![\"Pedestrian](\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PO4KJZ6.jpg\")
<\/a><\/br>Pedestrian Street of Antalya<\/p><\/div> By the way, I should have mentioned in the previous two posts that us unable to find a rental car and not satisfying with the quotes from the travel agents meant we would manage our visit of Side and Aspendos and Perge on our own, otherwise it would be a totally different worry-free experience.<\/p>\n So in the morning of August 25th we checked out of our hotel room, took the tram back to Antalya Bus Station, stored our bags in the giant left luggage facility at the bus station (with a small fee though), and took the bus to Manavgat. <\/br>Shops near Ismetpasa Tram Station<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n The bus to Manavgat first ran around the city of Antalya picking up people along the way. (We didn\u2019t know this at first, and there\u2019s no way we would know its route inside the city of Antalya in advance, so we took the safe way of getting to bus station first.) <\/br>Traffic on Turkish Route D400 from Antalya to Manavgat<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Traffic on Turkish Route D400 from Antalya to Manavgat<\/p><\/div>\n So after roughly 90 minutes the driver dropped us off near a roundabout just outside the city of Manavgat, where he waived down a minivan that served as a free shuttle to the bus station of Side. (Luckily some local ladies were also travelling to Side, so the bus stopped and we were transferred onto that minivan. Otherwise we would probably have ended up in Manavgat.)<\/p>\n <\/br>Palm Trees and Sand Domes at Side Bus Station<\/p><\/div>\n From Side Bus Station there\u2019s another local shuttle bus that ran between the bus station and Side\u2019s pedestrian street next to Roman theatre. But since we would love to enjoy the ruins along the way, we decided to go on foot.<\/p>\n <\/br>Back of Nymphaeum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Nymphaeum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Colonnaded Streets<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Houses<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Houses along Main Passage of Side Town<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Main Passage of Side Town<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Agoras<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Our first stop of the day was actually Side Museum (because it\u2019s covered in our museum passes). We began to enjoy the wonderful gift of aif-con after walking in the blistering sun for even only a few minutes.<\/p>\n <\/br>Exhibits of Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Exhibits of Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Open-Air Exhibits of Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Side Museum<\/br>The side museum was built on an ancient Roman bath, so one could still say the traces of bath building remaining. <\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Peacock in Shades in Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Open-Air Exhibit of Columns in Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Open-Air Exhibit of Tomb Covers in Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Open-Air Exhibit of Tombs in Side Museum<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Triumphal Arch in Side Town<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Then we visited Side\u2019s Roman Theatre. Again, it\u2019s covered by our museum passes.<\/p>\n <\/br>Remains of Stairs in Side Roman Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Side Roman Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Side Roman Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Side Roman Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Passage in Side Roman Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Arch of Side Roman Theatre Leading to Outside World<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Side Roman Theatre through Arch and Scaffolding<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Colonnaded Streets<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Side Roman Theatre Exterior<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Main Commercial Street of Side<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Tour Boats in Side Harbor<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Tour Boats in Side Harbor<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Side Basilica<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Side Basilica<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Temple of Apollo<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Temple of Apollo<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Tour Boat in Mediterranean Sea by Side<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Shorelines of Rocks near Side Apollo Temple<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Temple of Apollo<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Streets of Side Town<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Streets of Side Town<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Grapes<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Bananas<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Selimiye Cami Mosque in Side<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins of Side Roman Theatre<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n This time, we took the shuttle bus from Side Roman Theatre to Side Bus Station (1TL per person if I remembered correctly), then a Side local <\/br>Streets of Side<\/p><\/div>\n The problem was that, I was searching for Manavgat Bus Station on my Google Maps, and for a while the minivan to Manavgat seemed to be going away from Manavgat Bus Station (although we checked with the driver that he\u2019s heading for the Bus Station, but with the language gap we couldn\u2019t be sure about that). In hindsight, it\u2019s perfectly normal as the minivan would be running around Manavgat dropping off people before heading back to the Bus Station, but at that moment we just went super-uneasy and felt there\u2019s something wrong and decided to get off the minivan. Well, I should have taken a few photos of downtown Manavgat to celebrate this adventure. I think I was too freaked out that I didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n So after getting off the bus at the edge of Serik town, we took a taxi to the ruins of Aspendos. Again, the ruins of Aspendos was covered by our museum passes. <\/br>Stadium at Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Basilica of Aspendos in the Distance<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Arch in the Ruins of Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Gateway to