The glory of the Mediterranean

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Today Nessie and I had an easy start to the day. Nessie was feeling much better after 10 hours of sleep and lots of gravol and pepto (so much for the lady at customs laughıng at my drugstore...it all came in handy). The fact that our hostel room is a smoke free environment may also have helped wıth her nausea. We were sitting at the front of the bus for the 9 hour bus rıde (we had specifically requested since Nessie already wasnt feeling too hot), and the bus driver smoked a cıgarette inside the airconditioned bus about every 45 minutes. We smelt like we had been at a bingo hall when we got off the bus...Turks smoke everywhere.

We headed to the Antalya Museum where we saw many sculptures that have been restored from the ancient ruins that we are going to explore over the next couple of days. Some highlights from the museum included these large vases that stored human remaıns as well as enormous statues of greek gods (all of which were missing their noses and their genitals).

After feeding our minds with enough facts for the day we headed for the beach. When I first started researchıng what it would be like to vacation in Turkey...this is what I envisioned. Spending the afternoon on the beach was gloriest and exactly what we needed to restore our spirits. The beach had stones instead of sand, which at first glance didnt seem very appealing. However, I quickly learned that not having sand all over and in everything is actually a major bonus. I swam in the Sea which I would say was about the same temperature as lake Mındemoya. It was much wavier though, so I got to bust out my head up breastroke skills. Some beach highlights included old Russian men in speedos and one particular German woman who was topless and in a string thong. I realise that Turkey is a secular state...but the idea of women on the street wearing head scarves and another woman on the beach essentially naked was a little mind blowing. I quickly understood why the beach was also the prefered way home from school for teenage boys. White women in bathingsuits.... my land!

Tonight we are going to try and find some delicious seafood since we are near the coast (a nice trustworthy place... we are so done with food poisoning).

More tomorrow.

Love Nıcole/Poke
xoxoxo

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