Bodrum — May 2026

Back in March I came to Bodrum and used my post primarily for daily journaling. It was great becuase it was the first time I spotted the patterns in my own behavior. While writing about how I got into photography I realized it followed the exact same path as how I got into cloud engineering.

Now I am here for thirteen days and there are some things I want to make sure I do. The Bodrum environment is naturally high dopamine. It has sun and sea and holiday energy. Relying purely on willpower to execute deep technical work in this environment can be a challenge. I want to be productive without losing the benefits of being here, so this time round I’ev built a to do list. A bit of structure should help.

The Physical Architecture and CNS Deload

I train five days a week and sometimes push it to six. I documented this cadence heavily during my recent twelve week creatine study. I am aware that I have a tendency to overtrain. I am taking this opportunity in Bodrum to rest and actively learn more about the science of recovery.

The immediate physical requirement for this trip is a strict Central Nervous System deload. I trained last on Saturday. I am taking 7 days off to allow my motor units to fully down regulate and clear systemic inflammation. I will the train the the following week. This gives me a fully resensitized and high intensity training block right up until my flight back.

Note that I will be documenting the exact biological mechanics of this deload and my research on overtraining in a separate technical post.

Operating Rules

My days run on two structural rules rather than arbitrary clock times.

1. The Output Minimum.
   120 minutes of uninterrupted hyper focus on the build list. That is the daily baseline. The timing is fluid. I can do a morning sprint or an evening session from a local cafe. The volume is what matters rather than a rigid cutoff.
2. The Environmental Anchor.
   No headphones in public. Whether working at a cafe or walking the marina I am entirely present in the environment to allow organic interactions to happen.

The Ten Day Build List

This is the execution list I am clearing before I return to London.

Cloud and AI Architecture

• Task 1 Domain Architecture
  • Draft and deploy the four domain portfolio post.
  • Move the HTML5UP landing page into the denizyilmaz.cloud repo, served at the root.
  • Move the Chirpy blog feed to /posts/ and fix the pagination path.
  • Fix the CloudFront error response so genuine 404s show instead of the homepage.
  • Repoint digitalden.cloud to the cloud content on GitHub Pages.
  • Retire docs.digitalden.cloud and enforce HTTPS.
• Task 2 Ship Weather ETL V1
  • Publish the Serverless ETL manuscript.
  • Deploy with zero scope creep.
• Task 3 Architect Weather ETL V2
  • Map out the Bedrock generative AI sequel.
  • Connect Amazon Bedrock to Aurora.
• Task 4 Publish the Brain V2 Post
  • Review the brainstormed Vertex AI Search manuscript.
  • Deploy the completed documentation to the site.
• Task 5 Gallery System Rebuild
  • Provision new S3 bucket and CloudFront distribution on photos.denizyilmaz.cloud.
  • Migrate all gallery assets from photos.digitalden.cloud to the new CDN.
  • Fix the cover loading bug so cards pull from /thumbs/ instead of /full/.
  • Switch photo count to auto-compute from the photos list.
  • Strip the inline post-gallery include and clean up dependent posts.
  • Rewrite the gallery documentation post as a forward-facing reference.

Photography and Video Builds

• Task 6 The Photo Build
  • Color grade November 2025 and March 2026 Bodrum RAWs in Lightroom.
  • Push heroes to DenMotion S3 and the personal gallery.
• Task 7 Kapıkırı Village Compilation
  • Edit the Kapıkırı Village compilation.
  • Compress the master, upload to the films bucket, add it to films.md.
• Task 8 Bodrum Compilation
  • Edit the Bodrum compilation.
  • Compress the master, upload to the films bucket, add it to films.md.

