"Welcome to Bodrum!"

This phrase was uttered to us at least 10 times in the two days we stayed in Bodrum. We even had people who we just passed on the street stop and say, "Welcome to Bodrum!" I'm choosing to take this reaction as a function of the kindness of the people, rather than because we are so obviously not from Bodrum... Anyway, we ended up in Bodrum because we found really cheap flights at the last minute. It's on the Aegean coast, a little south of Izmir. The city is beautiful, mostly because of its white buildings and gorgeous coastline, and is apparently a huge vacation spot for many Turks and Europeans.

We flew in Friday morning, checked into our hostel, and headed almost immediately to brunch on the beach. A lot of the restaurants have tables set up all the way to the water, since it is barely tidal. Here's me at the table! It was a bit chilly, as the sun was in hiding, so the restaurant provided us with some blankets.

Photo Credit: Amy Rasmussen 

Next we headed to explore the city a bit. It is pretty much just a vacation city, so there are a lot of nice restaurants and shopping, but not too much else. During our exploration, we stumbled upon Bodrum Castle, which proved to be one of the most beautiful sights of the weekend.

Here's the view of about half of Bodrum from the castle grounds.

The castle is a fortress on the Aegean Sea, which, as you can see below, is absolutely beautiful. I stood in this cut out for about ten minutes and just let the wind and sea air hit me. It felt really good!

This is the cat outside our hostel. She really wanted to play with us, or (more likely) steal some food, but couldn't get up on the balcony, and so she just sat there and whined. Amy and I tried to coax her up, but it was simply too high...

We went to a tapas bar for dinner the first night, after an afternoon of walking around town. It was lovely but empty, like the rest of the city. The waiter, however, was wonderful. He lived in Istanbul for a long time, so we chatted about that. The tapas were also really authentic and delicious, and not too expensive. We visited about 3-4 weeks before tourist season really begins, so there wasn't much going on while we were there. It was still a great trip, and the weather was warm enough to still enjoy the beaches and water.

Here's a dog on the beach at brunch on Saturday. Isn't he cute? I took a picture because he reminds me of my dog, Otis. I miss him!

After brunch, we headed to the ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. In its glory days, the Mausoleum was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was really neat to see, but consisted mainly of scattered pillar pieces.

Here's a model of what the Mausoleum looked like before it was destroyed by a flood centuries ago...

We concluded the trip with an afternoon cruise around the area. We were trying to find a boat ride of any sort, but the only available boats are ones that you rent privately. So, we worked out an acceptable price with the captain, and got on board! They took us to an island nearby where there's a natural hot spring. It wasn't super hot, but supposedly Cleopatra swam there, so it was worth the trip! I just dipped my toes in - it was too cold to swim, even for me.

Here's a photo of the water - it was so clear and such a beautiful turquoise color. It was like nothing I've ever seen!

Here's a photo (stolen from Amy's camera) of some of us on the boat. We sat up front the whole time, even though it was windy and chilly. It was definitely worth it! We were afforded great views of the harbor and other local towns, as well as some relaxing time on the sea.

All in all it was a great weekend, and a nice quick getaway from campus. Sorry for the short post, and the inevitable spelling and grammar mistakes, I was rushing to write!

Now, I'm officially on Spring Break. A friend, Hallie, and I are headed to Italy, hoping to tackle 6 cities in 10 days! Do you think we can do it?