It was the first time in three years that the lunatics had been allowed to flee the asylum.
Just hours after the schools broke up for the winter holidays, my family — husband, two teenagers and me — hot-footed it to the airport bound for Turkey, where my husband is from.
And no, journalists are not rich. I'd booked the flights long before Russia invaded Ukraine, when Qatar Airways was having a sale, and paid R24,000 for the lot. Also, Turkey is a very affordable holiday option for South Africans, with the lira and rand on par at time of writing and where plenty of well-priced accommodation deals are available on Airbnb and Booking.com.
Visas are also free and available online — no schlepping to any embassy required.
FIRST STOP: ANTALYA
We dragged my mother-in-law, who lives in Muş, with us to Antalya, the largest city on the Turkish Riviera, established around 200BC. It is surrounded by the Taurus mountains and on the Mediterranean Sea, in which I fully intended to wallow for a week in the 30°C weather.
On Airbnb I found an old Ottoman-style home in the city’s old town, Kaleiçi (which means “inside the castle”) for R12,000 for a seven-night stay. Many of the streets are too narrow for cars. Because of this, the vibe begins right outside the front door with coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries and quaint shops around every corner, and the magnificent 1,900-year-old Hadrian’s Gate nearby. With Mermerli beach 400m from our house, we could have spent a week just enjoying Kaleiçi and the adjacent Karaaalioğlu park with its stunning views over the marina.
But if you want to force yourself into relaxation mode, there is no better way than a day on a boat, sailing between coves and beaches and diving into turquoise waters. It’s hard not to sound like a travelogue, but it is all that. For about R600 per person, we were transferred from Antalya to the port in Kemer, about an hour’s drive away, sailed to the bay at the ancient Lycean city of Phaselis and other gorgeous spots in between hour-long swimming sessions, and were driven back again. The trip included lunch and soft drinks and use of the boat’s snorkelling equipment and floats. (Book a boat trip with Tur Hipo by calling Uzeyr on WhatsApp: +90 536 503 0533).
We chose a more relaxed tour, but there are many larger boats that offer foam parties and music for those who want to dance on the water.
Swimming in the Mediterranean is not like swimming in Durban where the waves dunk you and hose out your sinuses. Gentle swells are framed by Antalya’s many pebbly beaches, a little rough on bare feet but don’t get stuck in your swimsuit.
Other child-friendly attractions include Akturk Park, a theme park with every ride imaginable and a restaurant where parents can sit and relax while the teens run safely off. Because it is so hot during the day, the theme park is open until about 1am. One never gets too old for that nonsense.
After a week in Kaleiçi it felt like we had become locals, enjoying friendly chats with the bakers, shopkeepers and bar owners each time we walked past.
SECOND STOP: THE WILD SOUTHEAST
I have always wanted to go to Batman since seeing the city on a map, and we boarded a bus (not a batmobile) bound for the city in Turkey’s southeast.
The region is a world away from humid, coastal Antalya, which is a comparatively youthful 2,200 years old. Batman is hot and dry, a few kilometres from the Tigris River and the entry point to the Mesopotamian region, home to towns like Hasankeyf, which has been continuously inhabited for about 10,000 years.
After a lunch of delicious kebap, we headed south and stopped at a roadside stall in Gercüş with a view of the Mesopotamian valley. There we enjoyed ayran — a salted yoghurt drink — made in a barrel the traditional way, and gözleme, a flatbread stuffed with feta and parsley. Everything you do in Turkey is accompanied by food.
En route to Şirnak, a city near to where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Syria meet, we ducked into the town of Midyat — a world heritage site which dates back to the third millennium. The old city, built out of stone and carved with decorative details, is well worth a walk around.
You won’t find much antiquity in Şirnak, but there is plenty to do and see. The city, which looks on to Mount Judi — where, according to early Christian and Islamic tradition, Noah’s Ark came to rest — was virtually destroyed in the conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels in the mid-2010s. These days, the mountains are quiet, and the city has been rebuilt.
We had lunch at a trout farm in Gülyazı village, a few kilometres from the Iraq border, and visited the ancient city of Dara, an important fortress city for the Romans in northern Mesopotamia.
On the way to Mardin, we ducked in to Deyrul Zafaran monastery where Syrian Orthodox monks make — and sell — wine. Mardin is another world heritage site where, in the old part of town, people live in cave homes in the mountainside. The city, on the old Silk Road, is built out of pale, carved stone and a walk along the main road will take you past delightful antique shops, jewellers and traditional eateries.
Sadly, our whistle-stop tour to the southeast had to come to an end, with a drive to Diyarbakir, 90km to the north. From there, we caught a bus back to Muş but the bus broke down. During the two-hour delay, the old men sat outside a bakery playing board games and we admired a flashy-looking combine harvester parked nearby with the owner's Instagram handle emblazoned on the side.
Eventually, another bus was dispatched but it was four seats short. The driver, clearly a solution seeker, ran across the highway and borrowed four stools from a coffee shop. The “extras” sat on them in the aisle for the rest of the four-hour journey.
THIRD STOP: MUŞ
My husband’s hometown used to look — and smell — like a village with goats, donkeys and sheep in the streets. Now, 18 years later, it has trimmed lawns, a university and a shiny new government hospital.
With declining hostilities between the military and rebels in the area, life is returning to the surrounding mountains which was where we found ourselves stranded one evening on yet another family picnic.
Turkish picnics are feasts and my in-laws truly believe in outdoor eating. We had two kebap braais along the Murat River, a tributary of the Euphrates, with tea made in a samovar over a fire, complete with glass teacups.
But one evening, armed with mince pide (and tea), our party of 17 headed up the mountain in two cars, one of which broke down. Undeterred, we found a spot with a great view further up the hill. It turned out we had set up picnic in a farmer's driveway. The bemused farmer kindly invited us to tea.
After the women and children took turns being taken home, five of us trekked down the mountain in the moonlight to see the fallen soldier off on the tow truck. We ended up eating sheep's head soup in a little restaurant in town at midnight.
FOURTH STOP: ISTANBUL
Domestic flights in Turkey are far cheaper than those in SA. Our first flight on the journey home, the more than two-hour flight from Muş to Istanbul, cost R800 a ticket.
We spent our final weekend in the ancient city, sipping tea at midnight in a park and watching ships queuing to enter the Bosphorus, and visiting the Grand Bazaar, the world’s oldest covered market. It was built in 1461 but to me it never gets old.
If you wish to take a break from SA, consider Turkey where my in-laws, unlike us, enjoy a continuous supply of water and electricity. The country offers much bang for your buck.
