Turkey For Thanksgiving

The inclusion of Turkey in our travels was mainly so that Nat could spend time with her family. She has not been able to see them for over six years which was the last time we were in Turkey together. The political situation in Belarus is not great and makes travel to and from there very difficult. This time we chose to stay in the seaside town of Alanya in the Antalya region. 

The first five days we stayed at the apartment of one of my mother’s friends while we prepared for Natalies Mom, Dad, and two sisters to arrive. We found a good supermarket, explored the waterfront, planned our driving routes, and squeezed in beach time as well as Mia, Sophia, and Nat’s first ever scuba dive. 

The day Nat’s families plane landed, we all moved into a beautiful villa positioned in the hills above Alanya. It had a swimming pool, beautiful ocean views, and room for all nine of us to stay comfortably. Taking their suitcases into the house I couldn’t figure out why they were so heavy for a ten day stay, I soon realized that it was because they were filled with cakes and booze, bread and salami, chocolate and assorted gifts for their Canadian family.

To say my Russian is poor would be very generous so Natalie was our translator, while her sisters helped some with their English. We all had a great time together. We shopped and cooked, spent many days on the beach, rented a yacht, and toured the castle and local caves. It was nice seeing Nat so happy.

The day her family finally packed up and left for the airport was a very hard day for Natallie. She is still not sure when she will see them again. Our last few days at the villa without them were sombre as we closed out this portion of our trip and prepared for our next one. I think she was lucky that our next adventure was Africa. She was so worried about  all the possible disasters and misfortunes that could befall us that she didn’t have a lot of time to be sad or dwell on how hard it is to have people you love live so very far away.