UI Content and Science

• Task 9 DenMotion Films Mobile UX
  • Explored CSS scroll snapping and Swiper.js for a full-screen vertical feed.
  • Tested inline playback with tap-to-toggle audio and a fullscreen button.
  • Reverted to the original Fancybox grid and lightbox pattern. Grid shows thumbnail loops, tap opens the master in Fancybox with native controls and horizontal swipe between films.
  • Lesson: the original architecture was correct. The real fixes were the poster files (PNG to JPEG, 22MB to 600KB) and master compression. Swiper and inline playback are the right answer once MediaConvert exists, not before.
• Task 10 The YouTube Rebrand
  • Consolidate the channel under my personal name and set the handle.
  • Write the channel bio and update the external links to the new four domain architecture.
• Task 11 DinnerTimeDen Hub
  • Buy dinnertimeden.com domain.
  • Initialize the Chirpy repository and take the site live on GitHub Pages.
  • Configure DNS, enforce HTTPS, set the favicon.
• Task 12 Recovery Science Post
  • Draft the technical documentation for active recovery and overtraining mechanics.

Log Entries

12 May 2026

It is day two in Bodrum and I noticed it is a lot busier than usual. May is generally still quiet, but there are far more tourists here this year.

I had a funny memory today. One of my favorite games is Zelda Ocarina of Time. I played it as a kid and numerous times as an adult, and it is finally getting a remaster this year on the Switch 2. I was walking down the marina and saw an old man who runs early in the mornings. I spoke to him back in March and he said he sometimes runs 25 kilometers around the marina. He runs in a matching runner top and shorts with black shades and has very loud footsteps. I see him up and down the strip constantly. He reminded me exactly of the Running Man character in Zelda today. The Running Man appears in Hyrule Field and constantly jogs around. As Adult Link you can race him, but he is programmed to be impossible to defeat with a final recorded time of zero. Anyways, maybe next time I should ask the old man to race.

Further down the road I laughed to myself this morning. There is a dwarf in Bodrum who works at a local bar and I have always seen him around. He now has a new pink convertible mini car that looks exactly like one of those toy cars you buy children to drive. He was zipping past in it down a main road this morning. It had me in tears. My mum said she saw him previously with his girlfriend driving that same pink car.

I started reading a small book called How to Focus by Thich Nhat Hanh this morning. I randomly picked it up at a bookshop in a gallery because the word mindfulness caught my interest. I read a few pages at the beach and the ideas hit me hard. I need to buy a highlighter to save these sections.

If you think, the thinking will steal your walking from you. You do not talk, because talking will take the walking away from you. When mindfulness and concentration are alive in you, you are fully yourself. When you come back to yourself and breathe mindfully, your mind’s attention has only one object. If you continue to breathe in and out mindfully, you maintain that state of presence and freedom. Your mind will be clearer and you will make better decisions rather than when it is in the sway of fear, anger, unclear thinking, and worry.

The breathing concept is interesting. The part about walking really stuck with me because I sometimes think so much that I am not present. I have recently been trying to draw myself back to the present moment when I am walking.

14 May 2026

Had a realization on my walk this morning about how quickly I fall into routines. I am a creature of habit. I have been here a few days and the morning sequence has already become routine.

In bed at ten, up at six, out the house around six thirty give or take. I walk down to the marina, about twenty minutes, up a steep hill then down the other side. The mornings here are peaceful. Birds chirping and no one around.

First stop is Kahve Dunyasi which translates to Coffee World. This Turkish chain has grown on me. I like their branding and their chocolate is good. Mental note, I am bringing some of their cocoa back for baking. Closest equivalent would be a cooler Turkish version of Cafe Nero. I grab an Americano and a sparkling water. Everyone is friendly there, the workers and the customers, all wishing each other good morning. I head up to the terrace which looks over the marina at the yachts. It opens at seven and I do one hour of project work on the laptop here.

Around eight I continue down the marina toward Bodrum market. Along the way I stop at my simit truck, which by the way is a small stall not a truck. I get one simit and one acma. A lot of carbs, but this is the treat of being in Turkey. I do not eat many carbs in London. The owner is always excited to see me, bless him, probably because of the tips, but the chat is always a nice pleasure.

