We went away!

Last year, between August 2010 and July 2011 the kids and I did not leave Bodrum. Now, Bodrum is a beautiful place, but to fully appreciate its beauty you need to leave once in a while. Other towns in Turkey, in a 250km distance from us, are really quite horrible, although the villages and costal areas are really quite sweet. Anyway, this weekend we went away. It was the national holiday, Kurban Bayram, where traditionally lambs are slaughtered and the meat distributed to local poor people. We drove to Izmir to be with Necmi's family. Friday night we took the boys to a proper basketball match in a stadium, them on Saturday we travelled to a small village where Necmi's sister and her husband have a small cottage that they built from
Scratch, using the local villagers to build the entire house. It was lovely to be close to nature for a couple of days. We went on country walks, collected herbs along the way and keeping an eye out for wild pigs. It was great to spend a couple of days with all of Necmi's immediate family ( mum, sister, brother-in-law, niece), although it was a squeeze to sleep us all! Good to see that his family in close proximity for 3 days was just as crazy as mine would be! The photo is of Bafa Lake where we stopped to eat on the way home.