DAY 9
Began the day with another lovely breakfast - this time it included a freshly made mushroom & cheese omelette :). Forgot to mention the cats last night. Gorgeous cats (probably wild) hang around at meal times hoping for a feed. I want to cuddle and pat them, they're so gorgeous, but I'm wary of rabies in countries like this so I didn't - I did feed them though :). They were here at breakfast also. One tortoiseshell cat particularly liked my spicy sausage!
After breakfast we went down to the Mediterranean via a service lift at the end of the resort. After walking through a lit tunnel we found ourselves right at the edge of the cliff face with sun decks all around. There was a ladder to reach the water (a warm 28C) and a pontoon in the middle of the sectioned off swimming area. We both dunked our feet in for a quick photo opportunity.
We then decided to explore the area and in particular the local shopping centre mall. I would like to offer some valuable travel advice at this stage. Never, never, never take directions from another tourist without verifying your location first with the reception desk. We turned left out of the hotel instead of right and after walking for about 45mins in 34C heat we were fortunate to find a couple from our group who informed us we were going the wrong way.... No wonder the damn map didn't make sense . So we trudged back towards the hotel for another 45mins and then another 15mins to reach our intended destination! The mall in no way compares to the one in Istanbul (and why would it - that one is the largest in Europe). Still we probably wouldn't have attempted the walk at all if we knew beforehand. Anyway we bought a couple of things to make it worthwhile.
There are 2 Starbucks in Antalya that we saw today and yet not a single one in Adelaide... Hmmm! The hotel pool was beckoning us, so we headed back. A few feet from the hotel my good knee pretty much locked up on me, probably due to the heat and all the walking combined :(.
We went down to the Mediterranean again so Aleisha could have a proper dip. The place was packed with people trying to perfect their already tanned bodies. They must have thought Aleisha and I had been stuck in a closet for decades haha! Aleisha went in and I took a few pics to prove it. We then decided to go back up to the pool deck, which was much cooler, so I could try and cool my knee down... which didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever. We shared some French fries and a coke for around $11 (highly inflated prices here!) and had a few giggles while people watching. We've nicknamed a few favorites like "Harry High Pants" and "Harry No Pants" (walking around the area with a tank top and speedos is NOT A good look!).
It has been a lovely break today, just relaxing by the pool - I just wish I hadn't stuffed my knee up beforehand! Should be interesting resuming the tour tomorrow.
Just came back from dinner - another lovely buffet with plenty of choices and good company. Had a nice chat and a cup of apple tea to finish the evening. Off to bed for an early start tomorrow.