I take the goods to a local cafe near the castle, order a tea, eat, and read for a bit. The mindfulness book has been my reading here. I sit by the water and can hear the waves hitting the shore. After about thirty minutes I walk back toward Gaya which opens around nine. It has a beautiful terrace on the water and nice tables inside. This is where I do my more serious work from nine until around twelve or one at the latest.

Along this whole morning journey I see cats and dogs, sometimes kittens, and I stop to stroke them. You get the odd cat who runs off.

When I am done it is usually hot. I make the walk back down the marina, up the hill, past the windmills, back to my house. A solid thirty minute walk. I sometimes do the same loop in the evening too, which is probably why I hit twenty thousand steps a day easily.

I love this walk. I have been trying to slow down at times, focus on my breathing, and stay present. That ties back into what I have been reading.

Once home I have breakfast, just eggs and my favourite sucuk. I buy the highest quality sucuk I can find, which comes to about twenty pounds, but this is a treat and I do not eat it in London because the supermarkets there only stock the cheap utility ones. I have a tea with my mum after, then head down to the beach which is five minutes away.

That sums up my mornings here. It brings me happiness.

15 May 2026

I was helping my mum with her banking app. Went into her notes to pull out the pin I had written there.

And I saw that note.

24 Nisan 2024 canim annem

It translates to “my dear mum.” It is the date her own mum passed.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the next hour.

My mum is 65 and she still misses her mum deeply. I don’t think that grief ever fades.

No one will ever love us the way our mum does. It’s a quiet, unconditional love, and I think it’s the only real one. Once our parents are gone then what. We take them for granted while they are still here.

I’ve been reading How to Focus by Thich Nhat Hanh this week and one passage came back to me sitting with this. He talks about two dimensions. The historical one is everyday life, birth and death. The ultimate one is the layer underneath where nothing is truly lost, just transformed. He says your mother lives on in you. Not as a memory. As actual continuation.

You know how to touch your mother in the ultimate dimension, she will always be with you. You can see that she is there in you, smiling.

A couple of hours later I felt better. I laid at the beach, read my book, then went to the gym. On the way home I bought some Turkish milk cake, which my mum likes. We sat in the living room Friday night, eating the cake and watching Turkish TV drama.

17 May 2026

Descended into Bodrum for 7am. On the way down it was so peaceful. Just me and the birds chirping.

Then I started to see the drunk people stumbling out of Bodrum, who had been partying all night. One walked past me with his glass still in his hand.

There must be quite a nightlife here in Bodrum. I wouldn’t know. I’m out early, not late.

Brought back the memories of when I used to drink, and how happy I am that I don’t anymore. Nothing worse than getting in when it’s daylight, sleeping rough, then waking up with a dry mouth and dehydrated.

I’m glad I experienced that stage of life, but also very glad I’ve moved on from it.

18 months clean. Not that I had a drinking problem.

18 May 2026

A bird took a shit on me while I was laying on the sunbed. Landed on my arm. I looked up and saw the bird, then looked around and saw a girl laughing.

I walked over and she handed me a wet wipe. I sat there fumbling with the packet for a minute and couldn’t open it. She was just watching me lol. Eventually I gave it back to her and she opened it for me.

She was Ukrainian. Her friend was Russian. They didn’t speak any English, but somehow we had a one minute conversation before I went back to my sunbed.

In the hour I stayed there, I noticed three different guys come over to chat them up.

When I get disturbed once by someone trying to sell me perfume or a massage I can’t be bothered with it. I don’t know how these girls do it. Then again, she seemed to like the attention.

Meanwhile I finished my second book of this trip. I’m really starting to enjoy reading thats because the more I write here, the more my AI learns what I like and gives me better recommendations.

22 May 2026

I went to Oasis Mall in the evening and sat down for some köfte. My mum recommended the restuarant. A woman came and sat at the table next to mine, on her own, her back to me. A dog then came over and she fed him. I then called the dog over and I fed him. She turned round to wave the waiter down and I said something to her about stealing her dog.

