Sinanation

It is a worldwide-known fact: Woman in general are the best cooks in the world (although most of the word famous chefs are guys). Maybe we have never been given the opportunity. Maybe we got lost in the traffic of office works and the stress of providing for a family. As the ordinary, not-even-close-to-being-a-chef guys, we have skipped one of the most essential classes in health and sustainability: “Knowing enough cooking to avoid fast and junk food”.

I am tired of calling my friends at Domino’s every time a friend comes by dinner. The desperate attempts to become full with a bag of chips or pretzels now annoy me more than ever. I try to feel satisfied with a few slices of fruit or raw broccoli, thinking I am finally eating something healthy. This is not the way it should be.

I have to diversity. In a perfect world, I should be able to buy different types of vegetables, spices and know how to turn them into a delicious meal. In a perfect world I should even go further and blend vegetables, fruits with meat or seafood. In a perfect world I should make the time to buy the grocery, not wait long enough for them to go bad and cook them for a nutritious dinner. In a perfect world, I should be able to cook to skip fast food and junk food.

Many who are aware of my addictiveness to this place ask me the same question: “Why do you like Hillside so much when there are hundreds of other places you can go?” Critics insist that “Hillside is not for young and single people.” The fact that is it more of a family vacation spot is not enough to change my opinion about this place.

We have so much freedom in this life. Yet with freedom comes decisions. What jobs to apply, what clothes to wear, what food to eat, what restaurant to eat at, what highways to avoid when driving somewhere, etc. Hillside gives me the opportunity to get away from all those decisions. It somehow gives me the best possible constraint and narrows down my options to a minimum while maximizing the pleasure I get from taking a break.

My biggest worry here is to decide when to wakeboard, how many crepes I should get for breakfast, when I should switch to the silent beach for a quick afternoon nap and if I should stop by the ultra-casual, usually comfortably empty, but rather fun Pasha nightclub. No worries about how much cash I should get every time I step out the room as the village is all inclusive. No worries about what I should be wearing as the closest person I know here is the tourist from the middle of nowhere. I let go of worries in one of the best spas in the world.

One shouldn’t compare hillside to Bodrum, Mykonos, St-Tropez-type getaways where every decision-made depends on multiple friends, multiple must-be-seen-at scenes and a lot of bouncers. You will not feel like you are missing out on other plans once you set foot inside this heaven tucked in one of the most beautiful bays in the south of Turkey. You should have no expectations other than relaxing and being your own boss. Yet be aware that Hillside is also full of activities if you are looking for a few thrills to pump up the blood flow. You can pay a visit to the undersea with diving lessons, learn how to navigate the wind while windsurfing or take a shot at one of the numerous water ski facilities on the tip of the bay.

The only thing you could yearn for in this piece of paradise is a companion to share it with. You will try the limits of your imagination while you watch the sunsets, eat the freshest seafood dinners, drink amazing summer cocktails on the white pillows of Pasha, work your way through a scoop of ice cream on a fresh hot waffle cone from Nice Cream and appreciate the view from the terrace of your room.

The media has been crying out from the rooftops, alerting us of a huge global economic downturn. The increasing fuel prices, decreasing consumer spending, the scarcity of rice (one of the most important sources of nutrition of third world countries), the fattening trade deficits and the stronger than ever tropical storms. None of them are foreign to us, but when all get together on the stage big question marks about the future of our bank accounts start to appear on top of our heads. It is in the human nature to always come up with a good survival plan whatever the threat is. Yet what makes this long lasting threat so grave is its unpredictability. The current economic downturn has widened the gap between the rich and the middle class by more than anyone could have imagined and it seems the art market is the biggest evidence to this. Asian, Irish and American contemporary artworks have been flying off the charts in auctions in the past couple of months. Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been posting sales that beat expectations, while the newspapers print the gloomy articles on skyrocketing fuel prices, the banks that caught their pants on fire and increasing number of bankruptcy cases. Something does not add up in this current mist we are in. On one side we have people paying millions to decorate their walls and on the other we have people selling their cars and switching to public transportation. I look forward to days of serenity and balance.