Life in Turkey during Covid-19 World

This is the third article I’ve written about my experiences living & traveling during the global, life-altering Covid-19 pandemic.

First I wrote about traveling around Turkey during the early stages of the corona virus spreading throughout the world. In February and early March, few people understood the vast scope of the quickly unfolding pandemic and lock-down measures were not yet in place here in Turkey, nor in most other countries.

In the second article, written in late April, I focused on the current Covid-19 statistics in Turkey and the government’s response to the pandemic, from its initial preparatory steps in early January on through to late April.

In this article I talk about daily life here in Antalya, Turkey during the ongoing Corona Virus lock-down. I’ve been living here in a small hotel for six weeks thus far, ‘stuck’ in Antalya, ever since the Turkish government halted all overland travel.

This is what daily life has been like here in Turkey during the Covid-19 Pandemic…

Loose Lock-down

Since mid-March Turkey has been under what I call a ‘loose lock-down’ for most citizens. People are advised to stay home except to go out to buy food & neccessities or to exercise.

Senior 65 years and older, the infirm and everyone 20 years and under are under strict lock-down, meaning they’re not allowed to go out at all.

People are advised to wear masks in public and are required to wear them inside stores and markets. They’re also advised to stay 1.5-2 meters from others, wash hands frequently, disinfect and to practice all the usual preventative sanitary measures.

For the most part, people seem to be following these guidelines. The streets are fairly empty and quiet most of the time. Most people wear masks.

Only on rare occasions do I see any children out, and that’s almost always with their parents. I do see some elderly people out ‘sneaking’ around a bit close to home. But who can blame them?

Antalya marina - cliffs - coast

Since corona virus cases in Turkey began escalating in early April and continued to rise, in mid April the government imposed complete lock-downs on weekends. Some weekend curfews have been for two days, once for four days and once for three days, thus far.

As for businesses and facilities, nearly everything is closed, including all entertainment, cultural & sports facilities, events & festivals, beaches and most parks, bars & cafes, most restaurants, most stores and businesses of all kinds. For full details check my second article.

City buses still function, but at reduced capacity and frequency.

That having been said, there are still a lot of people in Turkey who are employed. working their regular jobs, thus a large number of people are actually out and about.

For one thing, the federal and municipal governments are keeping thousands (or millions?) of people employed. Police, security guards and many government offices, such as immigration, are still open.

Here in Antalya, all the gardening/landscaping/cleaning staff are busy working in the city’s many beautiful parks and gardens.

Road construction projects are underway. In Istanbul, a large workforce is busy constructing two massive new hospitals, one on the grounds of a now-defunct airport.

Turkey is also mass producing ventilators, masks, other PPE and Covid testing kits, both for domestic use and export. This employs thousands of people.

The federally-run Turkish post office is still running, banks and ATMs are still functioning. Pharmacies and hospitals are open, so all the healthcare workers are still working.

Also working are most people in the food industry (supermarket staff, small private fruit & vegetable shops, butchers, nut shops, bakeries, pastry shops, small restaurants providing take-out meals, food deliveries, farmers & other food suppliers).

picnic-ing in the forest during a cycling trip near Antalya

What Loose Lock-Down looks like in daily life

The loose lock-down is fantastic for me because it means I can go out nearly every day to take long walks through beautiful city parks or go cycling into the mountains and along the Mediterranean coast. I also spend 1-2 hours a day visiting various cats near my hotel and in several different parks.

The lock-down also means it’s fairly quiet and peaceful, which I absolutely love.

Whenever I’m out, the streets, shops, parks and highways are fairly quiet and uncrowded, particularly in mornings. But the city is never totally empty. There are policemen, security guards, small shop owners, a handful of pedestrians and shoppers, park gardeners & landscapers, buses and private cars, road crew, a few building construction projects in swing and people out exercising.

However, from mid afternoon until early evening there are a rather shocking number of people out walking the city streets and buying supplies at food & grocery stores. Even more alarming, main roads become almost packed with traffic!

