100 Metres

A basic map of the area.

A few weeks ago a couple of friends and I hopped a very late plane (2 1/2 hours delayed) to the Hatay region of Turkey.  It's near the Syrian border but was safe for travel and we felt that it was a must see before jetting out of Turkey forever.  It was meant to be a very fast weekend trip, arriving around mid-night on Friday night and leaving at 7 am on Sunday.  With the delays etc, we didn't get into the city of Antakya until about 3 am on Saturday morning.  With little backpacks, we wandered the deserted streets looking for our small hotel.  A man popped out of another hotel and directed us back the way we came saying it was 100 meters straight on.  So back we went when we came to a fork in the road... which was was straight?  Another man popped out of a closed restaurant and told us to go to the left for 100 meters and we would find our hotel.  Off we trundled and we did find our hotel, which was locked!  Thankfully the night desk man heard our knocks and plaintive sighs and let us in and sent us to our room. 

The river that runs through the city.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny and the sounds of a quiet city waking woke us (well, that and our neighbour arguing on his phone at 8 am might have had something to do with it).  Downstairs we went just before the breakfast finished to eat yet another lovely Turkish breakfast (these people really do do an amazing breakfast), and out into the sunshine we ventured.  We had been given a map but we couldn't seem to find any street names so the map seemed useless, so we wandered taking in the sights of a river that ran through the centre of town and a beautiful park.  Eventually, we wandered upon the museum we'd hoped to see and got to look at huge amounts of beautiful mosaics.  In Turkish museums, they allow you to take photos without flash and you can get fairly close to the artifacts, even touching those that aren't cordoned off, it's amazing.  The museum was gorgeous and small.  We had a blast looking around and then the sunshine beckoned us back outside.

The park

About 100 metres down the road was a little ice cream place and so we stopped to get a sweet treat before following the brown (I think it's universal that all cultural and historically significant sites are given brown signs) signs towards the church of St. Peter.  We walked, we walked and we walked some more before stopping in a hotel to seek help.  The man spoke Turkish and Russian only (and my Russian was TOO rusty to actually ask) so he called a fluent English speaking friend to help us.  They told us that the church was outside of the city and that we needed to catch a taxi.  The taxi stand was about 100 metres up the road. Easily found and our driver may have been the sweetest man alive.  He took us to the church for 10 TL, waited there for us and then took us back for 10 TL.  When we asked him for the BEST restaurant with Antakyan food, he knew just where to take us (it too was supposedly just 100 metres from the taxi stand). 

Inside the museum

One of the many mosaics

Charity, blending in with the artifacts

Me... connecting with my inner goddess

The church itself was breath-taking.  The entrance and several bits of the interior were constructed at the time of the Crusades and the church itself was a cave church thought to have been founded by Luke, even though historians etc believe that Peter and Paul may have preached there.  It's name comes from when Peter was there.  It's currently under the care of an order of Capuchin monks that still operate in the Antakya region.  In fact several different denominations still maintain churches in the area and there seems to be peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims in the area.  It was a thing of beauty to see.

The view from St. Peter's

The entrance

Me, at the entrance.

The interior

Looking back to the entrance

looking out to the hills to the side of St. Peter's

After viewing the church and museum, having a lovely lunch, wandering through the bazaar and streets, we headed back to the hotel for a little break before grabbing some dinner at the same restaurant where the man popped out to help us hours earlier.  We also booked our bus to go back to the airport for the early morning.  Our dinner was delicious and then we thought we'd take a walk to find the exact spot the bus was meant to pick us up (it was supposed to be about 100 metres from our hotel, near a coffee shop).  We went there and a man told us it was on the other side of the shop, so we went there and there were no signs, so we walked the round-about looking for the signs for the bus (we had been told that there would be a sign) and found nothing.  We found another person who pointed us in another direction and told us it was 100 metres that way... no sign, so we asked at taxi driver who gave us another location.  Then after we went back to the hotel we double checked with our desk clerks to be told it was really at the original location 100 metres from the hotel (and they were right!!).  Needless to say, we needed sleep because the mere mention of 100 metres made us giggle.

the best restaurant

LUNCH!!

All in all, Antakya is a must see for those interested in the early church, history, archeology, and good food!