We had a 3-day weekend last weekend and took a quick trip to Bodrum, Turkey! Bodrum sits on a gulf that’s part of the Aegean Sea. We left Friday evening after school and flew back Monday.

We rented a house with three of our friends in a neighborhood just outside of Bodrum called Bitez. Our friends discovered the website Airbnb and used it in some of their recent travels. People can list a room or their house on Airbnb. Sometimes the owners are in the house when you’re there, sometimes not. There are places to rent all over the world! We found a house and it ended up being a lot cheaper than staying at a hostel. We loved having a place to ourselves. It had three bedrooms, a little kitchen, and a living room area. We had breakfast on the roof Saturday morning. Here was the view from our bedroom window:

And here was our morning breakfast view:

We took a dolmuş into the Bodrum city center to check out the town. The weather was gorgeous our first day – sunny and mid-60’s! There was lots to see around the port.

We toured around the castle (also known as the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology). It was a beautiful place to explore! We got there a little late in the afternoon, so we had to rush through to see as much as we could before it closed at 4:30. I’ve heard it said the cure for anything is salt water: tears, sweat, or the sea. There’s something so calming about watching and smelling the water!

There were different exhibits about underwater excavations and the history of the area.

Inside the castle gardens we saw PEACOCKS! I love peacocks. I’ve had a fascination with them every since I was little. My older brother’s high school girlfriend owned peacocks and she would bring me feathers. So pretty!

After the castle, we snacked on hamsi at one of the restaurants along the water and then headed back to Bitez. (We did a lot of eating and reading over the weekend at the house!)

While we were walking around, we saw this sign and realized we were in town the same time as the event. Oh goodness, wait till you see the pictures and hear about what we saw: