300,000 views & a thank you giveaway..

Posted on March 11, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

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I recently hit 300,000 views on my blog, a massive milestone and something I can’t really comprehend! 300,000 times someone has clicked onto my website to read what I have to say!

I have made great friendships through sharing my experiences on here, and can’t count the number of times I’ve received emails or messages from readers telling me they can relate to certain aspects of my ‘story’ or providing advice and reassuring me that everything will work out in the end. It’s a great support network and whether you read my blog because you can relate, because you’re just curious about the topics I discuss and story I share, or to just see some photos of the places we all know and love, I’m grateful for everyone who clicks onto http://www.livingtheturkishdream.com and interacts with me.

As a teeny, tiny thanks, I’m doing a giveaway. The prizes aren’t anything too exciting, just small token thank you’s.

There are 3 main prizes, to signify each 100,000 views. Since the majority of people who read my blog presumably have an interest in Turkey, all the prizes are Turkish/holiday themed.

The first prize is these 3 necklaces with a Turkish ‘evil eye’ or ‘nazar boncuğu’ theme – one is a small gemstone, the other is a Hamsa (also known as the Hand of Fatima) which is thought to provide protection from the evil eye, and the third in the shape of an eye with the famous blue bead in the middle, also thought to protect the holder from evil. These are really dainty and cute and a definite reminder of good old Turkey, you can’t go anywhere without seeing the nazar there, people hang them in houses, lay them into pavements, pin them on their children’s clothes, on cars… everywhere. I love these necklaces so much I think I’ll have to go and buy some for myself!

The 2nd prize is another with a nazar theme, one of the many blue glass stones, you can never have too many of these in your house! A pair of sparkly earrings with a nazar design, and a bracelet to match.

The 3rd prize is one of the below, the winner can chose which they prefer and I’ll make it to suit them. Either a mounted, glittery map of Turkey, with small gems stuck onto whichever resorts or cities of the country that mean something to you. Mine has a heart over Fethiye, since that is my favourite place in the world. Perhaps you had a special holiday in a particular area, perhaps Istanbul holds your heart or you have a long distance relationship with someone in another part of the country? It’s a good piece to display on the wall and a constant reminder of Turkey and just where those special memories were made.

The other choice is a mounted, personalised word cloud, it will be totally unique to you with family names, hotel names or words that remind you of your holidays. Shapes, colours, words and fonts can all be edited to suit you and the things that are important to you. Another lovely piece to display on the wall and remind you of your holidays.

There will also be 5 photo key rings sent out as mini-prizes.

To enter, all you have to do is comment on this blog post – it has to be on here directly (scroll down and click leave comment). I’ll choose the winners at random using a random number/name generator. Winners will be chosen after 8pm on Sunday 15th March and will be announced on here via a new post. I know there are people who read my blog from all over the world, but the giveaway will only be open to UK & Ireland residents due to postage costs overseas.

A little disclaimer, I paid for these prizes with my own money, they were not given to me. There is no fee to enter and winners will be chosen entirely at random, it is not a competition, just a lucky draw.

Thank you all so much once again, and good luck.

Army start date and a new home for Boncuk…

Posted on January 23, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

This week Berkay received his army start date – 4th February. That means there’s no more putting it off, in 11 days time he’ll be starting his 12 month national service. He’s been given Izmir as his training base, he’ll stay there for the first 3 ish weeks working in ‘transportation’ and then where he’s going after that we’re not sure.

He’s going to his family’s village on Saturday and will stay there until 4th Feb. Its tradition for friends, family (and pretty much every single person in the village) to visit the men before they go to the army and give them a small amount of money, they also usually have a ceremony in the town centre for all the men going to do their service as they have 3-4 intakes a year. I went to the ceremony when one of Berkay’s brothers went to the army, it was way out of my comfort zone, all the men on the outside of the square, all the men in the middle saying a prayer and going up and shaking the hands of the men about to join the army.. followed by everyone driving around in cars with huge Turkish flags draped over them and beeping their horns as they drive around the streets. Madness, passionate and very patriotic, I suppose it’s an exciting time for them, going to do their national service is a rite of passage for Turkish men, something everyone has to do.

