trip to the mediterranean

so i'm a little behind ... only by six months.  but my theme in life is ... better late than never ... so here we go!  back in october 2012, i went on a little trip to fethiye ... a tourist town in southern turkey right on the mediterranean sea.  after having visited the northern black sea, it was time to head south.  see ... the turks have a lot of holidays and in october they have a week-long bayrami holiday that allows us to ditch work and go out and play!  (hint:  next bayrami should be in ireland ... knock on wood!)  i went with some of my best friends here in ankara and we had such a fantastic time!  we drove the eight hours and the first three hours were spent with me and abby playing "let's see who can stay quiet the longest."  who knew a little kid could stay quiet that long ... and her parents still thank me to this day!

home sweet home!

day 1:  it was a down day.  we needed to recoup from work, from the drive ... just relax!  i sat on the patio and read a book start to finish, and everyone else napped.  it was fabulous!

day 2:  jeep safari!  we rode in the back of a jeep as our tour guide took us all throughout the area ... graveyard tombs, fish spawning facilities, waterfall hikes, mud baths, local food ... it was definitely worth the long day!

these are the tombs of someone ... hey i never claimed to be a good listener!

it was at the above location that we met a young turkish kid who spoke very good english.  as we were complimenting his english, he announced that he could speak seven languages!  our amazement turned to amusement as he rattled off australian, british, irish, etc.  he was so much fun to talk to!

who knew a fish spawning facility would be so beautiful?  the women were busy  making bread ...

this was the end of the waterfall hike.  we hiked thru the river over rocks, logs, bridges, you name it, for almost an hour to get to this point.  so worth the effort!

susan fell and i wouldn't let her get up until i took a picture.  she's cool like that!

day 3:  trip to (i can't remember the name).  this area is famous for hang-gliding and the beautiful butterfly island.  we ended up spending a few days here just walking around and enjoying the scenery.

driving down the hill ...

where you can take your baby hang-gliding!

more scenery for me!

some more stuff happened inbetween ... but my memory fails me at this moment.  our last night there, we ate at an outdoor fish market.  in the middle were all kinds of fresh fish booths and to the sides were different restaurants to choose from.  once you picked your restaurant, you picked your fish and then they cooked it to your liking.  the atmosphere was sooo fun ... lights strung everywhere, good live music, people singing and dancing along.  this is one of my favorite things about the turkish people!

that's the end.  it was such a fun week and cannot WAIT until the next october trip!!