Relaxing in Ölüdeniz

So today you find Sarah and I in the town of Ölüdeniz, just outside of Fethiye and 3 hours east of Marmaris. Can had to leave us a few days early to head to Mersin, so Sarah and I are on our own here. Since its so much more touristy (all signs in English and an attempt at Turkish is worthless - they just speak back in clear and perfect English) we have had no problems with harassment from creepy guys at all.

We spent one more day in Marmaris - this time on the yacht we had sailed from Bodrum. We sent Can off to the otogar (bus station), checked out of the hotel and dropped our bags off on the boat with plans to go to the beach and leave later that evening. Some friends of the crew who had a boat across the marina were there. One guy was a casino dealer in London who was getting ready to move to Vegas. He was Turkish but had perfect Engish so we told him all about our trip and our school life and our life in İstanbul over coffee. When he and his friends left Sonay, the ship's captain and Yilmas, his friend/crewmate took us for a driven tour of the penninsula of Marmaris. We saw all the small surrounding towns and stopped at Kız Kumu, a beach where a weird sandbar thing stretches out about a kilometer into the bay. So we walked out into the middle of this bay in the Mediterranean... you know... the usual.

Back at the boat they made us a big dinner and then we sat out on the pier eating octopus, a first for me. I did manage to get curry sauce from one of the octopus dishes all over my white tshirt and my one pair of shorts. I think it adds to the sexiness of my outfits a week and a half into the trip (aka they all are gross). Since no one was on the boat we got to sleep in the master bedroom and wake up early to catch a morning bus to Fethiye. Yay for free accomodation!

We're both really exhausted from the weekend so we spent the day on the big lagoon beach/national park that is always depicted on Turkish travel posters. We laid right at the tip of the penninsula (not in those very comfortable looking chairs but on the ground right next to them because they were 5 lira each -- its very annoying to be lying on rocks when there is a perfectly good chair next to you but whatever, money is lowwww). The water was kind of cold at first but I was able to swim for about an hour and lay out on the floating docks they have... ahh beach life.

Tomorrow we set up a 6 hour boat trip that goes around to 6 different places near the city... I'm not sure of them all but I know one place is Butterfly Valley (oooo) and another is some islands Sonay recommeded we check out. And at night we hop a bus to the Antalya area to meet up with friends who are on Spring Break in a really nice hotel. We're going to crash there and then head to Mersin for the final leg of the trip. Wooo travel!

But I'm exhausted and I have a nice clean bed in a little bungalow shack thing that I am very excited for... another big day again tomorrow!

Let's see if this computer likes me

Today it's a bit cloudy, we missed the ferry to the Greek island of Rhodes and we're feeling a bit lazy after the extremeness that was the last couple of days. My last post gave you a taste... but I'll recap what we've been up to since arriving in Pamukkale:

First of all... Pamukkale -- gorgeous. It's a natural formation of calcium carbonate that is created by flowing thermal springs at the top of a mountain. It was really sweet because you just take off your shoes and walk up this white castle-like slope that has tons of pools of bright blue water. İt looks like ice... but it's not. And at the top there are ancient ruins and an overpriced but really sweet 'Ancient Pool' where you can swim in the springs. It was perfect!

And once we finished seeing Pamukkale we caught a 5 hour bus down to Bodrum where we met Can, my Turkish friend who will be travelling with us for the remainder of our trip. He set us up in a nice cheap pension and we spent 3 days there... laying in the sun, swimming (very briefly) in the not-yet-warm sea, and exploring the castle and surrounding town. It was very relaxing... and at one of our lazy breakfasts was where we ment the crew to the amazing yacht we spent yesterday on. We asked about ferries to Marmaris and they told us they don't exist -- the coastline is so convoluted it really doesn't make sense to have a ferry system. So ferries travel half the way and then you take a bus. Buuuuut... they just happened to be leaving to Marmaris, the boat's home port, in a few days and we were welcome to join them for the 8ish hour journey for free. Ummmm yes please! So Thursday night we met Can's best friend's older sister in a suburb of Bodrum called Bitez -- it has a huge community of english speaking people who fell in love with the area and have moved there. So we spent the night sitting by the bay talking with Turks, Dutch, Canadians and Americans. And the owner was so nice he offered us dinner for free... they had an amazing menu though so we decided to splurge and actually pay for a really good steak. The place was amazing and for 20 lira we got 3 hours of conversation and beers and one of the best meals of my life.

