fun |

Today I spent the morning at Ölüdeniz Waterworld Aquapark.

I’ve been wanting to go since it opened in June but it was proving impossible to convince Berkay to come with me as it’s quite expensive. My friend messaged me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go along with her as part of a large group since her husband couldn’t make it, so I took his place. It was a large group of mummies & babies/kids from the Fethiye area, so they had got a good deal on entry tickets.

The actual waterpark is located in Ovacik. We got there early and were allowed in before anyone else even arrived which meant it was compTletely empty. Lovely! After a while other people who were part of the group arrived and it got busy really quickly. I was surprised at how many British women with Turkish partners and children there are in the area! I recognised a couple of faces from Facebook groups, and it was so surreal having a few people come up to me and say ‘Hi Danni, I feel like I know you – I read your blog!’ – It always surprises me when I meet people who read it, people are usually shocked by how quiet and shy I am in person compared to my ramblings on my blog and Facebook. It’s also a reminder that everything I write on my blog is public knowledge and that real people read it – not just online profiles. It’s lovely meeting them, even if I was totally out of my comfort zone and having to overcome my shyness.

I spent the morning playing with my friends children, having water fights (which I definitely lost!) and playing catch with giant yoga-type balls, all great fun. Someone commented “the little ones seem to be drawn to you” and that it must be helped by my experience with my little sister. I love young children and have always wanted to work with them, that would be my dream job I think!

The children’s area was really impressive and there were lots of small slides and things for them to do. I didn’t take any photos once it got busy because I didn’t want to put photos of people’s children on here without permission, but it looked really good with all the water fountains in the pool turned on. There was a shaded area with toys, lego, colouring etc too which I thought was a brilliant idea. There were staff around the pool area making sure things were kept safe too.

After a while the big slides were turned on and I went off to have a go on those – they were great fun, I wish I’d taken my underwater camera to take photos and videos. The view at the top of the steps was pretty impressive too!

At 12.30 the big slides were turned off and the lazy river was opened, apparently it only stays open for an hour a day but I don’t know how true that is. There was quite a big queue and we had to wait a while for a rubber ring to go around in, but once we got in it was nice and relaxing, although entering and exiting the rubber ring was impossible to do elegantly! The only thing I’d say about the lazy river is how the bottom of the floor looked, all the paint had flaked off and the walls felt a bit slimy – I guess this will be fixed for the start of next season though, the park is new so teething problems are to be expected.

We were only able to stay until lunchtime so we missed the wave pool, but that sounds like fun too. The whole park was well designed, it looks beautiful with the mountains as a backdrop and is a great day out. The toilets are well kept, there are lockers available to keep belongings in and the food and drink prices weren’t overly expensive.

Overall it was a good morning out and from what I saw of it, it’s a well looked after, fun day out for children (and big kids like me!). I recommend it. I probably won’t go back again because the full price is too much to justify when we live off a Turkish wage, but when you convert it to pounds it’s around £12-13 each adult, around £9 for 6-12 year olds and free for 0-5’s, a good deal for the amount of things to do I think.

So grateful to my friend for inviting me along, I had a lot of fun, even if I did get quite sun burnt! Ooops!

On Saturday Berkay & I decided to go for a little trip out. We were planning to get the train to Southend to have a walk along the sea front, visit the aquarium and go on the rides at adventure island, but after looking into it, and realising what would normally be a 45-60 minute car journey was going to take 2.5 hours and cost £40 on the train – late on Friday night we decided we’d go to Thorpe Park instead. It’s crazy to think that this actually worked out slightly cheaper, as it’s 100 x better!

We caught the 8:30 am train from our town to London Waterloo, then another train from Waterloo to Staines. Then we got the shuttle bus from Staines station to Thorpe Park, which was only 10 mins down the road! I was suprised at how quick the journey was, it only took an hour and a half to get there altogether, but it seemed a lot quicker. I’m also pretty impressed that I didn’t get us lost once.

