THIS is the reason we chose van life… (and it’s not what you may think)

I honestly think this might be the best park up that we've had in 2024 so far. We've been here for a couple of days, we're picking up the camera now this morning and we're going to take you along with us. We didn't explore Turkey much in the last video so we're going to explore it in this one with you. The reason that I'm looking like this as well, I feel like I should mention, we're definitely due a shower, however we went in the sea the other day, it's absolutely freezing, and today we're going to go to something a little bit warmer, but I've got a feeling that we might smell of egg afterwards. It smells so bad! So that's why we've not showered yet, so this is why this is my get up for the start of the video, which I honestly apologise for. I'm actually quite nervous to get out of this place, it's quite steep and there's like a little ridge on the way up and this van is definitely not built for off-roading. I know for a fact on this camera as well that this is not going to look steep, I'm going to have to scale down this. Oh my god, Jesus Christ, my butthole has clenched then. It says to park over there. As we mentioned in our last video, we're terrible at planning, so we've already been trying to plan better and Mitch has currently taken the lead on the planning front and so this is all him today. So we are testing out Mitch's google map skills and hoping that this is a good place to come. Oh yeah, oh okay, it's gonna be like a little bath, I haven't had a bath in a while. Whoa! It absolutely stinks, there's a duck in here. Okay, so apparently this whole river is 29 degrees, which the sea that we got in the other day was 19 degrees, so that should make quite a big difference, but it absolutely stinks of egg because the sulphur coming from the water reeks. Yeah and you can see loads of bubbles coming up, can you see? Oh yeah, through the ground. So this water sourcing from underground, I believe is fed from like volcanic stuff, no idea. You can go first if you want. I'm glad we didn't shower now because I feel like this is gonna stay on the skin. No, it's not hot but it's warm. Right, just be careful. Oh my god, it's slimy. Is it? Yeah, it's like all in my toes. You're just going for it? Yeah because it's not it's not cold but it's sharp. Yeah, it's weird, it's not, oh I don't know. You feel it, say what you think. So it's not the hot tub bath experience that I was probably after? No, but it's nice to be in water that's not take your breath away when you get into it. Okay, I'll give it a go. What's happened? My ring was silver when I got in. Is that not good? I don't know. Right, why was my ring silver when I got in? It looks kind of cool like that actually. Okay, it's like when I've been in the bath and then you leave it and then you put your hand in afterwards, like this is not my bath temperature. I was really hoping for a bath but I don't think I'd want a bath in this anyway. Oh, I don't know. It smells so bad. Oh, them bubbles are really weird. I really can't get over the smell, Mitch. It's like you swimming in scrambled egg. Yeah, I got a hint of porridge then as well. Oh, it's made my whole body feel slimy. What's that? It's just a bit of spunk. I mean this is really cool, the fact that it is. It is sick. I was just thinking that it's mad that like it's just surrounded by reeds and it's like completely natural. I just can't get over the feelings going on underneath my legs right now. Apparently it's good for your skin. I'm not putting my head under, absolutely not. Mitch, I can't stand up. It's so slippy. It's so slippy. This is what we're swimming with. It's like green algae. I'm sure it's completely safe but it's worrying me that these two nails, they're not looking very well. We're probably going to rust to death. We are? No. My hair's wet. Can't go any more ginger though, can we? So I know we said at the start of the video that we were going to show you more of Turkey, however there is one job that we've been putting off that we need to do. We have got, I think this is the most amount of laundry we've ever had and it's really embarrassing to admit because I think we bought our towels back in like Austria and they've still not been cleaned. So this is well overdue and hopefully it's not going to be too expensive. Oh look at that lemon tree. Every person we speak to in Turkey has been very very nice, even the laundry man, but that's only going to cost us 300 Turkish Lira which is about eight pounds to wash, dried back to us by tomorrow. And that was honestly so heavy, like I dread to think how much is in there. Now that we've dropped that off we're going to go find the park up and then go for a little explore and try and find some food because, again, we've been in Turkey for two weeks and we've not had any Turkish food yet which is so terrible. So we need to fix that today. So