Last week, I was kindly invited by the wonderful Talented Talkers to an event in London with Thomas Cook to celebrate Turkey. I’ve been really enjoying writing travel posts recently and I have actually visited Turkey once before, many years ago. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy it – although to be fair to Turkey, it wasn’t its fault. We had traveled there on a family holiday but a few days before our flight, mine and my brother’s middle school, which was also my Mum’s place of work, was burnt down by an ex-pupil. When your Mum has lost her classroom and your house is covered in smoke thanks to your school burning down across the road, it’s pretty hard to enjoy yourself on your holidays!

Therefore I was excited to give Turkey another chance thanks to Thomas Cook and experience the ‘5 senses’ on offer at Paradise by the way of Kendal Green, the wonderful location for the event. As soon as we headed up the stairs, we entered a Turkish world, full of beautiful pottery, incredible Turkish music and the scents of orange blossom and rose water. We explored our five senses; for scent, there were beautiful perfumes which spread across the room; for sound, we were treated to the wonderful upbeat traditional music from the talented Turkish drummer and violinist; for sight, we got to dress up in some vibrant embroidered Turkish costumes and for touch, we made ourselves our very own body scrub. Mine was made from sea salt, rose water and jojoba oil and, much like the coffee and coconut scrub I made with Preloved, it left my skin feeling smooth and nourished. I love making natural body scrubs as a cheap and wholesome alternative to exfoliating products and I loved that the rose water gave this scrub a Turkish twist.

That leaves one sense; taste. Unsurprisingly, I loved the Turkish themed cocktails, particularly the Turkish Delight Martini which was made from vanilla vodka, white creme de cacao and rose water. Thank you Thomas Cook for the lovely photo of the Turkish Delight Martini, since I drank mine before I thought to photograph it – rookie blogger error! A martini is always a great way to explore the sense of taste, but I was impressed with the local Turkish wines too. I also enjoyed the meze options, especially as ‘picky’ foods is on of my favourite ways to eat a meal, mixing and matching small tastes of different flavours and trying a little bit of everything. As you might have guessed, taste was my favourite of all the senses on offer – food and drink definitely makes or breaks a holiday for me!

Michelle, one of the airline staff, looked as glamorous as you would expect as she explained the various locations which Thomas Cook fly to; Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum and Izmir. I particularly liked the sound of Antalya. Like the whole of Turkey, the beaches are stunning and the nearby Sime beach has both golden sand and Roman ruins, which sounds fascinating. After visiting Plitvice Lakes in Croatia and falling in love with the national park, I think the Duden Waterfalls sound incredible – there really is nothing more breathtaking than a set of waterfalls! I’d really love the chance to try Turkey again and truly enjoy the experience, without the worry of a fire in my mind!

The event definitely left me craving a holiday full of sun, sand, beautiful scents and Turkish baths. Have you ever been to Turkey? Where would you recommend?