Watch Your Head: Chapter 1 "The Boat"

Chapter 1: The Boat

My boyfriend, Bryan, was able to take a week of vacation around the Thanksgiving holiday and he decided to spend it in Turkey with me which was awesome.  He arrived the night of Saturday, November 20 and was leaving very early on the morning of Friday, November 27. 

I had been thinking about his visit since he officially booked the flight and I couldn’t believe when the day actually came that he was boarding the plane and coming to visit.

Dad had ordered boat parts and we had a list going for my Mom who packed up a beautiful floral, Good Well special of a suitcase and drove to Orlando to give it to Bryan at work which was awesome.  That bag was 54lbs and he still had his things to pack too so Bryan was crossing the Atlantic as, for lack of a better term, a pack mule.  His flight went from Orlando -> Frankfort -> Dusseldorf -> Antalya and then we had to get him from the Antalya Airport to the Kemer Marina.

That was where I stepped in.  There were three options.  Option 1 was to attempt the bus route.  It would’ve been cheap, but we would’ve spent half of the night changing buses with two 50lb bags and a backpack, unsure if we were boarding the right bus or how late they ran.  So that option was out.  Option 2 was through the marina who would order a taxi for 100TL to go and pick him up at the airport… that wasn’t ruled out but we had heard about Option 3 which was Oflaz – a travel agency that also does airport transportation.  

Because of the holiday the week before we went to the one Oflaz we saw that was opened and set up for the ride.  For 90TL he had a ride, and for no additional charge I could ride along to the airport and surprise Bryan.  Deal.

I arranged for the Oflaz people to meet me at the marina at 6:00pm (or 18:00… don’t make that mistake on this side of the world!) and we both were thinking of different parking lots so that was a bit awkward.  When the unmarked car showed up and I realized it was the man’s personal car I was a bit apprehensive but got in anyway.  When we finally got going the ride was… terrifying.  It wasn’t the two men in the car with me… I felt comfortable with them… it was more the driving techniques.  The trip to Antalya is through the mountains, around sharp turns, and he was doing about 80 the entire way, weaving in and out of traffic.  It was dark so it probably felt worse than it actually was?  We didn’t talk until we had reached Antalya and then the passenger that was along for the ride began asking where I was from and couldn’t understand that even though my family is Italian or German, that I couldn’t speak those languages.  I stated I was from America and nobody there really spoke anything other than Spanish on a regular basis and he started talking about how Dallas was a very German community and he bet they spoke German there… yeah ok…

We got to the airport in one piece and before the plane even did.  The Antalya arrivals area is guarded by security so we stood outside with all of the other tour groups and taxi drivers and waited.  This seemed to be one of the longest waits ever and it didn’t help that the man kept asking about languages and babbling about different countries.  When I finally saw Bryan I could see he was looking for the Oflaz sign that I told him to look for (that the driver didn’t even have…) I called out his name and surprise!  I can’t even explain how awesome it was to finally see him.

The ride back to the boat was uneventful.  We just talked about his flights and held on for dear life. 

Dad had waited to make dinner until we got back and got all of the bags on board.  I was impressed that Bryan didn’t have any trouble navigating around the boat at night.  A natural.  The one thing that wasn’t so smooth was when he got down below… for those of you who don’t know Bryan is 6’5”.  He’s a tall guy… the boat is just tall enough for my Dad and I… I’m 5’3”… this is where the “Watch your head” theme was born for his trip.

He had to turn his shoulders to get through the passage ways… and duck. 

This was Bryan in the kitchen.  It’s my Mom’s least favorite hallway too.  If you look super close there is a white piece of tissue taped to the corner because Antony, one of my Dad’s last crew members, kept hitting his head in the same spot and had bumps and bruises on his shaved head.  Bryan hit the fruit basket there more than anything.

This is the one place Bryan could stand upright without any problems. 

Dad made delicious lamb and beef meat balls (we learned that minced meat in Turkey means ground… just so ya know) and pasta.  It was delicious. Bryan got the grand tour of the bathrooms, marina, and how to raise and lower the gang plank and he was officially here.

“Welcome to the Marina”.  This photo says it all!