Maggie & Mal's Adventures in North Cyprus, the UK and Beyond
Another lovely sunny day, so we spent time by the pool. Plenty of activities happening with the very good entertainments team.
Mal and I find it very amusing to keep seeing a long queue outside the main restaurant at 12.30 for lunch and 6.30 for dinner. Don’t they know that there is food and drink 24 hours a day?
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Thought for the Day – “I trust that everyhting happens for a reason, even when we are not wise enough to see it.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Mal’s birthday! That is why we came to Antalya.
He opened his presents and cards and then we had a leisurely day but did manage to get a walk in.
A special occassion and so we had booked at the only a la carte restaurant that was open. It was the Turkish one. Sadly it did not live up to expectations, pretty average and Mal said he would rather have eaten in the main restaurant. It really was nothing special and the service wasn’t that good either. Other hotels we have stayed at in Antalya, their a la carte restaurants have surpassed their 5 stars. Not this one.
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Thought for the Day – “The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age” ~ Lucille Ball
The sun was out, we were on holiday so following breakfast we went down to the beach. It looked as though one of the nationalities had slept down there…sunbeds reserved. We looked for sunbed matresses but were unable to find any, so asked one of the staff and were told “yok”……none left. We both found this very hard to believe as the hotel is not full. Perhaps we should advise against coming in the summer. Ha ha. To be honest Mal’s and my version of events was that they just can’t be bothered. Ah well, just had to have a couple of drinks to get over it.
Anyway, it was a very lazy day,eating, drinking, playing cards and reading. Another “Showtime” in the evening which we decided to give a miss.
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It was River’s 14th birthday. I really don’t know where all those years have gone.
For some reason we were awake at 6 and so went down to breakfast early. We then took the hotel bus and spent the day in Antalya. The old bazaar is a bit much where they have everything you want (or so they say!) but they want to drag you into their shops. At least we got a chance to speak some Turkish. We had a long time walking round the harbour. Later we had a chicken doner each for our lunch 2.50tl, a bit of a difference to the prices in North Cyprus. Mal bought some sandals and trainers. I nearly bought a handbag which they insisted was a Prada and genuine leather, fake Prada and it was not leather. Do we really look that stupid?
We were quite tired by the time we arrived back at the hotel, had a bath and then went to the restaurant for our dinner. It was Turkish Night, all Turkish food in the restaurant and three instrumentalists playing as we walked in. I think the staff are getting to know us, instead of a glass of wine, the waitress brought us a bottle each! We sat with Ronald MacDonald, his nickname. He was German and deaf but he was excellent at lip reading English.
This was followed by “Showtime”, excellent Turkish dancers and then of course everyone doing Turkish dancing. A good night.
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Thought for the Day “After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.” ~ Kenneth Grahame
We went to bed at 2.00am after unpacking. Much to our delight when we woke at 7, the sun was shining. Down to breakfast and the choice was amazing. Everything you could possibly want. I had fresh fruit salad and eggs Benedictine. We even had an accordian player to serenade us while we ate breakfast. The pictures of food is just breakfast!
Our room is on the third floor and it is obvious that they are refurbishing the second floor as there were new mattresses everywhere in the corridors. The hotel is spotlessly clean, even down to the high chair trays being covered in cling film after they had been cleaned. We went for a long walk along the beach. What a contrast, the Med with the snow capped mountains in the distance.
We sat out in the sun in the afternoon and chatted to some more people.
It was International night in the restaurant, masses of choice yet again. We were a little tired after our late night the previous night!
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Thought of the Day –A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.
~ John B. Priestly
A short walk with Rosie and then down to get Cyprus Today see link.
Interesting articles about North Cyprus Airlines, I quote from the article “The message for people is ‘help us with our new airline’. ” I thought this was a business and anyway, did CTA help us with our 6 tickets last year to bring the grandchildren over? Four children who had no idea whether they would even have their months holiday with us! Stranded I think is the word with no one caring a jot.
Another article about the snow this week – 7cms on the top of Five Finger Mountains. “The cold snap, brought on after westerly winds from the mainland, is set to end tomorrow with temperatures expected to climb to 23 deg C.” Yeah!!!!
552 tons of citrus fruit are rotting in Gazi Magusa because of the custom officers ban on overtime! Is that where they all went? Obviously the reason they had no fresh orange in Veni Vici on Thursday evening!
We took Rosie over to Lena’s kennels and then finished our packing for Antalya.
Chris kindly gave us a lift to the airport for us to fly for Mal’s birthday treat to Antalya. Again we are staying at Lara Beach, this time at Sherwood Breezes, a hotel we haven’t tried before. It was so cheap through hotels4u that we couldn’t resist even though we said we wouldn’t do all inclusive again!
We arrived at Antalya airport but our transfer didn’t! We stood around in the cold until another kind rep asked us who we were waiting for. He also rang the company (transfers4u). They had no record of our booking…a good start. They said they would be with us in 20 minutes. Yes, they arrived but it was longer than 20 minutes and we got cold! When he did arrive we went to Sherwood Breezes. First impressions were very good, I could see the smile spread on Mal’s face when we were told that there was 24 hours food and drink. Straight to the bar, we didn’t even unpack. I don’t think we have ever stayed at a friendlier hotel. Within half an hour we were on first name terms with the barman and had met quite a lot of people, all different nationalities. German, Dutch, New Zealand and a couple of Brits. There was also a very good band playing. By midnight we were a bit hungry and so went into the restaurant where there was still quite a selection in spite of the time. The food was good, the cocktails not quite as good but that often happens in all inclusive when they use the revolting syrupy stuff in them. Beer is Tuborg, no Efes. We also have a mini bar in the room, a large bottle of water, two fruit juices, 2 yedigan, 2 cokes and two beers. This is refilled every day.
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Thought for the Day – “When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” ~ Dom Helder Camara
Another cold day. Well, by our standards it was! The log burner was on all day and the house was lovely and warm. I did manage to get out and do a bit of weeding in the garden. Rosie is rebelling and because of her restricted walks decides she will cause mayhem indoors by emptying her toy box and throwing them all over the living room. She is also totally unimpressed with her new ‘diet’. I keep telling myself it is for her own good. Mal spent most of the day sorting out and backing up our thousands of photos. Some very interesting ones of when we bought the land and different stages of the build and it brought it back just how exciting it was……..of course until we discovered our builder had made a huge error with our drive and parts of “our land”, were not actually ours!
In the evening we watched Jamie’s Dream School. It took Mal back to his teaching days!
Thought for the Day -“We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.” ~ Louisa May Alcott