I received the first email from Florin Simionescu on 14 August 1998. He was writing from Romania. He and his wife were planning a holiday on the Turkish coast with another married couple and were looking for an apartment for four people, approximately from 27 August to 8 September.
His first message was detailed and practical. He asked about the price of the apartment, the kitchen, refrigerator, television and parking, whether meals were available, the distance to the beach, whether the beach and parking were free, the distance from Istanbul, the star rating, and even whether the apartments had air conditioning. It was the kind of careful list of questions one might ask when arranging a holiday over the internet in a place one had never seen before.
Not long afterwards, Florin and his wife arrived in Karaburun together with the Oprea couple. I still have a photograph of the four friends standing beside their car in front of Mimas Garden.
The note they wrote together in our guestbook on 30 August 1998 tells what they found after all those questions in the first email. They described Karaburun as a “nice and quiet place” and called the view from the balcony “marvellous.” They wrote that they had enjoyed their stay very much and would like to return as soon as they could.
They also left us a simple sentence:
“You are nice people, friendly and helpful.”
And they wished us to stay that way.
Our contact with Florin did not end completely when the holiday was over. On 14 December 1998 I received another email from him. He thanked me for the good wishes I had sent and wished me and my family success, good health and happiness.
There is a small detail in that message that has special meaning for me today. He also remembered our daughter Nergis and wrote that he wished her success at university. A correspondence that had begun a few months earlier with questions about the price of an apartment and its facilities had by then become personal enough for a member of our family to be mentioned by name.
Florin also wrote:
“You are very professional and kind at the same time, and I appreciate that.”
He added that during his travels in Greece, Italy and Turkey he had met few people like us.
Today, twenty-eight years later, I do not remember many details of the days Florin and his friends spent in Karaburun. Perhaps that is exactly where the value of this archive becomes clear. A few days that have faded in my memory become visible again through an email, a photograph and a page in our guestbook.
The story began on 14 August with an email from Romania asking about the price, the kitchen, parking and the distance to the sea. On 30 August it had become a guestbook note about the view from the balcony. A few months later it had become a message remembering Nergis and wishing her success at university.
This is often what remains from the early years of Mimas Garden: first a reservation, then a brief encounter, and years later a few small traces that bring that encounter back to life.