The next morning we had to wake up at 5 am to catch a dinghy out to the yacht. We hopped on and found a 8 bedroom luxury wooden boat. You wear slippers all around it, I felt so classy! We spent the chilly morning cuddled under blankets on the huge cushioned bench at the rear of the boat and watched the sun rise over Bodrum. The crew was 5 people, so with the 3 of us we had a small group for this huge boat. They didn't want anything from us, and fed us coffee, Turkish breakfast, and a really good lunch. We relaxed all day... the trip actually took 11 hours due to a belt failure in the motor (it wasn't windy enough to put up the sails :(...) but we didn't mind and were quite sad to get off at the end of the day. They didn't speak much english so Can was really the only one who could talk to them... but we learned enough to find out that the trip we were on was worth 3500 Lira. Ha! And when we got off we arranged to buy meat in repayment and their chef would cook dinner for all of us. Can has family here in Marmaris too so we have a great Apartment Hotel place for really cheap... its the first hot shower I had had in a week so we were late for dinner due to my inability to leave the amazing shower. They still cooked for us and we hung out on the boat for a few hours before heading out to sample the nightlife in Marmaris.

We had some drinks with Can's cousin and his wife... they paid for everything... and then we went to a huge open air club. It was way overpriced so we were just dancing, avoiding the waiter's offers for 20 Lira drinks, when we met two British guys -- we'll call them Richie Rich and his cousin -- who are in town for the beginning of their summer. They were so nice and were genuinely interested in meeting Americans. The cousin was adorable -- he had never travelled outside of england before, despite being 21 he had just gotten his passport the week before. He was freaking out about prom and American movies and how he really wanted to go to America. And they are Richie Rich and his cousin for obvious reasons -- they even have a bodyguard. So now with Can and Richie we are set in Marmaris... we're either getting dinner at Richie's parents expensive restaurant or with Can's cousin and family.

Pretty much, I'm living like royalty, loving life and am so excited to see where this next week of break will take me! Later duudes...

Living life like royalty on the Meditteranean

This is the by far the most surreal, amazing, beautiful, crazy Spring Break of my life. No time to write now, but just know that Sarah, Can and I were on a yacht that costs 3500 Lira a day to rent... for the 11 hour trip from Bodrum to Marmaris. So instead of travelling by ferry and bus we hitched a free ride on a beautiful boat, spent the day sunning as we weaved between the Turkish coast and various Greek Islands.

The trip was valued at 3500 Lira. But here we are in Marmaris not having spent a cent today... I can tell more later but this computer has deleted everything Ive written twice and I will break something if it does it again.
I HATE thıs computer

3 days in and we've seen tonns

I'm in Pamukkale right now after a whirlwind trip from İstanbul to İzmir to Çeşme to Efes to here. We left on Friday night and have managed to get a good feel of each place before moving on. The bus system is amazing here... you can get to anywhere from anywhere and have a several choices of times to leave.

On Friday we just packed our bags, hopped on a 12 hour night bus from İstanbul with absolutely no plans. Apart from extremely swollen feet from not moving for 12 hours, it was the perfect way to travel. We arrived in İzmir around 9 am, found a cheap hotel to drop off our stuff and went exploring. We saw the ancient ruins of the Agora and the Kadifekale (castle), looked through the Ethonography museum and went out for dinner and drinks. The next morning we took a bus to the small coastal town of Çeşme where we got to lay out and tan on some big flat rocks. Sun! I've missed it.

Being a female traveller alone in İzmir and Çeşme has been very frustrating at times... the men will not leave you alone and if you can't get the message of "leave me alone" across in their native language they just don't. In İzmir we got a self-appointed tour guide to the castle... I had no problem wıth thıs until he started announcing proudly to every person walking by that he was with 2 Americans. Like my tank top and bug eyed sunglasses aren't obvious enough he has to pull that out. Ok... fine. And walking around guys will stop and stare, try to get us into a disco with them or best of all have an impromptu photo shoot with us. Like I'm sitting on some rocks with Sarah minding my own business and next thing I know we are posing for indivıdual pictures with gross middleaged men draping themselves over us. NASTY. Get a life!

