Our Adventures in Turkey: Hanging out at Club Salima

So I told you about the drive.....

The Resort Club Salima and our stay;

When we arrived we were immediately greeted by a bellman who took our bags to the villa. This facility had over 400 rooms on their property. A guest manager then gave us a tour of the property. During this tour I felt like we were being treated like royalty. I'm not sure if anyone else got a tour, but I don't want to know. I just want to live in my fantasy that we were given the red carpet treatment.

This was a really big resort with several pools, bars, restaurants, and shops. Our tummies were growling from hunger, so we went to the restaurant for lunch. It is an all-inclusive resort, so they served their food buffet style. Now realize that we are in Turkey, so they mainly served Turkish food. Even the picky kid (Sam- not calling you out, but you are the pickiest eater) was able to find noodles and a red sauce of some sort that he would eat when there was too much new food offered in the buffet. Over all the meals were good.

I have to say, I tried many different dishes; some I did not eat much and others I loved. Most Turkish appetizers are served cold. I had to get past the idea that appetizers are suppose to be hot. When I did, I found that I liked several different dishes. I really enjoyed the fresh (really fresh) fruit and veggies. They always had tomatoes and cucumbers served in several different dish styles, because that is a staple food for Turkish people to eat; along with cheese and olives.

Then came the dessert. Well, I was not a fan of the desserts. The desserts never tasted the way they looked like they should taste. Cheesecake was not anything I have ever tasted, YUK. Pudding and other desserts made from milk did not taste right to me. After the first bite, I just could not get past the strange taste so I did not eat it. I did enjoy the breads and pastries. Dessert.....not so much.

One night we ate at their Pier. This was a very special treat. The Cavaliere offered a wide variety of foods, but the main thing that appealed to us was the ability to eat on the pier/dock during sunset. Connor ordered lobster, Sam had spaghetti (the usual), and Nate had fish. I was glad that the boys (well not Sam) tried different things. I had a taste of everything and it was a relaxing beautiful evening.

The view from the Pier

It was a beautiful evening and the weather was great.

So what did we do? Well the club offers games, aerobics, plays and dancing. We usually were busy swimming in the Sea or at the pool and did not partake in the games. I tried the aerobics and we went to a couple of their plays/entertainment in the evening.

Their entertainment was different.....One night it was a performance with dancing. They put a whole production together with different dance styles and a wide variety of music. A different evening their production was some version of a dating game with quite the twist. We laughed a lot at that show.

It was during the entertainment that we learned the guests of this resort are predominantly Russian. The leader (MC)of the entertainment spoke several different languages during the production. We could tell he spoke; English (Of course), then Turkish, and finally he would speak Russian. You could tell when he changed his language, because it was a different dialect. He some times spoke Italian; again- it sounded different then the other two languages. He loved to address the audience and ask who was in the crowd. The crowd loved it when he would talk with them. When they responded you could tell that there were many Russians, some Italians, some Romanians, and a few Ukraine. It was interesting to note that there were no other Americans at the resort.

When I shopped; The shop owners usually asked where people were from. Most shop owners thought I was European or German. I was told by one shop owner that hardly any Turkish people vacation at their particular resort. That same shop owner told me that mainly Russians stay at the facility. I then tried really hard to see if I could figure out where people were from, by their appearance. Some Italians had the nose that gave them away. But it was hard to tell where people were from by their appearance alone. Usually, their language would give them away.