Inner Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Basilica of Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Nymphaeum and Basilica of Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins at Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins at Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ditch near Aspendos Agora<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Basilica of Aspendos Interior<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Excavations at Basilica of Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Basilica of Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ruins at Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Basilica of Aspendos and Single Archway<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Rugged Trails Uphill to Aspendos Acropolis<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Mountains by Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Overlooking Stadium at Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Remains of Stadium at Aspendos<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre Backstage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Doorway Leading Out of Aspendos Theatre Backstage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Details of Aspendos Theatre Stage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Archway in Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre and Neighboring Mountains<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Stairs at Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Details of Aspendos Theatre Stage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Details of Aspendos Theatre Stage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Theatre Stage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Details of Aspendos Theatre Stage<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Back of Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Back of Aspendos Theatre<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Aspendos Bridge<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Farmlands East of Serik<\/p><\/div> At Antalya Bus Station we retrieved our bags, finished dinner at a restaurant hidden in the corner of the bus station (so it wasn\u2019t an expensive meal at all), and waited for our bus to Goreme. <\/br>Dinner at Antalya Bus Station<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Dinner at Antalya Bus Station<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Liquid Soap at Antalya Bus Station<\/br>Either the bathroom janitor was really lazy, or the liquid soap dispenser right next to it was just a fancy decoration, I thought.<\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Antalya Bus Station Interior<\/p><\/div> <\/br>PTV on Metro Coach<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Icecream Served on Metro Coach<\/p><\/div> Last day in Antalya. The plan of the day was to visit Side, an ancient Greek city on the Mediterranean coast East of Antalya. On the way back there were two other major attractions, the amphitheater of Aspendos… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2254,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nThe images in this post are hosted on Imgur. Email me should there be any display problems.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nThis practice particularly annoyed me because most of the pickup points of our bus seemed to be on intersections with an overpass (like the one on the previous photo). It wasn\u2019t very nice to wait for traffic lights under an overpass that we could otherwise take.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
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\nI think Side\u2019s Roman Theatre was the only amphitheater I\u2019ve been to that\u2019s got this passage in the rear enabling people to enter the sitting area from beneath, which was a standard feature in most of today\u2019s stadiums. Pretty forward-looking.
\nOn a second thought, maybe other amphitheaters (like Aspendos) also got this feature. Maybe it\u2019s just closed to visitors for preservation purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>
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\nAfter leaving Side\u2019s Roman Theatre, we continued walking towards the Apollo Temple on its coastline.
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\nIt was noon when we got to the Temple of Apollo, not the best time to take the most astonishing photos. (The best time should be dust or dawn, with the gradient of colors on the horizon.)
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\nIt\u2019s after the hints of my parents that I found the people of Side just grew these fruits in their frontyards.
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\n<\/a>bus<\/del> minivan to Manavgat, hoping to catch the bus from Manavgat to Serik to visit the ruins of Aspendos.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nSo we were teleported right to downtown Manavgat, with people around us speaking a totally different language. Luckily, some local gentleman that spoke English helped us out and told us the bus from Manavgat to Serik also passes through downtown Manavgat. So with his help, we successfully got on the right bus to Serik.<\/p>\nWith meter-based negotiation (yeah I know that\u2019s a strange notion, but that\u2019s what happened to us on that day), <\/del>the driver agreed to take us there and back for 80TL.<\/p>\n
\nThe whole Aspendos site consisted of a roman theatre that\u2019s in wonderful shape (and served several summer concerts even till this day), and the ruins of the rest of Aspendos town that weren\u2019t in good shape.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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\nI\u2019ll mark it here. There should be a pano shot to be uploaded.<\/span>
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\nApart from these, there should be some ruins of ancient Aqueduct that\u2019s farther north of these, that I didn\u2019t visit.
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\nOn the way back the driver took a small detour to the Aspendos Bridge, which was built in the 13th century.
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\nAfter getting out of the taxi, we just waited on the side of D400 Route. We didn\u2019t wait long before getting on another bus back to Antalya.<\/p>\n
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\nThere wasn\u2019t much to talk about of the Metro bus ride to Goreme. I remembered to book the wider “1+2” seats, but the seat pitch (which is what matters if one wants to sleep well) wasn\u2019t any better. That\u2019s all.
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\nEND<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"