A new spot each day, a new sunrise, a renewal, a promise, a beginning, shedding the old, starting anew …. Time is all we have, immortal souls we are, this is but a station.
Even in high season, when Datça is brimming with tourists, I still find empty beaches where I can sit for 2 hours, unseen, uninterrupted. A sandy beach here, a rocky slope there, and a hidden cove where I can set myself free!
However, you cannot escape people, because no matter how early you wake up there is always someone as gritty as you, surprisingly; they are always very old folks … who also happen to be one of my favorite things about Datça. It's the old generation, you would not believe how active, independent and full of life, how social and friendly. I don’t remember even being anywhere where someone does not walk up to me and talk. Two days ago I was sitting on the shore, and a 70 – 80-year-old man walking on the road crossed the whole length of the beach just to come bid me good morning: Good morning beautiful! You gotta love that. I also love that you rarely find people looking at their phones. But what both surprised and delighted me is that so many people are sitting on the beach READING A BOOK (some of them are super-hot too)! Sometimes I’m like: Datça isn’t even Turkey! Honestly, I would live in Datça solely because people are not hunched on their phones 24/7, one thing that disgusted me about Istanbul.
Every bus ride now ... all day every day!
I have written before about what a blessing it is to have a farmer’s market. In the beginning, I was thrown off by the lack of variety – first world problem – considering my personal preferences, but adaptation was easy, I am Mediterranean at the end, so switching food was no biggie; Italian, Greek, and Levantine (I keep Turkish to when eating out). And now it seems the market got all that I want. An unexpected surprise was that I discovered another market on Wednesday, smaller but just as good, and awesomely it is exactly 5 minute’s walk from where I live, I have also found there fresh, village SOUR DOUGH bread, hands down, makes the best Bruschetta. The bread is so rustic and tasty, a drizzle of EVOO a pinch of salt or dress it up with some yummy Italian fare and we are talking a lunch you’d eat your fingers with (Arabic proverb).
The BEAST of Datça:
Yep, I found another gym, 500 tl a month, 30 tl for the membership card. Ironically there is no AC at this gym as it does not exist. It also opens at 10:00 am, which means arriving by bus I won’t be able to start my training before 11:00, too hot. So I am going there post 5:00 pm, cooler (just like having a fan in hell, I swear), and surprisingly I am enjoying the fact that I have all morning to do all sorts of stuff especially that is it HOT HOT HOT now. Last and not least, there is no female locker room, there is one bathroom with a hallway, a disgusting picked- out-of-an –old- Dolmuş-station kinda bathroom, that does not get cleaned or tented to. Now that I have painted the worst picture for no other reason than it is TRUE here is the deal:
It is a Crossfit box with a tiny fully equipped gym attached. What does that mean? EVERYTHING. All the tools and gadgets I need for kickass powerlifting training. Proper powerlifting squat racks and bench racks (yep those are different from the bodybuilding ones that can also be found in the gym area), deadlift bars, not to mention bars of various sizes, thicknesses, and weights, a HEX DEADLIDT BAR, and GHR machine (something you rarely see), a complete set of kettlebells… everything. My wonderland! .. a cherry on top is dudes with thick big legs (didn’t see this coming did ya), who are not checking their abs 24/7 (no mirrors in boxes anyway), who stare at and admire your form/ numbers/ lift not just your ass (boys will always be boys), and I AM THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE WHOLE GYM.
Don’t jump to conclusions, it is not competition or jealousy, I want the best for all my kind, but what this means is that I WILL NOT HAVE TO SEE A WOMAN TRAINING HER ASS, or shoving her ass in my face EVER again. Because let’s face it, that’s all they train, and when they wear those skimpy non-existing shorts, it makes me wanna disappear, so there ya go, I am happy for all womankind training as they please, let those asses grow to the size of Africa for all that I care, bless em all, I am happy for you. I am in my weird box, sweating and dying of heat stroke, killin' it with my Ab-less buff dudes.
What’s with the title you say?
Day 1 in da box … I pulled a smooth strong 140 KG deadlift y’all FROM THE GROUND (non-bragging but for context, i used to pull 205 kg, but i was heavier and in my prime training days), i can prove it because some dudes took videos lol . And this is me coming out of a month of hibernation, let the fun begin because we are just warming up!
I ain’t strippin’ for no one:
If it requires me wearing a Bikini, then the answer is a definitive NO!
That was my non-negotiable answer to all the media offers, photo shoots, and physique competitions..etc I had back in the day!
Alrighty I’ll just spill the beans, I have rules OF MY OWN when it comes to what I wear, behave…etc, a culmination of thought/ experience/ convictions, and a moral code I invented and live by. Nothing forced, nothing traditional (you’d only need to meet my family to know).
I don’t like public displays of nakedness, and – you can laugh if you like – bikinis and the like to my logical brain is underwear, and underwear is pretty much naked. I don’t see there is anything shameful about the human body, I don’t believe it’s a disgrace that needs to be covered or a time bomb that will explode and spread vice and sin and corruption, I ain’t any of that. As a woman especially, my body and how I display it is tied to my dignity just like my brain, personality, tongue, lifestyle …etc but mostly I view my body as a temple. To be honest, my body is very valuable to me, all good things in life were a gift of this wondrous machine, I don’t treat/ display it like an object, I also view It as a temple, it’s not for everyone to gaze at and see, it’s to be adored, enjoyed and worshiped by those deserving of that honor, and this is I believe how females (and males) especially should carry themselves.
The idea today that every pervert, every dude who would have not 20 years ago dreamt of getting close to a woman’s ankle could get full access (social media) to any and every woman on the planet, see them on their own bed, in underwear, half - naked, posed in seductive ways, lips pouting … ya know … anytime, however they want, I mean a dude can be gazing at a girl's half naked photo while he is sitting on the toilet (sorry about that), he can listen to a woman lecturing on some serious subject then check her Instagram page and see her in a dominatrix suit holding a whip, you can be sitting next to a dude in a café’ not giving him the time of a day at the very moment he is looking at photos of your butt … it is just OUTRAGEOUS to my sensibilities, I cannot fathom it, i would NEVER allow this when it comes to my body.
I am not a "man" but i just cannot get how a "man" could be ok with his woman posting photos of her naked butt, her in underwear (not a swimsuit), in seductive poses ..ya know all the good things that ain't for the MASSES, i mean how the hell is it ok?? but then to each their own.
What I show is what is normally comfortably shown .. showing arms/ some leg is airy and comfy especially in summer, showing boobs however is the least comfortable and practical thing in the world, esp. when you know the pains of push-up bras and the long-term deformities they cause… of course besides the fact that no one will take you seriously if all that sticks out is a pair of boobs.
I would also like to confess that sometimes what people wear makes me shudder, and I cannot sometimes look at things on social media, ads, or the way some women/ men dress, I averse my eyes, I just can’t look.
Let’s just say this, in a sea of nakedness and non-stop displays of assets aka the new form of “FREEDOM”, I retain the right to the good old freedom of will and spirit, one less ass will not rock any boat, one crazy woman will not create a revolution .... the world can go on as it pleases and I get to live my ethics and morals as I please.
The road trip diaries …
July 1st , 9:30 am
Location: Basmane railway station – Izmir
Destination: Selçuk railway station
To be continued ….