I’m always wondering, “If there’s a lock-down here, then where in the world can all these people be going?!”

Because of the large number of people out-n-about in afternoons, I try to do all my walking, cycling and shopping in mornings, as early as possible. That way I can avoid the near ‘crowds’, which I believe is much safer during a virus pandemic, especially since most Turks are terrible at social distancing.

No Domestic / Overland Travel Permitted

In late March the Turkish government halted nearly all overland travel within the country. All domestic buses and trains stopped running. And of course by then international travel in & out of the country had been stopped.

Basically, everyone in Turkey has to stay in the city they were at when travel became banned. For me, that meant I was ‘stuck’ here in Antalya.

People are allowed to travel overland for very important reasons, such as catching one of the rare international flights out of Turkey. But they have to obtain a special travel permit from their ‘home’ city government beforehand. They have to present the papers at various road checks throughout the country as they travel and I think they pretty much have to go by private car, as on buses or trains are running.

Relaxed Rules & Poor Social Distancing

While people generally seem to be obeying the loose lock-down rules and mask-wearing, I’ve seen that regulations are not strictly enforced.

For instance, most people wear masks out in public, but not everyone. I rarely see a police officer request a non-mask wearer to put one on, let alone fine anybody.

Quite unfortunately, while some people are paying attention to safe social distancing, the majority of Turks do not. And nobody is trying to enforce it either.

I constantly see people walking much, much too close to each other. In many cases, they nearly brush shoulders with others! Unfortunately, this includes most grocery store staff, shop staff and even most policemen & security guards! WTF?! Why haven’t they been trained n social distancing?!

To be honest, this is my one big pet peeve and bone of contention here in Turkey. I seem to be one of very few people actually making sure I keep a safe 1.5-2 meters away from others. And I can tell you it gets very difficult!

I’m constantly stretching my arm out full length as people approach me and saying, “Two meters please”. About half the people nod in agreement, looking as if the thought just dawned on them, and then stay away.

The other half look at me with irritation, bafflement, anger or as if I’m an idiot. A few people make irritated remarks back and just ignore me, proceeding to get as close as they want. And others laugh at me amongst themselves, thinking it’s all so amusing. Grrr.

well over 700,000 tests done in Turkey by 4-21

Many Things are Unclear

Many things going on here are very unclear to me, even inexplicable. So to a large extent, I simply don’t know what’s going on.

Here are some examples:

No Covid-19 stats for cities or regions – For some reason, the Turkish government has decided to not report the number of corona virus cases & deaths per city or region. The only stats they report are for the entire country.

So I have no idea how ‘risky’ my city of Antayla is. Are there thousands of cases? A few hundred? A handful?

I’ve heard in various news reports that ‘most cases’ of the virus are in Istanbul. One report said 60%. Another said ‘the majority of cases’.

Apparently the other two major centers of the outbreaks are in the cities of Ankara (the capital) and Izmir (huge coastal resort city not far from Istanbul).

So, making a bold assumption that 80-90% of all cases are in those three cities, and that the total number of cases to date is 120,000…Then 90,000-100,000 cases are in those three cities, which leaves just 20,00-30,000 cases in all the rest of Turkey.

I know from reports that there are Corona Virus cases in 31 cities/provinces, about 70% of the country, so that means the 20,000-30,000 cases are spread throughout 28 provinces.

From this I can guestimate that there are possibly just a few thousand cases here in Antalya. I suppose only the health officials in Antayla’s hospitals know for sure.

In contrast, I can go online at any moment and find out how many cases and deaths there are in any given county in the USA. For instance, right now I can see there are 788 cases and 44 deaths to date in Pinellas County, Florida. That’s where my mom, stepdad, brothere & his wife live.

It’s great to see that there aren’t too many cases where most of my family live. It would be nice to know more exactly what I’m up against here in Antalya.

one of Antalya’s beautiful city parks

Parks open/closed

According to the government rules I read, parks are supposed to be open for the public to exercise during weekdays but closed completely on weekends.

