On the 20th of April 2013 over 300 international
students arrived in Kemer, Antlaya. They were there in the name of ESN MED’Ness
(Erasmus Student Network sur la Mediterranean ) It was safe to say that the
Royal Palm Resort did not know what it had got itself into…
After a 9 hour bus ride, which was hilariously Turkish timed
(meant to leave Ankara at 1 am – left Ankara at 3am) and a surprisingly good
kip we arrived in Antalya. It was pretty nice to feel the excitement building
as we drove down the coast parallel to the crystal blue sea. Upon arriving at
the hotel, it looked like we had entered some kind of international youth
refugee camp. There were bags and bodies
sleeping and sitting littering the lobby for as far as the eye could see. We
were ushered downstairs for an incredibly cringe worthy talk about how we
should buckle (or set, in Turkish English) our seatbelts for “the crazy ride
that was in front of us.” It was really gay.
By some weird twist
of fate, we somehow landed a private villa on the beachfront. It was real sweet
with a balcony that looked right over the palm trees and onto the beach. It was
also good to get in contact with people, as you could just shout from the
balcony. I have a slight suspicion that my roommates did not really appreciate
the levels of drunk which were achieved, but I had fun.
The hotel was all inclusive. After losing my band twice in
20 minutes, I was finally to accept the challenge that the British view all
inclusive as. Apparently on the first day our group drank over 7,0000 litres of
Efes and ate over 3 tonnes of food in the 2 and a ½ days we were there. Very
impressive I think. The weather was beautiful, the gin and tonics were free and
the international love (in reference to Pitbull) was creating a lovely
atmosphere. Now, as my good friend Semih once said “I am not drunk from the
alcohol, I am drunk from the atmosphere.” In this circumstance, I was very
drunk from the alcohol. Daytime drinking on a beach is never a good idea.
Daytime swimming in the sea after gin is also never a good idea. Daytime
passing out on your bed that you are sharing with someone, and in turn soaking
the entire bed right through to the mattress is also never a good idea. Evening
time refusing to wake up to go to dinner is also never a good idea. However,
spontaneously waking up at 10pm… declaring that you refuse to miss out on the
fun, getting up.. getting into PJ’s… realizing they are PJ’s, getting out of
said PJ’s, putting your swimsuit on(?) and then getting dressed, managing to
call someone to hold the bus for you and then running to said bus with even a
waterproof cover for your camera is the greatest achievement of humanity to
date.
Said bus was taking us to a foam party. On a boat. Now, I haven’t been to a foam party since I
nearly got stabbed for being the only white 14 year old in Mode back in the
day, and generally they are not really appreciated. However, we were on a boat,
which was pretty cool, everyone had been drinking all day and things were a bit
silly. We danced alot (especially very obviously ripping the piss out of a
Turkish guy who was stood alone at a very awkward distance to the majority of
the crowds concentrating very hard on his moves… we thought we were being
subtle. We were not.) The night proceeded in a fashion that a night would
proceed when 300 students from all over the world have been drinking since
daybreak and are then put on a boat. And then I got locked in the toilet. And
these photos happened;
The next day with sore heads and wet beds (many thanks Evie
Stannard, the bed was still not dry) the all inclusive breakfast was
demolished. Unfortunately, on this day it rained on and off and so
entertainment was sought by throwing fully dressed people into the pool,
playing card games and general mincing.
It also included Spa activities, including a very fun Sauna experience
in which Rie decided to test out her incredible Turkish whilst being slightly
inebriated. Cok sicak yaaaaaaaahhhh. Saka saka. SO on and so forth. By this time the hotel staff absolutely hated
our guts. No idea why.
That night we were to have our final party to say goodbye to
the weekend. However, due to the amount of alcohol our group had collectively
consumed the hotel put a two hour gap on our unlimited drinks. I have never
seen such anger in so many peoples eyes (except Maijus, my finnish Roomates –
whom at this point had been drinking for a fair few hours and was “Very much
draaaaannnk Evieeeeee”) At one point I actually heard someone tell the barstaff
that this was an abuse of his fundamental human rights, and if the manager was
not called then he would file an official complaint with UNHCR. Not really, but
you get my gist. Everyone was livid, some were proactive - Me – and went the 100 yards outside the
hotel to buy some beer and then bring it in.
