I'm Baaaack

We made it back safely to Istanbul late Monday night after an amazing Spring Break! After we left Oludeniz we headed to Mersin to meet Can and his family. They were amazing people, drove us all over the area, fed us tons of food, and completely opened their home to us. I tried tons of new food (Tantuni -- Mersin style durum, Bici Bici -- an icy jelloey sugary summer treat, Ciger -- liver the Turkish way...). We had a huge Turkish breakfast spread every morning and Can's dad took us out for an amazing fish dinner one night. His sister, Ecesu, is 14 and speaks very good English. She joined us on several of our excursions... I even rode a camel with her!

We did a ton, but to sum it up briefly we hit up: Kiz Kalesi (a castle on its own island), the huge Caves of Heaven and Hell, a bay in the Mediterranean that was fresh water (and freezing... i still swam though!), Tarsus (the smaller town Can went to school in), and the mountainous area around Mersin where alot of people have second homes. It was nice because we had a car so we got to go where we wanted. And hanging out with a family was really nice after being surrounded by only students for so long. I played tennis (terribly) with Can's dad, rode bikes along the coast of Mersin, got my fortune read in Turkish coffee grounds by their family friend, saw a movie in the theater, went to a small amusement park, and got to drive a car. It was a very relaxing end to the break... and so hot too. They set a record in Mersin the day we left, I was dying even after the sun went down!

So now I'm back in Istanbul loving every minute of it. Summer decided to come while we were gone, its perfect weather, the trees are getting leafy and the sun is always shining. This does not help me study, but it makes me so happy! I'm off now to organize my life post-break... must not be distracted by this beautiful evening...

Here are the pictures from my break. I can't figure out how to add it to the sidebar since my blogger is in Turkish now... must find an American IP address. Or learn Turkish. I'll change it eventually...

Brothels and Boats

Funny culture story I have time to write before our bus leaves to Mersin:

When we were in Marmaris chilling on the pier with some sailors of various gülets (the big yachts) we met the captain of a Dutch-owned gület. The other sailors were making fun of his boat which was easily spotted by the long string of Christmas lights strung from mast to mast. But, Turkey is a Muslim country... they don't have Christmas and therefore Christmas lights are a less common thing. And they are probably called something different than Christmas lights... but that is all I know how to call them. Anyways, they turkish sailors were calling it the whore boat because apparently the only houses in Turkey that are decorated with lights like that are brothels. So this Dutch man had decorated his boat and sailed it to Turkey... and it reminded everyone of a whore house.

It just made me laugh to imagine these guys entering a RV park in the US, seeing all the gaudily lit up trailers and thinking of them as brothels.

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...)