wedding

This week I attended a wedding. MHTTB's niece got the first part over with at the civic centre, although they are legally married they will stay living with their families until the main wedding celebration on the 15th of September, where all the extended family will arrive from afar. It was a lovely little ceremony and the dress was so pretty. Before the big wedding party there will be a henna party for the ladies, my niece and daughter will be over when these take place and they have been invited to come along too. At the legal ceremony, the couple are handed a red book which is also  used to record the birth of any children

 I went out on the boat this week. A British family had rented the boat privately but had booked it via an agent in Olu Deniz. They were a nice family of Goan decent, and had specifically asked to be taken to a sandy beach so the children could play on the beach, but there are no sandy beaches along the coast here, only private beaches with imported sand and it makes me mad when the agent omits to tell people this. A few weeks ago there was a party of Welsh people aboard, again they had booked through an agent who has shown them a boat much bigger than the one MHTTB works on. In fact the boats they were shown were actually daily trip boats that take about 40 or 50 people. It angers me when the agents do this, all they are interested in is taking the money and then the boat captain is left to deal with the complaint. As is happens, both parties were o.k about the situation. The Goan family ended up at Sovalye island, where there is a beach of sorts, but as we pulled up a terrible noise came from the bottom of the boat. On inspection the washer had broken off of the propeller so we couldn't move anyway. We ended the day by being towed by another boat back to the harbour where it was discovered that the prop had then fallen off completely and been lost. Anyway, just a little tip if you are thinking of going on a boat trip whilst in Turkey. Walk along the harbour, look at the boats, speak to the boat captains. They are all usually with their boats if it's not gone out for the day. Negotiate a price, booking direct will invariably be cheaper and you can look at the boat and talk about where or what you would like to do and see.  

I went with a friend last week to a place called Yaşıl Vadi. It's about a half hour drive from my apartment. It is in a valley in Yaniklar and is situated on the river. It is a park and campling place and they also have floating rafts in the river you can eat your lunch on. I was persuaded to climb onto a raft via some fixed seating, all was going to plan until I got my other foot on and the raft tipped forward and started to drift away from the bank. One minute I was upright and the next, plop! Into the river I went, I landed on my feet and went in up to my waist. I got back on, but is was hilarious trying to keep it balanced seeing as I am twice the size of Ann. What a lovely relaxing day we had though, it is very shaded and cool and has an amazing tranquil atmosphere, they have a swing you can jump off and a swimming area. The food was O.K, but I did notice a lot of Turkish families take picnics, which I would probably do next time. The water comes down from the mountain and is crystal clear but very cold. I did go for a swim but not for long as the cold water made my finger joints hurt. There was also a group of baby ducks that came to be fed, I love it there and am hoping to return soon.