TURKEY - A complete different angle

It was the perfect time to take some vacations... an exotic new place to discover and my DESPERATE need for sun took me to Egypt as a first election, ending in Turkey as the final destination.... Everything was perfect! the city; Antalya, the hotel; Golden Coast*****, the excursion plan including from visit to ruins, to the most famous product factories, etc. Arriving at the airport, I realized that the 99% of the people going to the hotel were no younger than 50 years old and that all I was listening around was dutch. Yes, Dames en Heren (ladies and gentleman) it was a tour for old dutch people. And us.
The only image I had from Turkey was the one from the immigrants living in Rotterdam, not always the most gentle and educated people. The small foreign communities not integrated into the dutch society said a lot about the way dutch people also perceive them in general.

The tour was basically run by Turkish people who had lived in The Netherlands some period of their life; therefore, speak perfect dutch and know how old dutch people are and what delight them; and will pay for... We visited quite some big tuskish business; big exporters of leather, jewellery and carpets, being welcomed by their corresponded turkish managers (and even employees) who not only were perfectly educated and charming but also spoke english, dutch, and german. As the manager of the turkish carpet factory said "Here we have taken the best turkish people that lived in The Netherlands" which pretty much confirmed that unfortunately the bad assumptions of tuskish people here are based on the most visible group which doesn't represent all of them.

The pure warm air with taste of sea surrounded by nature and hidden rest of the greek ruins as Perge took my complete attention. Turkish seemed to discover recently the valuable beauty of them, starting recoveries and excavations just some years ago.

The different types of mesquites and the explanation from a dutch old man of the Islam interpretations in the last years was simply interesting!

The last days in the sea of Antalya and leaving myself to the sun together with my already toasted (or pink) boyfriend, next to hundreds of topless old dutch and german grandmas and grandpas was unbelievable!!
Definitely a great experience!

Others discoveries from Turkey

"My boyfriend in all angles"

Typical quotes "Hello, Turkish Madame" " Excuse me, are you Pakistani or Indian?" " I thought you were italian"
I am scared to camels!

Meeting old friends

After four years , I met my old dutch friends, friends from the time I was discovering the world and the beauty of the self responsibility and independence. Because of my exchange to the Netherlands in 2002 I learnt that things can be different to what is expected and the challenges to take are drafted by you. The reason why I loved the Netherlands and value the culture is because of my 3 unforgetable months in Groningen. I laughed, I cried and after three years I met the people I spent those days with.

Thinking about friendship and the really meaningful people I've met throughout my years in AIESEC, I realized that I certainly value the strong connection with that people from which I discovered a new world, those authentic individuals who I found very valuable to be close to, maybe not in distance, but definitely in memories. Today, I got this message sent by a friend which says like this "sometimes we touch people's life in such a subtle way that we leave a mark in them forever", I definitely have a mark of any of those meaningful people.

Here some of my friends (the ones I got the pics from) ... and much more which are missing; Guiliana, Gino, Claudia, Jessy...

Sharing some beers, parties, success and emotions, work, honesty, laughs, tears, wealth, poverty, vitality, humbleness, randomness.... etc.