Final thoughts on the Bodrum holiday
Jun. 4th, 2015 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzI spent the past few days typing up the Paper LJ and editing some of the pictures, stitching some panorama's and stressing out for school. It felt like ten loose ends flapping in the wind but I've wrapped some up and I am getting some time to breathe. Although I'm still nowhere in editing the pictures, the Paper LJ is done, the pair of socks I started on the boat is finished and photographed, I've taken pictures of stash yarn and the Copilot cowl, and boxes get ticked in my head, freeing up brain CPU.
What's still left to tell about the Bodrum holiday: the final day, the journey home, the afterthoughts....
Because we'd spent the entire holiday cooped up on a ship with three-man crew, there was hardly any time to get used to the Turkish culture. And so you find my final Paper LJ entry describing how terribly not used I was to the Turkish culture. The next day (Monday, our departure day) we still had time to shop, and shop I did. And I haggled! No longer intimidated by the impeccably groomed, be-earringed, half-Dutch speaking men we ventured into Bodrum and shopped 'till the sweat was running down our backs.
I'm still not entirely sure whether I may have gotten good deals on the souvenirs we bought, but I bought a silk shawl that will become my Precious and a purse I fell in love with on the first night
One thing is sure, I do have an expensive taste. For all the Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors and other silly brands that were for sale (real and imitation), I fell for a purse that was initially label-less, but the lock finally yielded a name: Hermès. It was lilac and pink and purple and blue mosaic leather, and it was "only" 1000 euro.
(I see on the Hermès website the original in orange is 8750 euro, so what are we being silly about?)
Of course, of all the handbag & leather stores in Bodrum, only two or three had any purses I liked. Because I am not the kind of girl to be toting a true brand purse, and I really don't want something butt-ugly on my arm. The purse I bought is of a no-ego brand I never heard of, it's chic and it's me, and I love it even if it's too fancy to take to the supermarket.
Having pledged to try some Real Turkish things, we drank Turkish coffee and ate Doner Kebap. I skipped on the Hamam visit (not really interested) but we ate ice cream, paid things in euro and received Turkish Lira as change.
As for the boat trip: it was very nice going out and exploring like this. The crew spoke hardly any English, excepting the captain, who was a bit weird and spoke with a thick accent. The trip would have been a lot better and more fun had we been 'included' more. We often arrived somewhere and we hardly knew where we were or how long we would stay there -- also because the trip had been reversed (as we could puzzle out later on in the week) from its original course.
Not only that, there was also hardly any interaction between the Italian guests and the Dutch guests on board. Maybe it was just a language barrier, maybe they were just too busy having a good time themselves.
Still, it was very relaxing and much more steady than I had expected. Despite the rain and the thunder and the lightning, I was never sick and queasy only once when I was writing my PaperLJ as we were bouncing over the waves. The rain didn't bother us much, because the aft deck could be closed off on all sides. The only thing that was inconvenient was the lack of water to wash with, as the pumps didn't always work when you'd want them to. But hey, we're used to Drachenfest and having a toilet that actually flushes (even if your knees won't fit into the bathroom) is a big perk.
The trip back was tiresome, as our plane had been delayed by 3 hours. There was a ground crew member at the check-in to tell us, but once we were out of the country in the international part of the airport (past security and after being frisked) there was nobody to tell us what and how. At some point information trickled down the other people waiting for the flight (some had called Arke in the Netherlands to find out more) and we found out we got a free hamburger meal.
Then when we were finally back at Schiphol, another plane had taken our gate and the ground crew had to scramble to get it out of the way. And then there was the bickering and the stress when we couldn't find our taxi to where the car was parked and my parents in law were near to having a fight. *sigh*
It was 4 am when we were in bed in Bergen. I don't think I've ever made the trip from front door to a bed more quickly.
The next morning at 10 we were at breakfast and around 1 pm we were home, being greeted by a very talkative and most lonesome kitty. She has been glued to our side whenever we take time to sit down and she doesn't leave our pillowside when we sleep, unless it is to accompany us to the bathroom. She was well taken care of by our neighbour, for whom we have brought an allseeing eye from Bodrum.
