Tourist-ing it Up on the Eastern Mediterranean Coast

Some people will argue about whether there is a difference between "travelling" and "being a tourist".  If such a difference exists, we definitely spent this week on the tourist trail.  Since Gaziantep, we spent two of our nights relaxing in the beach town of Kizkalesi and one night in Alanya to test out one of Turkey's two craft breweries.

Kizkalesi was a six and a half hour bus and dolmus journey from Gaziantep.  It's a little beach town best known for its two castles - one of which is offshore and looks kind of like it's floating in the ocean - and its German tourists.

The floating castle.  You can rent paddle boats or swim out to it, but we were too busy relaxing to do either.

The other castle is in the background.

These lemons aren't quite ready for eating... Apparently Turkey doesn't have limes, so we know it's not a lime tree.

There are pomegranate trees all over Turkey.  Unfortunately, pomegranates aren't ripe until fall, but this one is on its way.

The view from our dinner along the sea.

We finally found Turkish coffee instead of the ubiquitous Nescafe.

After eight weeks on the road, it was nice to relax a bit in Kizkalesi.  Unfortunately, something we ate meant we both became quite ill with a stomach bug on our second night there, Chad more so than me.  This was particularly unfortunate because we had a seven hour bus ride the next day to Alanya.  And this particular seven hour bus ride was on a windy, mountainous road, which induced a lot of vomiting on the part of the other passengers on the bus.

I'll spare you further details, but we were relieved to get into Alanya in one piece about 5:30 pm.  Alanya is described in the Lonely Planet as "a densely populated tourist haven that can look like Vegas by the Sea".  They hit the nail on the head with that description.  We had just the evening here, which we used as an opportunity to taste the beer from one of Turkey's two craft breweries, despite the fact we weren't yet fully recovered.  The beer was okay (though the accompanying meal grossly overpriced and probably some of the worst food we've had in Turkey). But it was still kind of fun to wander and take a look at the Vegas-y sights in Alanya.

Lots of muz (bananas) are grown on this part of the Turkish coast and you can buy them all along the roadside.  They are much sweeter and tastier than the bananas we have imported at home.  I'm not a big fan of bananas but I would almost say I like these.

The Alanya promenade.

One of the many touristy boats - note the Viking with the scary blue eyes.

The Alanya harbour from above.

The red tower on the right is quite pretty and one of Alanya's big tourist sites.

The two types of beers at the Red Tower brewery - dark and light.

The six floor Red Tower brewery.  Only two floors were open while we were there (a dining room on the second and a dance floor/bar on the sixth) but when the season is in full swing they have sushi on the second, 'international' fare on the third, and who knows what other mysteries on the fourth and fifth.

Promenade at night.

It is truly a mystery what is served at this steak house.  Sadly, it is not the only restaurant in Alanya specializing in Turkish food, fish, Mexican food, AND pizza.