A picture summary

All I can say is these were 2 moments captured on my trip. They descibe my feelings on this trip which is why these images jumped out.
I am now back in Atlanta for 12 more weeks. Enough time for me to enjoy Atlanta to the fullest, finish the hosting gig here---and move on to my next adventure---going back to Los Angeles.........I decided not to continue on Designed to Sell after the contract is up in October, trusting that as good as it is to have a job on t.v. --like these 2 pictures remind me-It's even better to be flying to a place that will let me blossom the brightest----trusting that the universe will provide a much better place for me to land.

Coming to the END!!!!

.....well after 10 days of pure exploration, and laughter, I felt like myself again. There were so many things I didn't even cover like the full day at a turkish bath with all of us in the same hot room in our bathing suits, being thrown onto a hot slab of stone and covered in bubbles and scrubbed down by a complete stranger---then getting a massage with 6 other people laying next to me----or the full day with a tour guide who talked on his cell phone the whole time and could not pronounce the "th" sound, so we were left in hysterics everytime he said first, second and TURD court of the palace....lets meet back here at Tree Turdy....
So many more memories, but to one must end the Turkey Blog at some point.
As you can see I look happy and refreshed, with thte sun going down next to the turkish flag.....and then the laughter after our last dinner that put the perfect end to a perfect trip.

From Mosque to mombo

Nothing like a day of touring Palaces and Mosques to get you in the mood to tie one on and dance the night away---I thought at the end of this crazy dancing night (us being the only ones on the dance floor of course) I would have come close to turning one of the guys straight, but not the case, if anything, after requesting George Micheal, and doing the jitter-bug to wake-me-up-before-you-go-go, I may have actually turned gay.

Dinners on the Turkish Sea!!

Okay the food was not very good, but most nights we ate overlooking the water and in the fishing villiage the hotel where we stayed would prepare turkish meals along the sea--and have some kind of performance----a bellydancer, some musicians.......and one night they even started these pots on fire and when we cracked them we got to eat what was inside.... but as I was about to dip into my kabob and yogurt on a plate still on fire, I thought---this looks very familiar to cooking at home.

Explore!!

One of the best things to do on a trip is explore---we only had a day left--so we woke up and a few of us just started walking-- we took a boat---then walked the cobblestone streets that lead us to markets, native americans playing music, and a bridge overlooking the ocean where to the left was Asia and to the right was Europe---- then we kept waling and literally ran into a castle that had the best view of the city!!!
We ended the day in a really quaint alley with purple and pink couches and good wine (for the FIRST TIME)
I found out the way to pronounce WINE in turkish is shuddup. As you can imagine I spent the rest of the trip giggling as I was telling bartenders to shut-up and getting a glass of wine in return....

Stop and smell the.......

well, smell anything because you don't have a choice and you especially don't have to stop to do it-----one of the things that stays with me was the SMELL--- the good and the bad.
The good was the spice market. The colors were bright, the spices were cheap, and the variety of smells were inticing--with promises of fine prepared dishes, and even a spice to keep you going for hours after dessert.
The bad was, well, just waves of B.O. and generally walking into any bathroom was enough to convince me there was another use for the burkas.

Crystal ROACH motel...

Although the hotels up to this point were pretty nice and one of them right on the water, this last hotel left an impression.
The air conditioning was "broken" and the city noise unbearable--- but not as unbearable as the heat--so we keep the window open and slept to sirens, cats screeching and horns honking.. The last day the hotel manager brought us up a fan. It said "first class" on it to remind us of the level of respect we were getting. My poor roomate Jose was miserable. He went into the bathroom to run a shower, then 3 minutes later I heard a scream---and he came out with a towel wrapped around him, and in a calm gay voice, said
"I am going to let the water run for a while, and I am NOT going to tell you why."
Apparently the water came out brown and Jose was not wanting to discuss.
This, among all the beautiful memories of the trip, was one of my favorite

Well who would have thought that after my italy tour on a bus last year, I'd find myself once again traveling in another country with a bus full of adventurers. I thought to mark the moment I would buy all my friends a keychain to take back with them......the one thing about this trip is all the laughter---as you can see I am hunched over as if in pain from laughing so hard---now I can't remember exactly at what,--I think I named a keychain after each person---and of course at this point everyone had something I could make fun of and the nick-name reflected it---or maybe it was retelling the story of the night before when one of the guys hit his head running up to our room to give my roommate a flinstone vitamin for his on-coming cold-----thats not the funny part---it was the sound he made that woke us all up because we thought a woman was having sex and screaming in ecstacy, but when we opened the door to see what it was, it was our friend on the ground moaning from hitting his head, holding up the chewable flinstone vitiman in his hand, still dedicated to handing off Barney the purple chewable vitamin for my roomy.
The kind of stuff you can't make up like this---are the best moments.....

The search for OSAMA

Well, I figure i could not go to the middle east and not at least make an effort to find OSAMA. So After checking every Starbucks and internet cafe (he HAS to drink coffee and want to check his e-mail at SOME point) I convinced our crew to rent a yaght for the day and search the seas.
About mid-day I thought I saw SOMEthing in a cave against the rocks, but it was just a wet turban. Or t-shirt. anyway, might we have just missed him? I'll never know---so the rest of the day was spent swimming, sleeping in the sun, sailing, cooking, drinking, and yes, still keeping one eye out.....

smokin the HOOKA

Lets start by saying I am not a smoker ---although I tried in Highschool, I could never get into it. One puff and I would cough for a month straight. Even after it was no longer cool, the thought of purposely putting poison in your lungs was beyond stupidity. Heck, if I wanted to commit to the idea of poison in my lungs I'll just stay in L.A. for that. This contraption was everywhere in Turkey. A Hooka. The idea is you suck in a substance that smelled like cherry, blueberry, whatever you want,and it actually would taste kinda good----if my tastebuds were in my throat. They promised it was all natural and NOT smoke. You don't get any buzz from doing it, just a pleasant fruity taste in your mouth.
Why bother? I say just eat a blueberry and call it a day. But, when in Rome.......or Turkey.....

surrounded by men!

What woman would not want to be adored and surrounded by 10 beautiful, funny affectionate men??
Maybe a woman that would want to be surrounded by 10 beautiful, funny, affectionate STRAIGHT men.
OK well I cant have EVERYTHING-3 out of 4 is pretty damn good. Besides, I would have hated to see a fight break out between these men over me.
Now that I think about it, I am probably too much for ONE straight man, but just enough for 10 gay men.
We all loved to shop, compare relationship dramas and umbrella drinks, talk about what diet works the best and most of all MY FAVORITE--listening to each others over exaggerated opinions and re-inactments of this years contestants on American Idol. Yes, I was in heaven. Besides, it was sort of a fun mission- I had 9 days to turn at least one of them straight.