Ahoy!

"Ahoy! I'm sailing!.. Look at me, I'm a sailor!" If you can name this movie, a big props to you! I am sincerely impressed by your abilities.

On a more serious note, John and I were sailors for 7 whole days. It was spectacular. The water was so blue and clear and incredible. It was simply Beautiful. And at times Sea Sickening, of course. We kept thinking, this is really an opportunity that we were given that we will probably never be given again. Not in a were so great, look at us kind of a way but, rather a how did we get so lucky way. Let me explain...

We had planned to come to Turkey a while back and while we were making plans, Ayse was conversing with her Turkish friends and family about us coming and what we were going to do whilst being here. Two of her dearest and closest friends, Pelin and Negoti, were trying to come up with a good plan for all of us. They discussed it over with another good friend of their's named Mehmet and he suggested that we all come on his boat and sail with him for 7 days. The only thing he wanted was gas money for the boat and of course the food taken care of for the trip. Anyway, we all agreed that it would be a great experience and so we did it, we sailed.  

Basically, throughout the entire trip, we just went along the Mediterranean coast from cove to cove. We would sleep in a cove one night, wake up the next morning and eat breakfast, then go swim and then set sail to another cove. The next cove we would swim, snorkel, eat lunch and then set sail again for the cove where we would dock and eat dinner and sleep, shower, etc. 

It was so beautiful. I kept finding myself overwhelmed by how incredible this world is and how grateful I am for a loving God to give us such beauty to behold.  Hopefully, the pictures will do justice to beauty that we saw. While I was there, I kept wanting to share it with everyone I know. I wanted everyone to feel the same way about it that I did. But, I felt it was almost personal to me. Like, it was my piece of heaven that God was giving to me even though it was for everyone. I took it personally because I know he created this beauty for all of us. I guess I am just lucky I had the eyes to see it....

This will need an explanation. There were a large amount of boats docked at the Marmaris Marina from where we set sail from. All boats ranging in age, size, type. One boat that we came upon was this one. At first, we were incredibly unsure what to make of it. What was it? Did it come from outerspace? Was it for the furture? Was it a joke? and then we started observing that there was someone that was there inside... after looking at it more closely, we came to the realization that someone must live there and even more important, we think this boat was home made. I wish this photo could show true detail of what it really looked like. Just notice the details as much as you can... very very wierd.

Our boat, named Deeper Blue. Our captain (the one without the shirt)

Our sleeping quarters for the duration of the trip...

The marina...

We set sail!

Us at dinner with Pelin and Negoti.

Stray animals are everywhere! These kitties came to join us for dinner.

The litte boat we would have to take to shore sometimes.

Turkish people drink a lot of tea. Like the english. We always had tea breaks.

One of the dinner locations we ate at. I want to eat at a place like this every night.

Like I mentioned stray animals, this dog really took a liking to John... He was a handsome one.

At one of the Ports that we docked at, there was a kid going around and offering people boat rides to the dock. He was a pretty smart kid, making money off of all these people! We decided to support him and hop on for a short ride to the dock. We got on and immediately almost tipped over! I love Ayse's face in the photo below! It says how all of us were feeling!

In some of the ports and coves that we went to, there would be these islands in the middle and some of them would have old architecture castle like remains on them. This one is on top.. Look closely...

Here is another up close.

This one particular port had young kids (6-12 years of age) learning to sail in there own little boats. They were so wiggly and quick! It was so fascinating to watch them.

John got some new snorkling gear. Looks great, right??

Most of the places we docked had goats right on the shore line. Not the greatest photo but you can see them. Also, our captain took off and went on shore one afternoon and came back with a back of fresh oregano that he had been picking from the hillside. It was just growing naturally! It was so insane to me that it was growing there so freely!

The End.

Happenings...

We went to a place in Istanbul called Taxim. It is this area that is just filled with people constantly. It's busy and fun and there is a lot of good, good people watching to be had. One thing that was cool was that we walked off the bus and there was russian traditional dancing taking place in the middle of the square. They were doing snippets of their show to get people interested in coming. I love this! It really was so fun to watch!

Just the main area to walk down and shop, eat... people watch.

Soon after walking around Taxim and shopping, we hoped on a bus to get to the Airport to pick up Ross, John's dad. It was great because we got to sit front row and get a small bus tour of Istanbul. 

On our tour we saw one of the members of the Turkish Hells Angels chapter. Yeah... never ever did I imagine seeing this in turkey.

Another thing we saw was an aquaduct. A Real live Aquaduct! Still working too! Honestly, I study these in humanities and was so fascinated by them and so seeing it just part of the scenery (not touristy) was so awesome! It was beautiful too!... and massive...

We saw some super old places as well on our drive. I literally thought I would witness this one just collapse right then and there. It is so old looking and would make me nervous to live in it. haha

Love it when John makes these faces just for me.

We then traveled the next day after picking Ross up from the Airport to Marmaris. Marmaris was where we would meet up with our sailing friends and take off on the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. We stayed at a very quaint Hotel called "Otel Dost" which translates to "Hotel Friend". The man that owned it was incredibly nice. He held 2 large suitcases for us at his own home while we sailed for 7 days. Seriously a good, good man.

The room we were in. Very cute. Something that has been common here is that they don't have actual queen size beds for guests to sleep on, instead they push 2 twin size beds together... (I may have already mentioned this in a prior post, sorry).. The fact that I could nearly get the entire room in this photo says everything about its size... perspective.

The one and only night that we stayed in Marmaris was fun. The main streets are full of people and stores. Tourists come there- to the max- and the turks take advantage of the ability to make money (not in a negative way just in a touristy way)... anyway, we went into this one store where they were selling perfumes for a good price. We even smelt the tester and checked the packaging and thought they seemed pretty legit. Plus, I shop in LA all the time, I am used to this kind of selling. Anyway, we purchased 2 perfumes and 1 cologne. We were pretty excited. After about another 30 minutes of walking around we were ready to head back to the Otel. I started thinking, what if this stuff sucks and we can't do anything about it. So I suggested that we pull it out and test it. The one we chose to test was Aqua Di, a smell that I am all to familiar with (The one smell I demand John wear), and we sprayed it... and nothing. I could not smell a thing. A couple more sprays... nope. nothing. Then we thought, maybe give it a sec. Nope... nothing.. Ayse was so upset. So we set off to go back to the store. With my knowledge of LA- there is almost guarantee that we would not get out money back and I figured that was the case here. I was a little nervous. So was John. We decided to hide in a store nearby so that she could do her thing. She walked out with a smile on her face and nothing in her hands. She is good. 

We had asked her what she said. I was purely amazed. She said that she kept it simple and said to the young man that he was not honest. That the perfumes were not as he had advertised and that he needed to give her her money back. Its amazing what a small but stubborn woman can accomplish! Needless to say, I was incredibly relieved that we took care of it before it was too late.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to Marmaris and set sail for the coast of Turkey.