A few Turkish treats!

Posted on July 20, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Do you ever get that feeling when you’re in a supermarket abroad and you see a British brand you know and get excited and drawn to buy it, even if its something that never usually makes it in to your shopping basket at home? No? Maybe that’s just me…

When I saw a shop selling Turkish food on a different route home from work last Friday, I went in to have a look and ended up buying a few things. I got cheetos, even though they weren’t actually Turkish ones (the shop sold a lot of foods from all sorts of places), one of my favourite chocolate bars, ezogelin soup and a packet of extra salted sunflower seeds (which I’m actually munching on right now!). That same day I also took a trip to Waitrose to buy some Baklava, I figured since it was Şeker Bayramı it would be rude not to do my part and join in with the celebrations, 50p a piece too, bargain.

That wasn’t the only Turkish-treat-shopping spree I’ve been on recently. Earlier on this week I went on a walk around Canary Wharf during my lunch break to find a Turkish restaurant/cafe/deli that someone had recommended to me. Walking past it and seeing all the diners outside eating some of my favourite Turkish dishes and smelling all the delicious food made me want to order some for myself, but I resisted and instead just went to the deli where they had a few shelves full of goodies along with a counter full of fresh snacks and mezes. They had different teas, jams, sauces, drinks, Raki (yes!), wine, biscuits, cakes (POP KEK!), chocolate and a chiller full of ayran, cheese, yogurt, sucuk and sausages. All of it looked yummy, apart from the cans of ‘Sosis’ – Boncuk sausages! I don’t quite think I could bring myself to eat canned meat with my dog’s name on, but it really did make me smile.

I had a lot of fun browsing, but only ended up buying a very pretty jar of tomato salça, and an equally well presented bar of olive oil soap – I admit it I’m a sucker and only bought them because they looked so good with the Turkish eyes on, in the 3 years I lived there I never once bought a bar of olive soap.

I definitely want to go back to the deli restaurant soon for a proper meal, or maybe just to sample some of the pastries, mezes and baklava they had. It’s dangerous having this place so close to my office, I can almost hear it calling my name when I’m sat with my boring old sandwiches at lunchtime.

If anyone is in the area and wants to visit – it’s called Hazev and is directly across the wobbly bridge at Heron Quays at Canary Wharf. All the staff were speaking Turkish, and I had a chuckle when I understood what they were saying. ‘Ne Kadar?….. Bu?’ Obviously people don’t often buy the goods on the shelves as they had no idea how much to charge me for either item, oops. I think they have a new regular customer now, though!

After seeing tinned Boncuk sausages on the shelves, I had to message Berkay’s brother for a photo update on our dog, just to check… She’s as happy, cute and playful as ever! My little sausage. ❤

New job for me, farm life for Boncuk & the army countdown continues..

Posted on July 2, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

I haven’t posted here for over 6 weeks now, I have a lot I want to post and write about but I just haven’t had time.

The main reason for that is that I FINALLY found a full time job! I started 3 weeks ago and I’m enjoying it. I’d been looking for work since December but had no luck, other than a few days for an agency. I had applied for hundreds of jobs and kept getting knocked back, even after going for interviews etc. Finally my luck changed and an agency put me forward for a 3 month placement for a really interesting company who are based inside Canary Wharf – I went for the interview and got the job. It was overwhelming at first, I’m not a ‘people’, so the first few days of travelling to Canary Wharf in rush hour was a bit of a shock, but not quite as overwhelming as the chaos that is lunchtime inside, and around One Canada Square and Canary Wharf. Thousands of people queuing up, buying, sitting and eating their lunch all at the same time – it was really horrible at first. I’ve found ‘my’ spot now where I sit everyday for lunch and read my book (oh, hello Mr Grey 😉 ) , and even though it’s still busy and overwhelming, the initial shock has worn off! This is the view I face everyday whilst eating my sandwich – isn’t it pretty? I work inside that middle building, on the 30 something floor – eeek. I’m actually enjoying the role and it’s such a relief to be back into a routine and earning money – the last 3 weeks have gone very quickly so keeping busy at work certainly makes the days tick by faster.

Berkay is also being kept busy in the army. He’s finding it a lot harder than he anticipated and he can’t wait to get out and have some freedom. He’s still based in Kayseri, although there was a scary moment where he faced the prospect of being moved to a more dangerous area – thankfully he didn’t have to go. He gets a few hours off most weekends so he can go outside and speak to me on skype and he’s made two good friends there who get the same hours off as him so he wanders around the nearby shopping centres with them for hours. He says they are all the ‘oldies’ and people refer to them as such, because they’re mid twenties and most people doing their national service are a lot younger than that. I’m glad he’s made friends. He’s been in there for 5 months this week – another 7 to go, and he’s counting every single day.

I’m still moving the marbles from my ‘days to go’ jar into my ‘days down’ one, and it’s a relief seeing nearly equal amounts in each! Berkay has a little list of days in the shape of ‘365’ that he’s ticking off one by one – bless him.

