One of the main motivations for this vacation was my dream of a Turkish Blue Cruise, soaking up the sun on a sailboat and swimming in the warm waters of the Mediterransean Sea. If you google it, you’ll see photos of wooden boats, turquoise coves, and ancient ruins. To get to the meeting point for our blue cruise, Gabriel and I took the ferry from Rhodes, Greece to Marmaris, Turkey.
The border crossing seemed a bit sketchy at first. Since alcohol cannot be transported into Turkey, we saw several passengers not so stealthily trying to “smuggle” some bottles back. I watched my bag pretty closely for fear of landing in a Turkish prison. Not to worry, the actual border entry seemed pretty lax and we were in with no problems after showing our passports to an entry guard.
Once in the port, our AirBnB was only about a mile down the road. Since public transportation was not immediatly obvious, we decided to walk. As we were walking out of the port, a man on a moped stopped to see if we needed help. He told us he would give us a ride if he had a car. We thanked him and showed him the GPS on our phone; it wasn’t far to walk.
We were met at the surprisingly modern apartment by a middle aged Russian woman who spoke English fairly well. She showed us around and told us she’d be at a friend’s close by if we needed anything. She left a basket of fruit and some sweets if we were hungry.
After settling in and showering, we walked over to the marina for some food. In the dark, strange, foreign country our first impression was not so great because the restaurants all had hawkers on the street trying to get you to come in. It felt like Tiajuana in some ways. We finally found a place to eat and we were led up to the third floor rooftop via some narrow, rickety stairs. We enjoyed a view of the city while we ate traditional mezze. Unfortunately for our waiter, we weren’t sure how to tip and realized later that the small tip we did leave would have been insulting.
Finding the Boat
When it was time to find the boat for our cruise, we quickly learned how disorganized Turkish businesses are run. Thankfully, our Russian host offered to make multiple phone calls for us and then offered to drive us to the spot on the port.
Once we did find the boat company, there was confusion about cash deposits which resulted in multiple trips to the ATM. I almost lost Gabe, but we eventually sorted it out and found our boat.
Newport Meets Tiajuana
We wandered the marina for the rest of the day until it was time to depart. In the daylight, the area was much more akin to Newport Beach—rich yachts parked at the marina and well-to-do owners lounged in waterfront restaurants or shopped in the bazars. Seems the initial impression of Marmaris was pretty undeserved.
Generosity and Turkish Dolma
At one of the restaurants we visited, I asked our waitress about the grape leaves that a woman was folding in the back. She told us her mother was making stuffed grape leaves and we could come back later to try them if we wanted. When we returned, she surprised us with Turkish dolma consisting of stuffed grape leaves, zucchini flowers, and onions. When we tried to pay, she refused saying the items weren’t on the menu, it was something just her family was eating.
Cruising with Beer-Loving Germans
When we arrived back at the boat, we found half a dozen Germans relaxing and drinking lots of beer in the large cushions in the back. Seems like our cruise would be a party boat!