It was 1983 when I first arrived in Bodrum for a sailing holiday.  I had been working in London for a non-profit with teenagers from the inner city. We flew into to Izmir, a military airport, where we were thoroughly searched before climbing aboard a rickety bus and traveling south for an endless five hours without air-conditioning in high summer.  It used to be work to get here.  Foreigners who came to Turkey then were highly motivated travelers, in search of eastern culture, atmosphere, food, and  music.

Three years later, I heard there was a summer job as a holiday representative available. I jumped at it.  Everything then was exotic and charming - even if the power did get cut off on a regular basis. 

And there was the attention factor. As a blonde, I stood out. I returned to London when my summer job ended, but I was back the following year. I fell in love and married a Turk. 

It didn’t take long to learn that values about marital commitment are different here. Don’t get me wrong. Turkish men have charm by the gallon. However,  women outnumber men seven to one, not including foreign females like me who have moved here to live on the edge of the Aegean Sea. When my Turkish marriage ended, my ex-husband tried to convince me that I should leave the country.  I was hell bent on staying and did.

Twenty years later, there have been major changes in Bodrum. A local airport opened nine years ago, and that more than anything opened the floodgates for a foreign invasion of holiday makers.  Like me, many of those tourists decided to purchase homes here. Today there are 700 more real estate agents in Bodrum than there were fifteen years ago.
 Bodrum residents used to be fond of saying that they would never become another South of Spain – overbuilt, and a charm less package tourist destination. Today the white box houses creep ever higher up the hillsides like so many Lego blocks, replacing olive groves, wild oleander bushes, and wild oregano. 

Red tape and bureaucracy loom large in our lives -Turks seem to take it for granted that time is consumed by endless paperwork for everything, including applying for residency. 

There are of course, positive aspects that come with growth and change. For instance, it is far more convenient today to find the things we need and want to buy. The days of loading up baggage in London with booty to bring back to Turkey  are long gone.  Bathroom shops line our streets alongside  home improvement outlets... two Marks and Spencers make there home here now. Even the British supermarket chain, Tesco has claimed a place in this Turkish resort town. 

You can’t argue with excellent health care. Two private hospitals compete to offer the utmost in European style health care.

And so, in spite of the throngs of tourists that flock to our seaside town each summer, the sun and the Aegean Sea continue to mesmerize.  My neighbours, landlady, and her family are simple and honest, and genuinely concerned for my welfare.  And so I think I’ll stay.

This morning: Lush almond blossoms weigh down the boughs outside my bedroom window, evidence that spring is around the corner. Summer will follow with its hot breezes, the classic Turkish gullets sailing majestically in and out of our harbor. And the tourists will arrive.

No matter. Because I have a garden, my haven, where I go to count my blessings.