Obviously Berkay going in the army means we needed to find a new home for Boncuk for a year, the plan was for her to go to Berkay’s family in the village, but when his dad couldn’t come and pick them up in his truck due to work, it meant we had no way of transporting Boncuk for the 4-5 hour journey – if only the buses allowed dogs on board! I had a last minute panic about where she’d go but luckily Berkay got permission from our friends (and their landlord) to allow her to stay in their garden. They’re our best friends out there, the ones I’ve mentioned previously with the twin babies, and I’m confident she’ll be looked after well. I just hope their own circumstances don’t change, because whilst I’m sure they’ll grow to love her, they won’t ever be as attached to her as we are!
After one last walk along Calis beach together, Berkay packed up the dog kennel and transported her the 20 minute journey to her new home… seeing her kennel all loaded up made me really sad but Berkay spoke with me on FaceTime afterwards and showed me Boncuk settled in her new home and she seemed happy enough. She had already made friends with the man looking after her as he’d given her a few plates of food and if there’s a sure way to win Boncuk’s heart its through a bowl of food or a game of fetch!

I feel so sorry for Boncuk, she has no idea that she won’t see Berkay for a long time, and she is probably already wondering where I disappeared to, I hope she doesn’t think we’ve abandoned her, if I could have her here in the UK with me I would! She always looks so happy when she’s with Berkay. I also feel really sad for her that she’s going from having free reign of the hotel all winter, to being tied up in the garden.. but she’ll be safe, fed, watered and have shelter and that’s a lot more than a lot of the dogs out there have. At least we know where she is, and I can contact her new ‘foster family’ on Facebook to check how she’s doing and get photo updates.

Be good Boncuk, wait for us.. 53 weeks and counting… ❤

Happy Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Although I still can’t quite believe it’s Christmas eve already and I still doesn’t feel very festive at all, I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

My Turkish friends and family don’t celebrate Christmas, but trees, decorations and Father Christmas’ can be seen in shops and restaurants as they have begun to associate these festive things with new yeear rather than Christmas itself. Before I left Turkey, we had one last trip to Erasta shopping centre and was surprised to see a fully decorated Christmas tree!

Berkay isn’t here with me for Christmas this year and having spent the last 3 together, it’s going to be hard. Still, I’m grateful I have family to spend it with, especially my over-excited 3 year old sister who is a very good distraction – I can’t wait to see her face on Christmas morning and embrace my inner child by playing with her toys!

For Berkay, Christmas doesn’t mean much, it will just be like any other day, he’ll be working and spending the evening alone with Boncuk. Before I left Turkey I dressed her up in a Santa hat and tinsel, my very own little Santa Paws, she wasn’t too impressed though.

Thank you all for reading, sharing, liking and commenting on my blog, it is much appreciated. Once the busy festive period is over I shall be back posting regularly hopefully, and although I’m already wishing 2015 to be over with and 2016 to arrive, I hope it’s a happy, healthy one for us all.

Happy holidays.

Autumn in Calis – waggy tails, pretty flowers & cold pools..

Posted on November 16, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I’m sat writing this watching the lightening flash through my windows and the rain pelting down on the roof, but yesterday was the first day of bad weather we’ve had for 3 weeks, November has been spoiling us with daytime temperatures of around 24oc, although the evenings are very cool, I’ve even managed to get tan lines back!

November meant the hotel Berkay worked in closed, so he has been looking for work since, he’s found a temporary job at the moment but the pay is so bad and unreliable, I don’t think he’ll stay there long. We’ve been spending some much needed time together and alot of that time has been spent at the closed hotel, playing with Boncuk!

