Turkey Part III – Going with the Flow

The final phase of our travels in Turkey was a mellow five days at “Flow Datca”, a quiet beach club in southern Turkey.  The club was on the outskirts of Datca, a small coastal town that is popular with Turkish holidaymakers, but has not yet been inundated by the western European rabble.  The region is known for windsurfing as well as for honey, almonds, and olives, all of which we made a point to enjoy.

For most of our stay at the resort, we were the only guests, which made us prime targets for the eager-to-please staff.  The front desk clerk cheerfully handled a range of requests from changing rooms (Mom, you’d be proud) to usurping his computer, the guitarist enthusiastically serenaded us with American tunes, and the chef willingly catered to our tastes.  Each evening we had the best table in the house as we dined on yogurt dip and eggplant mezzes, followed by specially ordered white beans for Chana and daily special for Jerel, and finishing with a massive platter of fresh fruit.

When we weren’t consuming copious amounts of fruit, honey or eggplant, we were either hanging out by the pool, windsurfing at the French outdoors club next door (see, French is a useful language!), or roaming around Datca, where we tried truly fresh almonds for the first time – they had a remarkably intense flavour with strong hints of vanilla.  We also squeezed in a full-day boat cruise with twenty-odd Turkish tourists, during which we visited the Greek ruins of Knidos and made refreshing swim stops at several pristine coves.

From Datca, we flew to Istanbul, where I had booked us a beautiful hotel on the water near the airport (about an hour out of the main city).  Enter major travel blunder number two…it turns out that this scenic hotel was actually located a good full day’s drive from Istanbul.  Ooops!  To make a long story short, at dusk we finally checked into a nearby hotel, which featured great views of the freeway and the surrounding truck yards.  As the front desk clerk judiciously put it when asked where we could go for an evening walk “the location here is not the best”.  Although Turkey was wonderful, we were both relieved to return to ‘normal’ life in Brussels. 

For more photos, please click here.