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...