OCTOBER 2009 OLU DENIZ
BLOG 2: Taste of Turkey
Here we are in our all inclusive hotel in Olu Deniz. It’s great. If we get up early enough (about 8 am) we can have a cooked breakfast to our own specification – otherwise there’s a good buffet. Hotel is 3-star, simply furnished but spacious and clean and only a minute from the ‘pedestrian only’ lively area of shops, cafes and bars leading down to the beach and lovely lagoon. Even though it’s late October, the weather is warm, sunny and bright but not too hot. Perfect. I’m congratulating myself on discovering this treasure. We wander down past the car barrier toward the beach. This place obviously caters to British tourists as many of the cafes and bars have blackboards outside advertising current English football league matches being broadcast on TV. Music is blaring forth from some, but there is plenty of choice and I pull OH away from these temptations: “we didn’t come here for that!” (in my best school-marm voice).
My OH is a collector. By that I mean he collects ‘souvenirs’: magnets, postcards, nicknacks, magazines – you name it – if he sees it, he may start a collection, so this densely populated tourist area is a paradise for him. In days gone by, he was an avid tourist, wanting to check out local attractions. As for me, I like sitting in a coffee shop or sipping a cool drink by the sea or in a square, watching the world go by, luxuriating in the sun – just chilling out and absorbing the atmosphere. If we’re on the beach, or by a pool, I’ll take a novel and be constantly dipping in and out. We walk down to the sea which is delightfully and unexpectedly warm, though the pebbly sands underfoot requires rubber shoes but that’s ok.
The blue skies are full of people whizzing by on kite contraptions and I know our sons would be up for this. Me too, for that matter but OH says “no way” meaning no way for either of us. Maybe he’s remembering a time some years ago when we went para gliding off the Gold Coast in Australia.
Unlike here in Olu Deniz where you fly strapped in together with an expert and take off and land from the ground, in Oz we each went up on our own in an individual parachute. Although takeoff and landing was from the shore, the chute was pulled along by a speed boat causing the chute to rise into the sky. We were instructed that when the man below waved at us, it was the signal to pull a certain lever to lower the chute. OH went up first and I filmed him with a digital video camera (no smart phones then). He came back, exhilarated, and it was my turn to be strapped into my chute. Wow! Up I went and it felt amazing. Floating up there, I was lost in a strange, silent blue world. Looking down at the little boat, the golden sands with the tiny figure of OH looking up, I felt I could stay up there forever. After a while, enjoying myself in my new world, I glanced down and noticed the little guy on the boat waving at me. Friendly, I thought, and gaily waved back. More time floating up there, and the guy was still waving – even a bit frantically. I began to wave back again, and then it suddenly clicked: he was signaling me to come down. I was supposed to pull the lever! I came back down to earth literally and figuratively. We had to pay quite a bit more because I’d been up there so long.
Back to Olu Deniz. We are surrounded by mountains, lush greenery and turquoise sea – plenty of nightlife and places to eat if we tire of hotel cuisine, we have nothing on our minds but to relax and enjoy ourselves. What shall we do tomorrow?
. . . To be continued (probably in about a week’s time)