Sunday, August 31, 2014

Dalaman, Dalyan, and the first day in Turkey

We finally made it to Turkey for the official honeymoon, just us and adventures galore.  We had a hotel in Dalaman, a town that has the regional international airport, a starting place for many regional tours, but not much going on in itself.  The tour book we stole from Dasa didn't really even mention it.  Amazing farmland with pomegranates and citrus galore.  And stunning surrounding hillsides.  It also had the advantage of being smack in the middle of all the places we wanted to go.


On the first day, we didn't really get unloaded and into our rental car until early afternoon so we just explored the local area.  

Sarigerme Beach 
(the spelling is wrong, but my keyboard doesn't have the dot less i vowel)
The beach was a little too resort with the pay by the hour beach chairs, but it's the Mediterranean

A small pomegranate orchard

We were driving on tiny local roads, with the sun setting and man oh man was it pretty


Sulungur Golu

Isn't it just pretty?

Dalyan for dinner.  This town was more of a tourist place.  Beautiful location and amazing old tombs across the river.

Honeymoon!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Czech Wedding

So we drug our wedding getup across Europe so we could have a little wedding with Dasa and my other Czech friends since they could not come to the Washington version.  Little did I realize how much effort Dasa and Jarka would put in.  They made it a really magical day.

Jarka's sister Jana brought her harp and so we had music.  

romantic music even

Honza took over the camera and became our photographer.  This pic may be a little washed out, but it's one of the few with Honza in it.  His wife Monica and their little one too, along with Jarka and Hugo

Lada wan't sure about me in the dress

this guy actually pushed us aside so he could get a picture of Jana

Hugo was a bit bored in the beginning, poor guy

We were one of about 5 weddings on the castle grounds in the hour we spent up there.  As much fun as this was, I'm glad my official wedding was a little more original.

This is my favorite of them, because they had cool hats

Some us at a castle pics



Jordan is obviously the better photographer with better equipment etc, but I have to say, Eric and I are definitely more relaxed in these pics...

You might never guess that Lada here is a high volume wild child (adorably so)

Jarka made a lot of the food for the picnic, including the traditional poppyseed cakes

Hugo, guarding the food

Dasa went above and beyond, I had a bouquet, music, food, then she set up a farmhouse hotel for all of us to continue the party in. I could not have asked for a better European Maid of Honor.

It din't rain on us amazingly, but the ground was too wet for a blanket picnic, so we took over benches

Marzipan miskas! (mice)

the traditional poppyseed cakes

Monica and Jenik

Dasa, who may hate all pictures of herself, bit is one of the most beautiful women I know

A picture of Eric where he actually looks as handsome as he is, gasp!

Hugo was so cute with Jenik

And Jenik was hilarious to watch.  He moved around in a partially controlled fall at all times.  So hard not to try to catch him all the time, but he would just get up and keep tilting away

My hubby

Hugo the ham

the Czech wedding party

Hugo gets credit for this adorable picture of Honza's family

a bit of a fairy tale wedding, no?


After the picnic, we packed up and went to our farmhouse retreat.  On the way we stopped at the old mill that has been in the innkeeper's family for generations

The pathway was made of old millstones

The transmission for the mill

A french millstone

And yes, I was still in my wedding dress.  It was cold in there though!

Honza played translator, not totally faithfully.  Lots of political additions, but it was fun

It was a very well preserved old mill
These are 19th century grinders.  


Flour sorter

Jenik exploring the mill yard

The rain started up pretty seriously after the tour.  August anyone?
We all eventually collected at our farmhouse

Lada and her balloon

Dinner was amazing, and very regionally traditional 
The fish soup was very good.  I had a hard time with the bones, but that's because I am a wimp

Then carp, a South Bohemian specialty.  I must admit this was very good.  I'm actually a little disappointed in how the picture doesn't do it justice.  So succulent.  More bones though, lots of them. The Czechs are really good at removing them.  I almost got one stuck across my throat, and Eric may have pierced his tongue, ineptitude? 

The sun came out for a bit while the next course was being prepared (yes, there's more) so we went hunting for mushrooms

so many apples on this farm by the way, yummy

Hugo's ready

The weather may have been cold, but it made for an amazing evening


Hugo was the official mushroom hunter

Now dinner number 2, I mean next course.  This trout was arguably the best Eric and I have ever had.  These people knew how to cook fish!

Then, as if we hadn't had enough, they fried up our mushrooms from before.  And they were so good I ate two!

Sunset

The waterman protecting his ponds

Mist rolling in

After dark we moved inside, where the juggling commenced.  Jarka and Monica had a pretty good thing going here.

Dasa does take a good picture if she doesn't know it's happening! ha

the farm dog was the beautiful Regina.  So sweet!

We fed the goats apples.  The pig bit Hugo's finger, but not bad. The ferret wanted out, but the guinea pigs didn't care.  all in all, quite the farm morning.

And that was our Czech wedding.  On to the real honeymoon!