'I moved 2,000 miles from Birmingham to Turkey after falling in love with a holiday rep'

Erin Milton, from Birmingham, moved to Turkey after she met Aymen Boudjouraf
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A woman who fell ''madly in love'' with a holiday rep during a girls trip to Turkey has moved 2,000 miles to start a new life with him.

When Erin Milton, 21, fell for a holiday entertainer, Aymen Boudjouraf, 24, in September 2022. The pair first came in contact after the club rep invited Erin and a pal on a disco bar crawl around Antalya, Turkey, on day one of their trip.

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They spent the rest of the holiday together and after returning home ''heartbroken'', Erin made the spontaneous decision to move to Turkey just two months later. The loved up pair are now engaged and living together in Tunisia, Africa. Erin, from Birmingham, said: ''There was an instant connection between me and Aymen.

''As soon as I got back to the UK, I just didn't feel happy and I just knew that I wanted to be over there with him. Now we're engaged and can't wait to start the rest of our lives together.''

After returning home from her £1k, 7-day holiday, Erin felt ''lost'' with out her new boyfriend. The pair spent hours each day on the phone to each other but after two months of separation, Erin, an online English teacher, decided to drop out of her Birmingham City University course.

She plucked up the courage to tell her parents and bought a £70 one-way plane ticket to Turkey, departing 48 hours later.

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Erin Milton and Aymen BoudjourafErin Milton and Aymen Boudjouraf
Erin Milton and Aymen Boudjouraf

After Erin arrived in Turkey, the couple spent a week living in a hotel before moving into a £150 a month apartment, but it was during the first three weeks that she began to feel "lonely".

She said: "Aymen took the first two days off of work to show me around the area and to teach me the basics of the Turkish language. But after that, he was working seven days a week, and although the neighbours would often come over, I felt lonely being in the apartment all day on my own.''

Four months later the couple uprooted again and settled in Guzeloba, Turkey.

Erin said: "We were so happy there because it was a lovely area and the community were great.

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''But in February 2023, my work applied for a residency visa for me and I had a text two months later to say that this was declined. I felt my whole come crashing down, and I cried for days because I was scared we were going to be separated.

"I had to move back to England at the end of April for three months whilst I waited for my tourist visa to renew.''

Three months later, in August 2023, she was reunited with Aymen- only to find his residency in Turkey had been declined after three years of living in the country. The pair had just 10 days to find somewhere else to live but "complications" forced them to over stay their visas for four months.

The pair first came in contact after the club rep invited Erin and a pal on a disco bar crawl around AntalyaThe pair first came in contact after the club rep invited Erin and a pal on a disco bar crawl around Antalya
The pair first came in contact after the club rep invited Erin and a pal on a disco bar crawl around Antalya

"We had so much to sort out in such a short time and it was impossible to do in 10 days," Erin said. "As Aymen has an Algerian passport, there were a lot of countries that were already off of the list but, we were not going to let this break us.

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"After days of searching, we discovered that Tunisia was there best option, and even though neither of us had visited the country before, we were determined to make it work.''

On 11 September 2023, Aymen, who now works as translator, proposed to Erin after renting out a private beach.

A month later they moved to Tunisia to start their new life together. She said: "The proposal was magical, of course I said yes. We were surrounded by roses, the ocean and it was just perfect.

"It made me realise that no matter what, we were going to be fine because our love for each other was so strong.' Everyone said a holiday romance would never last, but just look at us now.''

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