I’m contemplating buying Emil, my massage therapist, a one-way ticket to America. My life would be much improved if I had him around on a regular basis. The pain in my lower back has completed gone away and the one in my shoulder is about 95% better. I had to give him a hug today, as I just felt so good after my “medical massage.” I hadn’t realized before how much stressed out muscles affect overall health, but I’m certainly going to do my part now to keep them more relaxed. Daily stretching is a must. I’ll be thinking of Emil every time, and praying for him.
Bjørn and Kory finished up painting the last of the hand railings today so they both joined the rest of us around the pool for some R&R. We didn’t leave the pool all day as the sun was hot and everyone just wanted to chill out. I’m not sure how relaxing it really was with all the water wars going on between Kaleb and I, and Tobias and the twins, but we did our best to keep water off those who weren’t participating. It was pretty fun, but we all got rather toasted in the process.
At lunch today I suggested maybe we should take the twins on a little trip in the neighborhood over to see the new playground. Markus said (in Norwegian, of course), “Why don’t we take a little trip up to heaven to see God?” He’s been fascinated by God and heaven ever since he started shouting HALLELUJAH on a regular basis after spending time with us last summer. Poor Jonas, he’s gotten kind of tired of it over the past year and when anticipating spending time with us here in Turkey he asked his mom, “What are we going to do with both Kory and Markus shouting HALLELUJAH all the time?” Kory hasn’t said too many of them this week, as Markus has said enough of them for all of us. It still makes me laugh when he does it, which only encourages him to do it more, I’m sure, but as I told his parents, there are worse things he could be shouting.
Inger finally convinced Tobias to get a haircut before we leave so I went with them down to the salon and Inger and I got a manicure while we were waiting – for a whopping six dollars each. We realized it was Mother’s Day back in America (and here, too, but not in Norway), when a neighbor got flowers delivered to her today. So, we treated ourselves to a little Mother’s Day pleasure. I think I’ve had a manicure only once or twice in my lifetime. It’s just so decadent, but for six dollars, I feel I’m worth it.
While we were getting our manicure, a couple of camels walked down the street in front of us. They were on leads and were dressed up for the tourist business, but it’s still funny to see. There have been many funny things I’ve seen in Turkey – like traffic lights in the city with a big digital count down clock next to them reporting how many seconds until the light turns green – as if the drivers need time to rev up their engines in preparation. I’ve also seen two camels sitting down in the back of a pickup truck driving down the freeway. That was a weird sight. As was a guy sleeping on top of a tarp, high up on a small semi-truck barreling down the freeway. One good slam of the brakes and he’d go sailing off that thing. It made me shudder just looking at him. I’m sure he wasn’t there just to hold down the tarp.
The freeway has provided much entertainment as well as handy shopping opportunities. There are several little stands on the side of the road either selling fresh fruit or cooked corn on the cob. We haven’t tried the corn, but we did stop to buy 20 pounds of oranges so we could have fresh OJ every morning. (I think we’ve gone through at least 50 pounds of oranges this week alone.) One of the funniest things on the freeway is that they don’t have any directional markings for east/west/north/south, but just after passing through a city, there is a sign with the name of that city and a big red slash through it – meaning – this direction will NOT take you there. It’s pretty comical.
Tonight for dinner we went to a restaurant right on the water and watched the sun go down. The environment couldn’t have been better. There was no wind and a very comfortable temperature. Kory and I had a “hot pot” meal for two where they put chicken pieces and veggies in a clay vase, and cook that in an oven. They have to break open the vase at the table to get the food out. It was a genuine Turkish dish so it was fun to have some kind of local food with a little flair. It was a long evening at the seaside and someone down the shore shot off big fireworks as we ate our complimentary fruit plate after dinner. The hospitality around here is impressive and the prices are pretty reasonable and sometimes downright cheap. It’s nice to be able to buy a popcicle for 40 cents here, rather than $4 in Norway. Many things are even cheaper than in America. And there is a strong police presence everywhere, so it feels much safer than I expected. I’m sure this city wasn’t even a city 20 years ago as it seems it was all built around the ruins for the European tourist trade.
Over 150,000 Norwegians travel to Turkey for vacation every year. It’s the number one vacation destination for them, and it’s easy to see why, since everything is so cheap and they have lots of warm sunshine – two things often lacking in Norway. The other thing they have, that I love, are streets scented with the smell of honeysuckle and other fragrant flowers. It’s absolutely heavenly to walk through neighborhoods and breath in deeply. It’s almost like being in a perfume factory as the smell is so strong. I haven’t gotten tired of that one bit.
We walked slowly back to the car after dinner tonight and Inger and Josephine did a little jewelry shopping along the way. The main part of town really comes alive at night. The currency here is Turkish lira, but they much prefer taking Euros and all the signs are posted with that currency. Several places take dollars, too, which I found odd since we haven’t run in to a single American tourist since we got here, but Bjørn said all the Russian “new rich” only use American dollars. Interesting.
We were late getting home tonight. All of us felt stuffed from dinner and our bodies are radiating heat from our recently acquired sunburns. I told Kaleb it’s a good time to leave Turkey – when we now feel like one – stuffed and over cooked. We leave tomorrow.
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