February 21

So I am going nuts – we won’t be leaving at 8:30 for the rest of the time before Spring Break! And that included today! I still like to get up early, but I do love having time in the morning to do reading. I am a bit more energized in the morning. I feel like I am developing a normal person’s sleep schedule. It’s strange.
But, yes, we left at 9:30 this morning and headed to the Antalya Museum. They have on display some wonderful sculptures that were found at the Antalya theater (which we will not visit). Krentz told us to imagine these statues at the Aspendos theater from yesterday. The sculpture there would have been very similar to those displayed. This museum also displayed the sarcophagi found at the acropolis from Perge. These stone caskets are completely covered in relief figures and decorations. Very impressive. Most of these caskets have been recently returned from other museums around the world, after having been aggressively pursued by the Turkish government. They are justified in trying to get back these pieces as most were smuggled out of Turkey from illegal digs. The museum lets the visitor know the truth as well. This plaque was propped up against one of the sarcophagi: “This fragment of sarcophagus was smuggled abroad after illicit excavations in Perge and given back by Paul Getty Museum of U.S.A. in 1983.” I wonder how willingly that museum gave the item back.
After the Antalya Museum, we had about 2 and a half hours free time before we had to catch out flight to Turkey. I went with Gulin, Krentz, and a few other students to check out Hadrian’s gate, which was constructed after his visit to this city in the 2nd century CE (at that time the city was known as Byzantium). We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant in the downtown area that Gulin found for us. They brought us some delicious, freshly baked pita bread. It was still puffy and steamy! At every single restaurant in Turkey, you get bread on the table. The same went for Greece as well. In Turkey, however, the bread is free and they keep refilling your basket. In Greece, there is a 50 cent charge per person. Even if they raise prices of the dishes in Turkey to account for the “free” bread, I’d rather be duped. I don’t like being charged out right for bread. After lunch I went to a coffee shop with Sarabeth and Mary to get some reading done.
Our flight to Istanbul was set to take off at 4:45, so we all reconvened at 2:30 by this huge statute of Ataturk (he is basically God here) in the middle of downtown Antalya. There were no problems getting on the plane or our new bus that will take us around Istanbul. This bus is even smaller! But, we won’t be leaving Istanbul for the rest of the week, and when we do ride the bus, it will only be for a short trip.
This hotel is very nice compared to where we have been staying. I scored a double this week. YEAH! And with Sarabeth too. She gets up later than I do, so I get the bathroom all to myself in the morning without having to get up any earlier.
We went out to dinner at this restaurant that Gulin recommended. She lives in Istanbul, so she won’t be dining with us anymore. This place was called the pudding shop for some reason. It was very tasty, though. I had a delicious stuffed eggplant. Istanbul is much more expensive than the rest of Turkey, however. We are now paying what we would for meals in the States. After dinner it was back to the hotel for a little bit of schoolwork and sleep.