Got home from Turkey last night, it was a blast! I was pleasantly surprised with just about everything, except some stuff at our hotel. Nothing seriously bad, just had hoped for better food and such. We spent our days doing pretty much the same, so this time there is no point in dividing it into a day-by-day description. This was my first time travelling by plane, visiting another time zone and going outside of Europe (Marmaris is in the Asian part of Turkey), so the holiday was pretty exciting. In total we were six girls staying together at Nergis, while three other girls stayed at Atlantis. We did not hang out together as much as we had hoped, but met a couple of times in the evenings.
And for all of you who are wondering how my albino-like skin survived the sun; I did get slightly tan, and a bit sunburned though nothing serious. ;)
And for all of you who are wondering how my albino-like skin survived the sun; I did get slightly tan, and a bit sunburned though nothing serious. ;)
Mosjøen - Marmaris, and the first -long- two days
Thursday the 25th of June I got up early to have a good breakfast and pack the last of my stuff. We agreed to be ready, in the cars and driving towards Værnes by 9:30. We split up into two cars, three in each. The rest of the girls were getting to the airport by different means. I was in Malin's car with Simone and Malin. It was a very hot day, between 25C - 30C all the way, and unfortunately the car's air condition was malfunctioning... Windows open all the way~
We made a few stops along the way, eating dinner at a Shell petrol station in Steinkjer (oh joy..).
We arrived at Værnes with plenty of time to check in luggage and everything. I was of course nervous and asked my friends every possible stupid question there is. Already from take-off the plane got around 15 minutes delayed, later when we made a stop in Bergen we ended up with a 2 hour delay in total. I got a window seat and was thrilled nearly (the delay was not funny, of course) the entire flight. Taking off and landing reminded me of riding a carousel. I loved the view from the skies, flying over and inside the clouds! My first airplane dinner was not that bad, got some pasta stuff. Had something similar on the way home but did not like it at all... I found the toilets a bit gross, as mine was not very clean when I had to use it, but it worked fine.
It takes around 4 hours to fly Værnes - Dalaman Airport, then another 2 hours in bus to reach Marmaris. Our hotel was the final stop, and we checked in at 6am. As breakfast started at 8am we did not bother to go to sleep, decided to stay up all day and tuck ourselves in early in the evening. I felt kind of grumpy, whining about the breakfast, how the beach was not that nice and so on. Was loads better after having a Turkish bath and full body massage. For those who don't know, a Turkish bath is a type of peeling where they scrub the dead skin off your body, making it smooth and nice on the surface. I shared room with Charlotte, which was great because we did not give each other any troubles at all. We went out for a walk along the path by the beach in the evening and met the nightlife, joined the girls from the other hotel at a bar named Infiniti. I felt very sleepy so went back to the hotel with Ingrid and Charlotte after one drink. The sun sets so much earlier in Marmaris compared to Norway, it felt really good when it got cooler outside.
If you're hungry enough, it works..
For once, I am looking down at people, not up.
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"MAI GAWDS WE R GOING 2 TURKEH!!!111"
Sunbathing, hairdressing and Beach Club
Our days in Marmaris can pretty much be summed up with those three keywords. We got up and had breakfast around 8:30 most of the days, except when we stayed up till 5am - 6am, then I slept till lunch (1pm). After breakfast we went to the beach, but as our hotel's beach area was very crowded we used the sunbeds belonging to Oyes (some sort of restaurant) right nearby. We only had to buy something to drink from them every day and it was alright, somewhat.. The guy working there obviously thought Norwegian people should spend much more money as our country supposedly is very wealthy, so we got complaints now and then. There was a nice breeze some of the days which helped me enduring the heat, other days were too hot for me to stay at the beach. We never really had the chance to check the temperature properly every day, but it was somewhere around 40C at the warmest hours of the day. Taking a swim in the salty water was a great way to cool down!
I made sure to be careful and put lots of sunscreen, as my skin is the way it is.. The only bad burn I got was on my back, it hurt a little to lie down at night but it got better after 2-3 days. I brought Aloe Vera to put on too. Basking all day in the sun is not my thing really, I easily got bored and looked at the time a lot. But I still managed to get a little colour, and it is difficult for me to get any at all when I haven't had much colour before. So am satisfied with that part.
My hair ended up getting way more colour(s), on the other hand! Am darker now, a light brown/slightly reddish colour with dark brown stripes in the back and some highlights. Malin and Maren wanted to get extensions sometime during our holiday, so we started looking around for prices at hair salons nearby. They ended up getting an appointment at the very first salon we visited, closest to our hotel. The result was great, and the hairdresser was very talented and fun to be around, so everyone ended up doing something with their hair. We asked him to tell us what he could do to make our hair look nicer, and pretty much went along with anything. He thought it would be nice if we all got something different, and everyone was happy with their new look. While working he took his time and was very concerned with doing a good job, so we ended up hanging out at his salon for hours and hours. He made clever jokes all the time and was very easy to talk to. Offered us stuff to eat and drink so we wouldn't get bored. The awesomest person we met in Marmaris!