unfortunately because this is quite a touristy place, the park ups do get a little bit worse. I mean we're next to the sea. You can't complain with that. No, mountains in the background, just not as nice as last night. We got spoiled. I've got to say I'm already loving the vibe. I love the fact that I'm in a t-shirt and it's warm enough and there's like cycle routes and there's stuff going on, there's people. Okay so we ordered Siberek, which is what this is, Manti and the Turkish pizza because we thought because it's so cheap there wouldn't be that much food. This was three pounds. It's three and they are big. Wow, I'm buzzing. So we've accidentally ended up going with the two dishes that are kind of the name of this restaurant which is Manti and Siberek. This one was just over three pound as well and it's like a Turkish dumpling. Wow, that tastes really Asian. Oh, it's steaming as well. I absolutely annihilated them koftes. Siberek. They call them koftes but they basically just had like meat inside. They were like, if anyone can remember, there's these little crispy pancakes you used to get from like Iceland when I was a kid. They tasted like that but made out of pastry. So yeah, the pizza's come. We definitely did not need to order three things but this was two pounds. Like we said earlier, we feel like we're back in Asia. This definitely makes you feel like you're back in Asia. You know, it's really good and it's come with a little side as well. Two quid. That food got well and truly demolished. I think that's the start of a very bad cycle now. That was just under nine pound for them three dishes. So I can see us eating a lot more in Turkey now. Sorry, we're trying to not get running. Yeah, I honestly, this is going to sound so daft but I honestly feel so happy right now that we've just had like our first experience and I'm annoyed that it's taken us this long to even like go and have a meal. So I'm just happy that we've done it now. I feel like we're immersing the culture a bit more. Do you know what I mean though? We've just come into this absolutely mental park. It's like a kid's paradise but it's also making me really sad that I've not got a kid because now I can't go on any of the rides without looking like a creep. Yeah, there's so much going on and there's so many things for all different kids. You could spend, you would spend like days here with kids. Do you know what else is mad? What's that? The snow-capped mountains behind us and then all this is going on and it's just... Whoa, the sea's like up to that I never even noticed. That's the sea and there's a park here and then literally you can't see very well but the mountains with snow on all over there. I genuinely don't think the camera can do justice of how nice this park is and the fact that everyone's using it. It's a Sunday today and it's a very nice day in terms of what we've had recently so that adds to the fact of why it's busy but it's honestly quite nice to see all of the things being used. Yeah, I wish, I really wish there was something like this back home where you know there was like picnic areas back there and just everything like you don't have to pay for any of it. You can just come here and everyone's just with their families and it's just really nice to see. So what turned out to just be a little stroll today just you know by the sea looking at parks it's now turned into we have been walking for hours. Hours? I don't mean hours. Hours. To the point that we've walked the whole way round to like the end of Marina where we've actually run out of cycle path so now we need to turn around. How much have we gone? We've got six kilometres to walk back. Six kilometres? An hour and 15. Hours see? That's not hours. But we might find somewhere to have some tea on the way because there's some very nice places and we've we've been able to scope them all out now so we know which one we can choose. There's a McDonald's if you really want to feel cultural. No it's okay we're gonna head up and turn around now. I don't know why you called me because I don't know what the hell's going on. I can't really explain what's going on because I don't really know but we've come for our first ever Turkish tea experience and we saw this on the way down where you get it in the full pot and then you pour it with your glasses. The only problem is is we haven't watched anyone do it and we don't really know what we're doing so we thought we were being cultural but now we have no clue. We've just made it hard for ourselves. Yeah. Basically there's hot water in the bottom one and I think the tea's in the top one but that's all I know. I'm too scared to try I don't know if we should wait or but we've got a great view right on the sea and yeah we're just gonna figure this out. How strong is this? Ah that's hot. Oh okay there's the tea. See that looks really strong so I think you put hot water in with that. Okay. Oh ----. How sure are you? See that looks about as strong as what doesn't taste too much. I think it tastes like an earl grey. Oh yeah. It's nice. It's just weird that they don't take it with any milk. This is also great as well because I'm just like sat here next to the sea having a cup of tea just people watching everyone going past. I can 100% get on board with the culture of just coming out and having a cup of tea with your mates. Loads of people are here like guys girls all of them just playing games like board games and stuff and it's making us miss having that sort of connection with having any friends and stuff because obviously it's only it's always us sort of miss that aspect of seeing everyone together having a fun time. We just got back from walking another hour and got back to the van. Went to unlock it and it's unlocked so the whole time we've been out in this like quite out of the way car park the van's been unlocked luckily everything's still here. And a German motorhome has parked in front of the van so when we came over the bridge we could not see the van whatsoever. Mitch had a mini heart attack. So one we thought the van was gone when we came back and two I'd left it unlocked the whole time. Well you'd think we'd you'd get better I would say we but it was all you so. That's the first time I've done that in a long time Jesus Christ. But it's now dark so yeah my legs ache. Call it a night. See you in the morning. Good morning everybody we're out here this morning running what we walked yesterday trying to get into a good habit this year doing some runs as I'd really like to complete a half marathon so we're out here trying to do 10k this morning feeling pretty good. Hi I'm Mitch's uh flagging a little bit but we're gonna finish this run off and then reward ourselves with coffee and something delicious hopefully so that's what's getting me through right now and the fact that it's absolutely gorgeous so yeah feeling very good. So to reward ourselves we point to Bad Birthday Rim it's a bakery and cafe it's a lot more posh than we thought it was going to be um I've gone with the menemen which is one of the things that I wanted to try I'm trying to trick up tick off as many things as I can that I want to try here. So this looks like it's sort of a cheese pastry. Have you read that before? Yeah maybe. It almost looks like potato. I'll give it a six out of ten. Okay oh amazing thank you. Can it taste like a shakshuka? I don't know what that is but okay. That's really good. So on the way out of the little cafe as it was a bakery as well I wanted to grab a baklava. Is that what they are? I think that's these are both pistachio that one's just pistachio and then a pistachio with cream and she did it by weight so these were like 68 lira for that um it was I think that whole breakfast was more expensive than yesterday is that correct? That is so sweet. Is it? Yeah what's 68 like one pound like one pound 70 so that's quite expensive for them. Yeah I think it was an expensive place that we went to but I really wanted to try the menemen and I'm glad that I did. This is honestly probably the worst thing all the desserts here are just soaked in syrup. That's just a ball of syrup pastry. Oh my god I thought I'd be all over that but it's too sweet. We're just getting a bit of housekeeping done which you have to do pretty much every single day in a van. Luckily I got the toilet emptied there's a toilet cubicle over there and I just had to drop it in a drop toilet inside a little room honestly nearly blew my head off I thought I was going to pass out. Yeah just having a bit of a clean up and then we're going to go and pick up our washing. Yeah we're mainly doing this just because we've got an hour to kill. We've got to go pick it up at two o'clock it's one o'clock now so just trying to keep ourselves busy because my legs are killing. Now that we've got the laundry we've decided to do something a little bit different switch it up a little bit so as you know we've done the run in that this morning and my legs are sore and we've got a bigger hike that we want to do tomorrow however Mitch still wanted to do a hike that we had planned for today so he's going to go off and do it and we were like well yeah if you want to go you can go and I'm going to stay in the van and put the laundry away and do a few jobs get a bit of work done I don't really know have an hour in peace so yeah something a bit different we've just been able to park the van here and then it's like a monastery so Mitch is going to take you guys with him and then it's just a walk up here it's going to be really good views and I'm kind of getting a bit of FOMO but I don't know I'm just a bit sore and I feel like it'll be quite nice to have a little bit of time apart so that's what we're going to do. How do you feel about spending some time away from one another? Do you know what he said to me? Do you