I am now in love with the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. England be damned! I miss the sun! This was our view upon waking. EVERY SINGLE DAY. We couldn’t have hoped for better weather it was in the upper 80s (31 C) and sunny our entire trip. It would be hard for to aptly express how special to me this week was.
It looks like paradise, right?
Turkey has a huge tipping culture, bigger than in America even. So I’d advise anyone traveling there in the future to remember tip everyone. Drivers, hotel maids, bar men, wait staff, bell boys, etc. I like to think that we made friends with most of the hotel staff. I’m really weird when I stay in hotels because I feel bad about someone cleaning my room for me, so I always make my bed anyways to try to help. I think the maid appreciated it because she made us this one morning:
Do you think it’s a cobra or a peacock?
I made sure to find her so I could tell her how fabulous I thought it was.
Sam lounging by the pool with an ice cream.
Did I mention that there were free ice creams all day long?! Heaven.
Sam at our “local” bar.
This picture cracks me up because he looks like he’s posing for a press photo as the new owner.
We went down to the pier daily.
Turkey has a huge stray cat problem. In Belek alone, there were 100s of stray cats. One night, while watching some belly dancers and whirling dervishes and stray kitten jumped into my lap and fell asleep. Despite being allergic to cats, I fell in love with him. I named him “Cat”. He stayed with me all evening. And I kid you not, when I had to go back to the hotel room, I cried. I didn’t want to leave Cat behind. I begged Sam to take him back to England with us.
Cat found me again later in the week by the pool! It must have been love!
Sadly, Sam didn’t let me bring him home.
Sam and I had originally planned to go to Egypt for this holiday period. Due to political circumstances, it seemed unsafe for me to travel on my American passport, as Americans were advised to avoid traveling to Egypt whilst it was still okay for Brits. But then we stumbled across this amazing all-inclusive deal for a resort in Turkey. Neither of us had ever traveled all-inclusive before because it had always been to expensive in the past. (If you want any tips on how to get it cheaply I now know some).
I never want to go back to regular holidays after a vacation of unlimited drinks and food.
Mmm….unlimited cocktails.
This photo was taken right after the last. Sam said “Wouldn’t your mother be proud?” as he took it, resulting in this face. (My mom doesn’t drink as a reference.)
Loving Belek.
These two friends want to stay in Belek forever.
It was one of the most wonderful, special weeks of my entire life. I’ll pretty much cherish it always. (As I told Sam weeping on our last night there.) But as Sam himself said, well, we just have to focus on planning the next holiday then!