So we arrived to Efes, the ancient ruins of a huge city, to find an entire Carnival cruise ship touring. This was half welcome relief (Americans just don't DO that crap) and half disgust at how prepackaged their trip was and how they weren't really experiencing Turkey. We actually heard someone say "I just don't want to go back to the modern world." Too bad your cruise ship is a 10 minute drive away.

Haha well my time is almost up on the computer. We're seeing Pamukkale tomorrow and heading to Bodrum to finally meet up with Can our Turkish friend who will protect us from the nasty guys for the remainder of our trip! Yaya... sunshine time :)

Spring Breeeakkk

So in like 10 minutes I'm heading out the door to catch the bus to my first destination of Spring Break: Izmir. We'll be spending time there, in Efes, Bodrum, Marmaris, Antalya and Mersin... finishing in a few weeks. No word on that yet. I haven't even bought a plane ticket back. All I have is this bus ticket and a new, but noticeably crooked backpack... let the adventures begin (as if they haven't already...)

Lack of Posts = Craziness. Have I mentioned? Istanbul = LOVE

So it's been forever, but definitely not for lack of things to say. School is starting to happen (midterms what?), my time is visibly passing (it's halfway over, oh no!), and I'm finding my niche (I love my Istanbul peeps).

This weekend I took my first trip with a group of friends to a city in Turkey. We chose Safranbolu (a city famous for its huge collection of old Ottoman houses, and its deeelicious Saffron lokum) and Amasra (a city on the coast of the Black Sea). I went with my friends Devin, Adam, and Max, each of us looking for a break from the busy and sometimes stressful life we find in Istanbul. Now every week is great but this weekend can be described as the most laid back, silly weekend I've had in a while. We'd wander around relatively deserted towns (these are mainly Turkish holiday locales, and it's not exactly tourist season), stop randomly for tea or food or just to sit and talk. It was nice to get to really know people versus the kind of superficial meeting you do when you meet a ton of people at once. And what better place to do it than some small towns in northwest Turkey?

I came back and realized that Spring Break is coming up soon. And since Sarah and I have been planning a trip that will take up more than a week, we wanted to leave a week early. HOLY CRAP THAT IS IN 2 DAYS! So today we are going shopping for tourist backpacks -- I found a place where they are only 40 Lira. I don't know the quality, but that is a damn good deal for something that name brand can range from $120 upwards. We'll see when we actually end up leaving...

So anyways, I'm off to lunch with Miranda, my roommate in Superdorm at my favorite cafe by campus. The guy is so nice you get a huge hug when you come in. Ad I really wanted to try this Turkish drink called Salep that you usually drink in the cold of winter. When I asked for it he made it special for me the next day, and now whenever I come in they have it. Yay! Salep time!

Relaxation, a new endeavor

After a series of crazy weekends, I was able to spend this one taking some time out to chill and see some new sides of Istanbul. Things went pretty much as planned -- I worked on a bit of school stuff, did the school sponsored City Tour, and went bike riding on the Princes Islands. And everything went perfectly! And I am rested!

The city tour was very interesting -- I saw a bunch of mosques I would have never seen or known anything about, and learned a lot about each one historically. We even ate in a traditional Ottoman restaurant. However this was not my choice, but some rich Brits wh

o were on vacation and who tagged along on the tour, so it was kind of pricey. Not planning on spending 20 Lira on lunch in the weekend, I was broke afterwards... But we got a few people together and cooked a delicious dinner, so I guess I saved money that way. We had mashed potatoes! And chocolate pudding ice cream (my new favorite flavor)!

And today the girls, meaning me, Devin, Lizzie and Sarah woke up needing to get out... so we hopped a ferry to the islands, rented bikes and rode around an island called Heybeliada, one of the bigger islands in the chain. There were no cars, horses roaming everywhere, and tons of beautiful shoreline. In the summer these places are packed with sightseers and Istanbul natives alike, so we got to see them before they became too crowded. The weather, which was looking terrible in the morning, turned out perfect, and I was able to get enough pictures to complete my photography project that is due this week. Amazing! It was really nice to get out of the big city atmosphere for a while, do something I am in love with when I am home (yaaa bicycles!), and spend time with the girls.

I really have to get to doing some homework... I want to get a bit ahead so I can possibly go to Cappadocia this weekend to explore a new part of Turkey! Send money mom and dad! Heh heh heh.