10/9/13
I arrived in Turkey at 6:30 am which is 1 hour ahead of Poland. I saw the sunrise through the plane window and it was beautiful. In the airport, our passports had to be checked 4 times at each checkpoint. My visa had to be checked twice at different checkpoints as well. Their security center in the airport is extremely strict.
After all the checkpoints, we got our luggage from the carousel and checked in with our tour company. The tour bus drove us to our hotel with 30 other people. Once at the hotel, the front desk required to keep our passports which made me feel super uncomfortable. I was worried the desk will photo copy my passport number and information. I heard United States passports are wanted by everyone and people are trying to become citizens. It would be easier for them to just take my identity. That really scares me.
The front desk also wouldn’t issue room keys to our group yet so Sunny, Andzrej (Sunny’s host father) and I walked to the beach. The walk was about 5 minutes straight down the road. The view was beautiful because the beach is positioned between two mountains. The water was crystal clear and refreshingly cool. Everything about the beach was beautiful except the “sand”. The sand is actually stones. When I took my shoes off to feel the water, I was saying “ouch” with each step. The stones were harsh on the bottoms of my feet.
I had to sit down to release the pressure from my feet against the rocks. Once I sat down and absorbed the sun on my skin that is when the exhaustion hit me. I leaned against my backpack on the rocks and fell asleep under the sun.
At 10 am Sunny and I decided to walk back to the hotel and take a nap in our bed. By then we had our room key and passports back. I slept until 2pm and then took a shower. It was really nice to be wearing shorts and a tank top again.
At 3 pm Sunny, Andzrej, and I walked to a restaurant along the beach where we ate hamburgers and drank Coca-Cola. Then I laid on the beach with Sunny and read a book while listening to the waves crash against the shoreline. It was truly relaxing reading on the beach of a beautiful place.
Walking back to the hotel for supper, I wore my American flag shorts. Some guys passed by saying hello while others just stared at me. It felt funny having all these eyes on me, but I like being patriotic in Europe. When I see a USA flag anywhere, I become extremely excited and cheer.
It feels so surreal being in Turkey. I never thought I would visit this country, but I recommend everyone should visit here.
Stephanie Raquel
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