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Bodrum

District 6060-Missouri with District 2440-Southwestern Turkey

Bodrum Wednesday, May 20, 2009 We said our goodbyes at the Hello Café in Fethiye and set out for our next town. This was our longest car ride and many of us were looking forward to the opportunity to get some rest. However the scenery was too beautiful to permit sleep, not to mention that the road was a bit curvy as well, which made it difficult to get situated. We arrived in Bodrum just in time for lunch and cai. All of our host families came to Café Cafen to greet us. After lunch some of the hosts had to return to work and some of them went with us to the Bodrum Harbor and the shipyard. As we pulled up to the Aganlar boatyard a large dog with a collar made from glass evil eye beads sniffed each of us and then sat next to his owner. The dog’s owner was Edrem Agan, the second-generation owner, along with his brothers, of Aganlar and an incredible yacht designer. Edrem gave us a fantastic tour of the boatyard and explained how yachts are built. One project that Edrem is quite proud of, and rightfully so, is his design and the construction of an aluminum sail boat. Unlike traditional wooden sailboats, the aluminum boat is built from the deck down. Once finished the boat will have to be turned over using a complicated machine that will collapse into itself . This is no easy task, but Edrem said he is up to the challenge and excited to see the project though. The stages of his project can be followed at www.aganlar.com Because we had such a long car ride our host families gave us the night off to spend time with them and to relax. It was great to go home with our families and have a home cooked meal. One thing that we can all agree upon is that Turkey has great food and our families are some of the best cooks in the country. Nikki and Cindy were treated to dinner with the mayor of Bodrum. Thursday, May 21, 2009 We have been so blessed with great weather these past two weeks that it was about time that we spent a day in the rain. Our morning started off beautiful and dry, but by mid-afternoon the downpour hit us and hit us hard. During the dry part of our day we visited the Bodrum Institute of Nautical Archaeology. Fortunately for us we had an “insider’s” tour thanks to the fact that Ted’s host father, Feyyaz Subay, is curator there. Following the museum we did some shopping at a little mall and then went to lunch at a Marina bistro.  The restaurant had a view of the Bodrum Castle, which was our next stop.  We received the VIP tour and saw not only the castle but also the work that the archeologists were doing.   It is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle that has only one color.  We all decided that we would last about 5 minutes in a job such as this before we went crazy. Friday, May 22, 2009 We joined the District Rotary Conference today and gave our presentation.  The hotel was beautiful and it was so good to see our old friends and host families. We had dinner that evening with our host families and returned to the conference beach party. Of course no trip to Bodrum would be complete without a visit to one of the largest nightclubs in the world. Halikarnas is a little bit of Vegas, a little bit of New York and a bit of Amsterdam all rolled into one huge, marble-columned, and foam filled good time. We arrived and immediately began dancing.  After a while, we realized it was foam party night.  Imagine dancing in Palmolive dish soap to your neck.  We had more fun sliding and dancing in foam than anyone should be allowed to have.  Hours later and soaking we with water and soap, we left the club trailing soap behind us.  Literally.  Saturday May 23 Saturday we spent all day at the conference watching presentations and resting on the beach.  We got to see District 2440’s presentation of their St. Louis exchange.  That night we had the gala dinner, complete with dancing and a Turkish band.