As soon as she sees us approaching the hotel she comes running over to us with a fast wagging tail. We sit for ages with her and play ball, she’s begun to love the water and has been running in and out of the shallow pool although all this rain we’ve had today probably means it will be slimy and green very soon as its not cleaned during the winter season …

We even braved the pool ourselves last week, I don’t know what possessed us, it was absolutely freezing! It was a particularly warm day for November, around 25oc, but the pool water was definitely not warm. It was the first time we’ve been swimming in over a month, Berkay jumped straight in but his face said it all, I eased myself in and after about 20 minutes ended up in the deep end although only for a couple of minutes as it really was so cold, it made my head hurt!

The hotel grounds aren’t very well kept in the winter, although there are still some beautiful flowers around at the moment keeping the place looking summery and cheerful.

Boncuk absolutely loves it there, when we walk past to get the bus to Fethiye we can see her through the fence wandering around and enjoying herself, although it breaks my heart everytime we leave her she runs up and down the length of the fence poking her face through the holes and crying for us. She knows now when it’s time to leave and runs in front of us trying to stop us getting to the exit, bless her! She’s being really spoilt with attention at the moment.

Just before I started writing this post, we popped down to the hotel to feed Boncuk and place her back in her kennel as she’s safer in there during this bad weather. The underneath of the hotel was all flooded and Berkay had to turn pumps on to get rid of all the water, it’s funny how quickly the weather changes, I hope the sun arrives back on Monday as forecast!

Happy 2 years Boncuk!

Posted on November 6, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

The 3rd of November marked 2 years since we found and adopted our little Boncuk.

We were sat on our balcony when we heard a puppy crying, we couldn’t see where it was coming from so went downstairs to investigate, and that’s where we found Boncuk!

She was tied to a post outside our apartment block, tied up with a piece of rope around one of her legs so tightly she couldn’t move it… she had no food or water and had just been left. We called our landlord down from his apartment asked why there was a dog outside, he had no idea either, but said we could keep it as long as it stayed outside. He later remembered that a friend of a friend had asked him if he wanted a puppy and he said he’d consider it… so we assume they took that as a yes and just dumped her there a few weeks later, but we don’t know for sure.

Luckily we had a tiny lead and harness that we used for my rabbit (don’t ask…!) and it was the perfect size for the tiny puppy, so we used that to keep her tied somewhere safe. Our landlord and Berkay made a shelter for her from an old vegetable crate, bricks, plastic and some hay, and then we headed off to the pet shop to buy some dog food and a proper lead.

We decided to name the puppy Boncuk, Berkay chose it, it means ‘bead’ but apparently is a very common and unoriginal name for pets in Turkey, I’m not entirely sure of the relevance! Funny story – for 3 months we thought Boncuk was a boy… don’t even ask how that happened…

Looking back on photos I can’t believe how tiny she was. The vet estimated that she was around 5-6 weeks old. I remember her running around with Berkay’s shoe which was bigger than her! She looked so sad and had the biggest, cutest eyes. I love her ‘broken’ nose – it’s always been like that, half black and half patchy pink…unique!

Two years on, she still looks exactly the same, only much bigger, with longer legs and an extra 11kgs in weight! She still has the same facial expressions, this is her sulky face, she still does this when we give her a wash or take her to the vet!

She was the cutest little puppy ever, and is now the most beautiful grown up doggy… but still very naughty! We love you Boncuk (:

Fethiye, waffles & saying goodbye to summer..

Posted on November 2, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

It was Berkay’s last day at his summer job on Thursday and although he is already looking for work elsewhere, we are enjoying a well earned few days together.

The hotel is now closed which means Boncuk has taken up residence inside the grounds once again, she absolutely loves being free to wander around, explore and keep the hotel guard company. After breakfast this morning we went to visit her and spent an hour playing fetch and running around, she even had a little swim. She was so happy and kept doing excited little bunny hops. I made a short 1 minute video of clips of her bouncing around and having a dip, click HERE if you want to watch that. I just love how she’s sitting on me with her paws crossed, so elegant!

In the afternoon we caught the bus to Fethiye and headed straight to a place I’d been wanting to try for a few weeks. One of my friends mentioned a few weeks ago how she loves the waffles they sell in Turkey, and I never even realised they existed here or were so popular. Then I saw a new waffle cafe had opened in Fethiye and I knew I had to pay a visit! It’s near the blue culture centre in the Fethiye town square area, and is called ‘Renk Waffle’. They had a small menu to chose from but I’m sure you could adapt the toppings to suit your taste. Berkay chose a waffle covered in chocolate spread with kiwi, banana, strawberries and chopped hazelnuts, drizzled in chocolate sauce, and I had one covered with pistachio spread, banana, kiwi, walnuts, pistachio nuts and drizzled in caramel sauce. They were absolutely huge but delicious, and very unhealthy, probably a lot more than half a days recommended calorie intake! They were priced at 8tl and 8.50tl, which was reasonable considering the size of them. We washed them down with a glass of freshly made lemonade/limonata, and then sat for a while with a glass of Turkish tea. We had a lovely view of the town square where children were playing and people were skateboarding and rollerblading.

After recovering from our huge calorie intake slightly, we thought we best work some of it off so we went for a walk around the marina and through the Paspatur area of Fethiye, along all the little back streets. We once again found ourselves looking up at the brightly coloured umbrellas and taking photos, they are just so beautiful even if they are now a bit faded and battered from recent storms. Some of the umbrellas had even been closed up, I suspect they’ll take them all down soon, sadly – they really brighten up the place.

We made a quick stop off in LC Waikiki as I was in desperate need of some warm clothes as I have none here with me. I only bought a long sleeved jumper and a pair of jogging bottoms, but both will be very useful as I am definitely feeling the change in weather lately, especially in the evenings. Brr. We then took another detour, this time through the fish market where Berkay was hoping to find work in one of the restaurants. He didn’t have much luck, although he did hand out his name and number to some of the bosses, so fingers crossed a position opens up, unsurprisingly nobody really wants to take on new staff during the winter period. While we were there they were unloading some new crates of fish, check out the size of this one! It had the most beautiful, shiny scales, I felt quite sorry for it really… but not too much as we bought a few of his friends for our dinner.

The trees have started to change colour here now, yellow and orange leaves are starting to form and drop, they made a perfect frame for the mosque and I couldn’t resist taking a photo as we were walking back to the bus station.

I say this at the start of every month, but I really can’t believe it’s November already. This time next month I’ll probably be back in England, and in just 3 months time Berkay will be heading off to the army. Let’s just hope the next year passes as quickly as this past one has eh? I suspect it won’t.

Yuvarlakçay, swings & Fethiye at twilight…

Posted on October 11, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Two weeks ago we rented a car for the 5th time this summer and went on another little adventure! (We have actually rented a car again since, I’m very behind with my posts!)

I’d seen a lot of people posting photos from a lovely looking place called ‘Yesil Vadi restaurant‘ in Yuvarlakçay near Köyceğiz. It has thousands of ‘likes’ on Facebook so I was interested to see what the fuss was about! One thing that I was particularly looking forward to was the swing over the water that I’d seen people posing on.

We headed off and were driving for what seemed like forever. It took around 1.5 hours to get there, and the last stretch of the journey was the worst, going through winding, bumpy dirt track roads into a forest area. Eventually we came to a few sign posts directing us to different restaurants, the way the restaurants were all signposted, copying each others names and design and no real evidence as to which was the ‘original’ reminded me of the Yakapark area near Saklikent, with all the restaurants in close proximity and some being better than others… We followed the signpost and entry sign into ‘Yesil Vadi Yuvarlakçay restaurant’ and sat down at a table near the water – it looked pretty, but I wasn’t too impressed. The swing looked nothing like ones I’d seen people having fun on in photos. We asked for a menu and intended to eat lunch there, but after discussing the food with the staff, decided to go elsewhere. We got back in the car and drove to another signposted restaurant just a couple of minute’s drive away. Again we sat down at a table next to the water and asked for the menu, we were unimpressed and found it expensive so we got up and walked back to the car again. By this point we were bored of driving around wasting time and were very hungry, so we stopped at one final restaurant and stuck with it. I didn’t even look at the name as we were getting so stressed and bothered! Undoubtedly though, this was the best restaurant we had been to out of the 3 we visited in that short space of time. We chose a space, one of those traditional Turkish type seating areas where you remove your shoes, sit on a floor cushion and eat from a low table – I love eating this way even if it does give me pins and needles more often than not! We had a nice view and it was so relaxing listening to and watching the flow of water whilst sitting under the refreshing shade of the trees that surrounded us.

We ordered some lunch, Berkay had köfte (meatballs) and I had chicken saute – although it was unlike any other chicken saute I’d had before, but it was nice regardless. While we were eating I noticed some people having a lot of fun on a swing on the other side of the water and this got me very excited, this is what I’d been wanting to try all along!

After sitting for a while and watching, we crossed a bridge to the other side of the river and stood staring at the swing, trying to pluck up the courage to have a go. It looked terrifying, the swing was literally an old branch tied with roop and hooked over a strong tree branch above. As you swing, you soar a few meters above the freezing cold flowing river below. I was scared of falling in or that it wouldn’t hold my weight, so I made Berkay go first to test it. He sat down, walked backwards and swung out with a massive smile on his face. It looked so much fun, so I decided it was safe to give it a go myself and I absolutely loved it, even though I did let off a little scream the first time! I love swings anyway, I’m a big kid, I find it so relaxing, so swinging over this water surrounded by all the beautiful trees was amazing and great fun.

As we were heading back to the car we noticed another part of the restaurant, there was a large area of water away from the flow of the river, it was more like a pool, again totally surrounded by large beautiful trees. We noticed a family were playing on another swing, this time it looked stronger and ‘safer’, with a wider piece of wood to sit on. We stood watching for a while then the family went back to sit down and freed the swing up for us to use. I made Berkay go first again, and he made it look so much fun I thought I’d have another go too. The first few swings went well… until I tried to stop it. My foot slipped down the muddy bank and although my bum was half off the swing, I was still clinging onto the sides for dear life, obviously the swing didn’t stop so it swung out over the water again and I fell off. I could hear the family watching gasping before it happened, I think they were quite concerned… then it turned to giggles and laughter as I actually fell into the freezing water, Berkay was standing on the side in fits of giggles, all he thought to do was take photos of me! Thankfully I saw the funny side and luckily I had taken all my valuables out of my pockets, so I was also in fits of giggles, even though it was highly embarrassing. I got out and tried to walk away pretending like nothing had happened, although my soaking wet denim shorts dripping all the way back to the car proved otherwise…

We decided we’d had enough excitement for a while, and drove back towards Fethiye. We went to Hisaronu, as I’d heard via Facebook that one of the hotel’s with a waterpark attached was advertising free entry for the rest of the season, so we thought it’d be rude not to take advantage! We went to this waterpark back in June and had a great time, although it was very busy. This time it wasn’t busy at all and it seemed a lot different than before, there were no lifeguards and no staff supervising the slides which made me a little nervous, people tend to act like loons on unsupervised waterslides! Thankfully it wasn’t busy so there weren’t many nutters… apart from Berkay perhaps. This photo is of him WALKING down a waterslide because he got stuck, he literally had to walk from top to bottom, THREE times! I found it absoultely hilarious, while I had no issue sliding down on my bum at a good speed, there he was just taking a casual walk down it. Brilliant. We only stayed for an hour, but we had a good time, we’re thankful that some places do deals like this every so often as it means we get to go to places we wouldn’t usually because of how much they cost.

