For morning runners heading to Antalya, beware. Things to encounter:
• A pack of stray dogs: They have some kind of odd clip in their ear, which I assume means they have been accounted for by someone. However, they want to play and running away from them is only a sign to start nipping at your heels. No rabies shot, no happy running.
• Drunks: What a change from Damascus where alcohol is few and far between. The corner stores here are all stocked with more than sufficient amounts of wine, vodka and local beer. Clearly this has repercussions. Every other bench was graced with empty beer bottles and sleeping drunks. One had managed to stand up and was swaying dangerously.
• A pack of young men: As a woman, your fear of young men grows in places like Syria where they are bound to follow your (ridiculous) run with a string of bad words, some intelligible and others not. When you ask a polite Syrian man why the rest of this counterparts are so rude, he blames it on men’s societal superiority. Turkey is no different. The dregs left over in City Park were only too happy to oblige this stereotype.