BODRUM
Bodrum is located in the southwestern part of Turkey. It's a coastal town that borders the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea...in the Gulf of Gökova. It is a highly touristy town and the population multiplies incredibly in the summer months. Typically, the town only has about 33,000 people, but it could get up to 150,000 in the summer. Numerous families that I have met here in Istanbul have summer homes in Bodrum. And after a couple of weeks there, I can see why!
Bodrum was a beautiful town. There is water everywhere you look. Boats sailing, kids swimming, people relaxing by the water, what more could you ask for? Oh, how about beautiful fish practically kissing your toes when you step into the water? I wish I had an underwater camera. Some days I just liked to throw on the goggles and swim out in the water. I have never been snorkling before!
We stayed at a resort (Palmalife) that was about 20 minutes from downtown Bodrum. It was very secluded and relaxing. From what I had heard, there were many well known Turkish public figures there. The two pictures below I actually took from a singer's tweet. They were just too beautiful!
For the most part, the water is very rocky. Bodrum does not have much sand. For that reason, there were two types of swimming areas. The first area (above) was more for the adults. There was a deck with numerous lounge chairs. When you felt too hot, you could jump into the water for a quick cooldown!
There was also a beach like area. The sand was brought in to create the area. Families were more likely to relax in this area, as children could play and swim more freely. Along the shore there were numerous beautiful small white fish. Sometimes they were hard to see, as they blended in with the sand.
Many of our 14 days in Bodrum were spent on the sandy beach. It was so nice and relaxing. The family has a little canoe that we would occasionally take out on the water beyond the buoys. There was also a water sports area where we were able to rent various things to take out on the water. Three times we rented the boat rafts (that they called “hamburgers” for some unknown reason). The rafts could carry 4 or 5 of us at a time. It was great! For as many times as we rode, as fast as we were going at times, and considering we had 2, sometimes 3, kids on with us, nobody flew off! I was really surprised by that! There were a couple of times I found myself flying and holding on for dear life. And once I bounced and my leg ended up in the water. But, we all stayed on. It was a true test of strength and balance. Each time we went out on the raft we used about 5 minutes of our time with the 2 year old on the raft. She was surprisingly great! Of course we held on to her, but she loved it so much and did so well!
While we relaxed on the beach, the kids loved playing in the sand. We dug holes for them to sit in, attempted to build sand castles, and just enjoyed “hiding” our toes, hands, or entire body. It was not like a normal Californian beach, where you see seagulls or sand crabs occasionally. We rarely saw any creatures on the sand…though there were numerous grasshoppers in the grass behind the beach. Actually, in a different area of the resort, there was a pool. Along the pool there were bushes that had MANY grasshoppers. It was pretty neat to see them up close as they rested during the day. However, at the beach, there were interesting water creatures! Aside from the beautiful fish, we found a long centipede-like creature. Once I saw it, I immediately got out of the water. It was on the bottom of the sea, though I could possibly step on it if I were near it. That was a tad bit disturbing! About a day after I saw the centipede, we found a sea crab walking along the bottom of the water near the shore. The girls wanted me to catch it. I am not really afraid of most creatures, but crabs can stay as far from me as they would like! The girls did end up catching the crab in a bucket, took it back to our chairs on the beach, and tried to feed it bread. Accidentally, the bucket tipped over and the girls were completely terrified and ran so far. The crab ran sideways (which I thought was interesting) and eventually we caught it and threw it back in the water…far away from where we were swimming!! That night there were a few freakouts about crabs being in our hotel room!
Immediately upon walking to the beach you will notice an enormous and beautiful sail boat. I am not the type to look at a boat that think “that boat is beautiful” but my goodness…that boat was beautiful!! I immediately fell in love. I quickly learned that the boat belonged to the resort (actually the owner of the resort) and they allowed it to be rented out (including a full staff on board). I was trying to guess how much they would rent it out for because really I would consider it. I thought that maybe it would go for 2000-3000TL ($1300-$2000) a day. Boy, was I wrong! For a day out on the water with the boat and the staff, you pay 10,000 Euro ($13,500). Guess I will have to save up my money!
At night we found that it was quite fun to grab some bread and feed the fish! The family had told me that in the past this was an amazing sight! They were right! Shortly after sunset, we would take all the bread we could get from the local restaurant and head down to the deck of the adult swimming area. Sometimes it would take a few minutes, but after enough bread in the water we would start to see entire schools of fish swimming right at us. They were typically the smaller fish, but the way that they would charge towards us and just devour the bread was amazing. It was very similar to when you throw a piece of bread in on the ground in front of a flock of pigeons. They just attack it! One night the fish were being a little cautious. A few fish would come into the light and get the bread, but what was really cool was that we could see large schools of fish just out of the light swimming along, waiting for the right time to show themselves and get their bread. Their scales shined just along the edge of darkness.
Every perfect summer night has an amazing sunset. And in Bodrum, those sunsets are truly gorgeous! One evening we decided to head to a far off small village for dinner. The restaurant we went to was known for their amazing view of the sun setting. As we awaited our food to be brought to us, the sun slowly, though visibly, set right in front of us, lowering into the sea.
