Day 26: Millions of peaches, peaches for me

Miles: 277
Countries: Turkey
Stops: Antalya-ish -> Antalya -> Side -> Konya ->
Playlists: Epic Songs (Spotify)

So that rooster we mentioned last night? That asshat decided to serenade us, not once, not twice, not even three times, but every 5 minutes on the dot for 2 hours straight. We gave up trying to sleep, got up and packed our car as he stood watching with his beady little eyes.

Justin finally got the chance to do some car stuff. He checked the oil to find it hella low, and he finally changed the lightbulb that's been out for 2 weeks. Meanwhile I glued the inside of our doors together since apparently No Ragrets couldn't handle our sweaty arms and that was the first thing to go (other than the lightbulb), on both sides.

We bought some apricots and peaches from the guy with his baskets who looked bored (there is a cart with fresh fruit on the highway every few metres, not even exaggerating, there could be 3 carts in one pullover. Really don't get how they make a living, to be honest).

We ate our peaches and apricots and tossed them at each other in the car. Fun ride.

We got into Antalya, parked and wandered the old city. The city itself was day and night in comparison with the old town. So cute vs a typical modern city. It was all narrow alleys with flower pots and vines and just so old school small town, something you'd picture out of an old French movie, even. Every door was wide open whether it was hotels, food, ice cream served in melons, or little shops selling various trinkets. Super old city and the ruins really added to the build of the streets. It welcomed us with Hadrian's Gate which is a giant archway into this walled off "town". Unfortunately, it's all on a high cliff, so the beach we had hoped for as our faces melted off was not to be found. Fortunately, Justin flew his drone around and ended up finding a little place at the very edge of Old Town with stairs down to the water and a hidden restaurant. So we made our way over, and got right into the sea. The water... I have no words. It usually takes me forever to get in, but Justin had a hard time getting me out.

With the stress of time, we couldn't afford to sit around all afternoon, although we easily could've spent the full day there. We finally got our hands on the ever recommended Iskender Kebob (SO GOOD!!), got in the car, and headed over to Side.

I ended up napping and was rudely awoken by Justin's moose head smacking me in the face on its way out of my open window. Gone forever. RIP Moose.

We could've spent days in Side - so much to see and do, but alas, we had to narrow down what we can afford to do. Side is a city that was occupied and ruled by Alexander the Great. This is the main reason we detoured to the south coast, but we only realized we forgot to do that when we got a few hours inland at the end of the day. We got so hooked on the old ruins with the Temples of Apollo and Athena. It was essentially the remnants of an entire city with marble columns still standing/laying down, whole columns/broken bits, entire buildings/foundation, everything. We walked for ages, flew more drone, swam on the coast, ate Turkish ice cream (I'm so hooked!! It's like... kind of chewy? and doesn't melt like regular ice cream does). And all the flavours! In one cone! Drool. Also, while Justin flew his drone, I wandered around a bit and got approached by a guy. We spent 10 min trying to translate the conversation to no avail. I thought he was asking me to take a picture of him and couldn't figure out what he wanted when he shoved his phone in my hand. It took over 10 minutes and a TurkishturkishSexyTurkishTurkishturkish before I even began to clue in that he was trying to get my number. Apparently language barrier does not stop this guy. But seriously, my face was so melted off it wasn't even attached anymore, and my hair was in full frizz mode from the earlier swim, so it wasn't my fault I didn't clue in, no one would've in this situation! It was pretty funny though. We watched him wandering around looking for more lady tourist victims until it got creepy on our part and we had to stop. 

We drove another 4 or so hours through mountains (reached 6000ft again!). Justin loves the roads, and the scenery is breathtaking. I had to stop reading crossword clues so I could take it all in, so of course we wailed to music as per usual.

We got into Konya - this used to be the capital of Turkey in the 12th and 13th century and was a major stop on the Silk Road. It's supposed to be a huge history hub, but we were pretty disappointed when we rolled in. It looked pretty modern, uninteresting, and all its glory (which I'm sure is well earned) is due to all the historical and archeological museums and old mosques. We were in no museum mood by 8:30pm so we decided to make our way towards Cappadocia which has been one of the things we've been talking about since we signed up for this rally. It's essentially an underground city that holds 20,000 people and is carved out of the mountains. It's also the hot air balloon capital of the world, so we're pretty stoked to do this.

Driving 15 min out of Konya, it got pitch black super quick and the lightening bolts were beyond intense!! We found a gas station to pull into for hideout and decided to do the 2.5 hour drive tomorrow morning instead. We set our car up for the night and ate at the little gas station restaurant, even here, the hospitality was amazing! The guy grilled us fresh kebobs and some of the best grilled bread we've had so far. Made sure we had a salad and was constantly checking up on us.

Calling it quits for the night so we can get an early start. So excited for tomorrow! We also were in contact with another team (one of the bridal teams mentioned from Goodwood), so we'll be teaming up tomorrow! Yay for friends :)