The logic of closing the bar was proved ridiculous as soon
as it reopened, with people ordering 8 drinks at once etc. It was chaos.
Luckily, I was aligned a la turk and Yanki told the bar man we had been waiting
for 45 minutes and that he had to serve us right now. The night was going well,
until Maiju went mental and I literally wall of Jehrico’d her to the floor and
pinned her there (gin diplomacy). Later, I dislocated my knee. This was
entirely the fault of the Italians and Christine Agularia, and no fault of my
own what so ever. This was rectified with many people holding ice to my knee,
helping me get up the stairs and me describing the whole experience as worse
than labor.
Fun.
The next day we departed Antalya and began our voyage to Kalkan. Many thanks to the Wood family for being incredibly generous and allowing us to stay in their beautiful home. After taking a taxi for four with 7 people in, two minibuses and a nice stroll we arrived at Villa Tahta. I had told the guys (this being Coco and Lizzy from Holland, Yanki the Turk American from New York, Rafay from some poor deprived village in Pakistan somewhere, Joel from Ireland and my right hand man, Maiju from Finland) that the place would be impressive, but I don’t think they were prepared for the beauty of Kalkan and the villa itself. We had a very fun evening sitting on the terrace sipping on red wine and playing Psychologist. The following day we hit up Patara Beach – the longest stretch of white sand in Turkey. We chilled, drank Efes, swam in the sea and had ridiculous conversations. On returning home we took a dip in the pool and made some food. The gang were to head back to Ankara on this day, but the adventure continued for me and Maiju. We spent a chilled evening in the Merkez drinking Turkish Coffee and enjoyed the stillness of Kalkan. It was very weird to be there off season, as every other time I had been there was in the peak of summer. It was also nice to be able to speak a bit of Turkish to the people that are used to speaking English in Kalkan.…
The next day we took a bus to Fehtiye – grabbed some lunch
and then boarded our 5 hour bus ride to Izmir. We had decided to Couchsurf in
Izmir very last minute. Arriving in Izmir we had no idea where to go, we were
told to get on some form of shuttle service by an angry fat man and we complied.
After 20 minutes of said Shuttle we still had no idea where were, luckily we
struck gold and managed to get off the bus in the heart of the student part of
Izmir - our host lived right in the
Epicentre of Izmir student life. Izmir is very different as it is the most
secular city of Turkey, aswell as Istanbul. It was strange to see mini skirts
replacing headscarves (not literally, no one had a miniskirt on their head and
a headscarf on their hips.) Our host was quiet, but nice, he took us for food
and went out of his way to show us the sights on Izmir in the dark. We had a
very funny bus ride back from the city centre in which the bus driver was livid
as a student hadn’t paid his fee – just like the 3 am buses in Leeds) The bus
driver actually stopped the bus and went to interrogate a few prime suspects,
which caused much hilarity indeed.
We awoke early to continue our journey to Selcuk, to visit Ephesus
or (Efes) in Turkish. If you don’t know what it is then educate yourself; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus.
After arranging our bus back to Ankara for the evening, we hopped on a Train to
the small town of Selcuk in which Efes borders. After both falling asleep and
nearly missing the stop be arrived safely. Efes itself was amazing, one of the
most fantastic and amazing places I have ever visited;
Dislocation on Tour
Being the only unwanted females.
There was also a lot of cats we fed Borek too which made it
100000 times better.
Our 8 hour journey back to Ankara was hell, with a screaming
baby and my feet swelling so much that my little toes looked like the sprouts
you get on a potato when it is old.
It was a fantastic journey, filled with amazing people,
amazing memories and such good fun. I think this was the best trip I had made
in Turkey so far. (All with a dislocated knee – I am woman. I don’t let no knee
stop me doing my thing – although credit goes to all those who carried my
rucksack and helped me walk, I literally could not have done it without you.)
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