The weather was warm and sunny and after breakfast we walked out to the main street to get on our bus. We drove through the city and along the scenic waterfront and then into the mountains. After an hour drive we arrived at Kemer a coastal tourist town with a large harbor, where we boarded the “Kaptan Acar” a 26m/86 ft gulet style boat. With only 13 of us coming on board we had lots of room to spread out. We relaxed in the sun or under the sunshades. During the day the boat anchored in three
different bays so we could swim. The water was clean and blue and much saltier than we are used to on the North American West Coast. It was such
 “bliss” to swim in this nice warm water!We enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch and later in the day we had plates of fresh fruit. We also bought ice cream from the “ice-cream man” who came alongside in his motorboat and jumped on board with his ice-chest. We started our return trip about 2pm and a few hours later we transferred into a smaller boat and motored to the dock at Phasalis. We sat down on some of the ancient building stones and listened as Meli told us the history of this beautiful spot. We walked through the ruins and then found our bus in the parking lot near the aqueduct. We got back to our hotel around 6:30pm. Debby, Mary, Jennifer, Enneke and Kaija went for their turn at the Haman. The rest of the group had gone the previous evening. Wendy, Gary and I went out to the main street to use an Internet café and then looked for a restaurant. We went into a bakery to buy some baklava and while there we met the others all fresh and relaxed from their Turkish bath. We all decided to go for dinner and started walking back into the old part of the city where our hotel was. We heard some
 Turkish music coming from the Yenikapi restaurant. When we stopped to listen to the baglama music, someone came out and invited us in. (Debby described our group as Gary and his harem!) There was not much English understood and the food was ordered by pointing to the menu which was in German and Turkish. It was a lively place and before long we were all up and dancing with some of the others who were there. Good food, good music and laughter are all that are needed to enjoy the company of others anywhere in the world!
It was a truly wonderful day with so many pleasant memories.
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