Turkey Round 5 (Ayvalik, Bornova, Kuşadası/Aydın)

 A morning to sleep in!! Yay.  I could stand waking up to this every morning. We did search and search for somewhere that was still serving breakfast.  The fish were enjoying breakfast as well.

 As we enjoyed our breakfast with more than a few very cute visitors for breakfast. Very persistent visitors, but who could resist that face, apparently not My Love.  I think the cats had more of his breakfast than him.

Longest Breakfast ever.... Mainly because I wanted to stay and watch the sea before our journey on.

I wanted fingernail polish remover, more specifically acetone containing....seems simple...not so much. My solution was a brief Ikea trip beforehand.  FYI the prices are comparable, but the selection was ten times what it is in the states. I can't count the times I heard the words, "I can't believe you want to go to Ikea." 

I giggled. 

We were hungry so we wandered around the shopping mall to find food and replace my sunglasses. (MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR MY FAVORITE SUNGLASSES WHICH DIED A TRAGIC PREMATURE DEATH IN THE SUITCASE)

 I had an issue with the straw for the sprite. It's just wrong. Wrong, I tell ya.

A little more driving and yet another beautiful spot to visit. This was the view from our hotel. So peaceful and quiet with beautiful beautiful beautiful architecture. 

 The beautiful didn't outweigh the fact that I was whipped. These stairs seemed like a mountain.  I was very ready for a nap at the top.

While Love fiddled with the key in the door I took the time to stare at the beautiful clear blue sky.  After briefly staring out the window I crashed. 

We decided to venture out for a walk to the beach. We had a different definition of "short walk," but it was worth it to just hang out with each other for a bit.  

 My Love (Captain Obvious) answered my query of "what's that?" simply with ..."a castle." I was not in the mood to play twenty questions, so I let it slide.

The shore was covered in adorable little snails, all smaller than a pinky nail.  

 We passed several houses with wonderfully vibrant mixes of flowers. Roses roses roses and cacti.

We headed back for dinner and sat for a bit outside in the beautiful weather on the cutest little stools perched under a shade tree.

 The tree was shedding the tiniest perfect flower blossoms.

It was also dinner time for the nest of juvenile starlings. 

Very full from dinner we decided to walk downtown to watch the sunset and then do some meandering.  The sunset was beautiful.  People were chatting and playing in the waves.  

 Over all a lovely, simple and beautiful day that I got to spend doing  very little to speak of, but I will remember for the rest of my life. I'm pretty sure I can't remember every day I have/will spent/spend with My Love in great detail, but I will do my best to remember every bit of this one with the simple things like walking through an Ikea I had no intentions of buying things from to a beautiful sunset as viewed from the bench on the edge of the sea.

A small stash of call quotes that were hanging out.

Heart Pompatations, they do a body good. (Sometimes I think the techs are just testing to see if I am paying attention.)



As I see my attending disinfect his keyboard and mouse for the sixth time tonight I wonder, what kind of super bug is he cultivating...maybe I should wonder what kind of bugs are growing on my keyboard, but I prefer not to.



Me, "I just used the words 'Massive fecal impaction'."
The physician response to opening the images, "Holy Crap!"
Me, "Exactly, but they won't let me dictate that."



Tonight's serenade from the dark hallway is a security guard mumbling with the occassional outburst of "ROXANNE"



It's a cookie cookie cheesecake. You simply place a warm chocolate chip cookie on top of the oreo crumbs already on the cheesecake.  When you are on call there are no calories; that's just a fact.



But I don't wanna be the Cancer Maven. (said with pouty lips)



5:15pm- Me, "Did you cut your hair?"
A, "No."
Me, "Oh, Ok, well I like your hair today."

7:30 pm- A, "I had to come back to tell you, I remember getting my hair cut this past weekend. No idea why I didn't remember that."
Me, "Well, I still like it. Thanks for making that special trip back to tell me"
A," It was the least I could do, I felt like I had lied to you." (walks away)


Phone conversation-
ED Charge, "Hey, what do you have for me?"
Me, "Just a couple of normal Head CTs..."
ED Charge, "Do you watch Big Bang Theory?"  
Background voices, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock."
Me, "Yes, Why...and what's happening down there?"
ED Charge, "Apparently I'm the only one who doesn't"
Background voices, "No, paper disproves Spock."

Turkey Round 4 (Mount Ida, Ayvalık, Bergama)

You really can't beat waking up to a private breakfast in the mountains.