We got speaking and her name was Elif. She was waiting for her daughter to come and join her for dinner, but she never showed. She called instead to say she was going to the cinema with her friends in the mall and that was that, her mum left sitting at the table having dinner alone, but she did’nt mind.

We got talking properly and after finishing dinner we moved next door for some coffee. Flat white for me, latte for her. We ended up sitting there for two hours or so.

We had a pretty deep conversation, and when my Turkish coulnt handle the depth she asked questions through my AI instead, in Turkish, and it answered her. I didnt even know the ansers it wwas giving. She werote

Boş zamanlarında ne yapar

Sence hayatında başka bir boşluk var mı

I do not usually open up like that with someone I have just met, but was just going with it.

It was the most wholesome conversations of the trip. I also showed her my photography, DenMotion.

She told me her husband passed away six years ago. They had been celebrating her birthday, and three days later a brain illness took him. Sudden, no warning. She said it plainly, the way people do once enough time has passed, but it stayed with me for the rest of the night.

You are not promised anything. I am sitting here writing this and I could be gone tomorrow. Her husband was. It is a hard thing to think about, but it is also a clear one. The time you get is the only thing you actually have, so you may as well spend it talking to people and being present for it rather than walking past your own life.

It got late and I had to leave around ten. Walked off feeling good, then realised halfway home I had left my Raybans back at the köfte place. Annoying, I quite like them, been with me on. many trips, not sure why im so sentimental with them. I tipped so maybe they will hold onto them for me.

A good way to end the trip.

Trip Costs

Logging this for my own reference. All in pounds.

Item	Cost
Flights	135.12
Bank card spending	91.30
Cash spending	500.00
Turkcell SIM	28.68
Cab from airport to home	36.66
Total	791.76

On the SIM. I bought a 25gb Turkcell at the airport for 28.68. In town a 10gb was 5 pounds. The airport pricing is a scam. Note to self, buy it online next time since I already have a Turkish SIM.

Black Fit Bodrum

Black Fit Bodrum, is a very interesting place in Bodrum. It is the local gym I go to. Good equipment, cheapest in Bodrum at 1,500 lira for a week, which is about 30 pounds. I love that place because there are always cats outside who I have my pre workout coffee with.

Inside is a different story. I have never seen egos like it. Men walking around taking selfies in the mirrors, lifting their shirts to check their abs, flexing mid set, loading up insane weight they can barely move. At times it feels like they are all competing to see who is the strongest. A fair few are on steroids, and there is a solid number of pigeons.

A pigeon is a man with an overdeveloped chest and tiny legs. All puff and no foundation, because he skips leg day.

Thankfully I train in the mornings so I usually miss the worst of it. The few times I have trained in the evening it is a whole experience.

Build Wrap

I am happy with what I ticked off the build list. A few tasks carry over into June, but that is fine. The point was never to clear every box, it was to keep moving while still being here. The single Bodrum-shaped task list worked well. I liked having everything tracked in one place, so I am turning it into a recurring system. From June I am keeping monthly build logs, categorised by project area, living under categories/build-logs/ on denizyilmaz.cloud. First item on the June list is the serverless video pipeline. The DenMotion films page made it clear that 4K masters do not stream well on mobile. The fix is adaptive bitrate streaming through MediaConvert

Closing Thoughts

I got complimented a lot on this trip. By men, that is. Border control said I looked good, big but athletic, like a footballer, not like the other gym men in Bodrum who can barely move their arms. Another man shook my hand to compliment me at the beach, I think he was Polish. An older lady on the flight said I looked like a footballer too. I must be in the best shape of my life.

It is interesting because I just do not see it. Elif and others have thought I was a personal trainer. I told Elif the reality, which is that I train out of habit, routine, and mental wellness. Maybe addiction, because I am so used to it. Not for ego.

That distinction matters to me. The gym in Bodrum is full of men training for the mirror. I am not doing this for that. It is just part of how I keep myself steady.