Cennette Onbir Gün 100th Post.....

Where I Have Been.....

I have spent a day or two trying to figure out how in the heck I was going to write a blog about the last 11 days since each day as filled to the brim with exciting stories and adventures I want to share with you all so the easiest way is to write the worlds longest blog I guess.
Day One: I have been in paradise for the past 11 days, literally paradise or heaven are the only ways to explain the week in a half I spent in Bodrum Turkey.  Bodrum is a touristy seaside place in the south of Turkey and my good friends Catherine and Mahmut have a little summer house down there. So Thursday June 11th we started our adventure with a 2 hour ferry boat ride to Bandirma then drove the rest of the 8ish hours to our abode. Along the way we stopped at ancient Ephesus which I am dedicating a whole other blog too and you can read about that detour here.
So after an amazingly long car ride through the Turkish landscape, which looks a lot like Northern California Chico area, we arrived in Bodrum! Well rather 35 minutes outside Bodrum which is where their summer house was. I am going to do the best I can to describe the experience of driving into this complex of summer houses because the pictures just done do it justice. Think of it this way, you are driving through Northern California, maybe even Arizona type terrain then BAM you are in Hawaii. There were tropical flowers of all shades of orange, purple, pink and white covering literally all the roadsides, all the houses, and all the lawns. As we approach the street that the house is on we came up over a hill to the a breathtaking view of the Aegean sea below us. The Aegean sea is one of my favorite seas out there, its colors are every changing and mixing between different shades of blue and teal. We are literally up on a hillside cliff with the sea and harbor below us. After unpacking and stretching our legs after the car ride we took started up the grill! Fresh green peppers, tomatoes, onions, chicken and a tomato cucumber salad yum! We spent the evening toasting to our fast and easy trip and ended it with watching our first sunset from the rocky beach cliff. We had a big day ahead of us with adventures and Futbol (the World Cup was starting in the am) ahead of us. 
Day 2: We headed into Bodrum for a little tour of the town and to see the Mausoleum which is another one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. Bodrum has a road similar to Taxsim in Istanbul. We walked through it in the 100 degree heat and listened to the vendors try and sell us their goodies. The guys of course bought Futbol jerseys while Catherine and I picked out matching sunglasses and tried to find a place to get a good Margarita. After not to long we accomplished our goal and were lead to a place where their where beach chair literally in the sea and they served you where you sat, tanning. I fell in love with the cucumber melon margarita...mmm... Since it was the start of the World Cup we didn't want to miss the games and were soon headed back to the bar that was near our house where we saw the largest lightning storm/rain storm I think I have ever seen! We were outside enjoying the sea breeze when all of sudden Posieden decided to dump the ocean on us!

Day 3: A day at the beach! We headed down to Bitez beach, which ended up being one of my favorite places! Basically its paradise, there are hundreds of umbrellas already set up with sun chairs ready for you. All we had to do was pick one, sit and order our drinks! It was heaven! We laid there for hours soaking in the sun, occasionally dipping in the blue waters of the Aegean and then when we got a little bored we bought a futbol and started to play in the water a type of volleyball game. We even were able to get some local kids to join in. The water was only waist deep for like 100 yards out so we could easily spread apart and created quite a large circle. Unfortunately we were not too good at the game (we blamed it on the sun in our eyes). That night we went back to the local bar by our house to watch more of the games. IT just happened to be the USA game and Catherine and I sang the national anthem when it came on, yes we stood up and sang out loud in a bar full of Turkish and British people all rooting for England to win. It was a great feeling when the game ended and it was tied. At least there was no loss on our part. 

 Day 4: Today was a slow day for us, we laid around the beach at the house and played some games at the beach where we were staying. Then we took a walk, a long walk around the compound. Today we planned on spending the night in Bodrum to witness the night life there. Bodrum has some pretty world famous clubs that celebrities go to, I was hoping to run into Paris Hilton. We went to Kule Rock City and I personally fell in love with this bar. They played all our favorite music (Catherine and I kept going up and requesting songs, the DJ loved us!) Then we finished watching the game, and continued to drink at the bar before making our way to the beach for a quick dip in the sea before heading to the hostel we were staying at (since our house was so far away it was impossible to drive there since we all wanted to enjoy the night together). The next mornıng we grabbed breakfast on the seasıde, we should

have thought about the fact that we were stayıng the nıght ın bodrum cause ıf we had we would have brought our suıts and a change of clothes but that dıdnt happen.... so back home we went for  a rest day. Day 5 was a dıfferent kınd of adventure for us. We arranged to be gıven a tour of the Aegean sea and the western Turkısh coast lıne for an amazıng prıce. We boaded an authentıc lookıng turkısh boat around 9am and headed out to sea. It was just us no one else on thıs boat that took us to dıfferent beaches and swımmıng holes along the coast. My favorıte part was that they had googles and you could go under the water whıch was an amazıng teal blue and CLEAR (Duru ın turkısh.) You couls see these beautıful rock formatıons and lıttle sılver, black, and blue fısh swımmıng everywhere! It was lıke somethıng you saw ın the Natıonal Geographıc magazıne. We went to a couple spots before the people drıvıng the boat made lunch for us. Catherıne and I swam, ate, read our books, swam more, had some Efes our favorıte beer, then swam and read more. That was our day. Each lıttle spot we went to was a lıttle dıfferent then the one before. The very last one was shallow enough that we could stand and be served snacks ın the water. I felt lıke I was a prıncess.

Then there was the nıght we went to Lımon where I REALLY felt lıke some kınd of prıncess ın a faıry tale. Lımon ıs thıs restaurant some what out of the way, small and ıt seemed lıke ıt was hıdden. The next photos are from there, as you can see the sunset was to dıe for. We sat a the bar, had some drınks and meze as the sun set over the Aegean sea. It was the most beautıful sunset I have seen, more so then Pamukkale (only because I was alone when I saw pamukkale where as thıs tıme I was wıth frıends!) Overall Bodrum was a huge sucess and a memory worth more then what I paıd. Thıs trıp wıll always be the turnıng poınt to my decısıon to stay ın Istanbul for more reasons then one. I am a belıever that everythıng happens for a reason and there ıs areason that the events leadıng to me wantıng to stay happened. Wıth that saıd... ı want to poınt out that thıs ıs my 100th blog post! hundreds more are comıng just you waıt.... antalya ıs my next bıg adventure!