However, some parks here in Antalya were closed in late March and have just remained closed continuously ever since. Most of the parks I visit change from day to day. Some days when I arrive they’re wide open, other days the striped police ‘do not enter’ ribbons are stretched across the walkways.

Sometimes police are guarding the entries and/or walking through the parks to make sure people don’t congregate, but other times they aren’t.

Coastal road is open

Supposedly overland travel between cities in Turkey is forbidden. But when I cycled out along the coast, far outside Antalya city limits, towards the coastal towns of Kemer and beyond, there was plenty of traffic in both directions. There were supply trucks, which makes sense, but there were also many private cars and, much to my shock, even Kemer-Antalya buses running!

Heck, I was allowed to cycle right out of the city un-impeded. There was no road check nor anyone looking at me sideways. That seems rather strange to me if no overland travel is allowed.

coastal highway about 20 km from Antalya

A random assortment of businesses are open

As far as I understand the lock-down rules, only essential businesses are allowed to remain open. Those include pharmacies, grocery stores & all types of food shops and a few designated gas stations.

Most other businsses and stores are closed. But, quite inexplicably to me, there are a handful of small privately-owned businesses of all sorts that remain open.

They include shoe stores, clothing stores, phone stores, home applicance and furniture stores, printing shops, stationary stores, money-exchange booths, tailors. I even know a musical instrument sales/repair shop that’s open near by hotel. At least one shop of just about any kind of business you can imagine is open.

The owners and/or staff are there, sitting in their little shops, day after day, with little to no customers, just hanging around. I have no idea why they’re allowed to remain open or what the point is with no customers.

large selection of nuts at the nut shop near my hotel

Abundant Food & Supplies / Goods

Quite happily, here in Antalya there has remained a huge supply of all food goods, including fresh fruits & vegetables, meats & poultry, dairy products, packaged foods, breads and desserts, beverages and even alcohol.

In this regard, life is pretty much the same as before the pandemic. Whatever anybody wants to eat or cook, they can.

The same goes for all daily living needs, health & medical & cleansing products.

I don’t think the situation is the same in Istanbul. I’ve seen news reports showing shelves out of stock of many basic food stuffs and cleaning products. And I’ve seen long, long lines of people queing up to buy things.

On this count (and others) I’m very glad that I’m in Antalya rather than Istanbul or other big cities in Turkey.

I did learn while researching the history of Antalya, that this city and region has always been a major agricultural area. It’s only been since the 1970s that Antalya started being developed into a major coastal tourist resort that the city exploded into the huge, sprawling urban area it is now. Antalya district continues its agricultural traditions.

Perhaps that is the reason that fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products are in such abundance here? There are even vans full of fresh produce driving around the neighborhoods, yelling out what they’re selling, and stopping regularly for people to buy fresh stuff.

cycle trip to mountains just outside Antalya

Blissfully Quiet & Peaceful

One fantastic result of this partial lock-down life and the full weekend lock-downs is that the world around me is now, for the most part, blissfully quiet and peaceful.

There’s very little traffic or construction noise. There are rarely any children screaming or racing around the streets & parks, nor babies any crying. There are no roudy adults, rauchous parties or blasting music.

Instead, right in the middle of the city, at my hotel room, I can hear pigeons cooing, birds chirping, rain, wind blowing through the tree outside my window. Lash at Antalya Beach

I can walk for hours through Antalya’s large, beautiful parks and pass only a handful of other people, sometimes nobody. Likewise, cycling the city roads and into the mountains is quite wonderful, with very few cars on the roads (except on major roads in afternoons).

For me, this is heavenly. A kind of paradise.

Of course I’m not happy that there’s a huge global pandemic raging, killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Of course not. And if I could turn things back, I would without hesitation.

But I can’t. So in the meantime, I do admit that I am greatly enjoying the blissful quiet and tranquility of this new lifestyle. In fact, I will write more about that soon.

Is anyone else appreciating this quieter, more peaceful world we’re living in at the moment?

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