Marmaris Turkey: Day 2

June 17th

Dan had to work today, so I wandered off to see what all was here.

View from our hotel in the hot blazing sun of 7 am.

Our hotel offered a Turkish Bath, so I went to investigate.  They had a two hour, three hour, or five hour option.  I thought Dan would be done in the early afternoon, so the five hour option was out.  I tried to do the two hour option, but got talked into the three hour option.
The Turks are very persuasive.

Here is the very weird experience that was the Turkish Bath.
(Keep in mind I was wearing a bathing suit for this.)

Stage 1: Sauna  

This was nothing weird.  Just hang out in a sauna for 30 minutes. 

Stage 2: Rinse and Mud 

I was escorted into a tiled room with a large marble slab in the middle and large faucet and basin in each corner.  It was nicely decorated in white and blue tile, but I couldn't help thinking it'd be a great place to murder someone.

A large Turkish man, wearing only a towel wrap, (let's call him Emir) took a bowl and rinsed me off from the sauna.  He then covered every part of me that was not covered by bathing suit in mud.  I then had to let the mud dry.  This involved going outside of the spa and walking around the pool deck area of the hotel.  It was awkward.  The ground was hot and I may have burned my feet.  I was not so much a fan of this. 

Stage 3: Rinse and Exfoliation 

Once again I went into the "Turkish Bath"/murder room and Emir rinsed me off. This time it took longer because he had to get all the mud off. I then lay down on the slab for the exfoliation bit. This involved Emir rubbing me down with a towel mitt thing. It was weird. He exfoliated my butt. It was weird.

Stage 4: Foam Massage and Rinse 

Next was the Foam Massage.  This was so weird.  Emir takes what looks like a pillowcase, dips it in a bucket, takes it out of the bucket and swings it around filling it with air, and the squeezes the pillowcase out creating foam.  This was repeated until I was covered in foam.  It was weird.  I was torn between "nope, to weird, I'm out of here" leaving the Bath covered in foam and "maybe let's just see where this goes."  I then received a quick massage from Emir.  And then I got rinsed off again.  And towel dried.  It was weird. 

Stage 5: Relaxation 

Relaxation involved sitting in a lounge chair drinking Turkish tea for 15 minutes.  This part wasn't so bad.  

Stage 6: Massage 

A new person got to manhandle me now, this time a woman.  The massage portion was fine.  It wasn't the best massage I've ever had, but it was fine.   

Stage 7: Facial 

I had my eyes closed, so I'm not 100% what all happened here, but I think they did everything they had done to my body, but now to my face, and in reverse order.  I had three or four things applied and removed;  I had some sort of massage; and I had "relaxation" again.  I may have fallen asleep, so I couldn't have been that traumatized by the whole experience.

All in all for the price/time allotted the Turkish Bath was totally worth it.
However,  a lot of it was weird.
Like, I wish someone else was going through this with me so we could laugh over how weird it was.  I'm not sure what else would have happened to me if I had done the five hour option.

ANYWAY, time to explore Marmaris.   

Most of the streets looked like this.....

...or this.

Turkish Delight!  Yes, Please.  I bought a log of Turkish Delight for 4₺ (Turkish Lira) or about $1.50.

About this time Dan called to say he was on his way back.  Since I had the only hotel key I decided to go hang out in the hotel until he got back so he could change.  

The we went off to explore Marmaris together.

Water toys and boats.

Dan ruining my photo.  Just kidding.  But he did walk into the shot.  Boats!

Grrr!  Poseidon mad!  

Or maybe he's power walking.  Who knows?

This is the Grand Bazaar.  

It's hard to look at anything without having someone try to get you to buy it.  

Window shopping is really hard.

I may have looked to long at some jewelry and despite Dan's efforts, he ended up buying me a necklace.  Not because of me, but because the Turks are very persuasive.

More of the bazaar.  

It went on for quite a while and branched off.  It could be easy to get lost in there.

"Old Marmaris" seen on our way to the Marmaris Castle.

The Marmaris Castle:

The origins of the castle are probably 5,000 years old.   

Now it is a museum.  It was full of old statues and pottery.

Anchors!

Amphorae recovered from the sea!

All you never wanted to know about the different amphora shapes. 

A view from the parapets. 

These are all privately owned ships.

Turkey!

Look!  I was there!

More parapet views:

And then we left the castle.

Back to wandering.

Yo bro.  I heard you liked boats.  So we put a boat in your boat!

Octopus statue!

I had been thirsty and a bit hungry so we stopped to get snacks and a water pipe.

Boats off the shore.

I'm in the sea!

Dan felt bad for the ice cream vendors.  He said they looked like Abu from Aladdin.  

This concludes our adventures for today.

Marmaris Turkey: Day 1

June 16th

Dan had a conference in Marmaris, Turkey.   I tagged along.

We flew into Dalaman and then drove to Marmaris.

I have no idea what is growing in that orange field.  

