Monday, June 18, 2007 10:00pm

After getting picked up from the bus station and getting checked into our hostel, we got settled in for a bit. We laid back on our beds and listened to a sermon by Jeffrey Rosario about trusting God to lead our future. It was a sermon that he had preached at our graduation, and the second half of it was super inspiring. Then we headed out to poke around and find stuff.

After walking around for awhile, checking a few ATM’s to see if Ricky’s card would work, and looking in the supermarket for supper for that evening, I went into a drugstore to try to find some sunscreen. I found a couple bottles, but they were all massive. I only wanted a small one. They were also about $20 per bottle. The girl working there was trying very hard to figure out what I wanted. She knew that I didn’t like anything I was seeing, and she called for me to follow her to the counter. I did so, and she grabbed a bottle of some of the nice expensive stuff-- you know, like the kind that moisturizes and rebuilds the skin as well as protecting it. She handed it to me, and I was like “No way, this is way too expensive.” She said, “No, a gift.” It took a minute for it to sink in, so to help me she grabbed it, stuck it in a bag, handed it to me, and motioned to the door-- with a shy little smile. I was kinda startled, but I thanked her several times and walked out kinda in shock. Ricky thought it was slightly amusing.

So then we headed to find the beach. We ended up walking about 7 or 8 km in the hot and sticky Antalya climate, most of those coming along the coastline-- only, at the top of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean instead of on the beach. Finally we gave up looking for it and flagged down a “dolmus”, one of the crazy little town buses that they have in Turkey. It took us about another 15 km’s before dropping us off at the Lara Beach, a long, sandy, beautiful beach. We headed out onto the sand and walked a little ways. Then we stopped and I hopped in for a little bit. The water was nice, but it just wasn’t all I had quite expected it to be. I came back out and Ricky and I talked for awhile, trying to decide if we really wanted to stay in Turkey as long as we’d been planning. We both concluded that we wanted to do our best to find out if there was a way to move our flights up a day, then we began the trek back to the hostel.

After we’d been there for awhile, he came to me and asked me if I’d be interested in a Turkish bath at one of the local hamams, on him. I couldn’t pass up an offer like that, so we headed over to one. THAT was an experience! It started out with us stripping down and wrapping ourselves in towels, then being led into what was basically a really big sauna in a cave with a big flat stone table, where we lay and relaxed for about 15 minutes. Then the guy came back and led us into a small room with two stone shelves coming out of the wall, and a faucet running constantly into a stone bowl built into the floor. We both removed our towels, lay down on the shelves, and he started out with Ricky. He tossed a bunch of warm water all over us, then began to give Ricky a full-body friction massage. When he finished, he had us switch shelves and gave me the same. Then we switched again and he lathered Ricky all over in lots of bubbles and gave him a full-body massage for about 10 minutes, repeating the sequence on me when he had finished Ricky. After all of that, we were led out where he wrapped us in towels and sent us upstairs for apple tea, the customary Turkish drink. Man, did that ever feel GOOD! The rest of the day was mostly taken up with relaxing, bumming, and chatting with friends on MSN. :-)

Friday found us taking a bus out to some nice waterfalls after our traditional Turkish breakfast at the hostel’s restaurant. The bus took about an hour, and the waterfalls were really pretty. It was kinda weird, cuz we were basically right in the middle of town, but the waterfalls felt like we were out in the jungle somewhere. After looking at them and taking pictures, Ricky and I sat and chatted for a long time, then caught the bus back to Antalya.