A beautiful hotel on the seashore is like a small town surrounded by Bushy Mediterranean pines and eucalyptus trees. Flourishing vegetation is everywhere.

Turkish buffet is breathtakingly beautiful, abundant. Parents, who haven’t had enough food since “Perestroika”, are in great perplexity. They slowly go by the desks with viands and sit at a small table in the corner. A waiter has already flied to them offering the drinks.

–Go, take the dishes and put there what you like.

Parents got all mushmouthed.

–It’s “all inclusive”… All is already paid.

–Mm… Everything?

–Yes.

–All this food? Can we take whatever?

–Yep! Mom, what would you like? Let’s go see!

Mom takes her stick.

–But I can’t choose…

The first problem is that she can’t realize what is on the plate, the second is – she has never had such a choice in her life.

Father is standing by one of the salvers with meat astounded and immobilized. Albeit daughter hated him with all her heart, a discrepant feeling of content was filling her seeing the man happy.

After breakfast they used to walk in the garden and along the beach. Winter in Turkey is rather mild and the temperature on the coast doesn’t go lower than five degrees Celsius above zero, while the water is about sixteen degrees Celsius in January. They say that Turkey is the only country where in April you can enjoy skiing in the mountains and then go down to have a swim in the Mediterranean sea. May be it’s ok for those who love a refreshing bath: Internet info shows that the sea is only eighteen above zero in the middle of spring there this year.

Anyway, it goes without saying the climate was nicer than Moscow.

January midday sun is warm and lovely. The family is napping on beds on the beach.

CHAPTER 8

Saint Nicholas Cathedral

A mountain road is rising up to the clouds, the sound of hard rain in the ears. Relaxation. Everybody’s staring around: rocks, few abandoned houses and a fell-into-decay hut, where an old couple arranged a souvenir market and toilet for tourists. The toilet was so insanitary that people preferred to use the grass around, while an old German couple decided to endure till the next stop.

Mom and daughter are happy to spend much time together. They go out to buy something and take pictures, rain beating against their faces, they are just laughing in return. Nadezhda is splendoring with a traditional Turkish fez on, Grethen takes few shots with a tall mountain in the background.

Saint Nicholas cathedral is situated in Demre.

The country is sinking in fog and coolness.

– It’s forbidden to trade here!!! Immediately pay the price offered by the seller!!! – screams the guide with a deterrent tone. – Such things are sacred!

Fake-silver icons become obliterated displaying pink copper a year later. Business. Eventually, after having dragged the flock of sheep, oops sorry – the tourists, through the souvenir shops, the guide, a former Russian teacher named Natasha, leads them inside the cathedral, the place where a kind-hearted man Nicholas used to serve sufferers and made great deeds. There is an unpretentious house located few meters lower than the ground level around. They go inside, all is in darkness, only the altar is sprinkled by the beams of the sun rising from behind the clouds and percolating through the narrow windows. The guide brakes the silence and starts talking about Likia – this is the name of the country which was there long ago.

– In the first millennium BC this area was notable for an original culture it had. Later was invaded by Alexander the Great, by the Romans and the Turks, none the less keeping the autonomy, being a part of the Empires. The largest in the antiquity city and the center of Lycia Xanthos was situated on the like named river, originating in the Taurus Mountains.