If anyone knows, please share your knowledge.

We arrived in the evening, so we dropped off our stuff and wandered around a bit.

The view from our hotel.

Hotel pool.

Danielle, Marmaris has a Little Caesars!    They also have a Coldstone Creamery. 

Marmaris is really a beach/party town.  

At night there are a lot of lights and a lot of bass coming from all the bars and restaurants.

This concludes our adventures for today.

P.S. Today is Dan's birthday.  Happy Birthday Dan!

Random Cats

Because the internet loves cats, and because we have some cats.

I mean how many awesome adventure pictures can you really look at?  

Goldie, one of our more persistent strays, and her two kittens.

Our cat, Tungsten (W), being derpy (left).   Also she thinks I can see her sitting among the laundry (above).

Peter & Stephanie Surprise Visit

May 29th

Our friend Peter and his girlfriend Stephanie were on a whirlwind tour of Italy and sent us a message saying they wanted to get together if possible.  We were happy to see them, so they took the train down from Rome and I took them down to Herculaneum.  We were going to go to Pompeii, but there was a ridiculous line to get in at the gate we drove by, so we went with plan B.

I had only been to Herculaneum once before with my parents.  Above I linked to a very useful website which will teach you all you never wanted to know about Herculaneum (and the other Vesuvius sites).  It also has photos of many of the areas that are currently closed to tourists.

Looking down into Herculaneum.

The funerary altar of Senator M. Nonius Balbus.

This cheeky bastard hiding in the altar decor.

Pretty flower!

Stephanie and Peter and the pretty flowers.

This is "The House of the Great Portal" because the door has a fancy arch.

Some of the frescoed walls of the Fancy Arch House.

Stephanie and Peter for scale.

This is from the Men's bathhouse.

This is from "The House of the Neptune Mosaic."  

This mosaic is why the house is named that.

This is next to the mosaic.   I was amused by the random heads.

This is "The House of the Beautiful Courtyard."

Peter is checking it out.

Look stairs!

And...I can't remember/find out what this is.  

So...it's an outdoor shrine thingie.  

Let's go with that.

This concludes the Herculaneum portion of our adventure.

Peter, Stephanie, and Dan all hung out while I took a nap.  We then took our friends to Covo di Leo, a delightful Italian restaurant where there is no menu, they just bring you food.  And the food keeps coming.  You always think you're going to order a meat dish, but your stomach never makes it that far.  Of course there's always room for dolce.

We took Stephanie and Peter back to the train station the next morning, where they boarded the train, sat and waited, and eventually were told to get off of the train.  Apparently there was an accident or something and the tracks were blocked.  They ended up getting a ride with a random guy and his mom up to Rome.  I am glad they weren't kidnapped and murdered.  They completed their adventures and are now back in the USA.

Belgium: Beer Adventure Day 4

May 25th

Today we climbed the Belfry!

The Belfort was originally constructed in 1240 and has had several additions and face-lifts since then.  It is 366 steps to the top.  The steps are winding and narrow and only big enough for 1.5 persons, but it has two-way traffic.  At some point while waiting for people to come down a family pushed past.  We heard a woman ahead of us mutter "They clearly aren't British.  They have no idea how to queue." 

We decided to go to the top first and then look at the other things on the way down.

The views from the top.

Trying to see down to the market square.

The bells.

The Belfort actually has a carillon.  

There are 47 bells ranging in weight from 2 pounds to 11,000 pounds.

It's like a giant music box!

How the carillon works.

Old wooden stairs on the inside.

Peeking out onto the market square from a little lower down.

Looking up the Belfort.  Big wooden beams!

The Belfort used to hold the treasury.  

If this was a video game, music would be playing as the gates and the chest opens.   

There was, sadly, no music.

After the Belfort climb we stumbled up a random free exhibit.  We got about halfway in before Dan decided it was too weird and non of it made sense.

Turns out the exhibit was an art exhibit about propaganda....or something.  

It was strange.

This picture is for Nick.

One of the old town gates.

This concludes our adventures in Bruges.

Bye Bruges!

Back to Brussels:

We took the train back to Brussels, stored our luggage at the station and went to find lunch and wander around a bit before heading to the airport.

Beers Twenty-Ninth & Thirtieth! 

At a random restaurant near the Brussels train station.

29. Omer Traditional Blonde (8%) Slightly sour and malty with a cloying feel. 30. Chimay Blue (9%) Slightly sour.  No strong flavors.  Drinkable.

We wandered through a park and found the column depository.  

So if anyone needs a column base, there's a bunch hanging around in Brussels. 

City!

This building looked important.  I think it's a palace or something.

What do you call this?  

It's not a bust, because it has feet.  But it's not quite a statute.  

So....what is it?

Pretty palace park.  So yeah, that building must be the palace.

Very cleverly named bar.  

Where were you?  I was at The Office.

We acquired our belongings and headed to the airport.

Bye Belgium!

This concludes our adventures in Belgium.