Today we will visit the market of Manavgat. But at first we go to the reception again and tell about the noise at our room. "Do you have some time? I have a room with the best outlook at all". Of course we have time and in a hurry arrange our baggage and some servants carry the bags some stairs higher. Our new room is bigger, nicer and has a convenient distance to the road. And the view is phantastic. We are happy.

Nonetheless we will not forget what we have planned. There are 60 km to Manavgat and this is done by a Dolmus, these are small busses riding on demand. We go to the central bus station named Otogar. Some friendly helpers welcome us and seem to be able to read from our eyes where we want to go. So we soon sit in the right bus and are astonished that we are the only tourists in there. The bus needs about an hour on the unattractive coastal road.

At Manavgat it is busy. There are more tourists now and they will come from the nearby Side. At the river there are boat cruises available, they go to a waterfall or down to the mouth of the river. But we look for the market and soon find the center of it. We have visited a couple of markets in Greece and Spain but this is the biggest and busiest of all. There are a lot of locals from the rural areas offering fruits and vegetables. Under a special roof there are spice booths only. "Red hair and hands by Henna" or "Basilicum for brown rice" is to be read. Some women sit on the floor and offer some bowls with a white coloured stuff, may be milk products of theit goats and sheep. It would be interesting to learn something about the way of life of these market people but we cannot talk to anyone.

In the afternoon we enjoy a hazy sun on the artificial grass of the pool. And I prepare my bike. But then I find out a  bitter loss: my old multifunction Swiss pocketknife has disappeared. You know: I need it to open the bottles with the forbidden vine. I suppose I have put the knife by mistake into a garbage bag, and because the trash cans are cleared daily there is nothing to look after.

I think to have seen a booth with pocket knifes at the bazar. But we look around for a while and find nothing. As we buy our forbidden vine they must open the bottle at the shop for we have no corkscrew. So we have to smuggle the bottle carefully into the hotel.

And this evening we sit on our new crow's nest and look around. We can look down just into the bar. But at first some time must be wasted at the television for the weather forecast. This is usually concentrated on central Europe, and they have fine weather. Down at the right side of the map must be Turkey but in most cases the conferencier stands just in front of it. Within parts of seconds we can recognize some whirls of clouds above Turkey.

As we go to bed there is another mystery. Inside of the wall there is a grumbling noise anywhere. We find out later that this is an aggregate of an ice box in the storage room one floor below. Eventually we get used to it for we open the door of the balcony to get some kind of noise-mixture.

Another sound comes out of the bathroom. The ventilation tubes of our and the neighbour room lead into a common slot, so one can hear every word from the other side. "Where are your socks dear?". It is better to close the door of the bathroom if something intimate should happen.

Tuesday

The sun shines today! Heidi occupies the pool and I will use my bike for the first time and have a look at the supermarket Micros. May be they have a pocket knife. This time there is no problem to find the market, it is near the end of the town. You can buy everything, mainly shaving stuff - but no pocket knife. Not to return in vain I buy a corkscrew.

Thereafter I stroll around at the bazar but nowhere can find a pocket knife. So I return to the pool. The main conversation theme is the weather. Some come to this place since years but they never had such bad weather. Last year it was so hot at this time that the people were happy to go back home again. So we think, may be it is better to be not too hot.

In the late afternoon we go shopping again. This time we find a shop around the corner, there are books and pocket knifes available. This looks like Swiss knife (red) but costs 9 Millions and is no high quality product. The books, some in German, are very expensive, some look like they have been underwater once. And so it is, the owner tells, that his shop once was flooded from the nearby beach. He says to be the only one in Alanya where German books are available. At last we think that we will not suffer from the lack of reading material when we have finished our books that we have brought with us.

Wednesday

Today we will visit the fortification, the main attraction of Alanya. At breakfast some people inform us of the best route back down the hill. For the tour up to the castle we better use the Dolmus bus which goes each hour. At the bus station we meet a couple from Cologne and they will accompany us for the rest of the tour. They live in the Club Alantur in the east of the town near the mouth of the river Dim. They are very enthusiastic about their hotel: food, location, park and beach - everything is fine. We nearly get envious, on the other hand we are very near to the center and can walk around whenever we want.

Today the complete surrounding walls are preserved. We observe two main attractions. There is a Byzantian chapel from the 11 th century. The other place is somewhat spooky. It is the so called Adam Ataca Tower. In German they use the name Menschenabwurf, which means a place where they have thrown prisoners down to the sea. Read the following description which I have copied from http://www.adiyamanli.org/alanya.html :

Adam Atacasi Tower is the last spot of the inner castle tour. It is related that the prisoners of the Roman times were made to play a similar gamble. They were given three stones and one who managed to throw the stone into the sea was released whereas those who could not were thrown into the sea through a catapult. The name Adam Ataca?? (=Man Thrower) is given for that reason.

Then we are introduced to the electronic equipment, which is responsable for the transmission to the speakers when the Muedzin presents his prayer songs. Our guide is the Muedzin himself but doesn't look like such a Mulla or Ayatolla. He ensures that the songs are life and not from tape. Finally he gives a hint on the box for a donation and so we spend some coins for this presentation. Thereafter the young man alias muezzin goes out and smokes a cigarette.

Another couple from Hannover has joined to a Jeep Safari up in the Taurus mountains. They didn't take into consideration that up there it is quite another weather. So after coldness and rain they come back somewhat chilled through. It is to be heard, that those Safaris are stopped for the next days.

At our  evening stroll we hit on a man with sepiolite works (Meerschaum). For we stop just a moment too long we are quickly informed about this and that concerning sepiolite matters. There are mainly pipes for smoking produced from this material. The man calls himself a sepiolite teacher. After we have tried to carve with a knife a little bit we are glad to escape. Some time later someone tries to convince us, that we should have dinner in his restaurant. "We have our dinner in our hotel" we say. "This is your hotel " he says and puts some chairs in front of us to obstruct the passage. This is not always so pleasant.

Thursday

Someone has told where there is another shop with books. But this is no book shop but a tourist bureau for excursions. We get a tea of course and we have to sit down. There are two-day tours to Pamukkale, famous by the white stone cascades. Another trip goes to Kappadokien, where there are bizarre rock formations and underground settlements with numerous storeys. The excursions are not very expensive, about DM 100.- including demipension and accommodation. But think of the long time in the bus and the crowds of tourists, which will be collected from all over Turkey.

Another one day trip is to Cap Anamur along the wild romantic eastern coast road. We think to wait for better weather, because the mountains are always hidden by the clouds. So we buy a nice coffee-table book of Alanya and a funny book about a certain Hodscha. The Nasredin Hodscha is the figure of fables offering wise advices for any life situations.

And two streets from here we find the sensation: a regular bookshop. There are even some books of Yasar Kemal in German, but more expensive of course. But we still have enough to read.

In the evening there is the presentation of leather clothes at the terrace of the hotel, including some belly dance shows. This is very convenient for us, for we can sit on our balcony with our forbidden vine just above the scene. At first four young ladies demonstrate some leather dresses. The belly dance show is more interesting of course. The belly lady comes nearer and nearer to some gentlemen. So I am very happy to sit far away of that all. At last they bring hallstands full of leather clothes. The audience stays without motion. Then a guy stands up and invites his darling to try on some dresses. But they do not buy any. So the leather sellers at last have to quit and clear away all their stuff.