Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday was absolutely wonderful. It’s always so nice to have all of your closest friends around to help celebrate. We came up with elaborate plans to spend the day at one of the Prince's Islands but the plan was canceled after numerous wake up calls to leave the dorm on time but leaving 10 minutes before departure and booking it 300 meters to the fairy port to find out the boats to the Islands were canceled due to the wind and choppy water.

After much familiar large group debate, we decided to take a ferry to the Asian side for something new. We found a super cute little café/restaurant where this super cute guy was playing the acoustic guitar and singing some of our favorite Turkish and English songs. He asked for requests for songs and since I wanted him to acknowledge my existence I asked him to play a song from the only Turkish band I know, Mor ve Otesi. The dude just looked at me and laughed and said he had just played it. My plan to look cool unfortunately backfired.

After lunch Ash and Basilio kept talking about dessert and had asked if I had ever tried cheesecake in Turkey. Drooling, I went off about how it had been so long since I have had cheesecake and how I could barely remember what it tasted like. Suddenly they turned off the lights and brought out a piece of cheesecake all lit up with candles and sparklers. I was so surprised. Even though I had only known these people for a short time I was so incredibly happy to be with them and know that they care enough to make my birthday special.

The cutie on the guitar started singing and playing happy birthday and had made some kind of comment about how he would die for a piece of the cake. After blowing out the candles I decided to go up “on stage” and feed him a bite of the cake. I think I may have regained my coolness with this move but unfortunately nothing ever transpired.

After lunch we took a little walk on the rocks by the sea. We encountered a few cute little gypsies but finally made it to this little outdoor café where we could drink tea and watch the sunset from inside individual clear plastic bubbles/cells used to block the wind. Twas quite nice in the bubble.

Then back at the dorms everyone celebrated once again and presented me and Aakash another cake! I thought I was going to die. That night we decided to go out. It is probably a night I will never forget (see below).

All in all I had a great time on my birthday. Martina pointed out that it is always the birthdays where you turn an odd number of years in age that are the best. After realizing "holy shit I'm 23!" I happened to agree with her.