Antalya, May, 2010

No Çıralı for us this year, since Zeynep has moved away. Ayşe and I, along with Tuna, just take the overnight bus to Antalya, arriving on Wednesday morning, May 19, just in time for this year's Algebra Days.

The Friday afternoon excursion is to Perge and Kurşunlu waterfall. It's my fifth visit to Perge, and I don't want to listen to the guide. I walk to the end of the road. On a great stone block to the side is a black kid, with a white nanny lying in the shade of the neighboring block.

I climb to the acropolis. Not much is left but a stone building, now occupied by sheep.

An old friend from our days in Toronto in 1996 has come. Franz-Viktor's appreciation for the waterfall and its setting helps answer a question of mine: for the conference excursion, is it worthwhile to spend less time at an archeological site, just to see a bit of nature?

Antalya Hotel has changed hands and been renovated since last year. Whether the renovations are in good taste is open to debate. Does the blue of the sea need augmentation by blue glass panels along the fence at the top of the cliff? Still, the setting can't be beat. The conference tea breaks used to be held nearer the hotel building, beneath the palm trees. Those trees have been cut down, and tea is now served right above the sea.

We often visit the unpretentious Ayşe Bacı cafe nearby.

The conference ends Saturday afternoon rather than Sunday morning this year. The change is good. Ayşe and I stay till Monday morning. So does Azadeh: her flight back to Istanbul is at 4:00 a.m. Sasha's flight back to England is a bit more convenient: I can see him for breakfast before he leaves at 7:30.