This post is a pictural and auditory feast for the eyes and ears. If I could add touch, smell, and taste to print, you would truly be here with me...
Before we enter Greece, let us spend a couple of more days within the heart of Antalya...
I missed my bus stop to the Aktur Amusement Park to ride the second largest in Europe and largest ferris wheel in Turkey: the Heart of Antalya. The hearty walk back along the University park was stunning.
When in Turkey, cats rule...
...as do Turkish coffee and Turkish tea (cay). I stopped at the cafe with the "you-are-loved" sign on the wall that captured my attention while walking by it last winter.
After ordering a cappuccino made with almond milk, I invited a lone young man at a nearby table to join me. He had ordered a popular drink in the east parts of Turkey called Menengic. He offered me a taste of his drink and the rest is herstory...
I told Svitlana I wanted a Menengic coffee during our last breakfast together. Menengic is not as popular throughout Turkey as Turkish coffee and Cay is so the restaurant did not have it. Svitlana came home later that night with a going away gift...
How does one fit a bulky 3D gift into a jam-packed carry-on? I do not know how I did it, but I fit a full-sized canister of Menengic Kahvesi and a stainless steel Turkish coffee pot in my luggage.
The day before leaving, my Antalya dentist finished the work I had come to do on my teeth. I could not eat, my mouth was sore, and my body was holding traumatic stress. I walked out of the dentist and into an hour-long Tai reflexology session. Then I walked into a Turkish Hamam for a two-hour sauna, steam, fish-eating-foot-bath, scrub, and full-body massage. Then, I felt relaxed. Then, I met a guy. It was a rockin' last night.
The next day I happened upon what I am calling a "club bus." I took a little video. Check out the appreciative bus driver in the rear view mirror, throwing me a kiss.
My flight from Antalya to Istanbul was at 6:15 am. I was up at 3:15. Even though it was ridiculously early, my seat mate and I talked the whole trip. Her boyfriend slept. She and her boyfriend were Russian and lived in Moscow, though they had met six months earlier in Turkey. She told me how her best friend had died from suicide. We talked about grief. We talked about guilt. We laughed. We cried. She told me of her conviction to live life to its fullest, how, since her friend's death, for much of this past year, she has traveled far and wide. She spoke of the many places she had been and showed me scrolls of pictures. On this trip, after landing in Istanbul, she and her boyfriend would catch a flight north, stopping in three more cities she had not yet been, before returning to Moscow.
My flight from Istanbul to Athens was non-eventful. I sat in an uncomfortably bumpy aisle seat while my row-mate blocked his window while taking pictures and videos the entire trip. My seat mates across the aisle kept their window shade closed. I made up for the lack of my connection to the clouds on the flight from Athens to Chania.
My host, Ole, was waiting for me at the Chania airport. He drove me to Kalyves, showed me what I would need to know while living for a month in his apartment... I watched him feed Micky, and we walked on the beach and around town. Then, he left, to drive back to Chania to catch an early morning flight. Micky and I were on our own.
I have been here for four full days. I made a composite or collage of pictures and videos I have taken with you in mind (and heart). I hope you enjoy being here with me.
And then there was today... a five star day. I met a man on the beach from Denmark who came back from a two-year sailing odyssey that started in Denmark and included Panama. As he shared his adventures, nearby, what I am assuming to be a mom and her daughter were talking and pointing into the clear water below them. I joined them to see an octopus scaling the rocks in the bottom of the bay. They called to what I am assuming were sons or a son and friends, who joined us, along with the Danish Odysseus. It was so thrilling, I decided to brave the cold water and go for a swim. Micky and I walked up the hill, I changed, and back down we went, into the Souda Bay.
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