We went out pretty much every night, and quickly got ourselves a favourite bar/club after a recommendation; Beach Club, almost right next to our hotel. I was very surprised how much I enjoyed the clubs in Turkey, as I always tell people how I hate clubs and discos. The difference in Turkey is that they are making it much more entertaining and lively. For instance, the guys who work there are such amazing dancers! We often talked about how we felt like clumsy "bags of potatoes" next to them at the dance floor. Beach Club was nice because there always were plenty of people, good entertainment and they did a good job in mixing music. We simply had to get their t-shirt as a souvenir!
My name sister Stina and one of our two Marens
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Ingrid wuves Beach Club, and please DO notice new hair-style =D ( "too short" ;P )
~Very nice~
Watch out, Marmaris! ;)
Drinks weren't that cheap but still cheaper than in Norway of course. I chipped in on a fish bowl almost every night, found it to be a good "investment" if you don't get tired of the drink in it.
As this was a girls-only holiday we made sure to follow certain rules, which especially applied for the evenings. We'd never go alone anywhere, always stay in sight and help each other with shaking off annoying guys. Occasionally we had to search for each other but everyone always turned up fine. Am so glad nothing bad happened because that would seriously have ruined our holiday, because you never know..
But on the other hand, I was very surprised how hot (yes, I said hot) and charming Turkish boys could be. Most of us were sooo skeptical before leaving after countless warnings about the mean and bad Turkish guys. Of course there are twats everywhere, but you find just as many in Norwegian clubs as you do in Turkish clubs. We figured there has to be some sort of generation gap, as the warnings came from our parents and their stories of Turkey.
There seemed to be mostly Russians and British tourists in Marmaris. We did not talk at all to any Russians, because they did not say anything to us. The Turks we asked about the Russians mostly said they did not care for them too much, as they were quite impolite and so on. British people easily started talking with us, and they were all impressed with our English. They loved to mention "Solshire" which took a while for us to figure out meant "Solskjær" (the Norwegian football player). It was great fun meeting everyone!
Norway often seemed to be a magic word in Turkey, as the Turks got very eager whenever we answered where we were from. In the end we started saying that we were from Iceland when we got tired of all the Norway-commotion, because they did not seem to quite know anything about Iceland. Or we simply pretended to not understand English at all. :P
I did very little shopping, mostly only presents for my family. Didn't do any haggling actually, only got things from shops where they used price tags. Found it cheap enough, and didn't really need anything specific.
Our hotel was quite large and nice-looking. We used three different rooms as we were living in pairs on each room, but unfortunately ended two of us in a different building. It was not -that- far away from us others but it was sort of annoying. The rooms were alright, you had everything you needed and it was kept simple. It was quite beautiful inside and around the hotel, there were several pools inside as well. Only downsides were the food and drinks. I did not find anything that I really liked, I managed to eat something but never felt fully satisfied. And the barmen kept making our drinks too strong, but that might be because they are used to serving Russians.. Whenever we are going back, we are considering not having all inclusive, as the best dinner we had was the final evening when we went to a restaurant nearby. Part of the holiday experience is often to find new restaurants and try something new, not forcing some international half-hearted buffet down your throat.
Voilà!
View from my room's balcony
On the road again
We were all sorry to be leaving so early, but I at the very least missed my bed and Norwegian food. Both the flight and our drive from Værnes to Mosjøen was finished ahead of schedule. I woke up at 7:30 in Marmaris, and got home at around midnight in Mosjøen, it's a funny thought. I managed to get rid of my euro at the duty free, but I still have some lire left, will save it till next time! It was weird seeing how big a difference there is between Norwegian and Turkish flight security. I had a 2.5L bottle of Fanta in my bag, I was prepared to hand it over when we went through the security control at Dalaman Airport but the guard said I could keep it. I had it with me on the plane and everything, in my hand luggage. But when I got to Norway I had to hand it and my entire bag over, because I forgot that I packed my sunscreen in it, even though I just was walking through the duty frees and leaving the airport, not entering any airplanes.
First thing I did when I got home was eating something with Norvegia cheese and drink Tine milk. The temperature was much more comfortable, as there was nice weather at home while we were gone as well. I felt a bit sad when I got reminded of how we're not going back to school together in August, but are going our separate ways. I kept imagining we would sit together in the food hall, looking at pictures and talking about Turkey. Because of that, going back to Turkey with all the girls seems even more tempting. I do actually think there is a good chance we would make it next year too! Fingers crossed.
It's a beautiful daaaaay~
More pics might follow..
