Back AT LAST! :P With pictures of my holiday to Turkey

[Miss Z]

Hello PT How I have missed you!

I can't exactly remember when I was last on here... testament to how bleedin' long I've been absent I suppose! I will try harder to stick around and come back a bit more regularly in between particularly hectic periods.

So, what has been happening since I was last here? Hmm... well I spent a lot of May running round London trying to find a place to rent for next year, which was far more difficult than I anticipated. The London property market is (I believe the best way to describe it accurately) cutthroat! Properties would sometimes come onto the market as I was on the phone to an estate agent, but an offer would be made within the hour, before any of us had finished lectures for the day. Myself and my flatmates got through many phone bills, fingernails, and stiff drinks, I can tell you.

Thankfully, we eventually managed to find ourselves a beautiful flat not too far from the RVC, with a reasonable rent (reasonable by London standards, that is. Listening to the average rents paid by my old college friends in other parts of the country makes my bank balance weep). Perhaps best of all, the landlady will allow us to keep caged pets! Will keep you posted on that one!

Oh, and I took my first year exams, and passed with a first class honours!! I was so overwhelmed, since I found the exams very tough, and was particularly disappointed in myself for making an incomprehensibly stupid mistake in one of the papers (completely wrote about the wrong thing, you cannot believe how many times I metaphorically kicked myself when I realised on the way out of the exam hall!). Despite that all my results came back so much better than I anticipated, and I was particularly happy that I was into the 90% boundary for my project work on microRNAs (which I'm told is pretty hard to do!). I worked with a very helpful and inspiring lecturer, who has invited me back to work in the laboratory with him in my third year. I'm hoping to take him up on that offer.

Anyway, the real purpose of this thread was to share a small selection of photographs from my recent holiday to Turkey with my family. We haven't been away as a group for a few years, so it was nice to have a break together again, especially for me after my first year living away from home.

For anyone who has facebook, I have the whole album on my page (photobucket loading times frustrate me, heh heh).

The view from the villa we rented. We had beautiful views of Incekum forest, and the Taurus mountains.



Alanya was the largest nearby town, and after two hours of driving up and down Ataturk Blvd, we at last found the beautiful harbour (a bit of advice? Try to learn a competent amount of Turkish if attempting to drive and follow signs in Turkey ). Eating at restaurants with this view was a real treat.



Oh, a bit of news I forgot, I finally had chance to take and pass my driving test! Better late than never I suppose. Wasn't totally brave enough to drive on the wrong side of the road only days after getting my licence, but nonetheless had to make a point of being in the driver's seat!



More coming...

[Miss Z]

Not sure how many of you are familiar with my brother, but here is a photo of the pair of us in Alanya. He's 14 now, and suddenly gigantic (bear in mind that I am 6 foot tall, and those shoes add about 2 inches I reckon). I left my little baby brother at home when I left for university. Now look at the state of him!



Last time we visited Turkey some years ago, we enjoyed the colourful markets, and safe to say they are as good as ever. The spice stalls always caught my attention (perhaps a new culinary interest ignited by being a student!)



I have to admit it - I am a cocktail magpie. The more colourful and wacky, the more attracted I am to them. This is a Blue Cobra, I think my favourite of the holiday (and worked out at only about £4!) I blame the rather spectacular cocktail bar just up the road from university for this latest penchant of mine!



As a family, we generally like to get slightly off the beaten track and stay away from the really touristy things, but we had to have a look at the bluer than blue waters of the Manavgat River, with its beautiful waterfalls. We also managed to negotiate a little riverboat cruise, which, although not nearly as incredible as the Kazinga Channel in Uganda, which I visited last year, had a charming beauty of its own.





This is the ancient city of Side, with most of its ruins dating back to the Roman period. On the day we visited, temperatures were soaring in excess of 42 degrees C. We pretty much stayed for as long as we could bear it, then made a dash for it back to the car, where there was air con!









More coming...

[Miss Z]

I thought PT might appreciate this the most. One morning we spotted a tortoise on the road up to our villa, so we moved him out of harm's way. Random acts of kindness, especially towards our animal friends, always does seem to make the day better.





Swimming in the Alara river was definitely a highlight, even though the water was very cold, and the currents took a bit of effort to swim against!



Probably the best day, however, was spent in the Köprülü Kanyon National Park. It took a very long drive to get there, including crossing a rather treacherous Roman bridge, but the views were oh so worth it. We also hired a raft on the river, and all four of us were pulled against the current by a surprisingly strong Turkish lad. He definitely earned his 70 lira!











Last post coming up..

[phesina]

Beautiful photos, thank you. What a wonderful adventure!

[Miss Z]

Finally, a few pictures of Turkish cats. We ended up 'adopting' two particular cats, whom we presume were strays, that stumbled across our villa. Firstly we were visted only by the female, who, after a few bowls of milk (I''m vegetarian anyway, and my family don't tend to prepare meat themselves on holiday), allowed us to stroke her. We wondered whether she was a stray after all, but she kept on turning up ravenous so we presume she wasn't being fed elsewhere! One night, my mother sneaked a bit of lamb from her meal at a restaurant home for her, and when we arrived home, there were now two hungry faces at the window - she had brought along her kitten!

The kitten was very nervous, but typically very curious, and couldn't resist chasing my belt. Soon he was popping in and out of the house. I don't suppose anyone had ever really played with him before.

It was a shame to leave them behind!













Hope you enjoyed!!

[moosmom]

Zara!!

I've missed you!! You are a beautiful young lady!! Your brother is growing like a weed!!!

I'm so glad you've had a wonderful holiday and totally enjoyed looking at the pictures. The cats are beautiful, especially the little kitten! Too bad you couldn't bring them home with you.

I'm beaming with pride here. I'm so proud of you and how far you've come! You're one special girl!

and hugs,

Donna

[Pinot's Mom]

Great to see you again, and lovely pictures! We were in Turkey this past May; different areas than you were. We did find there were many kitties wandering as well. It is hard to leave them.

Glad you had a nice trip!

[chocolatepuppy]

Great to hear from you Zara! Turkey looks like a beautiful place! Best wishes with your studies!
Keep us posted whenever you can.

[Karen]

Great to hear from you, and thanks for helping out that tortoise! Thanks for sharing the pictures, and oh - I could have warned you about "little brothers!" They tend to do that, I went away to college and mine kept growing, he now is several inches taller than me, but I stopped at 5' 6" ... He grew to 6 feet, but hey, he knows he's still the youngest, so that's okay! I tried to warn his daughter, whose brother is 3 years younger, that he might end up much bigger than her, and I don't think she believed me!