And now it's back to work. Like I said: pictures to edit, school assignments to be sewn. It's good to be back.
What's still left to tell about the Bodrum holiday: the final day, the journey home, the afterthoughts....
Because we'd spent the entire holiday cooped up on a ship with three-man crew, there was hardly any time to get used to the Turkish culture. And so you find my final Paper LJ entry describing how terribly not used I was to the Turkish culture. The next day (Monday, our departure day) we still had time to shop, and shop I did. And I haggled! No longer intimidated by the impeccably groomed, be-earringed, half-Dutch speaking men we ventured into Bodrum and shopped 'till the sweat was running down our backs.
I'm still not entirely sure whether I may have gotten good deals on the souvenirs we bought, but I bought a silk shawl that will become my Precious and a purse I fell in love with on the first night
One thing is sure, I do have an expensive taste. For all the Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors and other silly brands that were for sale (real and imitation), I fell for a purse that was initially label-less, but the lock finally yielded a name: Hermès. It was lilac and pink and purple and blue mosaic leather, and it was "only" 1000 euro.
(I see on the Hermès website the original in orange is 8750 euro, so what are we being silly about?)
Of course, of all the handbag & leather stores in Bodrum, only two or three had any purses I liked. Because I am not the kind of girl to be toting a true brand purse, and I really don't want something butt-ugly on my arm. The purse I bought is of a no-ego brand I never heard of, it's chic and it's me, and I love it even if it's too fancy to take to the supermarket.
Having pledged to try some Real Turkish things, we drank Turkish coffee and ate Doner Kebap. I skipped on the Hamam visit (not really interested) but we ate ice cream, paid things in euro and received Turkish Lira as change.
As for the boat trip: it was very nice going out and exploring like this. The crew spoke hardly any English, excepting the captain, who was a bit weird and spoke with a thick accent. The trip would have been a lot better and more fun had we been 'included' more. We often arrived somewhere and we hardly knew where we were or how long we would stay there -- also because the trip had been reversed (as we could puzzle out later on in the week) from its original course.
Not only that, there was also hardly any interaction between the Italian guests and the Dutch guests on board. Maybe it was just a language barrier, maybe they were just too busy having a good time themselves.
Still, it was very relaxing and much more steady than I had expected. Despite the rain and the thunder and the lightning, I was never sick and queasy only once when I was writing my PaperLJ as we were bouncing over the waves. The rain didn't bother us much, because the aft deck could be closed off on all sides. The only thing that was inconvenient was the lack of water to wash with, as the pumps didn't always work when you'd want them to. But hey, we're used to Drachenfest and having a toilet that actually flushes (even if your knees won't fit into the bathroom) is a big perk.
The trip back was tiresome, as our plane had been delayed by 3 hours. There was a ground crew member at the check-in to tell us, but once we were out of the country in the international part of the airport (past security and after being frisked) there was nobody to tell us what and how. At some point information trickled down the other people waiting for the flight (some had called Arke in the Netherlands to find out more) and we found out we got a free hamburger meal.
Then when we were finally back at Schiphol, another plane had taken our gate and the ground crew had to scramble to get it out of the way. And then there was the bickering and the stress when we couldn't find our taxi to where the car was parked and my parents in law were near to having a fight. *sigh*
It was 4 am when we were in bed in Bergen. I don't think I've ever made the trip from front door to a bed more quickly.
The next morning at 10 we were at breakfast and around 1 pm we were home, being greeted by a very talkative and most lonesome kitty. She has been glued to our side whenever we take time to sit down and she doesn't leave our pillowside when we sleep, unless it is to accompany us to the bathroom. She was well taken care of by our neighbour, for whom we have brought an allseeing eye from Bodrum.
And now it's back to work. Like I said: pictures to edit, school assignments to be sewn. It's good to be back.
