Turkey!
It took me a long time to decide where to go, the lad wasn't much help. Turkey seemed obvious: not too expensive and full of holidaying Brits from what I could see. There were a load of packages on offer. I eventually booked one. Normally an "all inclusive" deal would have put me off, I wasn't going for myself but for the lad. Yes, that IS the truth: I WOULD have been content to have stayed at home LOL. As it progressed I was disappointed to find out how much was NOT included...
I persuaded Raice to cat-sit. He said he appreciated the time away from his mother!
Things went wrong from arriving in Turkey: the holiday company had booked the transfer from the airport to the hotel when I called and asked about travel from airport to hotel. That wasn't included. I found out that was a 127 mile trip and almost cancelled the whole thing but grudgingly got the operative to book transfers both ways. In the event, because we arrived after 00:00, the date booked for the transfer was wrong and had been there the previous night (or so I was told). It took two hours to finda new driver and three and a half hours to get to the hotel as he stopped at various mates' places to try and drum up trade.
At the hotel, (05:30) there was only one bed in the room. I had specifically booked for two. After an hour we decided to go to the main hotel and forget about sleep. -So the main problem was that we were not in the massive eighteen floor main building, but in an annexe- which was not unpleasant, but, as I have limited mobility, it was a real problem. I complained but of course, nothing could be done.
I think the lad enjoyed the holiday: temperature rarely dropped under 30 degress C. We went on a quad bike "safari" which was a dusty, noisy disappointing rip off, but the lad enjoyed it. We also went on a boat trip which was quite good fun. On the boat, a woman approached me and asked me if the man she was with (husband?) could take a photo. I thought they meant me to take a picture of them, but the man (from Iran) wanted the woman to take a photo of me with him! This stuck in my head for weeks after the event. The man even made a kissing gesture at one point. I was very confused. I remembered being told that Turks used to welcome Black people because Black people only lived at the royal court so if they were seen it meant a ruler was nearby and there might be gifts !! Later I began to think that they thought I was Samuel L Jackson (ROFLMAO!). One of the women at the hotel dining room told me I looked like a film star, it took me a while to work out that she was being specific!
The transfer back to the airport was almost as bad as gettting there: there was an issue re times: at the last minute (I was in the shower) we were called by the driver and told to be ready nearly an hour before we had expected, but we managed it, only then to wait nearly an hour before the driver found the hotel entrance. (It was a HUGE site, including villas for rent and purchase etc taking up an entire set of hills). It took ninety minutes before we'd picked up all the other travellers from different hotels and actually headed for the airport. I was not in a good mood. I was outraged when I realised that the driver was WATCHING FACEBOOK VIDEOS WHILE HE WAS DRIVING 12 PEOPLE IN HIS MINIBUS. When we got to the airport, we were dropped at the wrong terminal which I didn't realise until we had gone through primary security. Had to get out of terminal, get some cash, catch a taxi to the correct terminal two kilometers away, and had to pay an unexpected 10 Euros each for the bags.
An overriding feeling about being in turkey is how everyone seemed to be 'on the make' one way or another!
I had several massages whilst I was there- that plus the forced walking to and from our annexe and several saunas did me some good!
We'd missed manky weather in Britain and came back with a tan!
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