Ella's Big Adventure: At our villa in Turkey

The day we travelled from Istanbul to our villa was a big adventure. First, our flight was late leaving so we were driving a long way and it was getting dark. Suddenly there were goats on the road and Ahmet, our driver had to swirve to avoid a bad accident but luckily we were all OK, not sure about the goats though. That was a bit scary. When we got to the villa it was dark but mummy and daddy had promised we could go for a swim so that's what we did. The pool's all lit up at night so it was lots of fun. We've been here a month now and I've been swimming nearly every day. I love Kapatus (Sandy Beach) and also going to Liminagzi to kayak. You can only get there by boat. We go into town a lot and I know lots of people now. I love just playing in the square and watching all the children. I have one Turkish friend - her name is Ada and her parents own a kebab restaurant. We play together quite a bit even though I don't speak much Turkish and she doesn't speak much English. I loved it when Aunty Nicola, Uncle Nigel, Grand dad and grand ma were here - Uncle Nigel played with me lots- he's my favourite. We often get the dolmus (minibus) into town at night. Lots of children stay up late here and at the moment, it's a religious holiday so it's very busy. My favourite things to eat are bazlama (a flat bread) and fetta cheese, gozleme (pancake) with cheese and spinach, kofte (a type of meatball) and seaweed mezze but we don't know the Turkish for that. I'm getting to watch lots of new DVDs as we buy some new ones every Friday at the local market. I have learnt some Turkish words and am getting lots of kisses and treats from the Turkish people. I do miss my friends in Sydney though and Jasper and Miles.