21 in Turkey, 26 at Home...

Turns out it was hotter in the UK than in Turkey this past week... but better to be in 21-degree heat by the pool than looking at 26 degrees from the inside of an office building. Actually 21 was the lowest temperature all week, and it was on Thursday, the day that we went to Ephesus and what remains of the Temple of Artemis, so we were quite glad it wasn't too hot for walking around all day. The other days it was more like 25 with a slight breeze, which was just right for me - not so hot that I felt the need to jump in the pool to cool down every 10 minutes, but warm enough to get a nice tan, even with only four days in the sun.

Apart from Thursday, we spent the week doing very little. There was a mosque not far from the apartment, and the muezzin (not sure if it was an actual man or just a recording of a man singing) woke me up (just me, not Jen) at 5am almost every morning with his call to prayer, then I went back to sleep for a couple more hours. Then we got up, had some breakfast, sat by the pool, went inside in the middle of the day when it got too hot, had some lunch, went back outside for a couple more hours' sunbathing, went inside, showered and went out for some food or stayed in and cooked. As in every Mediterranean resort town, there were blokes in their twenties standing at the entrance to each restaurant, shaking people's hands and trying to persuade them to eat there, and the fact that we were two girls on holiday made going out for a meal a bit like running the gauntlet, and definitely contributed to our decision to eat in some nights. Still, we found a great Chinese restaurant that didn't require us to walk past too many other restaurants to get to it, so we ate there a couple of times.

In true going-on-holiday style, I woke up with a sore throat last Friday, but it didn't turn into anything - phew! We had a great week and got home yesterday without any problems - which is more than we can say for the flight to Dublin that was supposed to leave Bodrum at 5pm and by 3pm was already 6 hours late...

This is me and Jen at Ephesus, and a shot of the Celsus library. More pictures here.










Back to work tomorrow...