Well, I'm back from Erdek. It was quite a lazy weekend as there is not much to do in this small, somewhat touristy spot on the Marmara Sea aside from lounge on the beach. As one of only three trainees that went, there was a lot of lounging and waving from the sand at the pouty-faced Aiesecers who were stuck inside the hotel having congress sessions. In the evening it seemed to be a choice between two bars- the Cowboy Bar, ironically littered completely in Native American decore including a framed poster of the "Indian Ten Commandments", or the Papağan Bar, which I actually only walked by one night, and let's just say I was happy to be walking by and not in.

Yes, the hotel we stayed at was called Hotel Akita, and no there weren't numerous dogs roaming all around crotch-sniffing. There were three large dogs, chained up thereby confined to an area, and one cute, fluffy puppy. In my opinion it was okay, but if I see a place with a sit down toilet, no matter how dirty or janky it is, it almost always automatically scores in the "average/okay" range. It did look like the toilet had seen a couple of mean bouts with more than a couple people's hindparts and somehow lived to bare the battlewounds. Every room seemed to have minor complications. Ours, aside from the bathroom window hanging from its hinges, was the mosquito room.

The second night laying in bed, lights off, drifting through those final thoughts on the edge of sleep...
bzzzzzzz
What?! Well, it's either sleep under the blanket or get up and hunt the little bloodsucker down. We unanimously vote to hunt, but I am so on a mission from God that I jump up, flip the light on, put a lock on the no good so and so, and slap! on the wall even before Lee can get out of his bed. Flick the light off, lie down, ahhh, I'm glad that's over...
bzzzzzzz
What?! No question about it. Get em! Whoosh the covers fly off. Flick! Target acquired! Jump, Smack! Yesss! That'll teach em. A quick round to make sure all windows and doors are tightly sealed, and back to the white sheeted sanctuary. I'll sleep good now..
bzzz bzzzzz
Are you ?*@%!^& kidding me?!
Now we both get up in a flash. Lee beats me to the punch on this one, goes to the bathroom to wash the blood and guts off his hand, and returns to my shocked beckoning, "Hey, hey! Get back in here!" I have spotted two more on the ceiling. Bloody hell! At this point I am standing on the bed giving them the look of death to try and hold them in place until the Aussie can use his height as an advantage over their high strategic position over the bed, just far enough away from the edge of it where it is a risky move for me to try and jump smack them. If I miss and they flee, we would have to re-lock the target. Lee comes and Slap! Smack! Both of us are standing on the bed now in search and destroy mode. It seems we've won the war! We take a moment to appreciate it all, as now there isn't a surface in the room that's not spotted black and red-a work of art, really. One blood spot even looks like a little heart. Back to the bathroom to wash our hands of it all, and back to bed fully keen to enjoy our well-deserved night of...
bzzz bzz bz
Great bloody buzzards, batman! This one sounds a little more hesitant than the first 8 billion (I think he's runnin' scared), but it's unmistakable. The war is not over. With one last heave I drag my body up to the light switch. Flick. Acquiring target. I don't believe it. This little bastard has the nerve to be staring back at me from a spot on the wall right above my pillow! No doubt he's the cruel sort that would probably give you one of those so-big-I-might-as-well-have-an-extra-head mosquito bites right between the eyes. I make sure to give him an extra hard smack to send him careening back to hell where he and his posse no doubt escaped from.
It wasn't until the next morning that I heard from Lee, there was another demon from the hellfire lurking about. He must have made sure to stay a good distance away from my extra-sensitive ear.

But overall, an uneventful weekend. I did a bit of swimming, though there were more than quite a few jellyfish floating aimlessly around so I even tended to stay out of the water more than I wanted. We did go for a ride on one of those ginormous, six person, banana boat things like in the movie Jaws. Really more fun than you can imagine, unless of course, you are the person on the back. While everyone else is bouncing up and down shouting and hooting, happy happy joy joy, you're white-knuckling the rope handle making peace with God. The best was when we turned a bit Lord of the Flies and all turned on the frontman forcing him to switch with the back one after he retaliated to cries of "Ohhh!! Please! Please don't jump! Don't bounce!" with extra high, no handed for more air, super bounces, sending the backman flying off on more than one occasion.

Sadly, this week will be again filled with many goodbyes. Tonight and tomorrow should be packed with farewell tea's at Pirinçhan. I feel the Last Samurai will soon be re-born before too long.

I believe Erdek was just a warm-up for this weekend's festivities at Olympos. It's something I've really been looking forward to, and can't believe I'm actually going! Though I would like to spend a good two weeks hiking the Lykia Yolu (Lycian Way), spending a couple of days here is surely a great way to get a small taste of the experience.