It was around 4pm at this point and we wanted to go for a BBQ so we went home to get our picnic things and also stopped by the hotel to pick up Boncuk! She hates being in cars, so it was quite an experience for her. She wouldn’t get in at first, she sat down outside the door and wouldn’t come inside, when she eventually did she kept trying to climb on my lap! I tried to explain to her that dogs are supposed to like sitting in cars with their heads out of the window and ears flapping in the wind, so she settled for having her two front paws on my knees and her head sticking out of the window (don’t worry, I had her lead her and was holding on tightly)… how worried does her little face look? Bless her!

We arrived at Aksazlar bay, parked the car and unpacked. Boncuk had never been on a BBQ picnic with us before so she was very confused! We hooked her lead under the foot of the bench so that she’d be safe. Normal dogs would sniff the ground, maybe lay down and have a sleep or dig a hole in the dirt right? Not Boncuk, nope, she climbed up onto the bench seat and would not get down. She wondered what on earth was going on and sat on the bench watching everything we were doing, wondering what smelt so good! I can’t believe how good she was, I thought she’d be barking and jumping around all over the place, but she was a very well behaved doggy, so she got some of our leftovers and chicken bones. We had chicken wings and our favourite aubergine salad, which I’ve previously written a recipe post for. Click HERE for that.

By the time we had finished it was starting to get dark, we packed up the car and decided to take the long way back to Fethiye by driving along the road along the cliff edge, going past Letoonia and overlooking the many bays below. Driving high up and so close to the cliff edge was terrifying, especially as it got darker as there are no street lights, but it offered brilliant views across to Fethiye and out to sea. We just missed the sunset but caught the sky at twilight, which looked stunning.

We’re so lucky that we’ve been able to rent a car so often this year, we borrow it from our friend and get a great deal, we pay 50tl a day and it runs on LPG rather than diesel or petrol so it’s very cheap to run. I love being able to explore a little and take photos of beautiful places – I took over 500 photos on this day alone!

One year ago today, leaving Turkey & the army..

Posted on September 27, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This time last year I had just landed in England after packing up two years of my life and removing all traces of myself from my house here in Turkey. That was the worst day of my life so far, without question.

I remember crying from the minute I walked out of my front door, said goodbye to my dog and got in the car, to the moment I went through passport control at the airport, and then again regularly during the flight, especially when taking off and seeing Turkey, Berkay and Boncuk getting further and further away from me through the plane window. Actually thinking about it now still makes me want to burst into tears!

People normally look back and say ‘look how far we’ve come in the past year’, for me I’m still stuck in the same place. I stuck it out in England for 8 months working and decided to give it up to move back here for the summer, it’s nearly October now and I’m facing packing up and leaving my home, dog and Berkay all over again. I’m hoping it will be easier second time around but somehow I think that’s just unrealistic, wishful thinking.

Even though I’m still stuck in the same place and haven’t moved on at all in the past year, I don’t regret coming back here, even if it means another stupid goodbye… if anything, I regret getting on that plane a year ago, I wish I’d just stayed here for another year instead.

Alas, I am in the same situation, in a month or two I’m going to have to get on the plane again and watch as the things I love get further and further away until they’re just little blurry lights on the ground, tiny dots in a big, big world. It’s something I think about every single day. Everyday I’ll be doing something and catch myself thinking ‘maybe it’s the last time’. Maybe it’s the last time I’ll go to that shop, maybe it’s the last time we’ll eat a certain food, maybe it’s the last time we’ll go to a certain place. It feels like a never ending list of ‘lasts’. It’s awful, it’s constantly in my mind that I’ll be leaving here again one day very soon, a constant, dull, nagging in my brain driving me crazy, but I can’t do anything about it.

Berkay has yet to do his national service for the Turkish army. While we were shopping in Fethiye last week, we walked past the military office, while I went to Migros to buy bread, Berkay went in to enlist for the army. It’s something that is so casual here, it’s mindblowing to me! Every Turkish male has to do national service, it’s a part of their culture, I think Berkay is actually quite excited to go, it bothered him quite a lot that his younger brother completed his service a long time before him. It’s a very important milestone for most Turkish men, I suppose it links back to the pride they have in their country and their flag, they are very patriotic. Anyway, he enlisted and will be going away at the beginning of February 2015. He has to go for a year, a whole 12 months, although I believe he is entitled to a few weeks leave. Depending on where he’s based he should know far enough in advance that I will be able to book time off work to go out and visit him, and obviously I’ll be booking a flight out at the end of January to say bye too.

I really do not know how we’ll cope not being able to talk to each other daily, depending on where he is based he may be able to call me often, but we’re used to seeing each other everyday. Even during the months we were apart, we saw each other everyday on Facetime, skype or via good old MSN webcam in the ‘old’ days. We normally send each other hundreds of Facebook messages each day, ‘I’m awake now, just going to have a shower’ – ‘I’m just waiting for the train’ – ‘I’m in work, what you doing?’ etc, every single day, even while in the same country!! It will be so weird going about my day and not writing Facebook messages to him, of course he won’t have any internet access. I’ll probably still write long old messages to him when I need a rant to someone, but it will be like talking to myself, there will be nobody to answer, nobody to share my day with.

Anyway, the current plan is to leave Turkey in November sometime to find a job, earn and save as much money as possible. I wanted to stay longer and go back just before he goes to the army in February, but we’ll be homeless as we won’t be able to afford rent for our home here in Fethiye as Berkay won’t have a job after mid-end October. If he finds work here in Fethiye for the winter he’ll probably stay under the hotel grounds (even though it’s closed) as he did last year, and if he doesn’t, he’ll head to his village and hopefully find work there and be able to save for 2 months so that he can have some money saved before going to the army, for days off or leave. As for our dog Boncuk, I know I have a lot of concerned readers always asking about her, she’ll be staying with Berkay’s family in his village too, unless I can find her a ‘foster’ home with someone I trust here for a year, but that’s not likely. We won’t abandon her, we want her back as soon as Berkay is out, don’t worry!

I hope to earn as much as possible by the time Berkay has completed his year’s service, and if my income meets the visa requirements, great, if not, that’s fine too, I’ll come back here instead. I’m sick of waiting for our lives to begin, once the army is done that will be a huge weight lifted, I feel like we’re constantly waiting at the moment, we can’t move forward with our lives til that’s out of the way, and once it is, I don’t care which country we’re in, as long as there’s no more waiting involved. People say ‘you’re only young, you’ve got you’re whole lives ahead of you’, which may be true, but it also may not, one of us could drop down dead tomorrow, nobody knows, life is a funny old thing, and if all this long distance, army issues and constant goodbyes has taught me anything, it’s to live everyday to the fullest and enjoy every precious moment!

Wow, what a depressing post this is eh? I haven’t written a personal, ‘thoughts and feelings’ post for a long time, normal, happy, touristy, summery photo posts shall resume shortly, I promise.

Thanks for listening/reading. (: ❤

Fethiye & Çaliş sunsets..

Posted on September 2, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Çaliş beach is known for it’s amazing sunsets. I’m willing to bet that anyone who has ever visited Çaliş will have at least one sunset photo stored in their camera amongst their holiday snaps!

The view of the sunsets in Çaliş are amazing, I’ve posted photos of them a few times in the past, but now that autumn is on the way the sunsets are even more spectacular. In the height of winter the sun sets right in the middle of the horizon alongside ‘Red island’and it makes for fabulous photos! We’re not at that stage yet, the sun still sets slightly behind the mountains, but it’s beautiful all the same.

When we were walking along the promenade a few days ago I captured the sun just before it set around 19.15 – the photos came out so well I didn’t even need to edit them at all. I love how it looks with the silhouette of the palm tree in the foreground.

