acemi is abroad

I went to Turkey for first 2 weeks of June for holiday to see family, friends and enjoy the sun. 2 weeks might sound like enough but it was short as I tried to catch up with some different groups of friends and went to the sea side for one week. I booked a very cheap hotel in Fethiye and was off without any expectation and unfortunately alone.

The hotel was somewhere between Fethiye and Ölüdeniz which literally means dead sea because it is not wavy at all. It is the only lagoon in Turkey I read somewhere. I knew that it was a perfect place to do paragliding but I didn't really consider flying before I arrive there.

You see me on the left hand side with my pilot as doing tandem paragliding, just before landing. It was the most relaxing thing I have ever done, there is no sound other than wind and I didn't feel like falling down at all. It is difficult to express how I felt but I can say that it was peaceful.

Another nice thing about the trip was to find a restaurant that I remember seeing 15 years ago. It is beautifully decorated with fishes (real one in nice vivaries and paintings, etc.) and it had all my attention as a little girl. When I saw it again on the beach as looking for a restaurant to have lunch I felt very happy, because I could actually sit there, enjoy the comfortable seats and good food. I hope I can have such a moment 15 years later on earth somewhere again.

Karaoke is not a german invention but my first karaoke experience was in Cologne last night. Alex, thank you for the invitation, I enjoyed it very much

Carnival was the most interesting event I've ever experienced in Germany. It was a kind of culture shock for me. I saw the craziness of german people, I was suprised and impressed at the same time. Nobody joined the carnival parties or parades was behaving in their normal attitude. I talked to german people in pubs, restaurants or on streets who I didn't know and wouldn't see again and that doesn't happen so often. (By the way it was very jolly to hear compliments about my costume, hair and even my eyes )During the carnival I became a witch (I made myself up to look uglier for the first time in my life ), partied at the office building, I had litres of beer, walked in a parade, got flamed on my hair (luckily my friends realised it and my hair didn't burn much), tried to catch chocolates... I enjoyed these four days very much. Although it was so fantastic I couldn't publish carnival stories because firstly I didn't have time, my calender is quite full lately and secondly I don't feel good, I'm kind of broken.

My carnival celebrations started at the office with a breakfast (incl. beer). All my colleagues were in costumes like I was. To have beer at the breakfast is another thing I've done for the first time in my life. (Everything was for the first time for me, except drinking beer at night ) The party at the post tower started at 11.11 but I could arrive there by noon. The party was a lot of fun and almost all the employies were in costumes. Have you ever seen your boss or department manager in a funny costume, well I did

At 7 pm I was about to fall a sleep, because of sleeping very little at night and drinking lots of beer (I bought just 2 cups of beer actually ) After sleeping 12 hours I was ready for the next party in Cologne!

A friend of mine came to visit me (or just to see the carnival ) from Mannheim. The poor (!) girl had to take off with me and two turkish trainees to Cologne just after the dinner. I absolutely don't know any good/popular pubs in Cologne like noone in the group do and we decided to ask any person on the street. (I don't like to ask questions to people I don't know, but yeah I saved the night ) We followed some young ladies until Heumarkt and found a street full with pubs, had some beer on the street (and it's cold in February at 12 at night). We could get in a pub and danced, did funny stuff, had a lot of fun... (I hope I don't embarras the guys on the right photo below!)


Saturday evening we went to Cologne again and joined to the alternative parade which is called 'Ghost Parade (Geisterzug)'. It was crazy!!!


Even girls could pee as they were standing

The fun went on at the subway station, dancing whole night... Dancing in the train wasn't posible because we were like sardines in a can, but it didn't stop people singing!

















It took totally 3 hours to arrive home but at least we could!

On Sunday we had another celebration, the chinese new year! Trainees with chinese origin cooked delicious chinese food for us but unfortunately I missed some food. For the rest it was a quite day.

Monday was the last boom day for carnival and we went to Cologne to see the 'Rosenmontagzug' and catch some candies. I wasn't much successful but I enjoyed some Haribos and even got a beatiful flower from my very kind salsa partner




















After carnival I had the traditional Matjes Herring for lunch with an apple-onion-yoghurt-mayonnaise sauce and boiled patatoes, perfect after boozing my colleagues told me. (I'm going to upload the photo here when I get it from my boss)



From all those litres of alcohol and parties I gained better contacts with my colleagues and AIESEC trainees, this is the lesson of the story

Yesterday I went to opera for the first time in my life. I enjoyed it very much, although I didn't understand the lines. Luckily my colleague saw the work 15 times before, he explained me the story. For us it was another story to be able to get in, because we didn't have tickets and they all were sold out. Fortunately (!) some students were sick and we could buy their tickets from the teacher for 6€! We finished the night having couple of beers in several pubs

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Today I wanted to take a city tour in an open top bus but again all the tickets were sold out. Apparentely I got to make a reservation earlier for everything. Instead of the city tour I went to Christmas market and shopping. This is my purchase from the Christmas market and my first Christmas decoration item in my life.