Turkey advances to semifinals

Last night, Turkey played Croatia to see who would advance to the UEFA semifinals.

Turkey played well but Croatia a bit better, yet the score stayed at 0-0. The game went into second overtime.

As the excitement mounted, wedding guests in crisp suits and sparkling cocktail dresses from a party on the mezzanine filtered into the lobby of the Büyük Antakya Hotel.

With ten minutes to go in second overtime, Croatia scored a goal. The crowd held its breath and leaned toward the flat screen TV. With ten seconds to go, Turkey scored to tie at 1-1. The crowd leaps up with a holler. The game would now be decided by shootout.

Turkey wins the shootout. On the screen, the Croatian players are kneeling, clutching their heads, in tears. Jim's new friend leans over and says, "now everybody will go out into the street."

People stream out from every hotel, restaurant, shop, apartment block waving flags and singing. They clump around a few epicenters, of which our hotel appears to be the largest. Within minutes a master of ceremonies appears on the terrace to lead the chants. To me it sounds like " blablabla... TURKIYE, blablabla... TURKIYE." Between chanting, techno-Turk disco music booms. In the throng, instruments of jubilation appear out of nowhere - bass drums, tom toms, bongos, a trumpet, fireworks. And of course, flags everywhere - a sea of red. Our new host hands us sparklers and offers us tea.

After an hour or so of chanting and singing and dancing, the parade begins to form. Everyone know what to do. The vehicles ply a well worn track around downtown Antakya. There are motorcycles, cars, and trucks. Celebrators lean out of windows and sunroofs; horns are blaring. This goes on until 3am.