The Other Side

I was up again at six this morning, enjoying a quiet house before my morning massage.  I could get used to this routine very quickly.  Even though I’m tired later in the day, a cup of coffee fixes that about mid-afternoon.

Kory went for a run while I was getting my massage.  I was so thankful for that since he hasn’t done any exercise at all in months.  When I was talking to God this morning, I asked Him if He wouldn’t tell Kory to get off his butt and exercise, because I know when I tell him, it falls on deaf ears.  I guess he listens to God more than me, which is probably a very good thing.

My massage was again, very healing.  I’m going again.  That Emil, he knows what he’s doing.  I guess that’s why Norway sends their citizens to Turkey for spa and massage therapy if they have a condition that would be helped by it.  Good times.  If I were a Norwegian citizen, I’m sure they would just have me move here.  All my pains are melting away.

After breakfast we headed for the other part of Side we hadn’t yet seen – the beach, which is less than a mile from Bjørn’s house.  The sun was out, the waves were calm and there were plenty of pretty rocks and shells just waiting to be collected.  I don’t know how we’re going to get everything home, but we will.  We’ll also be taking home a little sunburn as that sun was pretty hot today.  The sea felt nice, but I just waded in it looking for rocks.  None of us went swimming as everyone just loved lying by the beach relaxing. I can only do that for so long before I need to get up and go, so Kory, Kaleb, Tobias and I went for an hour long walk along the harbor down to Apollo’s temple and back.  It took 40 minutes down because I stopped so often to take photos, then we had to hustle back to meet up with the rest of the gang for lunch at a restaurant on the beach.  Once again we had good food and the view couldn’t be better. 

In a way, the beach here reminds me of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, as hotels and restaurants line the shore, pirate looking ships take people out on sight seeing tours,  para-gliding boats zoom back and forth and the beach is covered with loungers full of tourists lying on the beach.  But in another way, it’s different.  The tourist towns in Turkey are kept very clean and no one is going around peddling to the tourists.  In fact, the local shop owners aren’t even allowed to pester the tourists anymore.  They put some new law into affect once they found out the tourists didn’t like being followed down the street by the shop owners trying to sell them something.  It’s very controlled now and quite comfortable.  The shop owners still expect a barter on their prices, however.

I feel bad for the workers here.  I see them around where Bjørn lives, working before nine in the morning and still there at midnight, every day of the week.  He says its normal to work sixteen hour days for half the year there are tourists in town, then they go back home up in the mountains to their families the rest of the year.  It’s a tough life and there is a lot of poverty in this country, but it’s far enough away from the tourist’s view one would never know.  All I’ve seen in town and at the beach, are the local men though.  They travel in packs with not a woman in sight.  The Muslims do that in Norway too, but I thought it was just there.  Now I know it’s a cultural thing.

Kaleb, Markus and Jonas all wanted to buy a new Nintendo game.  I’m sure all the ones sold here are pirated copies, as Kaleb got some kind of deal that had 300 different games on it for $45.  He was thrilled, as were the twins.  It was pretty quiet the rest of the day as they sat for hours, playing their new games.

After lunch the rest of the gang went back to the house while Kory and I stayed in the city and walked around the ruins taking pictures, went to the Side Museum and did a little shopping.  There are so many ruins around here they just reuse the old walls or columns for practical things like marking off parking lots or building smaller retaining walls.  It’s weird to think these ancient artifacts are not preserved or treasured more, but I guess they have so much of it, it takes on new meaning for the locals.

While shopping we were invited in for “Turkish apple tea” (which tastes a lot like hot apple cider if you ask me), by a carpet salesman.  It was our lucky day because it was our first time in Turkey and he was going to make us a deal we couldn’t resist.  I only accepted his offer to have the tea because I wanted to experience the process people go through to buy a Turkish handmade rug, since that’s the ONE thing I knew Turkey was famous for. I have to say, that rug he wanted us to buy was incredibly gorgeous and was made out of silk and wool and soft as a baby’s butt.  I just couldn’t imagine spending a thousand dollars on something that gets walked on, however.  Someday, maybe, someday. 

We spent way too much time with that guy but it was interesting to hear all his sales pitches.  He even took that rug, which would have fit perfectly in our living room in Norway, and had a guy fold it up so it would fit in a small piece of luggage – which he offered to throw in on the deal so we could get it home.  Good thing Kory was along because I’ve always had it in my mind it would be cool to go to Turkey and buy a Turkish rug, but today apparently, wasn’t that day.

The rain clouds rolled in again this afternoon and we weren’t sure how bad it was going to get, so we took a taxi back to Bjørn’s house just in time as the rain started up again so we all went out to dinner.  More good food, another long meal, and for dessert, we headed back to the salon where Josefine got her hair tinted and cut, Inger got her bangs cut and I got a pedicure!  It’s hard to just pay ten dollars for something that takes an hour, so I gave her a good tip as my feet are now soft as a baby’s butt.  So much for needing that carpet.

One new thing I experienced with that pedicure was how she took the little hairs off the top of my toes (which I didn’t even know were there, by the way.)  Rather than waxing, she twisted up some strong thread and open and closed the loop rather quickly, which acted like scissors.  I’d never seen that done before but Inger said they do it in Norway all the time.  She offered to take the hair off my legs using the same method, but I declined.  I’ve had them for so long, I’m kind of partial to hairy legs at this point.

Kory taught Tobias how to make Kettle Korn so he made a few batches once we got home.  There’s a TV in this house with a connection to cable, but it seems everyone’s electronic devices have replaced the need for it.  Bjørn logged on to the internet to check the weather, both for here and back home and the rest of us turned on our electronics for our own personal entertainment.  Weird dynamics to have so many people in one room, all in their own little world, but it sure made for a quiet house, even with the twins present.

Inger offered us the use of their house here anytime we want it – “Bring friends from America and come stay a few weeks” she said.  I have to say, I would have never considered Turkey as a vacation destination kind of place, but after being here for a few days, I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong.