One big holiday?

Posted on August 24, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

I live in a tourist destination, surrounded by sun, sea and sand. But does that mean my life is one big holiday? Definitely not.

I apologise in advance, this will be a rant. There is nothing that frustrates me more than people making comments about how my life must be one big holiday since I live Turkey. Friends, Facebook friends, even family, there have been plenty of people commenting exactly that.

I suppose it depends on what your idea of a holiday is really. To me, and from what I observe of a lot of holiday makers, a holiday in Turkey is a get away from the stresses of home, a week or two in the sun with the ones you love, worrying about nothing more than which restaurant to go to for dinner. Relaxing in the sun, getting a tan and swimming. No worries about paying the bills, no cooking, no cleaning. Room service, restaurants and maids to do all that for you. No working. A fun few weeks abroad, knowing your house and all the familiarity and luxuries of home are waiting for you to return at the end of it. Of course, not all holidays are like that, but this is just my opinion from observations.

Sure, I don’t work, but that is where the similarities between a holiday, and my life end.

The sun is lovely, and I’m lucky to live in a place where it’s guaranteed sunshine for almost 6 months of the year, but the 35 oC+ heat is not so lovely when you don’t have the option of laying around a pool all day. As I have previously mentioned, I don’t have a pool, or air con, so getting up, going to the market, walking everywhere, cooking, cleaning and doing housework in the heat are all part of my everyday life, not something I’d consider part of a holiday. I’ve commented in the past about how much British people love to complain about how it’s too hot to do anything when the temperatures reach 20oC + in the UK, people always reply ‘its different when you’re abroad’ . Its not the country that makes it different, its the lifestyle, of course the temperatures feel a lot different when you don’t have the option of sitting by a pool and doing nothing all day.

We don’t have a holiday lifestyle at all. In the 2.5 years I’ve lived here, I have never been to a bar. We don’t drink alcohol. I’ve been to a seafront restaurant with Berkay a handful of times (unless it’s in a turkish cafe, we do go to those more often). We’ve been swimming a total of 6 times this year (apart from when family were here, and yes, I counted).

I don’t consider spending the majority of time on my own while Berkay is working 15 hours a day, a holiday. It’s isolating. It’s lonely. We never get to spend more than 5 hours a day together, let alone a week or two. I also don’t think people realise just how little money we have, in summer it’s not so bad, £460 a month. I’m willing to bet a person on holiday here would spend that, or more, in a week. Winter in Turkey is the hardest, living off £250 between two people is impossible. Spending the end of every month wondering where our next meal is going to come from, whether or not the internet supplier is going to cut us off if we pay it late, that’s not part of a holiday. Getting into debt with friends in order to pay bills, that’s not part of a holiday.

It’s not a holiday not knowing when you’re going to see your family again, always having to say goodbye to someone, always missing someone, whether it be my parents, brother and sister, my boyfriend or my dog. There is always someone. My holiday is when i go back to the UK with Berkay, I get to spend Christmas with him and my family, stop worrying about money for a few weeks and enjoy the luxuries I had back in England. That is my holiday.

Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m lucky, and of course there are tons of reasons why living in Turkey is great, the good outweighs the bad perhaps, but that is for another post. I know this is the lifestyle I have chosen for myself, for now. I love living here. I know there are millions, billions of people worse off than me. This isn’t a post to make you feel sorry for me, its a post to make you realise living in Turkey is not a holiday. Not for anyone. No more so than living in London- a huge tourist destination, is a holiday for the millions of people who live there.

It is really infuriating to see people dismissing my life as ‘one big holiday’ when that is a million miles away from the truth.

Meet Boncuk..

Posted on August 23, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

What is your pet?
A dog. Don’t know the breed, a mix i guess.

What is their name?
Boncuk (pronounced ‘bon-jook’) It means ‘bead’ in Turkish. I’m not entirely sure why, but apparently it’s a very common name for dogs, cats, budgies.. etc here in Turkey, I assume because of the ‘beady’ eyes? Who knows (:

How old are they?
Not sure when her actual birthday is, but we think she was born sometime at the end of September 2012. We’ve had her since 4th November 2012 and the vet estimated she was 6 weeks old then.

Where did you get them?
Long story. We came home from the market one day and heard a yelping crying downstairs. We looked over the edge of the balcony and saw a tiny pup tied up. We went down to investigate and assumed our landlord had gotten a dog, although she had been left with no food, water and was tied to the balcony railing by a piece of rope around her leg which was cutting off the circulation. It turned out she wasn’t the landlords, he had no idea where she’d come from. He later remembered he had said in a random conversation with a passer by that he wanted a dog to guard his sheep, but nothing more was ever said. We assume the passer by came back with this puppy a few weeks later, but why they didn’t tell anyone and left her with no food or water I have no idea, or perhaps she was just dumped there by someone else. We untied the rope and gave her some water and cuddles, she was shaky and terrified, poor thing. The landlord didn’t want her, but since we fell in love with her, he said we could keep her, as long as she was kept outside. So that’s what we did-built her a home out of old slates, bricks and plastic, and tied her up using a lead I had for my rabbit (don’t ask haha).

She still lives outside now, but she doesn’t mind at all. Berkay has built her a nicer home and we play with and walk her everyday. Having dogs living outside is a bit of a controversial thing I think, but she’s a happy woofer and doesn’t mind at all. (: She always greets us with a waggy tail and only barks if she hears or see’s someone/something unusual.

Here’s some photos from the first few weeks we had her, I can’t believe she was so small.

Do they know any tricks?
Not really tricks, but she knows the standard ‘sit’, ‘lay’ and ‘give paw’. She also knows ‘get your ball’. We’re trying to teach her to ‘wait’ but she’s not quite mastered that yet, too excitable! She only knows English too, despite being Turkish!

Do they snuggle, give kisses, follow you around?
Since she’s not allowed indoors, no she doesn’t follow us around, but she does walk well off the lead. She does love to give kisses yes, it’s made for some quite funny photo attempts.

What are some of the funny things they do to make you laugh?
We walk her at the top of a hill with some old ruins, we often sit on the fallen bricks while she’s running around and she’s started to do a new, funny thing where she’ll get her ball, come running up behind us sitting on the brick wall and jump on our laps for snuggles, ball still in mouth! She makes me smile all the time. It’s also hilarious when she’s just so eager to get the treats that as soon as she sees our hand in the treat bag, instead of waiting for us to say ‘sit’,’lay’ or ‘give paw’, she does all three before the treat has even left the bag, in the hope she’s done something right and won’t have to wait!

She loves eating ice lollies too, not the healthiest thing, but they do a good job of cooling her down.

Berkay is her bestest friend in the world ❤

Stuffed Mushrooms..

Posted on August 22, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

I can’t cook to save my life, but even I can manage these (:
Perfect on the barbeque, yum yum.

Ingredients used:
3 mushrooms
3 garlic cloves chopped/crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
handful of grated cheese

>> Rinse the mushrooms and remove the stems.

>>Peel, crush and chop the garlic cloves. Berkay is the expert at cutting things ridiculously small!

>>Mix in the garlic with the olive oil, add salt if you wish!
Put to one side while the mushrooms are on the BBQ grill.

>>After 5-8 minutes and once the mushrooms are soft, spoon the olive oil/garlic mixture in.
Leave to cook for another 5 minutes.

>>Once they’re almost ready, spoon granted cheese on top and leave til it’s melted.

It couldn’t be simpler! (:
Here’s ours with the rest of our BBQ dinner, köfte (meatballs), Turkish rice, grilled tomato, pepper & onion. We also had the customary loaf of bread on the table of course. (:
Afiyet olsun!

Evim Güzel Evim…

Posted on August 21, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

When I tell people I live in a holiday resort in Turkey, I’m 99% sure they assume I live in fancy apartment with a pool, air-con and all the other luxuries. They couldn’t be more wrong.

View from my house

We live on the 2nd floor of a typical Turkish building. Our landlord lives below us, and below him- his son, daughter in law and grandson. We live a good 20-30 minute walk from main Calis, and 10-15 mins to the nearest bus stop and corner shop. I actually enjoy being further out and more in the countryside, I have lovely views, hardly ever hear a sound (unless it’s coming from an animal) and can wander around on my balcony without worrying scores of people are going to see me.

The views from my balcony, I LOVE watching the sunrise behind the mountains in the mornings.

This is our living room, we never even use this room. In the two+ years we’ve lived here, we’ve only sat in it a handful of times. We did bring the balcony table in here last winter though, it was way too cold to eat outside! Note the lilo in the corner. Haha.

Our bedroom. Fan, bed, chest of drawers. Teddies. What more do you really need?

Spare bedroom. Also known as the ‘bed wardrobe’, it’s never normally as tidy as this, it has a tendency to get covered in clothes, hence the nickname. Note the slanted roof, I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve both hit our heads on that, d’oh!

Kitchen. I’m sure these are the standard cupboards in Turkish houses. I’m forever seeing photos of peoples kitchens and it’s always the same ones. This fridge is the most expensive and newest thing in the house. Funny story about that actually, when we first got it, all our Turkish neighbours invited themselves over to look at it, it was as if we’d had a baby and everyone wanted to get a peek. It was hilarious at the time, I’ve never known anyone get so excited over a fridge. Bless them!

Balcony. We do enjoy our BBQ’s out here.

Our bathroom is a tiny, cupboard sized wet room, tap and shower head opposite a toilet. We also have another toilet of the ‘hole in the floor’ variety.

We don’t have any luxuries, just the basics. No dishwasher, no tumble drier, no microwave, no electric hobs or oven (I do have a mini oven though), we don’t even have a TV (Thank God for laptops and internet!) Aircon is a luxury I only experience when we walk into a supermarket and we don’t have a pool. But what we do have is priceless. Lovely views, friendly neighbours, wildlife & animals everywhere and tons of fresh fruit and vegetable plants and trees in the garden. Pears, apples, grapes, lemons, peaches, plums, oranges, grapefruits, onions, potatoes, corn and pumpkin to name but a few.

Pears and grapes growing in our garden.

We practically live on a farm, surrounded by sheep, goats, chickens, horses, cows, camels..etc.

My landlord owns these chickens, sheep and goats. He sells the sheep during Bayram.

Our house is nothing special, far from it, and we only rent. But it’s been our home for the past two and a half years and I love it. I can’t imagine anyone else cooking their dinner in our kitchen, eating their dinner on our balcony, sleeping in our room.

It’s going to break my heart to leave next month.

A not-so-typical Monday

Posted on August 20, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

Today I managed to wake Berkay up at a reasonable time (3 pm- he works nights!!) So we made the most of it and went for a late afternoon swim at the beach with our dog. (:

Anyone who knows me will know that this is a rare thing, we hardly ever go swimming or do anything remotely ‘touristy’, despite living in a holiday resort and being a 20 minute walk away from the sea. It makes a nice change from boring day to day stuff every now and then though.

Before we went, we had lunch. Fresh fish, boiled potatoes with Nando’s sprinkles (Oh boy do I miss Nandos!!) and salad. Yum.

Calis Beach. It’s not all that pretty, no sand, just big stones and shingle, and the water has a lot of sea weed in it, but other than that, it’s a nice place to have a swim. The beach was fairly busy today, we walked around for a while to find an empty spot because we had the dog with us… As it turned out, she wasn’t the only animal on the beach, just as we got there these two camels came wandering along. They live near our house and I quite often walk past and talk to them. ”Hello camels”. Berkay thinks I am nuts. I’ll let you decide whether he’s right or not…

We all went for a little dip, we only had Boncuk (the dog) in there for a few minutes just to cool her off (:

Then she got out with Berkay and they had cuddles while watching the waves. She even gave him kisses, haha. Bless.

We didn’t stay long, it was too hot and we had to get back for Berkay to go to work. Poor fella does work hard, I give him that!
Still, it made a nice change, really should go swimming more often, with a beach this close it’s rude not to really, isn’t it? (:

Boncuk enjoyed her afternoon too!

Market Day Treats..mmm.

Posted on August 20, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

After walking around carrying bags of fruit & veg, what better way to cool down and recover than to stop at one of the little cafe van/trailers in the market area. Good food, cheap prices and friendly people. (I LOVE market days, can you tell?)

This is another of our Tuesday/Sunday traditions. Going to the market and getting a traditional Turkish pancake (gözleme). Yum. They come in lots of flavours, sweet or savory. My favourite is the simple lemon sugar pancake, but I’m also a lover of the meat ones! They’re all freshly made in front of your eyes and are a million miles away from the pancakes us English know and love.

kıymalı gözleme (mince meat) lemon, sugar & icecream gözleme

These are more like very thin pastry folded in half, filled with your choice of topping and served warm. Lovely.

There are tons of other Turkish foods available too, döner (chicken/salad in a half bread), peynirli bazlama (special bread with cheese in) and for the adventurous, kokoreç (lamb or goat intestines, usually served in a half bread!) ~~Yuck.~~

peynirli bazlama

Lets not forget the drinks too, you’ll see piles of fresh fruits outside the trailers waiting to be juiced, pomegranates, oranges etc, as well as the usual soft drinks. They also have the Turkish drink Ayran (made with yogurt, water and salt). I’m not a fan, ~~to me it just tastes like sour milk~~ but my boyfriend loves it. Apparently it’s refreshing and good for you as the salt helps you keep hydrated. It is an acquired taste for sure. My ultimate favourite drink to cool us down though, is kar şerbeti (literally- snow sherbet). This is basically a slush puppy. Only different. It’s made with snow, actual, real snow bought down from the mountains. They knock a chunk of snow off, stick it in a bowl and crush it up (using elbow grease, not a machine!) they then and add your choice of flavoured syrup, (cherry, grape, lemon, strawberry, orange etc…) This is so refreshing on a hot day, even with the brain freeze that often results from drinking/eating it too quickly!

ayran kar şerbeti

Market Day, hip hip hooray!

Posted on August 19, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

One of the best things about living in Turkey (besides the sunshine! ) is the cheap, fresh fruit and vegetables. And there is no better place to get them than at the weekly markets.

Instead of heading to the air conditioned big supermarket’s like Kipa (Tesco) or Migros, and buying perfect size/shape fruits and vegetables, we buy the same things for a much cheaper price in the market. In fact, we manage to do most, if not all, of our weekly shop there. Granted, the experience of being pushed and shoved through crowds of people in 35oC+ heat under tents, haggling to get everything a couple of lira cheaper is a little stressful, but it’s all part of the experience, and I love it.

The market’s are held every Sunday in Çalis, and every Tuesday in Fethiye. We always go in the late evening, it’s cooler and as everyone starts to pack up it’s much easier to haggle a good price ( just shout ‘‘Aksam fiyati” at them) It’s all undercover so no need to worry about getting burnt, although it’s still very hot under there.

Fethiye market is the largest, and best. It is popular with tourists, but you’ll easily spot the thousands of locals doing their weekly shop there too. There are hundreds (literally) of stalls filled with fruit, vegetables, herbs, plants, even fresh milk and olive oil packaged into empty coke bottles from the villages. You have to see it to believe just how impressive it really is. Everything is done by kilograms, if you went to the market for just a couple of tomatoes, the stall holder would look at you like you had two heads. We normally buy several kilograms of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers, etc. I think my arms have grown a few inches with the amount I carry home! You really have to look around for the best prices, it’s not uncommon for us to spot tomatoes for 2tl and walk up and down for another 10 minutes until we find some for 50 krs (15p) cheaper (every little helps, and all that!) It’s all part of the fun.

There’s also a ~~very smelly~~ cheese section of the market, a section with bags full of spices, a meat & egg section, and my favourite part – the Turkish delight (Lokum) section. Yum. Most will offer you free samples too.

Past the food section there is a little area with tables, chairs, and vans selling Turkish pancakes etc. Another post coming about that soon.

Beyond all that, is the section mainly for tourists. It’s practically non existent in winter when everyone has gone home! Here you can find everything you’d want for a souvenir. Bracelets, watches, keyrings, sunhats, sunglasses, shoes, towels, bedding, blankets, baby clothes, t-shirts, football shirts, dresses, belts, bags, wallets, even pots and pans. You name it, they’ve got it. Be careful though, don’t be fooled by the Nike or Adidas badges, the football shirts, the Versace or Chanel sunglasses. They are not real. They are lovingly known as ‘genuine fakes’, a little joke among stall holders and customers. Walking along, you’ll hear ‘cheap as chips’, ‘primark prices’ shouted at you from all directions, but there shouldn’t be too much hassle. If you’re not interested, make it clear, but it’s always fun to join in the banter. Once you’ve found something you do like, NEVER pay what they ask, always haggle. Don’t be afraid, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, and the stall holders expect it. My best advice is to take a local Turkish person along with you, if someone is there who can speak Turkish, you’ll get a better deal. Sad, but true.

We don’t often buy clothes or other goods from the market, just food. But when my family come to visit, they always go home with a few bags of goodies. If you’re passing by, or need a break from the pool for a few hours (yea right!) visit the market to see exactly what i’m talking about.

If nothing else, its an experience.

Dinner with Friends..the Turkish way.

Posted on August 18, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

Pilav (Turkish rice) , Sebzeli tavuk (a chicken dish) , salad, yogurt, and bread.

When you picture a celebratory dinner with friends, what do you imagine? A group of people sitting at a table, each with their own plate of food? That’s what a lot of people consider normal, at least back in the UK (although you could argue dinner on a tray in front of the tv is more normal for some! ;o) ) That is not the common thing here in Turkey. Dinner time is special.

Back in May, we went to our Turkish friends’ wedding. What an experience that was! (expect a post about that soon!!) A few days ago, they told us the good news that they are expecting their first baby.. or babies. They’re pregnant with twins! To celebrate, us, and a few of their family members went to their house for dinner.

In Turkey, dinner time is family time, and traditionally food is eaten while sat on the floor. After working long hours and being away from the home all day, the entire family gathers around a blanket on the floor. A tray containing plates of food, a few loaves of fresh bread & a pile of cutlery is placed on the blanket and everyone tucks in, often sharing a plate between two or more people. Turkish people are very family orientated, I suppose why not share? On this particular occasion, we even shared drink glasses. I know what you’re thinking, I can hear you gasping in horror. I must admit, it used to bother me too. After a while, you get used to it. I actually have a lot of respect for this way of eating now. It’s special. The whole family gathered on the floor sharing food, no distractions, no greed. Everyone eats what they want. It’s practical more than anything else, less waste, and of course less washing up ;0)

One thing I will say, however.. It gives you terrible pins & needles. Oww.
xx

A little about me..

Posted on August 18, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

So here I am. Danni. 21 years old. An English girl living abroad. Why? Well… You’ve all heard the typical holiday romance stories, right? I’m living one.

Up til the age of 19, I lived a pretty normal life. Born and raised in Essex, England. I left college with great grades, decided to go on a foreign holiday with my best friend to celebrate, and from then on in, everything changed.
While on holiday, I met a Turkish guy. To cut a long story short, 9 months later, and only having spent 2 full weeks together in that period, I moved to Turkey to be with him. Looking back, I’m suprised my family let me go through with it, I can’t even remember how the ‘Mum, Dad..I’m moving 4000 miles away’ conversation went, I think I must have tucked that little memory up deep inside somewhere. But I do remember it caused a lot of issues. Everyone thought I was naive, family members were wary, and I nearly lost some very good friends because of my decision.
That was in 2011. Now, over two years later, I’m still here. Still happy, still in love, and still living my own little holiday romance story. Do I regret it? Not at all. Things are not as I imagined they would be, no way. But I don’t regret it a bit.
I’ve always been a girl of few words, too shy for my own good, but I mean what I say, and say what I mean. I figured a blog would be the perfect place me to discuss things I’m passionate about, and give people an insight into what life is really like living in a foreign country far away from family, friends and everything I’ve ever known…

More than anything, it’s just a space for me and my thoughts.