Republic Day in Alanya

We drove on from Anemurium, several hours of mountain/coastal road, more road construction, down into a valley and the sea, then back up another mountain precipice, and on and on. The agriculture in these parts is all banana "plantations," sometimes quite large, sometimes outside, sometimes in humongous green-houses. Anemur is famous for its bananas, so we picked up a bunch at a road-side stand. We drove on. There were no rest areas, no truck-stops, and the three campgrounds we had been counting on had all closed for the season. Night fell. It started raining, hard. We drove on. At length we came to the outskirts of Alanya and put up for the night at a large gas station.

Alanya is the beginning of the Turkish Riviera, and we

awoke the next morning to find ourselves surrounded by

giant resort hotels, some like mountain-top fortresses

Happily, we were right along the beach--the beginning of

a public beach that goes on for miles and has impressive

amenities--picnic areas, walk-ways, cafes, exercise stations,

playgrounds, for miles; here's a view of Alanya promontory

with its medieval castle (another one we skipped)

It was Republic Day in Turkey, celebrating the founding

of the Republic in 1923, under it's strong-man leader,

Moustafa Kemal Ataturk; Ataturk is revered in Turkey even

more than Mao in China (and deservedly so); one sees as

many likeness of him as one sees of the flag; they are

usually side-by-side

We stopped by a little school celebration of Republic Day

Nationalism is very strong in Turkey; we hope it will remain

so...