Ozak Ayvalik

... and our fr&#305;end lond&#305;s jumped over the fence and jo&#305;ned us br&#305;ng&#305;ng us coffee! Its so n&#305;ce to be w&#305;th the locals and see how they lead there l&#305;ves he told us tomorrow that I could m&#305;lk the goat so awa&#305;t p&#305;cs of that and he &#305;s go&#305;ng to take us on h&#305;s boat to rabb&#305;t &#305;sland &#305;f he gets back from Izm&#305;r &#305;n t&#305;me as h&#305;s mother &#305;n law has cancer and he has to take her for chemo tomorrow. <br>

... normally excepted but what the females wear / if they swim will be interesting. In practise the beach was odd. Lots of people doing maintence (including raking the beach by hand..) , putting out loungers and a installing turf lawn by the second bar but only ten attendee's. As its a big beach it was practically deserted. Its like someone is planning something big. Its surreal because there is no accommodation; maybe they're thinking of ...

... late departing and as a trip the views were great. There were lots of ships and even dolphins. It cost 20 lira ( about £8 ). As we got closer you could see the quarries above the town. This place has been producing Marble since roman times. And its very good statue quality. So the streets of the town are lined with failed statues. There are three ships being loaded and two huge cranes. A dedicated road from the quarry to the port is filled with rumbling trucks. On the back is a ...

... hard work. But mostly I slept. The TV has BBC world too so its slightly distracting. But ultimately its a loop and thus irritating. I also went for a walk around town and established that its modern without a lot of interest. It was definitely cooler today being merely hot. Aircon though makes it unattractive to go outside... So the day passed sleeping walking and on the net; maybe it was the buffet breakfast. Tomorrow I will do more... 15/06/09

... swimming in the (very) cool water. The boat would stop and moor to random small islands and then we would have some time to jump off the boat and swim in the waters. A little ice cream boat would also come up to the side of the boat and try to sell to the passengers. At one of the stops Justin, John and I swam to another boat that was much larger than ours at three storeys high. After ...

... quite a few people there. But few enough that we were able to appreciate the isolation and the solitude of the place. Seeing the cliffs rising up just a few metres from the beach were they landed, including the imposing Sphinx certainly brings to life all the stories that we all grew up with at school.

... it's quite funny, you sit there drinking your beer watching the boats go past when all of a sudden a fish goes flying past as it's caught by the people fishing from the top! Overall, Turkey was amazing, and we don't feel like we've seen it properly yet. When we got home and saw the area we covered on the map, it was tiny - and there's so much more we want to see, especially along the West Coast there will defiantly be a return trip one day

... very tired from the past few days, we decided to take a bit of R&R the following day by catching a 7 Island cruise. After negotiating with the myriad of operators we agreed on paying 15 YTL (about $7.50) for a full day cruise and seafood lunch. Julie and I were the only foreigners on the boat which made for some interesting conversations. It was on this boat trip that I decided never again to try and explain what occupational therapy is ...

... the bottle, at which point the families meet, and the girl and her suitor speak with one another. Later, the father arranges another meeting between the girl and the boy, during which the girl serves Turkish coffee to him. If she serves the coffee with sugar, she accepts his proposal. But if she serves it with salt, she rejects his offer, and another bottle is placed on the chimney to repeat the process. But perhaps, when the coffee is sweet, a trip to Pamukkale is in the offing.

... the bowel conversations, the 'Beach', the people and mostly the sight of Jo using the blue bucket! We will not miss..... The *****, 15 hour days on the truck, the regiment schedule!, bread, the cold and the *****! We have covered 5700 Kms by truck, Avoided 17 carpet salesmen, **** through a needle more than once - or twice - or three times for that matter! Weve consumed a fair load of bread and ...