Lis and Tyler in Germany

New discovery: I LOVE Turkish food.  All of my favorite things combined in a bunch of different delicious recipes.  Think Greek, only fresher and with more salads (although I’ve never had Greek food in Greece).  Garbanzo beans, tomatoes, cucumber, yogurt, other beans, really good rice (and I know good rice), fresh herbs (especially mint), fresh bread, beets, corn…I could go on. 

We found ourselves with a few days off in a row, and decided to go somewhere.  Being a long weekend (because of yet another public holiday), most trips were expensive and/or booked.  We found an amazing last minute deal at a resort near Antalya, Turkey.  Airfare, train tickets to and from the airport,  and four nights at an all-inclusive resort for 229 Euros per person.  We didn’t think we’d see much of Turkey, but figured we might as well go relax in the sun at the beach and by the pool for that price.  As it turns out, you can’t really go to Turkey without experiencing Turkey.  It is another world.  Nobody spoke English, even the people at the airport, the travel agency and the hotel reception desk.  We were the first Americans ever to stay at the hotel, and the first Americans many of the employees had ever met.  They were surprisingly thrilled to meet us, and were honored that we’d come to Turkey.  The 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the hotel was perhaps my favorite part of the trip.  We rode through villages and farms, saw women working the fields with kids on their backs and old men sitting in front of their stores smoking and talking about the weather, the current neighborhood scandal, the Americans in town or whatever other gossip they could dig up.  We saw a bike towing a cart full of milk jugs–straight from the cow’s utters to the customers, I assume.  I’m not talking milk jugs as we’d think of the milkman delivering.  I’m talking about huge, uncovered jugs which I’m sure each buyer pours from.  We went to a market, which was more touristy than I’d hoped, but which did sell spices, scarves, knock-off clothing, purses and watches, handicrafts and Turkish costumes.  And we took a boat ride through the amazingly beautiful ”Green Canyon.”

 Overall, it was a good, relaxing, learning experience.  I have to say that it felt like we were a million miles away.  I’ve always appreciated that we speak English, and that we are very catered to when we travel.  But I have a whole new understanding of how lucky we are after having traveled in Turkey.  Phone was impossible, internet was hit and miss, and there were huge language barriers which made simple things impossible.  I was trying to make a call from the room, and was told how to reserve a rental car.  “Call”, “car”…I get the similarity, but one does not serve the other’s purpose.

 And, for those of you following, I ran (okay, jogged) for 30 minutes straight while we were there!  Tyler (always the practical one) wasn’t too keen on me going for a run, scantily clad and unaccompanied, through the villages of Turkey, so I ran on the treadmill at the hotel.  It was actually kind of fun to see how far I was going (and when it’s in kilometers, it’s really good for your ego) and how fast.  If only I can keep this up.  The other day I was thinking of how great it would be to run in the Ski to Sea race next year…