My blogg is late today as my Vodaphone card ran out, and I am now using the Marina Cafes wireless.
Today was about getting across to Turkey, our final destination, albeit brief. The girls had booked the hyroflite the night before. It was an early start as we had to be down at the port by 8.30am. We had our showers, cleaned up and left the Marina by about 8.00 stopping at the bakery for some breakfast and coffee on the run. We arrived in good time with the rest of the worlds population. Whilst I accept we are in Greece, I got to say they couldn't organise a p.xx up in a brewery. Eventually after standing in the hot sun for an hour, we finally alighted the hyroflite. We were expecting the latest in boating luxury, only to find that this machine had more silastic in it than a Bunnings Store. Once we got going, it only took 18 minutes to reach Turkey. Much less than the hour and 15 on the ferries (that were loaded to the gunnels). When we arrived at Bodrum we were pleasantly surprised by it cleanliness, an the port building was nice and modern. The Port building itself is right next to a quite large but very old fortress that protected the harbour. Now it is just a tourist attraction. Our first goal today was to find the markets, we had heard so much about them. There is only one market day a week, and this is it. We all set of, and as usual in the wrong direction. So we saw all the other shopping alleys before anyone else did. The theme in Turkey is much the same as in Greece, Italy, and France. Shopping and eating. Clearly these towns rely mainly on the tourists that frequent them. Turkey seemed more up market than Greece in terms of its presentation. Finally we turned the map around the right way, and we made our way to the markets. You could tell we were heading in the right direction, because there was just wall to wall people everywhere. The markets were situated up behind the bus depot, such is the town planning is that you risked getting run over by a bus as you entered the markets. This did not deter anyone though.The building looked like an old bus depot that was converted into markets, if you did like closed in spaces, then you wouldn't want to be in here. Fire risk as well. But once inside, there were endless amounts of stall to purchase from. Some bargains, some rip offs. Cheryl and I particularly wanted to buy some things made in Turkey, not China. They had all the usual famous label looks alikes, (mulberry, rather than Burbery etc). Cheryl purchased a look alike bag (I can tell you she never going to get the real one!), and she even bartered the price down. It is real leather, and not too badly made. Honestly there were so many things you buy, but how much is enough? After about an hour and half, we had flagged out. Overload! So we met up with the rest of the crew to go back into the main part of town for some well earned lunch.