know what I'm just gonna say I was like yeah okay you do it I'll have some time by myself he says you know what you could prep tea I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna try and chill which is hard for me Do you think she's looking forward to some time on her own? I'll miss you I'll miss you too oh my god shall we kiss on camera for the first time ever I'm not even walking very far I think it's about 30 minutes to the top and then 30 minutes back down looks like I'm out of a few friends up the top oh man I don't know if I can talk to you lot when there's people around especially when I'm on my own I look like I've got a problem I've made it to the top the sea's in the background I was expecting a bit more when I got up here there's meant to be like a monastery or something like carved into the side of the coast wall oh I can see people all right let's go explore there's quite a few people about so I've literally come and hid inside the cave it's quite hard to show this on camera so I'm hoping the drone footage sort of explains it more I've had a look around and had a bit of an explore and to be honest with you I don't really know what I can tell you about the place it's just a brick building that I believe was a monastery on the edge of a cliff and I haven't got internet at the minute because Martha's got it so I can't really tell you a lot about the place but all in all for a 30 minute walk up quite a nice view at least something to look at correct me if I'm wrong but they're pig I hope they haven't got massive tusks oh I'd kill for some bacon though you ruined my plan because I was going to open it and make you jump because I thought you were lying on the bed I know I'm taking my safety very seriously alone in the woods that's how you left the keys in the ignition as well so someone could have come and just drove me away my plan was to play a song really loud on the speaker but you weren't connected to it I think we've just drove the minimum amount of time that we've driven this whole time since we've been in Turkey because everything is always so long away but this wasn't it was like four minutes from where we just were kind of over over there somewhere I don't know um to this little it's a lay-by but it goes to a dead-end road so I believe there's a private beach I can't see it um down over there and then we are and then we're just on this little bit here so hopefully we're okay here I don't think it matters anyway because Mitch is too hungry to care at this point I think this will do won't it no I hate it well then we'll have to move you didn't prepare any food did you no yeah just to let everyone know I didn't prepare any food because I didn't want power yeah exactly power to women but I did get into a fight with a pomegranate um my shirt's covered and caught up two grapefruits and make overnight oats for tomorrow so I basically did everything but make tea just to prove a point that I wasn't gonna do so now we're gonna make tea oh you're really grumpy now okay I don't really care because I stood up for myself so now we are gonna make some food we're gonna do it together no we're gonna do it together because we don't we don't have them roles in our relationship right come on I'm gonna make some food oh who's got it dirty in here already we're having taco balls for tea is that all you wanted to say we're having taco balls for tea yeah yeah is that all you wanted to say I was gonna show the prepare preparation station we've worked as a team so we're actually not killing each other even though we're very hungry and we've worked as a team because if we move the chair out of the way it gives us both space to work we're having that and that mince all this veg all of that veg garlic olive oil but but but we're running out of rice so we're actually going to use bulgur wheat as like the base of it which we've had and it was very nice what feels like it's been absolutely ages that I've just been cooking we're now done and I'm very very very excited to eat this I've put some peri-peri salt in the bulgur because you add tomato paste which is always really good and then the mixture and then I've got some red cabbage and lettuce there Mitch has got rid of his lettuce and is now just piling on the cheese I'm so hungry oh should I garnish it so I think once again this is where we'll leave you for this week's video I don't know why we end up doing it normally when we're eating or about to have a cup of tea but here we are hope you've enjoyed it please make sure to give us a like if you have and also subscribe because we've noticed that not all of you have subscribed to watch our videos so please make sure to click the subscribe button and click the notification bell it's a lot to ask I know I'm sorry I hate to be that annoying person but it really means a lot for us for our channel so yeah we're going to enjoy this and we'll see you in the next one bye