gobble gobble!

(on of the 3 outdoor pools)


(making sea life faces infront of the only sea life there)
you know how different countries make different sounds for different animals? like in america dogs go bark, and other countries they go yip or arf or whatever. i wonder what a turkey makes in turkey? i should have asked, but the turks i met dont speak much english. americans dont go to turkey.

SUNDAY
this past sunday, my 2 friends sarah and alexis and i went to anatalia, turkey. we stayed at the Sea Life resort, right on the beach. there were also 3 outside pools, one inside pool, and 2 water slides. and it was all inclusive. i think i probably got all my money back just on the free diet cokes!

we arrived sunday night. we made friends with 2 girls who were on our tour with us (eshet tours) they lived near elat. they came with their parents and younger brother. they were really nice- the whole family, and they helped us out with all the hebrew that people were trying to communicate to us. when we got to the hotel, they gave us dinner and then we went to bed.

MONDAY
the next day we went on a tour of anatalia (a city in turkey) with our israeli group- kinda sucked that it was all in hebrew, but we worked it out, understood enough and the what we didnt understand there was a really nice woman who's brother moved to london, so she speaks english and she told us what was going on. we went to these really pretty waterfalls. it was pretty cool. really beautiful.

after that, we went to a turkish delight factory and got some turkish delight. then we went to a leather factory and they tried to sell us leather winter jackets. they didnt go over that great for all the israelis who dont need winter jackets cause it is never cold.

when we got back, we went to go to the inside pool, and ended up in the steam room, and then sauna. there we met these two brothers and a sister who live in boston! they took their mother here cause they are muslim and she always wanted to come here (they're pretty old, in their 40s and 50s). they told us that a group of people go out every night to this club. the hotel organizes it, and would we like to come. of course we said yes, and that was how we met tanya. tanya works for the hotel organizing fun things like concerts and getting a bus to go to clubs and stuff like that. shes from the ukraine but really wants to move to the US. she really liked us, the only americans there, and looked soooo sad on thursday when we told her we were leaving.

that night, there was a HUGE lightning storm. like huge. night turned to day huge. the hotel lost power several times, and water kept seeping in under the doors. the club was an outdoors club, so we couldnt go. but not to worry, the hotel has its own discoteque! it was just a tiny room, but everyone who wanted to go to the club that night just went downstairs to dance. there were a whole bunch of people who spoke english- a bunch of germans and some brits. everyone was really nice. we had a great time dancing, although we were pretty disappointed not to see the club.

TUESDAY
tuesday we went to the hotel's turkish bath. we all got a turkish peeling bubble massage, and then a regular massage. the peeling bubble massage was crazy cool. they lay us down on this big marble table thing and pour water over us. then the use this scrub glove thing to scrub our dead skin off. it was funny cause they didnt know much english so they kept saying 'here please lady', or 'okay lady? too hot lady?' (reffering to the water of course).

after the scrub glove thing, the took these light mesh bag things and filled them with bubble mixture, and then swung the bag around to make bubbles, and swept them over us. the bubbles just floated over us. it kinda tickled, but felt soooo cool. like a blanket of liquid air type thing. unfortunately, i wanted to watch, so my eyes were open and i got bubbles in my eye. it really stung so i tried to explain it to the guy utill he gave me a bowl of water to was the bubbles off my hand so i could rub my eye. after that i kept my eyes closed tight. my masseuse gave me a massage in the bubbles. it was really cool. then he had me sit up and rinsed all the bubbles off of me. in the turkish bath, there were little marble bowls with faucets for hot and cold above them. in them are metal bowls with which to scoop up the water and pour it on you. he poured bowl after bowl of water, mixing up the temperatures. sometimes it was sooo cold but quickly followed with nice and warm water. then he put a towel over my head and dried off my hair a little, dried my face, my ears, nose, eyes (like you would a 3 year old- i just stood there) and wrapped me in a towel.

then i got a regular massage with no bubbles. it was a full body massage, and felt mostly good. he said my shoulders were fucked up and much too tight (i think, his english was god aweful) and spent a good deal of time pushing all his weight on them, which kinda hurt. he even used his elbows! he also said it was strange that when he tried to push my feet into 1st position (heels together, toes pointing straight out) it was sooo much harder than when he did the opposite ( im pigeon toed but didnt know how to explain that). my masseuse was kind of a character. he liked to talk a lot, and gave me a short history of turkey, and asked me all kinds of questions about america. everyone at the hotel loved that we were american. of course i had to say i was from new york cause massachusets was 'in europe somewhere?'

after the massage, we went to the pool and hung out with our new friends from the last night at the hotel's disco. then we had dinner at the hotel's special mexican restaurant. it wasnt very mexican, but it was pretty yummy anyways, they had eggroll type things but with cheese in them, and some kind of soup and salad, and then fajitas. there was no ordering, they just brought course after course.

tonight we were going to go to the club. it was soooo much fun. i danced with a group of germans, and sarah and alexis found some israelis from a different hotel who came on the bus with us. we got home around 330 am and PASSED OUT.

WEDNESDAY
we just missed breakfast, which was only from 7-10 am. luckily, the snack bar opened at 11am, and at 1130, two women made these turkish style quesadillas. they were SOOOOOO good. we hug out by the pool pretty much all day. we did go to the beach for a bit. but mostly, we hung out by the pool, made friends with the 2 bartenders, and got diet coke after diet coke. after a while, when they saw us coming they just immediately started pouring 3 diet cokes, but then made us stay to talk to them. the girl bartender LOVED us cause we snuck her french fries. the boy bartender thought we were so strange. but he liked us too.

for dinner, we went back to the mexican restaurant, but this time it was an italian restaurant. we had made reservations both nights for 7pm, for mexican and then italian. apparently, the restaurant is whatever you reserve. different people got different styles of food. it was not quite as good as the mexican, i thought, but still pretty good. the salad had anchovies on it, and even though i took them off it made me gag to try to eat it. but other than that, it was pretty good.

we went to the club again that night, and met some more cool people. there was a group of guys from iraq. they were fun and danced with our group, but i could not understand a word they were saying. i had a good time, although sarah didnt feel great but went anyways. she slept on a couch outside the club for most of it, and alexis was dissapointed that the israelis from the night before didnt go. i danced with the brits and the germans, and the iraqis, and had a grand ole' time. we went home and went to sleep again.

THURSDAY
we woke up early, knowing we only had a little bit longer to be by the pool. we got breakfast quickly, and hit the deck. we read our books, lay in the sun, went on the waterslide a few times, had lunch with the iraqis, slept by the pool, and pounded back diet cokes. we played ping pong with ron from tel aviv and said goodbye to the brits and germans, and went to the airport with ron (who was on our tour) and the rest of the israelis to go back to israel. it was sad.

the flight was 1 hour, and we made it just in time to get on the 2 hour train ride to haifa. the train was FREEZING and i was going through diet coke withdrawl. i got home, watched an episode of bones and fell asleep.

god i have a hard life. :)