A Day at the Beach (or how we found rednecks in Turkey)

I will apologize beforehand if this post is a little distasteful in its humor. I am in no way trying to make fun of Turkish people but just show that they are not that different from some people in the U.S. that I know.

Wednesday, we had to drive to the International Hospital(this is not our usual hospital) to get the twins tested for exposure to TB. Don't let this worry you: it is just part of the normal vaccination process that Turkish babies experience. The International Hospital just happens to be on the beach. Did I mention this was a very swanky part of town full of foreigners, thus the name International Hospital? After the doctor's visit, we ate at the hospital cafeteria. Normally hospital food is not that appealing, but over here it is pretty good and the view from the cafeteria was amazing. I wish that I had taken a picture. After lunch we headed to the beach for a few hours.

The Marmara Sea with its cold, clear, and pretty green water. Mark and Aivia playing in the water. If you notice in the back, the swim area is roped off because the ground dangerously drops off.

Fishing boats dock right up to the swimming area.

A. just resting on her towel. She had a great time and didn't mind the cold water!

This is what the "sand" looks like. I have only been to the Gulf Coast beaches and NC beaches so I found the mixture of coral and shells interesting.

I loved this beach because there was a green park directly behind the sand. The Turks picnic in that area and then walk down to the beach for a swim that way they don't need beach umbrellas because they can just sit under the trees.

Our time at the beach suddenly became interesting as it started reminding us of people we had seen on the Bogue Chitto River or Ross Barnett Reservoir (places in MS). I am picking on MS, but I am sure I could include other places in the U.S. with rednecks.

I think this is a sweet picture of a 5 year old girl with her grandfather.

Precious little boy wearing his underwear to go swimming. He is also in picture below.

These are the tasteful pictures that I took, but there were many other adults wearing some interesting outfits or lack of outfits.

The best part of the day though is when a five year old girl walked to the edge of the water, just three feet in front of us, dropped her "drawers", dipped her bare-skinned bottom in the water, and then used the bathroom! Then she shook her little booty a little as if to clean it off, pulled up her underwear, and walked back to the picnic area. And it was at that moment that we decided to go home! :)

I though it was interesting to see people camping on the rocky areas close to the water. Below is a shot of the inside of their tent.

And then we come to the rednecks from MS who went to the beach, parked their jogging strowler loaded with the twins under our "beach umbrella" which was really just the umbrella from our patio funiture! We also brought are chairs from our patio set.