Blue Lagoon at Olu Deniz, Turkey

Hello everyone

I’m back from the most wonderful week in Olu Deniz in Turkey. I landed back in the UK at 4.20am yesterday and was greeted by the rain and cold

This is the third time that Mr Whisperer and I have been to this area of Turkey as we have always had such a great time there. Guaranteed sun, great food (and lots of it!), beautiful scenery and amazing places to explore.

The Intrepid Explorers

Whenever we go on holiday we like to go off exploring and finding new places. We have already explored a lot of the coast around Olu Deniz on previous holidays when we hired cars so this time we decided to hire quad bikes and head to the hills.

The mean machine

It was the BEST thing we did – it’s the most amazing feeling to feel the wind rushing by as we hared down country roads surrounded by pine forrests and views of the coast. We found some secluded beaches where we stopped for a drink and a couple of hours of reading and swimming in the sea before getting back on the bike and seeing where we would end up next.

Tucked away and a wonderful respite

We visited a village called Kayakoy which is now a ghost town of about 500 houses on a hillside. It was inhabited by Greeks until the population exchange after the Greco-Turkish war, when in 1922 the entire population fled and the village has remained abandonded ever since. It’s so eery to see all these hundreds of houses and churches and imagine how this was once a thriving community of people living and trading. Along the main road, a handful of restaurants and cafes and the odd hotel has sprung up to cater for tourists but it still keeps its quiet and peaceful ambiance and made a lovely stop off for us on our quad tour.

Kayakoy, the ghost town

And of course, what is a holiday without books? I managed to get through four books (either round the hotel pool or on our little stops along the way).

Chilling with my book on a pit stop at a beach

  One week, four books

I love reading on holiday – OK, I love reading anytime but there is nothing like lying round a pool with the sun beating down, only laying my book down to dive into the pool or take a cheeky snooze. Bliss.

The books I read were:

Faithful Place by Tana French

The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson

Pictures of Lily by Paige Toon

Daddy's Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark

Reviews for all four will be coming up shortly.

  Mr Whisperer reads…

Miracle of all miracles has happended….Mr Whisperer read two books this holiday!

 Who is this man and what has he done with my husband?

I persuaded him that he would enjoy The Hunger Games series and I was right. He ripped through the first two books and loved them. I had to laugh several times when I heard the the famous words “just let me finish this chapter…” as that is one of my own catch phrases. In fact, several times when I was trying to get his attention and I was met by a zombie-like stare made me feel like I was looking in a mirror.

Mr Whisperer will be making his debut on my blog in the coming weeks when he writes his very own reviews of The Hunger Games series. I can’t wait to see what he writes as we enjoyed some really good conversations about books and styles and plot etc when he was reading these, and he noticed some things that I didn’t which I found really interesting.

  Back to reality

I hope you have all had great weeks and read some good books. I will by stopping by your blogs when I can in the next week to catch up

In the meantime, here is a picture of what the sky looks like where I am today

Rain, drizzle and grey skies