When we arrived Berkay got concerned about the HUGE line of people queuing to get tickets, luckily, we paid for ours online the night before and printed them out so literally walked straight in past the massive line of people and through the ticket scanners.

We went on a few ‘tame’ rides first of all to warm Berkay up, then we attempted the bigg’uns! We queued for an hour and a half to get onto the next ride – Colossus. I can’t believe we waited so long really, not sure if it were really worth it, but we did get back row seats – nothing quite like sitting at the front or back of a big rollercoaster!

After that we went to go and get some lunch, but on the way we spotted a ride with no queue whatsoever – not even one person. So we made our way over to that. Now I’ve been to Thorpe Park before, so I knew what to expect- but it didn’t take Berkay long to figure out why exactly there was no queue for this ride on a grey, not-too-warm, April day in Surrey…

The ride in question was ‘Tidal Wave’ – clue is in the name really isn’t it? Up we went in the boat, sat in the front row I must add, we got to the top, the boat went around towards the steep drop and baaaam, it all became clear to Berkay – the huge tidal wave splash flowing into the boat was pretty much like having a shower, we were SOAKED, that’s why nobody else was queuing – who wants to be wet and cold during an English Spring?! I bet the ride is really popular in summer though! This is my favourite ride in the whole place – I’ve always loved it because of the theme, 1950’s American fishing village hit by a tsunami- the surrounding area of this ride all blends in well, all the buildings look like they’ve been hit by the ‘tidal wave’ – including the KFC we went into for lunch, the roof is all caved in and wonky with a giant shark poking through the building! I love the 1950’s theme going on – reminds me of Grease, which incidentally I’m currently watching on tv!

After KFC for lunch, we went to the other side of the park and went on the water raft ride – a nice tame one to keep our KFC safely in our tummies. After that – the spinning teacups – and after that … the big one… Stealth!

The queue for this ride was suprisingly not as long as I thought it would be – we only waited 45 minutes, and it’s arguably the most popular ride at the park. You really can’t quite comprehend how tall or impressive it is until you’re standing underneath it and hear the gas propelling the coaster, the roar of the cars on the tracks and the screams of everyone riding in it. It accelerates from 0-80mph in 1.8 seconds – impressive! If you’re not quite sat in the right position as it takes off up the track though, you really feel it, the first time it jolted my neck and hurt for a while.

When your feet are firmly on the ground watching it climb over the tip of the arch, there’s always that bit of doubt in your mind that it might not have enough power to make it quite over and end up rolling back down – something which apparently it is designed to do safely – but that would be scary to experience! When you’re on the ride at the top, all you can see all around you is sky and cloud – no track – not the car in front – just sky. Berkay loved this so much the first time that when we spotted a sign later on in the day advising that the waiting time was currently only 5 minutes for this one – we took advantage and went back on it for a second time!

After that we headed for the newest ride at the park – which was really cool and well designed – apparently it cost £200 MILLION to create. Ouch! The whole area is themed around ‘unexplained incidents’ and riots/war – with a very realistic looking plane crash, upside down burnt out emergency vehicles etc etc. We loved this one so much we went on it twice too!

Berkay tried to win me a giant minion teddy as we saw literally HUNDREDS of people walking around the park with them after winning them from the typical things – climb the ladder, basketball shooting etc etc, but it appears we’re just not lucky – he must’ve spent about £20 trying to win one! ):

After realising that the shortest queues of the day for the big coasters were after 5pm when most people had already gone home – we managed to squeeze in a couple more big rollercoaster rides before heading home. Berkay absolutely loved them and we had a really great day.

We caught the shuttle bus back to Staines station and spotted a little Chinese/Indian buffet restaurant and took a little detour in there for some dinner. It was soo yummy – especially the cakes for dessert! Mmmmm. After that, we headed home via London Waterloo – I love how old that station looks with the massive clock in the middle! We were so tired and achey from all the walking and being bashed around on rides that as soon as we got home we went to bed, but we had a really fab day, glad we chose to go there, even if it was a last minute decision!