There is something special about going away for two weeks, and leaving regular life behind.
I just got back from two weeks vacation spent in Icmeler, Turkey, and I really didn’t feel like going home. That place is really nice, and somehow I feel really at home there. We spent a week at the same place in 2019, when we went with most of D’s family to celebrate his grandmother, and that was the first time I was in Turkey. It wasn’t long after getting back from that trip that we started planning to go back. We had the trip planned for 2020. But then the pandemic happened, and things had to be put on hold for a while, and so we never went that year. But now, this year we were finally able to go. And we are already planning on trying to make it at least a semi-yearly thing. Because it feels so good to be there.
This trip we went together with D’s mother, who has been in this town, and at this hotel, plenty of times before, and could introduce us to people. Some of them we met when we were there ’19, and some of them were new to us. But all of them are really friendly and does their best to befriend us. The guys at the hotel is a perfect example of this. They are always smiling, joking and playing tricks, and it always makes me smile.
We spent a lot of time on the beach, getting spoiled by the guys over there. Or, not really spoiled, we paid for everything we got, but there is something about getting served drinks at the sunbed on the beach that makes you feel spoiled. And the restaurant that is connected to that particular part of the beach is also very nice, and took really good care of us. That is where we celebrated D’s 35th birthday as well, and it was really nice.
But it was not all sun and drinks, we have been doing a few other things as well. We went out on two boat trips, because D wanted to do some snorkelling, and he has been collecting sea shells for me that I will be able to use in resin work. While that was not my favourite past time, it was still nice trips, and we stopped at some really beautiful locations. I also went to the hairdresser and got a haircut, as well as a dye job. So now my hair is in a short pixie cut, and bright red. And I don’t regret a thing.
Possibly the most exciting thing that we did, and the one thing that was pre-planned since even before we left home, was our new tattoos. We had tattoos made when we were there in ’19 as well, and we knew that we wanted to go back to the woman who made those for another one. She is really good, and really nice, and I like her a lot. I was doing a slightly smaller and more detailed tattoo this time, a bracelet that goes up a little on the hand, and I absolutely adore the end result. It is a two link bracelet, with small trinkets of a cat paw and a crescent moon, as well as a larger feather that goes up on the back of the hand a little bit. She added in a slight touch of purple on the feather as well, and the subtle effect is that the feather looks a little softer than the all black did. At this point it is healing well, and I am happy to have it. Hurt like a bitch though, but that was expected. I mean, I was stabbed about a million times with a tiny needle in my wrist and hand, of course it was going to hurt. But the end result makes it all worth it. We had that time booked as soon as we arrived, and had it done the day before we left to go back home. It is always best to plan such things for just before leaving, since it means that you shouldn’t swim in the ocean and stuff like that. The water is really salty after all, and it could cause infection. So we lined it up, and had two weeks to look forward to it.
And then the vacation was coming to an end, and it was time to leave the sun and warmth for the cold of home. We spent the final day going around saying goodbye to the people we knew, finishing up packing and checking out of the hotel. The transfer bus picked us up at 5.30 pm local time, and then followed about 2 1/2 hours of bus travel to the airport in Dalaman. That airport experience was one of the most frustrating thing I have been through in a long time… After getting off the bus we took a quick smoke and then started to queue to get into the airport. A queue that we were stuck in for far too long before getting through the first security check to even get into the airport. After that annoyance, we needed to check in our bags and went to that queue, which was about as slow as the first one. And as if that was not enough queueing, we went straight from that to the queue for the passport control. By that time boarding for our flight had started, and we had less than an hour to take off. As we stand in the queue, that was barely moving at all, I happened to look at the boarding pass, and saw that it said that boarding closed 30 minutes before take off… At that point we had about 25 more minutes to that deadline, and by the time we were through the passport control, we had one more minute. But we were not through everything yet, because there was still the security check of the hand luggage to go through. That was luckily pretty quick, but by that point we were both rather stressed. We were getting increasingly worried that we might miss our flight, which was not a welcome thought at all. Luckily that didn’t happen, and we were able to get on the plane safely, starting the next part of our travels. There was some turbulence when we started to get closer to home, but nothing too bad, and about three hours later we touched down in Denmark. I was so damn cold when we got off the plane! In the hurry to get to the plane I didn’t have the time to change my shoes, so I was still barefoot in my sandals, and it was damn cold.
Then, after all that, we had to wait for the train for an hour, to make a 7 minute train trip to the place where we were going to be picked up. At the end of it all, we were back to our apartment at about 4.30 am, and with the time difference, that means that we had been travelling for just about 12 hours. Not something that I enjoy, but there was nothing really for it. At least we got home safely and in one piece, and that is the most important part.
But now the after-work of vacation starts, and I am not looking forward to it. We both start working on Tuesday, and before that I need to start getting all of our stuff washed and put away. I want to have everything unpacked and put away before going back to reality, because otherwise it will take half a year to get everything unpacked, and that is not a good thing at all.
Anyway, I will leave it here for my little vacation report, but I will see you again soon!
Love, Luna