"It's plain to see you're just curious"

Oh my. I just realized my last update was about a week ago. Sorry about that, dear readers!

So, I'll try to keep this relatively brief. I arrived in Marmaris around 7 pm on Friday after waiting at comstruction for two hours (the only road into Marmaris was closed), and then spent a stressful hour seeking a hotel. Finally I found a decent one, which was not quite as clean as I had originally thought after closer inspection. Marmaris was extremely busy with tourists and was very loud into the wee hours of the night. I quickly decided I didn't want to stay another night there.

On Saturday morning, I contacted a friend, Tina, in the neighbouring city of Içmeler asking her for a recommendation of where to stay. She, very kindly, had me go to her husband's restaurant where he called some contacts and got me a very nice room, or rather, apartment like room, to stay in for the next four nights. I was invited to join Tina and her daughter for dinner once I was settled. We had a great meal, with great conversation, and afterwards we went back to Tina's where we were joined later by Katya and Charlotta, all three of them being women I had met in Turkey back in 2007. The conversation was excellent and very interesting and completed the fantastic evening.

Sunday, I was very sick. Diarehha, horrible stomach pains and I threw up once (sorry for the details if you didn't want to hear them). It made for a very quiet Sunday. I slept most of the day, though with constant runs to the bathroom. There was definitely a few times where I wondered whether I was in enough pain to have to go the hospital. Praise God though, I was feeling much better by around 10 when I went to bed.

Monday, I took it easy. I was still weak from the night before. I went swimming at the busy beach, wandered around town but generally found I was already bored with Içmeler, Mostly because the town is very tourist centred this time of year, and mostly catered to English tourists. Everything was English. It was like England except In a hot place. And one thing I have to say about Europeans in general: they are not ashamed of their bodies, which is a good thing. But there's a difference between not being ashamed, and letting it all hang out. Sometimes literally. At one point, I averted my eyes from the topless, older and rather large woman on the beach only to be disturbed by the topless, older and rather large man on my other side who's bosom was nearly as big. Yes, disturbing.

Tuesday morning I met the same three ladies again for breakfast at a neat restaurant that overlooked Marmaris, and showed it's beauty, as well as it's ugliness. Again, we had a great visit and I was sad to say goodbye, but said I'd return soon. The rest of the day was rather uneventful until the evening when my hotel had some entertainment lined up in the form of break dancers, a belly dancer and traditional Turkish folk dancers. I was able to enjoy the entertainment from my balcony since I was already in my pajamas. As a side note, although the staff at the hotel were really friendly to me at first, I think in the end they didn't really like me. I ate out instead of eating at the hotel and buying drinks there. I think they were hoping to get more money out of me while I stayed there. Too bad for them.

Wednesday morning I left early, caught a bus to Marmaris, then bought a bus ticket to go out along one of the peninsulas to Datça. I was hoping for some quiet here, and to get away from the huge amount of tourists. And it worked. This town is small and relatively untouched when it comes to big fancy hotels. The past two days I've stayed at a lovely hotel in a room that overlooks the Aegean. I've gone swimming twice, spent some time wandering along the harbour and on Thursday I ventured by bus out to Eski (old) Datça and took many photos of the old town with ots small and winding cobbled streets.

I had been planning to stay here in Datça another day, but yesterday it started growing on me that I should go to Bodrum and there I'd get to visit the amazing underwater archaeology museum. So, plans have changed, and I'm heading to Bodrum tomorrow by ferry before I head to Izmir on Saturday. I'm quite excited about going there, and taking the ferry. We know a woman working at the museum so hopefully I'll get a chance to see her.

Also of interest to note is I was hit on by another waiter. The waiter asked if I had a boyfriend, and when I said no, he said that was too bad. He then said "I know how we can fix this. You come back later and I'll take you out. We'll go to a disco bar." I politely declined. At least he was closer to my age this time. There was a waiter at Tina and her husband's restaurant however that I would have had a lot more trouble declining if he had asked.

Well, I'm off now to catch the ferry to Bodrum. Sorry for any spelling errors!

Cheers!