Dressed in fleeces we awaited the arrival of our Airport Transfer to take us to Cardiff Airport. On time he arrived and off we set. 50 minutes later we arrived at Cardiff Airport on Friday 3rd October, it was so cold I thought there was snow on the way.
Flight left on time and we were soon arriving at Dalaman Airport - it felt so good to step off the plane and feel the warmth. Suitcases arrived very quickly and off we went to look for our ICR transfer. There was nobody at the first ICR sign so I went off down the ramp in search for the driver, but found nobody there either. I called the number on the board and spoke to a driver from ICR who informed me he was down the ramp waiting for us. We headed down the ramp again and soon found him.
On our way to Icmeler, the driver pulled over to a roadside bar and I thought he was getting us some water, as we had not had a drink. Only to be told that we needed to change vehicles. I would have been a bit worried at this point had I been on my own. We got into a car, which made a lot of rattling on the way to Icmeler.
Soon arrived at Vince's and dumped the cases in the bedroom and headed for the bar. Saw Shaz and said our hello's then we had our first glass of Efes - pure luxury. Soon afterwards Wendy came over and introduced herself and that was that, our drinking partner for the next few hours - ermmm, well 3:40am we all headed to our rooms to be exact Just after Midnight Colette arrived from her evening at Havana bar and it was great to meet Colette too.
We woke up the following morning to Sunshine and that continued through-out the whole fortnight, except for some cloudy skies on the boat trip Oct 5th and the Wed before we came home. We were really lucky with the weather.
I felt a little disappointed at Demircioglu apartments this year as far as the cleaner was concerned, as she was not half as good as the woman who was there last year. When I spoke to Vince about it, he told me that she had been fired and that the reception guys were now doing the cleaning for the remainder of the season.
We ate in a lot of the usual places this holiday, but the new places we visited for dinner was Robin Hood (old village) very nice meal and good prices, and also Kingsland Chinese, where we had 2 lovely meals.
We visited Marmaris Castle and the highlight from there was meeting the old lady outside. I dont know what it was about her, but I felt really sad when I was talking to her. What a lovely woman she is.
Out friend Ahmet arrived on the Saturday evening in good time for the boat trip on the Sunday. This was a great laugh. He really didnt want to wear a coconut bra, but I am kind of forceful. I dont know how I managed to carry 3 glasses of lager up the stairs to the sun-beds without spilling a drop We soon got up to dance to the Cha Cha slide, which was a different version, to the left, to the left, to the left......and on and on and on. Very funny. Funniest thing was when Zaza showed us the photo's later on in the week that John had posted - Poor Ahmet was cringing that he was on show with all his lovely Hawaiin clothes.
We did 1 jeep safari through the holiday and as usual, there was one miserable German family on the other jeep - yeah, guess who was the target for all the water that day Thats our third jeep safari and we still loved it.
Phill had a dodgy stomach around day 4-6 and we had an early night I think on the Tuesday. Just what the Doctor ordered.
All too soon the holiday was coming to an end, but in all honesty, I was ready for home on day 12.
ICR transfers arrived on time on the Friday night to take us to the Airport. The transfer was much nicer than the one we had on our arrival. Our Cardiff flight was showing a 1 hour delay as we arrived at the airport, and it actually left 1 and a half hours late. We arrived at Cardiff Airport just prior to 2am on the Friday night / Saturday morning, and I think our cases were the last 2 off. We soon found our Transfer for home and were soon on our way. I slept most of the way home.
Forgot to add, we actually paid for the meals on the flight for this holiday and when the young girl woke me up to give me my meal, I was thinking, wish you hadnt bothered. Cheese and branston sandwich, felt a little stale, small chocolate pud and 2 chocolate sweets. I think I will give the meal a miss on the next holiday.
Overall, we had a great holiday and it was really good to see Ahmet, our Turkish friend once again for a few days. I will be back to Icmeler next year again, but we are thinking maybe only 1 holiday in Icmeler for us next year, and perhaps we will try another Turkish destination for the other 2 week holiday.
On checking our Nationwide statement when we were home, we were getting approximately 2.5 exchange rate, even though the rate was approximately 2.3 in resort.