Everything Happens for a Reason (by Trisha)

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Traveling alone as you can imagine can definitely have its ups and downs. Every traveler that has set off on this kind of adventure can attest to this. I usually blog about the ups... flexibility, freedom, the requirement to put yourself out there and meet new people, the variety, etc... those are the ups! Then there are the downs. There are the times when you’re in your own hotel room instead of a dorm with no one to talk to for days at a time... there are times when you must be THAT person in a restaurant sitting solo while everyone around you is laughing and mingling in couples or groups... and there are times when you’re the only English speaking person on a bus full of locals chatting amongst themselves. As Monty mentioned of his experiences in a recent email, these things are common and just come with the territory... but all you can do is make the best of it, take out a book, love the company of yourself and hope that those days are few and far between. When I was in Rhodes, Greece as great as it was to kite and see the magnificent Old Town, I was still pretty alone. I stayed in my own place (there wasn’t an option to dorm it), ate alone and kited “alone”. It was only for a couple of days, though, so no biggie really and I do pretty well with my free time in short spurts. I go at my own pace, see what I want and if I want to spend 30 minutes window shopping in one stall, I will. It’s stress free. I had plans after all to meet my new lovely friends I met in Santorini for a 3-night boat cruise in Turkey the next day. So, no worries. Everything was working out... kiting, Turkey, friends. But, when the only ferry to Turkey on my required day of departure (in order to take the cruise the next morning) had already left and the usual afternoon boat wasn’t running, which I found out after the fact, I was devastated. I ran around to multiple travel agencies, got on my email, called the harbor and even thought about flying the short distance if I could. I tried everything short of swimming the channel... I’m pretty good at finding some way to make things work, but there was absolutely no way I was going to make the boat! 😞 No way I would see my new friends again on this trip... Part of the whole purpose of going to Turkey was to cruise with them, as well as head to Cesme to kite with another new friend I met in Greece. I extended my trip for this. I spent the whole day still in Rhodes in somewhat of a somber mood. I let the cruise organizers know I had to cancel or reschedule, but still planned to head to the departure town of Fethiye, Turkey the next morning anyway. My thoughts... “There are cruise departures every day.. maybe I would still go the next day.” “I am still alone” “I’m sure I’ll meet more friends on that cruise too.” “I’m so bummed!” “You can’t be bummed, you are in Greece and you are heading to Turkey!” “Be happy and grateful.” “I’m so pissed!” “No, it will be fine”... I will be good.” “Just let it go.” “Boooo Hoooo.” “No, I will be fine.”
The next morning I took a ferry, two ripped off taxis and a minibus to Fethiye, Turkey, a coastal town on the Mediterranean. I kept looking at the clock at different times on the 4 hour journey thinking, the boat is leaving in an hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, the boat just left, the boat left an hour ago... let it go. You are good. I arrived at the V-Go Guesthouses (also owned by the cruise company) and explained that I was a day late and I think I still had a reservation. As I was giving him the full detailed the explanation of missing the ferry and the cruise... blah blah, he interrupted with, “I know who you are... we’ve been expecting you. Your friends just left for the harbor. The boat was delayed.” What?! Come again?! The boat was due to leave the dock 2.5 hours ago. I screamed loud with excitement, literally jumped for joy and almost did a cartwheel. I made it! I really made it! The scheduled boat broke down, so everyone had to wait for a new boat to arrive! Is this really happening?... I went from zero to hero... alone to not alone.... frown to big smile... just like that. Yippee!! The girls were equally excited when we were re-united... we all screamed, hugged and talked very loud in fast conversation while others in the travel office looked at us like we were crazy. Crazy girls, yes and really excited, double yes!
Starting on June 21st, the next 3 nights and 4 days were spent in pure relaxing bliss. Rubina, Medea, Lena and I cruised the Mediterranean Sea on a 35 foot sail boat with 15 or so other travelers from many countries and all walks of life. There were couples, singles, professionals, students, young and aged. There were multiple languages flying around and some that could speak up to 6! Wow! Impressive. V-Go Yachting is the way to go! For the same money per day that I had spent so far, I was cruising the Med (the most turquoise sea I’ve ever seen), enjoying the mountainous coastline speckled with ancient ruins and sunken cities, eating 3 homemade amazing Turkish meals a day (all included I might add!), swimming, sunning and spending time with some of the nicest and funnest people I’ve met traveling thus far. We were definitely female dominated, as you can see from the pictures, so there was lots of chatting, lots of wine and lots of dancing. Its just one of those amazing times I will always remember. Right up there with Koh Tao and Lancelin and Queenstown, I had the time of my life on that cruise! This is what its all about... what makes traveling so worth it... worth every effort, every day spent alone, every twinge of home sickness and every dime spent. And what a bonus... I didn’t plan for Turkey when I set off to Europe and I thought I missed the boat! Ah, its a beautiful life, yes it is.
After the cruise, the girls and I spent last night in a cabin (supposed to be a tree house) in Olympos, a coastal town that reminded me so much of Railey Beach, Thailand. Olympos is said to be where the word “Olympos” came friend (instead of previously thought as a Greek originated word). It means Great or High Mountain. Being from Olympia, I found this to be pretty intriguing information! Olympos, once settled by Romans dating back to approx. 100 B.C., is a chilled out hippy style town with massive limestone cliffs rising in all directions. There are ancient ruins to meander through and eternal flames in the mountains that have been burning for hundreds of thousands of years. Rubina and I hiked to the flames that legend says are from a killer fire-blowing dragon trapped under the ground after being captured by early settlers. When science came along, the truth became known that natural gases exit the rocks and ignite when mixed with oxygen, but we’re sticking with the dragon legend.
I write this as the girls and I are on an overnight bus with 3 other girls from the cruise. There are 7 of us traveling together in total as we head east to Cappadocia, deep in central Turkey, said to be villages of fairy chimney cave cottages with a stone landscape resembling huge globs of vanilla ice cream. A geological wonder like no other we are excited to experience... it would be much better if the heaps of young male Turks on our bus weren’t such total harassing assholes that have completely lost respect for the human race sometime on their journey of life. We are 7 deep, thank goodness, not sitting near them and smart tough girls at that. No worries mom & dad, I am safe, just highly annoyed. Honestly, this doesn’t happen often, but its common in Turkey unfortunately. I hate to blog about it so people don’t worry, but its the truth. Its all good though. I’m tired 😊 .. its 1:30 am. Good thing I got my pillow back from the idiot who just stole it, put it around his neck & got an earful in Turkish from the bus liaison. Rubina and I want to give them piece of our minds, but we don’t know Turkish (except Git, which means Go away), so we’ll simmer for now. Ugh! Sleep with one eye open and watch your stuff! Zzzzz Stay tuned... 9 more days in Turkey, including Istanbul for 2 and kiting in Cesme for 6!!!

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Comments

[Gail Smith]

Too much fun!!!
Okay, young lady, you are having way too much fun!!! I think you need to get your butt home right now!! hahahaha!!! Just kidding, glad to hear that your trip is still as incredible or actually more than you expected. You are such an amazing young woman and I have never been overly worried about your traveling by yourself. (Notice I said overly!!) I knew that you would make lots of new friends and have the time of your life. Just remember that all of our experiences in life have the potential to be positive or negative. How they end up has everything to do with attitude and you have always had a good one. Love you and keep enjoying your time. Thanks for taking the time to blog so the rest of us can share in your journey. Gail

[Monty AKA Corkman]

Classic
Captain. Corkman to Captain. Call me crazy but this has to be the album cover.

[Medea]

Miss you already!
Hey Trisha, love your blog, will be reading it often now, to see what you are up to and how you are going. Keep it touch! Glad we all had such great times together, i will never forget all the fun and laughs we had! Love Medea.