When I came back to live in Antalya last August my old friend, but obviously young Lady :), Banu was going to put me up for a few days while I looked for somewhere else to live more permanently. However, as it turned out my Ex-wife allowed me to stay with her for a few days before she had enough and luckily I found Alper and Alison had a spare room so I didn’t need to take Banu up on her kind offer.
I was looking forward to seeing her again as she was one of my closest friends when I lived here and as well as playing Tennis on occasion, we had many enjoyable nights out together, I just can’t remember very many of them. 😉
We were going to meet up sometime but never got around to it in the intervening year and when she didn’t come to my Wedding a couple of months ago I didn’t think I would ever see her again, unless we bumped into each other in the street.
I was actually thinking about her on the bus one day and when I got home she had got in contact saying that she was a bad friend for not getting back to me and asking if we could meet up. I couldn’t do it that week as I had some family problems to deal with but when she invited me to her Wedding, I happily accepted.
I asked if I could bring my Wife and son and she said “You mean your ex-wife?”, so obviously she never saw my Wedding invitation on the facebook event page. It just shows you not everyone logs into facebook 24 hours a day.
The Wedding was to take place in a forest close the Ancient site of Perge. Banu had arranged a bus for some guests to get there and we were amongst the first to arrive.
I chose this table for us to sit at not realising it was directly in front of the speakers. I am not sure if that was the reason that no-one else joined us at our table or because, as Banu suggested, it was my hair that put them off but we had the table to ourselves for most of the night.
In Turkey everywhere uses Spinal Tap Speakers and they are always set to 11. So later on after some people had left, when we had went at least partially deaf, we thought it best to move to another spot before tinnitus set in.
My son wanted to do some exploration of the forest so I got Aynur to take him for a walk which also had the added benefit of giving me some peace for 5 minutes. Here he is on top of an A-Frame which I am sure were designed for Swings not as a climbing frame.
Aynur arrived back in time to see the Happy couple arrive and introduce themselves to the party by having a romantic dance with each other….to a Guns and Roses song!
I have to say though that for a wedding it had some of the best music I had ever heard. Bob Dylan’s ‘Sara’ and Nick Cave’s ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ were on the playlist as well as quite a few other classic toons, so I was very happy with that. I think Banu definitely had a few words with the DJ before the proceedings began.
She and her husband to be then went around the table to welcome everyone personally when she came to our table, just like I had done so many times before, I grabbed her for a Selfie.
As the rest of the guests arrived slowly but surely there was a Guitar player on hand to entertain the crowd.
Then came the moment when they had to say their vows and lo and behold it was the same guy who married Aynur and myself. I didn’t know he had wheels or else I may have arranged to get married in King Bar instead of a council building.
Banu couldn’t resist making a joke or two during the ceremony but it was good to see her happy and I wish her and her new husband all the best.
As well as providing some lovely food for everyone there was also a bottle of Raki planted at quite a few tables and as we were the only people at our table I found myself having more than a few, even though I am not a big fan of Raki. It was free and that was good enough for me.
As you can imagine the Wedding Party were quite busy socialising with all their guests but I managed to grab them for a team photo towards the end of the evening.
I knew Banu had at least one sister and as soon as I saw the girl in the front of this photo at the start of the evening I knew right away she had to be Banu’s sister but as we were leaving, I got introduced to the other one as well. They were very impressed with my Selfie skills but I told them I have years of practice.
After a while my son got bored annoying me and started to explore the surrounding a bit more, although he says the volume on the stereo drove him off but anyway he kept coming back to inform me about a dog. I didn’t realise that is was an awesome St Bernard dog though and when I said that to him, he said that is what he had been trying to tell me for the past hour. I blamed the music volume.
Here are some video highlights of the evening. We all had a great time except I have to say, it was probably the worse Turkish line dancing I have partaken in and I in fact, opted out after about a minute. You definitely need a good front man for that to be a success.
Banu told me that they were going to continue the party in Kaleiçi and invited us along but I had my son with me and Aynur wasn’t too keen on taking him back by herself while I went to get drunker.
So instead of scenes from the after party, I’ll leave you with this one of myself and Banu in the bar where we met and where she saw me perform many an awesome Pole Dance. 😉
Ah, the good old daze.
The Photos
Cheers!
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