On Sunday we were in Fethiye around the time the sun started to go down as Berkay arranged to go into work later than usual. He went off to the shop to buy some sunflower seeds ready for the Fethiyespor match we went to and I walked around the park by the marina. The photos of the sun setting behind the bay reflecting off the water looked impressive, especially with the boats. It shone through the water fountains giving them a beautiful red glow too.

If you’re in the Fethiye area, perhaps Olu Deniz, Ovacik or Hisaronu, please take a day trip to Çaliş and experience the sunset for yourself, you won’t be disappointed. You could even get the water taxi boat across from/to Fethiye and get an even better view if you time it just right.

While we’re on the subject of sunsets, this is my favourite photo ever. I took it back in February 2013 when Boncuk was just 4-5 months old, look how fluffy and small she was, I can’t believe how short and stumpy her legs were, they are so long now! This is the best photo I have ever taken and I will be getting it printed on a canvas to put up on my wall when I’m back in England. It’s just perfect.

I will be writing and uploading a new blog post every day this week, I have them all planned out. I’m hoping to reach 200,000 views soon too!
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Swimming, dogs eating ice-cream and man flu!

Posted on August 27, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We haven’t really done much exciting in the past few days as I’ve somehow managed to get a horrible cold, honestly who gets a cold in the middle of summer? I’m feeling much better now though, so here’s just a little recap from the last week!

The temperatures are still as hot as ever, infact I think one day last week was the hottest so far this year with the temperature hitting just over 41oc. On Saturday we decided to go out for lunch, we chose a restaurant attached to a hotel so that we could use their pool afterwards as it was so hot. We always used to use this pool when I first moved here but stopped in 2012 after the infamous 6.2 earthquake that I’m always talking about. Since then, I just always associate it with that day, and was too afraid to go back there. Even when we were there the other day, I had visions of the bar shaking violently, bottles smashing, water jolting out of the pool and everyone running out of their rooms/homes screaming… not good. We had a nice swim this time though, and the pool was almost empty, it was lovely and refreshing even though the water was warm!

When we got home though, I could tell I had the start of a cold, and by Sunday it turned into fully blown man-flu, so I spent the day in bed! On Monday we managed to get out for a little walk with Boncuk, we treated her to an ice-cream which she loves. I know dogs shouldn’t really have ice-cream but she doesn’t seem to have any bad reactions to it, and we literally only give her one every few months. I’ve seen recipe’s for dog-friendly ice-cream, perhaps I should try those? For now, she had a twister lolly.. her favourite! Can’t you just tell how much she’s enjoying it?

We went and sat on a bench in a little park where we managed to sit for 5 minutes before the sprinklers suddenly turned on which made us both jump up, much to the amusement of passers by!

On Tuesday our friends called us and asked us to join them for a swim at one of the bays around the other side of Fethiye – I was still feeling a bit rough, but we went along and enjoyed it, although it was boiling. They drove to one of the bays where we all got out, unpacked the car and were about to step into the sea, when we realised it was filthy. There was rubbish all over the shallow parts which would have made it difficult and unpleasant to swim, so we got back in the car and headed to our trusty old büyük Boncuklu koyu instead. This is always popular with local people and we often go here for BBQ’s with our friends. There aren’t any facilities, but the sea is clean and calm so it’s perfect for swimming. When we got in we were expecting it to be a bit cool, but it wasn’t at all – it was like stepping into a hot bath! Even in the deeper parts, it was still very warm.

We didn’t stay for very long, and stopped off in Fethiye on the way home for some dinner. I had mincemeat pide, yum!

Today we went out for a wander along Calis up to the bridge accross the canal where the taxi-boats run. It was another hot day, around 37 oc, and the heat always causes a haziness across the mountains. I miss the crisp, clear, chilly days of winter!

Tomorrow we’re off on a boat trip, we’re able to go free as the tour group that uses Berkay’s hotel had some extra places – it would be rude not to go along really wouldn’t it? It will definitely be my last boat trip of the year and I’m not sure if/when I’ll get to visit next year, so I’ll have to make the most of it. Sea legs at the ready!