Thursday 15 May 2008
We left Koycgeiz this morning at 10am all very hung over from our fantastic night cruise the night before. We left a little late as Vanessa our trainer had dropped her phone into Lake Koycgeiz during the course of this night which was quite funny.We drove for quite a while until we reached Oludiniz, the second home of the British Backpacker and package holiday invasion. It kind of reminded me of Malia in Crete.....just like the UK only very hot. I even saw a guy on the street selling "English Fags".
Vanessa and Burak showed us around and made a few introductions, most notably at Action Paragliding, we are now all going Paragliding tomorrow! How exciting is that!!!! I can't wait and we are all stoked, needless to say that woke us all up a bit.
We then went off to hotel Meriment, where thankfully there were no dorms. I got shoved in a room with Nigel and Paul and the girls got another room. We all met for dinner and we were taken to the fish markets, where you pick your fish and then you take it to a nearby restaraunt and they cook it for you. It was very nice, but I hate it when my food looks at me and Burak had to cut the head off for me! After dinner we were taken and introduced to the guys at Car Cemetary Bar, which was great. We had free Sheesha and a free welcome drink. We also managed to somehow get free tequila shots. We weren't there long before we hired a Dolmus and were taken back to the hotel.
Once at the hotel, Nigel and I decided we were too reved up to sleep and dispite the fact that we had to get up for Paragliding in the morning we managed to get into the hotel bar. We discovered this new drink called Safari and got to drink some real stuff like Jim Beam.....still no Jack Daniels I'm afraid. We got a little drunk and had to take the top off the pool table to get the balls out, and I think I spent more time dancing with the pool cue than actually playing. Nigel also ended up in the pool at about 4am after attempting to push me in...Chock Deli!
We managed to haul ourselves out of bed at 6am the next day and drag ourselves to the front of the hotel to get into a truck with 7 turks who were just as hung over as we were....actually, it had only been two hours since Nigel and I had gone to bed, so we were still a little drunk.
We drove up and up and up, we started singing to calm the nerves we sang Livin on a Prayer which was pretty cool. I hat e to say it but I actually didn't have any nerves....no idea why. We got suited up, I was the only one who was allowed to wear their coat over the paragliding gear cos it wouldnt fit. We got strapped to our pilots and silly me tries to run before I'm supposed to, the driver ended up having to hold me back. We did a short run and the ran over the edge of the cliff. "I'm the king of the World!" I yelled!
It was one of the most amazing things I've ever done and once your up there 2km in the air, its actually quite peaceful floating around. We drifted over the blue lagoon and saw an Island off in the distance. We landed and about 3m from the ground my guy yells "Ok Run" "What?!" I scream as I land on my bum and skid across the landing strip, causing hysterics amoungst my team. We went back to the hotel all hyped up and I attempted to have a nap, but failed miserably! Way too exciting.