(written by Dave)

Today we did almost nothing – and it was great.  We were up late, had brekkie late and went for a late morning stroll to find another coffee.  This was followed by lunch and pretty much just hanging around.  It is the first day since we left France that we didn’t ride, chase a ferry and/or pursue old things made of rock.  It was a good day.

While on our stroll, I couldn’t help myself with the camera.  I know that I’ve mentioned the Turkish evil eye previously but here in Bodrum, they seem to have taken it to an entire new level.  There are talismans protecting against an evil eye (nazars) on almost everything.  Sometimes you have to look but, look hard enough and you’ll spot one.  Thus the theme of today’s post, Where’s Waldo becomes, Where’s the nazar?  I guarantee that there is least one, sometimes many more nazars in every picture below.  See if you can’t spot them before the slide show takes you to the next photo.

I also found a fairly comprehensive write up on the whole evil eye thing.  If you want to read more about it, see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye.  I suspect that many of the talismans on display here in Bodrum are a bit “keeping up with the Joneses”.  If everyone else has a talisman against the evil eye, you have to put one up as well.  It is very touristy here and I’m sure that the competition is stiff.  If you don’t have a talisman and your competitor does, then there is a chance that customers will go there instead.  No point in taking the chance.

Some of the shops are not open yet but there is a hub of activity going on now as the shops, restaurants and cafes get ready for tourist season.  Everyone is painting or tiling, or something.  Many shops had their first day of the season either yesterday or today.  This is good news for us as we are bound to find more things open as we move around the coast, but we’ll still be early enough to have avoided the crowds and traffic.  Turkish building standards are “interesting”.  Yesterday we watched as a crew put up a new railing at a restaurant on the water.  One guy stood in waves surging over his ankles to nearly his crotch, while using an electric drill to drill holes in the sea wall – I’m not sure what would happen if he dropped the drill, it was not cordless.  Today we watched as a crew knocked down a wall.  One guy with a sledge hammer, one with a crowbar and one pushing from behind.  The wall had lots of spring and could have gone anywhere, including onto their feet (covered in tennis shoes).  At some point you have to look away – it is like watching a train crash in slow motion.  Though to be fair, we never heard any ambulance sirens so it must have worked out.

Today we also purchased our ferry tickets for Datca.  We are on the first boat this week, Tuesday.  We could have ridden there in about the same time but this way we get to see Bodrum, and have a chill day or two.  It is a short crossing (2 hours) but the sea was pretty rough today – Nancy is searching for her wristbands already.

Anyway, I’d better get back to my doing nothing.  Enjoy the talismans and think about getting one for your front door – start a trend and watch all your neighbors scramble for the evil eye nazar shop.

Breaking news – the power just went out in the entire block so perhaps that wall did fall down after all…

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