Reviews of Turkey

Not having been on a holiday abroad in 9 years (and the last was to get married!) I decided that enough was enough and I had to do something other than visiting Looe in Cornwall every year not that Looe isnt beautiful!

I dont know why we chose Turkey let alone Bodrum in particular, but after visiting a few Turkish tourist web sites and Lastminute.com, we both decided this was the place to go.

Bodrum is situated on a peninsular at the bottom left of the Turkish mainland and is extremely close to the island of Kos. The original name for the town was Halicarnassus which was founded in the 11 Century (bc) by the Greeks, the word bodrum actually means dungeon or underground vault in Turkish and this probably derives from the castle or the Mausoleum nearby.

We went in late May, which turned out to be one of the hottest weeks of the year averaging about 29 degrees (or 84 in old money) during the mid-day sun, phew!

After a hellish night flight with Air2000 and paying a 10 pound visa fee each all I needed to do is crash out, we didnt know what Hotel we were staying in but it turned out to be absolutely lovely, very clean, very spacious but no air conditioning and it was situated about 400 yards from the bay!

I woke up and viewed our surroundings, lovely whitewashed flat roofed buildings, clean streets and wonderful people who always seemed to be smiling (mind you, I would if I lived there!) Off to visit the beachfront I thought, well, this is why you should always read those guides before you start travelling, there wasnt any. We only had to walk about a mile before we found any at Gumbet, which is nice, but 2 hours was enough.

We ventured up Dr Alim Bey Caddesi (which is mostly full of restaurants) taking in the view to Kos and the huge castle situated smack bang in the middle of the bay. We got about 10 foot before the touts found us, with no tan whatsoever we were easily picked out! However, it was our first day and we stopped and talked to about 10, that was enough. It was time for food and beer so we sat on a very quiet bench right at the end of the road coming back was a lot easier.

The next day after a very cheap night out (about 15 quid for 2 pizzas and 4 pints of beer each) we wanted to visit the castle The Castle of St. Peter its open Mon-Fri 9am to 11.30 and 1pm to 4.30pm. It’s absolutely huge, unsurprisingly as they had been building it for over 100 years, it has such an electic feel, we spent all afternoon in this wonderfully gorgeous place taking about 2 reels worth of photos too.

That evening we took a stroll along the Neyzen Teufik Caddesi which is partly bazaars and partly drinking establishments, we stayed here until 4am, the small shops are all family owned and have beautiful trinkets, but the best buy is silver, I bought a necklace for 65 pounds which in this country would be nearer 120. There is everything to buy from leather goods to carpets, Turkish teas (yummy) to spices galore, but I would suggest you take your credit card with you!

We even found a Rock pub! At 50p a pint, we stayed there all night. (and the night after, and the blah, blah!)

The following day we visited the Mausoleum which was a little disappointing, because us brits have brought most of it back to the British Museum, shame really, I would have loved to see it in situ.

The rest of the week was spent walking around the town during the days and drinking copious amounts of cheap beer at night, not forgetting to see a belly dancer. (although this was a little tacky) I bought a wonderful hand-woven, natural dye rug for 45 quid; this would have cost me 150 in England

The people there are helpful, kind, always smiling and very good with the English language, I had a little phrase book, but one Turkish fella said to not bother trying if you can’t pronounce properly, as the older folks dont like it.

I can’t miss out telling you of the largest Nightclub in Europe Halikarnas or Halitosis as we nick-named it which can hold up to 2000 dancers and plays dance music until the early hours, this wasnt for me but the younger people seemed to be enjoying themselves. (That makes me sound soooo old!)

I didn’t have a problem in wearing shorts and a T-shirt during the day, however, I would suggest that ladies try wearing loose trousers or a long skirt at night, well, they only stopped the women wearing veils around 1934!

To be honest, a week there is enough, if we had more money (or if I hadnt spent it all in the first 2 days) we would have visited Dalyan which has 40c mud pools and Pamukkale which has a natural thermal spa in beautiful pools in rock formations. But the one area we didnt manage to see and wish we had seen was Ephesus; this city was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World with its beautifully carved facades.

Bargain at 180 quid each for a 1 week stay from Bristol airport? Yes it was, and we will be going back again, well as long as my credit card company lets me!