We stopped at a little waterfall on our way on the walk from the road we both spotted a coin in the dirt...Made it a good thirty foot past and I decided I wanted said coin.  Most patient boyfriend in the world joins in the search for the silver gold coin in a ten by forty foot path of sandy soil....FYI, found it...equivalent to about six cents. I have no idea why I decided I must have this coin, but I adore it none the less.

The long beautiful trek back up and down the entirely unpaved single lane was relaxing and exciting. Stopping occasionally to take pictures of flowers and scenery.

And it was beautiful scenery, mountains, olive trees, conifers and the sea.

Our next stop was Ayvalık and who can have a bad day when after searching ...ummm... 'briefly'.... for our hotel we are greeted with this view to our left.

And this view to the right.

After a brief nap we ventured back out for lunch.

A further bit of insight into Turkish travel- these people are hard core meat eaters.  Meat bread and cheese.  Asking for a vegetarian day is like asking a southern girl to drink unsweetened tea...it ain't happening y'all. Likewise asking them to remove meat from an item elicits much the same response as telling her there is sugar on the table for their unsweetened iced tea. (A look of shock followed by, I'll just have something else)

The little cafe we ate at was adorable and the company was pleasant....ie....far a few between, quiet and primarily of the feline nature.

It was then off to Bergama.  Up the lift, which I don't recall the Turkish word for and Love did not immediately recall the English word for- making for an interesting charades type moment in the car.

We reached the top of the long lift to start venturing through the ancient city.  First stop, ancient Greek puppies of course.

I remember grade school science fairs. One particular poster I created was about the force an arch could withstand.  As I looked at this arch I recalled my very clearly written instructions to remove your rings before squeezing the eggs (perfectly constructed little force withstanding arches)........Apparently adults can not read because I had multiple smashed eggs and teachers with gooey hands. Rant ends here.

Ahhh, giant amphitheater, hundreds of steps, a swift breeze that would nearly pick me up on the way down......Ninety degrees with out a breeze and seemingly a thousand steps on the way back up. None the same height. Either way, totally worth the climb.

I couldn't go through a single perfectly constructed tunnel without being in amazement at the ability to withstand time.

This is that moment we realized we had to go back up all those steps at some point in the heat, c'est la vie.

I was obsessed with touching things, more specifically rocks, old carved rocks.

I recommend purchasing a remote shutter release for your camera if possible, no need to hunt down a stranger to take the photo with you.  I almost never carry my tripod...This days scene provided many ornate rocks to prop my camera on (a what self respecting camera wouldn't prefer an ancient hand carved pedestal to a modern tripod anyway).

My remote shutter release has a two second delay setting which I use to tuck the remote away for the picture. Love uses it to randomly attack me with kisses in front of the camera.

Isn't it wonderful...I figure there are at minimum three more like it and they should have just let me take this one, Love seems to think it was a bit big for my suitcase and I'd have better luck trying to smuggle drugs than any of these rocks out of the country.

OOOO OOOO OOO...carved rock, must touch it!

I think we should have detail work like this installed in the Rads department, who wouldn't want to come to work every day if the ceilings looked like this.

We can put a few of these of the Flouro hall.

And these over by CT....

I'm not saying I always resist the random kisses.

It was windy, very windy.

Why hello little lion dude.What is your prior purpose?

These little lovelies were behind a big gate. Probably because people like me have brief thoughts like, "Look purse sized."

Back down the lift, listening to two middle school teachers from Australia talk about their shopping adventures, Ugg boots and being a bit worried when their students say they love their outfits.  And now time to sit by the sea again. (Sigh of contentment.)

Little boys ran past as we sat a climbed into the water gathering mussels as the sun set.  They and the cats provided great amusement as we waited for dinner.

The chairs were a bit close to the edge for my comfort but you forget the constant fear of dropping a chair leg of the edge and plummeting into the sea fully clothed when you look into those eyes.

Abandoned tea glasses. (That's all, I just like them)

Three little fishies that never saw me coming.  I thought about naming them, but here was no time, I was starved.

Lots of little scraps for the patient cats that joined us for dinner.

The harbor was lined with cute little cafes and these vintage Coca Cola chairs and tables were to die for. But it does now make me wonder about the Turkish pronunciation of it as the "c" is given a "j" sound.  Joja Jola?

We finished the night with a hunt for Baklava, and boy did we find it. Enough to have leftovers in the morning. (which were mysteriously gone when I woke the next day.)