One of the things I was most worried about when Berkay went in the army was Boncuk, where she’d go and how safe she’d be. Initially she stayed with our friends for the first 2 months – and when I was there in April we took her to Berkay’s family’s village instead. Berkay’s brother promised me he’d look after her, but I was still worried because although they have farm animals and care for them, a dog is different. Turkish people don’t really like dogs like we do. They have their own dog, used to guard the sheep – they don’t feed it proper food, just bread and the occasional sheep/goat hoof when slaughtering time comes around. Needless to say, when we turned up with Boncuk, her bags of food and asked Berkay’s dad to save her a bit of fish from his dinner plate so that we could get her to take her worming pill, they thought we were nuts. Thankfully, Berkay’s brother is lovely and has been looking after her nicely, sending me photo updates and answering all my ‘Boncuk nasil?’ messages! He says she loves him and jumps up him wagging her tail whenever she sees him. He even takes her for walks, which is unheard of in the village, people look at you like you’ve got two heads if you’ve got a dog on a lead but think nothing of someone walking along with a flock of sheep instead. Last week Berkay’s cousin was visiting the village and sent me some photos – I was sat on the train coming home from work when I got them and it made my whole day, Boncuk just looks so happy doesn’t she? Such a relief.

149 days down, 219 days to go!

P.S I’m off camping this weekend, but I hope to have another post up sometime next week – I still have a lot of lovely photos of Fethiye to share. If you’re interested in more photos, join our Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/TurkishDreams where me and 3 of my friends post daily photo challenges among other Turkey related things! (:

A week in Turkey..

Posted on April 17, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

It’s the 18th of April and I’ve not updated my blog at all this month, mainly because of my week-long trip to Turkey last week during Berkay’s army break!

I was a little nervous before going, I can’t really explain why, it was all a bit of mixed emotions. Excited about seeing Berkay and Boncuk, worried about how Boncuk would react and if Berkay would still be the same person or whether army life would have changed him, happy to be visiting, and dreading coming back to England again all in one go! Oh my poor head, I never knew it was capable of that many emotions at once.

Once I got there though, all those emotions vanished and I was beaming from ear to ear, it was like I’d never been away and I was so happy to be there. It really is my home. It was my birthday while I was away, my first ever birthday spent in Turkey and it was brilliant. We also visited Berkay’s village and experienced snow there, yes snow! I had an amazing week, took thousands of photos and made lots of new memories – once I get back in to the swing of things I’ll be posting here more regularly as I have lots of new photos and material to write and share with you all!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post, but for now, I’ll leave you with one of my favourite photos from last week.

All reunited together, although very briefly.
~~293 left days and counting!~~

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… ❤

Village adventure – day 3

Posted on December 3, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We woke up on our last day in the village and knew we were going to be busy – we planned to leave the village at 12pm and travel to the nearest city center to visit more of Berkay’s relatives. The previous day Berkay’s dad had announced that since all the family was going to be together (including me, Berkay and both his brothers), something that happens very rarely, he was going to kill one of the animals from his garden so that we could all have a big family BBQ.
By the time we had woken up, had a shower and packed our bags ready to go, it was 10 o clock and Berkay’s grandad had just arrived to do the honors. I walked over to him to say hello with the traditional hand/head kiss and he seemed impressed by this, even more so when he said ‘nasilsin?’ and I answered in Turkish. There wasn’t much time to sit around and talk and we all headed out to the garden. I was walking around having one last look at all the animals and became friends with a goat, I was talking to him (yes…talking…) and he was licking my hand, it was all very sweet. Little did I know, that an hour later I’d be eating this goat for dinner.

Just 10 minutes after my encounter with the goat, Berkay’s brother walked into it’s little pen and led it around to the side of the house where they had been digging a hole. I knew what this meant, the poor goat was the chosen one.

I’m not sure what possessed me, but after giving him one last little stroke, I stood and watched as they removed it’s collar, laid it down with it’s head over the hole in the ground and tied it’s legs together. The goat didn’t protest at all, I guess it knew what was coming as much as the rest of us. Berkay’s grandad slit the goat’s neck, the blood drained out into the hole and that was that. Over in minutes. Quick, calm and as a little suffering to the goat as possible.

The worst part for me came after, was watching his grandad strip down a piece of skin from the goats ankle and blow air (from his own mouth…) into it, blowing the poor goat up like a balloon. I wasn’t entirely sure of the purpose of this, but I researched online and it says it makes it easier to skin them by doing this first. At this point I decided I didn’t want to watch anymore, and wandered back to the other animals instead, one of the sheep had actually escaped the pen it was in and was actually stood watching what they were doing to the goat… I wonder if it actually understood what was going on though.

I went with Berkay in the car to pick up his cousin and her daughter, who were coming back to the family house to enjoy the BBQ with the rest of us. It was a 20 minute drive and by the time we got back, the goat had been fully skinned and its meat was now lying on trays being chopped up into pieces. Including it’s head, eye, brain, intestines, liver and other organs. Bleugh. The family will probably make soup and other dishes out of these parts, they certainly don’t waste any edible parts – they even gave their dog the goats four raw hooves.

We all sat down to eat the BBQ, which included the lovely çintar mushrooms we’d found the day before, and it was really delicious. Of course I felt sorry for the poor animal we were eating, but I’m not vegetarian and eat alot of meat. We don’t usually think about where our food comes from because it’s all cleaned, neatly packaged and sold on supermarket shelves, we take it for granted and don’t consider where it actually comes from, so it’s definitely interesting, although a little disturbing, to see the process from furry animal in the garden to lump of cooked meat on your plate.

After eating, it was time to say our goodbyes. Berkay’s step-mum cried when we were going and gave us both big hugs. She is really sweet, she sent us home with a massive bag of onions, spinach, spring onions, nuts, butter, chicken and leftover goat, all things grown on their farm! I really, surprisingly enjoyed our time in the village, and I really didn’t expect to. It was just so peaceful there, so relaxing and it felt so far away from everything else, no worries, no thinking about anything.

us with Berkay’s stepmum.

But now it was time to change out of the village baggy pants, say bye to the lovely people and views and head to the city instead…

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.

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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