Just like Whitney Houston sang....

Antalya, I will always love you. Antalya is kind of like the Florida Keys of Turkey, although there were no giant murals of undersea life painted on the sides of buildings, which is an important feature of the Keys. No, instead there where images of Ataturk and Turkish flags on almost every conceivable surface, because this weekend was Republic Day. Even though the town is incredibly touristy, one gets the sense of why-- it's also incredibly beautiful. The deep and incomparable blue of the Mediterranean is the foreground against a background of imposingly beautiful mountains.

To avoid sounding like a guidebook, I will just post some pictures. They are so postcard-like that they are almost boring.

A Fulbright friend made this awesome rock tower. Rock beaches are cool because you can lay on the rocks that have been warmed by the sun (like so many reptiles), but definitely bring some kind of sandals. The tower marked the site of my first swim in the Mediterranean, and an excellent afternoon picnic.

Right before I got on Antalya's tram system to leave town...

I stayed at the White Garden Pansiyon, which was totally reasonably priced (30TL a night) and was beautiful, "a good site for a harem", in my words, "beguilingly restored" in the words of the Lonely Planet.

Oh! We also managed to find an English-language bookstore, which was really kind of the front of the house with no back wall that opened into a garden, with shelf upon shelf of books that the owner, a man who resembled Beauregard the Muppet in speech and form, had read once upon a time. He offered to make us fish with fennel and white wine (sadly, we were leaving several hours later, so we could not accept) and then told us that next time we come to Antalya we should bring him English books, because he prefers trading to selling.

This is part of the parade for Republic Day. It featured a seemingly endless stream of high school and grammar school students, often in drum and bugle lines.

There was also a crazy rock concert thing that we did not get to on time in the main square in front of (what else) the statue of Atatürk, but we had the perfect vantage point for the Republic Day fireworks.

I personally am still a little unsure about what Turks think of Republic Day. Maybe the rock and roll and lazer light show in the main square would have helped me get a better sense of things (probably!). When I returned to Uşak, though, and asked about Republic Day, most people did not even acknowledge its passing, or so it seemed.

The Fulbrighters in Antalya thanked Atatürk during the fireworks for his many contributions to Turkish life that we have benefited from, such as an alphabet we can read. There was a surprise Republic Day gift awaiting us when we returned to our respective cities, as well - the ban of youtube was repealed that weekend! Now I can once again watch old Eurovision videos to my heart's content with no need to mask my IP address - truly, a Republic Day miracle.