the yacht life - bodrum, turkey

Here goes!

And we're off! All our transportation stuff went smoothly; the flight was only 50 minutes. This little guy had no problem getting comfortable :)

This is the yacht my host grandparents own which I am staying on. My host mother and the two kids are staying in a hotel, so I come to the yacht for dinner and to sleep, but I spend my day at the hotel's private beach with the mom and kids (usually the grandparents join us too). Anyway, the yacht is named Acacia. It is SO nice, like a little summer home. They have staff here on the boat too, different people - a captain and like an assistant captain who are on the yacht year-round, then a cook and a woman who does the cleaning, laundry, etc. who are just on it for the summer.

This is my room. It's the least spacious of the bedrooms (my host grandmother showed me all the rooms of the boat), but definitely still tolerable. Also in the yacht are the following rooms: the grandparents' bedroom and bathroom, the kitchen, a living room/dining room, two outdoor sitting areas (in the front and on top), another guest bed and bath where my host mom's sister-in-law has been staying, the room with the captain's stuff including the boat steering wheel just like in movies, another 2 guest bedrooms, the captain's living quarters, and the laundry room. WOW. How does the boat fit all these rooms? It is quite impressive. The boat is apparently from the 70s, and my host grandfather bought it and then renovated it many years ago.

Yes, this window is in my bedroom. Just like the movies.

Turkish food has become perhaps my favorite type of cuisine. The cook on the yacht is incredible. I love trying new things so much, and I love everything I've had so far. Many meals I eat on the front of the boat like this.

The upper deck (we took the boat out to the beach we were meeting my host mom and the kids at and then they put a small boat in the water to take us in to the shore. It made me think of a pirate ship and we were taking out the emergency exit boat, whatever it's called)

See the wheel?

There are lots and lots and lots of yachts (I'm a horrible estimator, but maybe a couple hundred?) docked on this marina, called Palmarina.

My first night I walked the marina, which is basically just a bunch of restaurants and really nice stores along the coast. It was Saturday night, so it was buzzing with people. I loved the atmosphere. If I'd had someone with me I'd have definitely sat at one of the cafes or something, but I just walked instead and went into some stores. I walked out of the stores quickly though, as most clothing items were priced in the hundreds of lira (1 lira = 0.5 dollars, roughly). I saw this beautiful sunset...

I was overwhelmed. It was like a dream. I may have teared a bit.

My typical day: Wake up at 9AM, get ready and have Turkish breakfast (assortment of cheeses, olives, some fruits, tomatoes and cucumbers, yogurt, etc.) on the front of the boat. 10 or 10:30 take taxi to the hotel. Ride golf cart with all our gear and the kids to the hotel private beach. Swim, play in the sand, and lay out and read while Ella is otherwise occupied. Have lunch around 1 at the hotel's beach restaurant and feed Ella hers. Around 3 go to the hotel pool (you would think Ella would be tired at this point and not care about the pool... Nope, she is very adamant that she does both beach and pool each day!) and to the "Kid's Club" which is like a playground and toy room packed full of entertainment for kids. Take taxi back to yacht at 6. Shower. Dinner around 8 on yacht. At 9 take taxi back to hotel to stay with sleeping kids while host mom goes out. Taxi back to yacht around 12:30AM. Sleep and repeat. :)

Bodrum is gorgeous. It reminds me of pictures I've seen of Greece, with the super blue water (it's the Aegean Sea if you were wondering; Bodrum is in the south of Turkey) and blue boxy houses that are all alike. Bodrum is mostly a vacation area. People come and stay a week in a hotel, or many have summer houses here. This hotel has an interesting background to it, because it was begun by a man from Azerbaijan who brings this wonderful sand to the beach from Egypt or something every few weeks. Otherwise the sand would be pebbles. It's also been interesting because the system is all about bribery for getting the number of beach seats you want and in the best places... the service is also largely good or bad depending on your status or bribery. I'm told this is "very Turkish". It is frustrating to my host family but somewhat amusing to me :) Also, all the workers here (at the beach it's basically all guys in their 20s) apparently work all day here then work at a nightclub under the same ownership and sleep only 3 hours a night. WHAT?

I think the sun affects my already troubled brain for the worse when it comes to my memory... here Ella and I had to take the golf cart back to the beach to get one of my host mom's bags I had forgotten on the bench. Ella thought it was really funny. In the same day I also had to run from the taxi back to the yacht to get my bag in the morning and forgot my phone on the yacht when I went to be with the sleeping kids in the evening. Agh. In this same week I also spilled my whole glass of piping hot tea on myself once and had my chair fall backwards off a platform on the beach while I was sitting on it. Oh, and when I was out with a friend on my day off we were both tripping all over as we explored the castle and I actually fell and scraped my knee at one point when we were running to catch the bus. My host family might be wondering about my stability... haha

As I just mentioned, with my day off I went with another au pair who I had met early on in my time here, Jenifer, to Bodrum city. We toured the Bodrum castle and walked around a lot, loving the busyness, great shops, and lively restaurants on the sea. The streets were packed by the time we were leaving, around 11pm, and would've just become more and more so! (people go out LATE here)

Yes, so this is a not-very-good picture of Bodrum Castle. If you look it up on Google images you will find it even more impressive. I love how it's out on a little peninsula and lit up at night... gorgeous.

The castle contained an underwater archaeology museum of shipwreck excavations. The castle itself was cool. But my favorite part about it was that it gave us spectacular views (though it required lots of climbing and too much sweating.)

Jenifer and me. We were hardly acquaintances agreeing to spend a day together, but we ended up having extremely easy and interesting conversation the whole day. I loved spending time with her and am so thankful it worked out!

Wow.

How blessed I am.

I leave Bodrum Sunday, then the Tafts leave Turkey altogether on Friday, and I leave the following Monday. My feelings are very mixed. It feels very surreal (as this whole summer has been surreal, and I'm pretty sure when it's all over I'll question myself as to whether it actually occurred.) I'm ready to retire from my nannying job, and I'm ready to be back in my own family with my friends who really know me and love me for me. Saying goodbyes to the family will be crazy weird and sad, and saying goodbye to this country has the potential to really hurt me as I think I've fallen more deeply in love with it than I even realize...

I have high expectations for this last week and a half as I still have a bit more "vacation" and still many opportunities for meeting people (I will meet a German au pair tomorrow night and another new American au pair next week) as well as the Turkish guy I mentioned who went to church with me. You can expect at least one more blog post as my time here finishes. For those of you I know about who are reading this, your support and encouragement have blessed me SO much; thanks a million.

Love,

Cassandra