Halloween - Turkey Style

Sunday, October 31 was quite an eventful day for me. 

I woke up at what I thought was 5:30am but was actually 4:30am because we set out clocks back an hour in order to attend Bryan’s Halloween Housewarming party which was in full swing back at home (10:30pm on Oct. 30th).  I got up and put on my makeshift costume of being a Dr. Horrible Superfan and got on Skype.  I had a really great time getting to see everyone and listen to music and e-tending the party!   I spent a little over an hour on Skype with everyone and then slept for a couple hours and got up at 8:00am to start the day’s activities.  I managed to get some blurry photos with the webcam.

This is Bryan with his goggles over his eyes, taking me around the party and possibly dancing.

Glo taking a photo of Bryan and I.

Anil as Mario and you can barely see Mark and Janel as Ron and Hermione. 

Sherwood as Luigi having a drink for me.

I signed up for a hike that one of the other marina residents planned.  I wish I could tell you where it was, I am going to find out and post it later.  It was along a river and it begins with an S… that’s all I’ve got.  It was described on the signup sheet as a 14 kilometer (about 10 mile) hike on a trail that had some obstacles but was mostly downhill.  Good shoes, sticks, a picnic lunch and camera were on the list of things to bring.  I haven’t been hiking in about… 15 years? But I thought I’d give it a try and I’m really glad I did.  What a great work out!  For the first 2 hours we went up a road that wasn’t in the best condition due to mud slides so there was no traffic on the way up.  Once we hit the turn off we began following the red and white paint stripes on trees, fallen rocks, and anything else they could find to paint and lead the way.  We stopped for our picnic lunch and then kept trekking.  It was a little difficult, and long, but a lot of fun.  Climbing under and over fallen trees, balancing on a lot of rocks, working out way around a pile of boulders that had fallen on the original trail (but that were painted so we knew we were going the right way) and balancing on rocks over the cold stream that would be a full river once the rainy season hits.  I of course took my point and shoot camera.

Along the road are bee farms like this one.  We walked by at a distance. 

To all of the people in Florida, these are what mountains look like!  I haven’t been in the mountains in ages so I kept stopping and going “Wow! We don’t have this in Florida”.

There were all different kinds of rocks that we saw and the colors of the trees was just starting to change.  Again something else we don’t experience back home.

I’ve taken so many photos looking up at Greek and Roman columns that I thought this would be a nice change of pace for the blog.

You can see the trail of hikers we had.  Right behind me with the sticks is Janet who is from America, but has an English accent.  Behind her is Ellen, from Norway who I have talked about before, and behind her is Bill a lawyer from San Francisco who I walked with quite a bit talking about random things.

One of the obstacles along the way.  It was pretty easy to go under, we just had to mind our backpacks.  Going under is a French gentleman that I failed to actually meet.

Bill took this for me at one of the resting points.  We were waiting for the rest of the group to catch up and this was an incredible cliff, which you can’t see in the picture, but the view is nice isn’t it?

The marker that says, “Yes I understand the trail is missing in front of you and replaced by a crevice, but you are still going the right way!”

Right now it is a simple babbling brook with ice cold water, but after the rainy season this fills up a bit more and is considered a river.

Zen. There were piles of rocks like these next to a lot of the markers.  I just thought it made for a pretty picture.

Me hanging out with the rocks.  I thought it made for a cool background.

After the hike, which took a bit longer than everyone anticipated, it was time for the Halloween Party.  Now there is only a small handful of Americans at the marina, but last year when there were a lot more they really continued the tradition of having a Halloween party.  Dad and I got here too late to really find costumes so inspired by all of the Greek and Roman influence of the past two months, we stripped our beds and wore makeshift togas.  We were shocked when we got to the Navigator and people had full out costumes, and the place was decorated to the nines in Halloween decorations.  A lasagna, with Thyme in it which was… interesting, was served with a pumpkin gelatin type of dessert.  There was dancing and thanks to Jerry, another American sitting across from us, overflowing glasses of wine the entire meal.   It was really dark inside and I had my point and shoot which does terrible in dark situations so the photos that I did get aren’t that great.

This is a good view of the decorations. The witch is our Canadian neighbor, Eliza and I’m not sure who the skeleton is at the end.  I think his name is Robert, and he’s the son of Wolf who led the hike… but I’m not really sure because we never met.  It’s a good photo of him though.

I wanted a photo of Dad and I in our togas.  For all of the Disney people reading this, the man who took the photo was named Jerry or Gerry… much like our very own Gerry Wood, and he put his finger on the top of the photo too!

Dad was slacking and busy talking to the people at our table so he didn’t the whole group photo of everyone dressed up, but we were able to catch Eliza and Jenny, an English woman with a boat across from ours.  Jenny provided both her own and Eliza’s costumes.  Who has space for all of that?

I don’t know this man’s name.  I danced with him for 2 songs and he went around with his accordion to serenade everyone while dinner was being served.  It was his wife’s birthday so we all got cake and he was in a particularly good mood.  If you can’t tell by his suspenders, he is Swiss and has the boat at the end of our dock, where he raises 2 ducks and a crow.

Ellen and Eliza posing for me.  They have both been a huge help since we have been here.

My table.  I like the candlelight.  I think it looks cool.

From left to right: Jerry and his wife Elaine or Ellen… they are from America, but I don’t remember where.  Then Stuart, who is English and has been in Kemer for 15 years now.  He was celebrating his 80^th birthday the night we arrived and him and Dad really hit it off.  Then my Dad.  They are all toasting a Turkish brandy that Stuart got for the men.

Stuart and I ended up dancing a couple of times and it reminded me of dancing with my Gaga.  It was a lot of fun and I think he really enjoyed it too.  Dad put his finger on the lens, it’s a Gerry Wood photo night!

Needless to say, I slept really well that night.