Alanya 2009!

Loved:

• Watching the kids have the time of their lives!
• Coming up from the pool every day to find the dishes done (we found that we preferred eating breakfast in our room), the towels clean, and the bed blankets shaped in floral patterns.
• The incredible service at the hotel! They hadn’t seen an American at the hotel since 2002 so James quickly achieved celebrity status. They treated us like royalty the entire time. “We don’t normally make reservations when there’s a show, but we’ll hold the best table for you” 😉 James tipped handsomely (proven when ‘our’ waiter ran to say goodbye to us when we left, hugged James 3 times, and thanked him for the tips! Kemal deserved it 🙂 )
• The hilarious pool boys, “Mr Bean” and “Sonny”, who served us drinks, ice cream and lunch pool side! They chatted with the guests, made for lots of laughs, and kept a fun energy going. One morning, about 9am, ‘Mr Bean’ comes on his first round by the pool and hollers: GOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!!! Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Beer….Cocaine, Marihuana, Viagra….” I was in stitches! Gotta love starting your day with a severe belly laugh! 😀
• How family friendly the hotel was! Kids were welcome everywhere, and always greeted with a smile! The waiters asked what the girls’ names were the first night, and at breakfast the next morning they were greeted with “Good morning Kari & Julia!” They played with the girls, tickled them, patted their heads, and winked at them when they passed by. It was adorable!
• The Turkish Bath! Laying on a huge marble slab in the middle of a steaming hot room for about 20min and then having a Turkish guy in a towel-like thing wrapped around his waist come in the room singing some sort of traditional melody. He pulled me up and doused me with HOT water before scrubbing me down from head to toe. Then I laid down again and he used these soap “balls” inside some sort of mesh to cover me with soapy foam and then gave me a top to toe massage before finally rinsing it all off. He wrapped me in a towel and brought me to another room where I enjoyed some ice tea and relaxed. Then it was time for an hour worth of a full body massage and a clay face mask. It was seriously deep tissue massaging – his arms must ache at the end of the day!
• How deliriously happy James was after getting a Turkish Shave at the hotel barber shop! He loved it so much he ended up doing it again, and getting a haircut at the same time! He’s never been so ‘clean cut’ in his life, lol.
• The long and beautiful white hand-sown Turkish dress James bought me (and haggled down from 249 TL (Turkish Lire) to 95!! Nicely done!)
• The even more beautiful yellow and white gold diamond ring he bought me for my birthday
• The stunning park by the beach; palm trees and exotic flowers were pure eye-candy!
• The full day Blue Boat trip on a “Pirate Ship” – swimming in the mediterranean and being completely amazed that it was even warmer than the heated pool at the hotel! Magic!
• The AWESOME exercise equipment that lined the boardwalk! There was a playground for the kids and next to it there was a “work-out ground” for adults. It was all bolted down metal equipment, but it was so cool! A free outdoor exercise area that you can use year round? Every community should have one!
• Going out to eat every night! Eating awesome meals, being treated like royalty, and paying a fraction of what we would have paid at home!
• Being outside at night, it’s dark and warm at the same time! In Norway it’s pretty much never ever hot and dark outside at the same time. Boy had I missed eating ice cream under the stars on a hot summer night!
• I could go on and on and on…. you get my drift! WE LOVED IT!

Not so much:

• The haggling got rather uncomfortable at times so I left it all to James. When you have the two guys in the store yelling at each other in Turkish…well then I leave and let James “be the man”, lol.  Must admit that I prefer having something cost what it says it costs.
• Kari getting terribly sea-sick on the boat trip
• Getting “feriemage” (vacation stomach) the first day…
• The pushy salesmen constantly trying to drag you into their store or restaurant
• Flying home in the middle of the night… left the hotel at midnight and arrived home at 9am. Will NEVER do that again!

Fascinating:

• The “pirate” who climbed a steel wire with his bare hands from the front of the ship to the top of the mast! He flew up like it was easy as pie!
• The kid who suddenly got thrown overboard and almost gave me a heart-attack before I realized it was all part of the show. He swam to the mountain edge, climbed up to a cave – “The Lover’s Cave” – and then the ship left him there! He appeared on the other side of the mountain a little later in the tour, and dove into the water and got fished up on board again.
• The belly dancer!
• The “snake lady” who handled a gigantic python like it was a ragdoll!
• Kari bouncing back from her sea-sickness on the boat and proceeded to get off the pirate ship and swim on two swim-stops on the 2nd half of the trip. She LOVED it! So the boat trip wasn’t a complete bust for the poor kid 🙂
• Sitting on the balcony in the hot dark of night and hearing the calling to prayer from the mosque right by the hotel. Tried to wrap my mind around how many people were falling to their knees at just that moment. What a contrast to the disco sounds from the hotel bar downstairs.

Sad:

• Having to go home