I’m always fascinated by the complexities of our English language and it often leaves me wondering how people cope when they are trying to learn it. Especially the idioms and strange sayings. But what about the actual words that don’t mean what they are supposed to mean? My students, for example, are always using the word ‘ignorant’ to mean – not lacking knowledge – but stubborn or condescending.... Likewise, those of us who teach will recognise that ‘satisfactory’ actually means ‘UNsatisfactory’ if it is spoken by your manager or Ofsted! But what about the term ‘all-inclusive’? When does ‘all-inclusive’ mean ‘all-inclusive’ and when does it mean ‘some-things-are-included-but-others-not-and-it-also-depends-on-what-time-of-day-it-is’???!!!

Destina Hotel, Hisaronu, Turkey

OK, so I’ve been a five-star hotel in Egypt so perhaps I’ve been spoilt and know what ‘all-inclusive’ really means, and perhaps my expectations are too high. So the ice-creams weren't included - so what? (Although I guess if we'd had kids that would have been a problem) and there were no fruit juices at the bar (so have a cold beer instead) and at breakfast there were (strangely) no fresh fruit salads (so go down to the village and buy some from the market for a few pence)! I guess wherever we go there is always a way around these types of issues. It appears that some British people would prefer to complain about them though!

But actually, we did our research before-hand and knew that our expectations should be - i.e. low at this particular resort. I didn’t kid myself – after all, we’d only paid £550 each for 2 weeks ‘all-inclusive’ (or not, as the case may be)! There’s not many places within a few hours fly-time of here where you get that kind of value for money. Obviously that’s why Turkey’s becoming so popular. But lets not fool ourselves – it’s rise in popularity has everything to do with the blasted European Union and the dreaded EURO and nothing at all to do with the great British Public wanting to indulge in their wonderful Byzantine cultural history. Not from what I saw anyway. In fact, it was the largish fellow who after reading the Sun, drank 20 pints before passing out for 2 days (my sympathies to his poor neglected 10 year old daughter) who brought it home to me who the typical visitor was to this place. He had a lovely tattoo of “Made in England” around his protruding belly-button. (YUK)!

But really, if you can manage to drag yourself away from the poolside in 45 degree heat and walk down the hill on the shady footpath from the hotel to the lovely town of Hisaronu – you will get an idea of some of what Turkey is all about. Here the local people and some tourists chill out in the many cafés and people-watch and maybe catch the local bus (cost 2.75TL) to the beach. Once, we got on a bus which was full and one of the locals kindly got up to let us have a seat! They really are wonderful people with a great, simple sense of humour.

On passing a shop one day, there was an item that had fallen out of one of the shelves and onto the pavement. I’m convinced most British people at home would have just ignored it, maybe even kicked it out of the way and into the gutter. However, a passing Turk picked it up and replaced it in its proper place – singing along to one of their famous pop songs (The Turks have a really successful pop song culture apparently).

Another day we were waiting for a bus and the owner of a local restaurant which we had been to recognised us and stopped to offer us a lift. He was so friendly and jolly – even with the limited English he spoke – we didn’t dare offer him any money!

The food at the hotel was fabulous, and the service – even though most of the staff spoke virtually no English – was excellent. We tried learning some Turkish words with the restaurant staff and they seemed overjoyed with us for making the effort. It’s so sad that the majority of guests there did nothing but moan! You can read my Tripadvisor review here.

Overall a fab holiday, as usual we read lots – details of some of the books on my other Blog – and did little other than swim in the sea and chill-out in shady cafés. Now home to catch-up with Beachbox projects – oh, and the PhD of course! J