The Christmas Poinsettia – Ataturk Çiçeği

Posted on December 23, 2018 by livingtheturkishdream

It’s that time of year, Christmas Eve, Eve, in fact! Where festive things are all around, twinkling lights, pretty trees, tinsel, enough food to feed the 5000, endless tubs of chocolates, and perhaps a poinsettia or two!

It’s the latter that I want to talk about – up until last year I had no idea that our festive red poinsettias have a link to Turkey, and not the kind that forms our Christmas dinner!

In Turkey these beautiful flowers are called ‘Ataturk Çiçeği’. I have read that they were Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s (founding father of Turkey) favourite flower, and named in his honour as he encouraged the cultivation of them in the country – the beautiful red colour certainly matches well with the Turkish flag, doesn’t it?

I have 3 poinsettias adorning my table at the moment, a deep pink one which was a gift from a friend, a glittering, sparkly red one, and the one in the middle which is almost completely green, and overgrowing, as it has been in my house since last Christmas! When I got it last year it was red and glittery like my new one, and reduced to £1.50 in Tesco, so a real bargain! It’s not red anymore, though I have that read sticking it in a dark place for 12 hours a day will make the leaves turn red again so maybe I will try that… I tried to jazz it up with some fake berries. I’m amazed I managed to keep it alive, I’m not very good with plants… I’m a big fan of Christmas and start getting excited about it half way through the year, so I joked that the only reason it was still alive is because it’s always Christmas in my heart… of course Berkay said no, it’s because Ataturk is always in his!

AUGUST PHOTO SERIES – DAY 12 – TÜRK YILDIZLARI

Posted on August 12, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

In October 2014 Turkey’s version of the red arrows – the Türk Yıldızları – came to Calis to perform over the beach during the air games – we gathered along the promenade to watch with thousands of other people on what was the busiest day I’ve ever seen in Calis! The display was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever witnessed – the noise of the jets was just incredible, and the pilots had amazing skills. I took both of these photos on that day, love the red and white trails and the Turkish flag displayed on the planes! I filmed a video of the display and it’s my most shared, most viewed video ever on my blog Facebook page – click the link if you want to watch it – https://www.facebook.com/livingtheturkishdream/videos/756223634439508/
watch it with your volume to turn up to get the full experience!
❤

Army service has begun & the countdown begins..

Posted on February 6, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Yesterday was the day I’d been dreading for years.

The inevitable finally happened and Berkay made the journey to Izmir to start his 12 month military service. It had been a massive obstacle for a long time, something that had been hanging over us for years, preventing us from really settling anywhere.

Every Turkish male (health permitting) has to do national service, most of them do it when they are younger, aged 18-19, but Berkay deferred it due to his college studies.

He’s 24 now and decided it was time to get it over and done with, so after spending his last week of freedom in his village in Denizli, he got on the bus and headed off back to Fethiye to visit Boncuk and meet his friend who would take him to his training base in Izmir. Its tradition for the males going off to the army to drive around in cars decorated with huge Turkish flags, so Berkay’s brother decorated his car and drove him around, beeping the horn loudly to let everyone know. It’s also common for them to fire gun shots and make as much noise as possible for their big send off, showing everyone how proud they are.

Berkay spent the night in Izmir city centre in a house belonging to a relative of his friend, and everything started to become very real. It hit me that this would be the last time I got a ‘I’m going to bed, goodnight, love you’ message for a long time, something that we normally said every single night.

A fairly sleepless night later, it was Wednesday 4th February. D-day. A morning of getting last minute things sorted. Berkay went off to the shops to buy a payphone card to contact me with and a bottle of shaving gel. He somehow managed to fit all of his things into one small, black rucksack. Of course the most important thing is the notebook book with my number written down in it and the wallet-sized photographs of me he took with him 😉

We had a few skype calls during the day, during one of which my dad spoke to him to say ‘stay safe and look after yourself’, ‘you too look after Danni’ was Berkays response! Finally, 2 pm came and the dreaded final skype call came ringing through on my iPad. He was standing outside the army base, waiting to go inside and give his phone to his friend for safe keeping. A couple of minutes later and that was it, he was gone – inside the Izmir army base (patriotically decorated with a HUGE flag of Ataturk) where he’ll complete his training before moving onto his main posting for the remainder of the 12 months.

A few hours later at 5.30 pm our time, he managed to get to a pay phone inside and I got my first ‘army phonecall’, I was so relieved. “I’m waiting to check in, there are so many people. There were 20 people waiting for phone but I wanted call you”…. that one phone call made me feel so much better. Bless him.

It’s so weird to think that after 4 and a half years of speaking to each other every single day, a total of 162,117 Facebook messages back and forth (yes, that is the actual number) and 3 years living together, suddenly our contact will be suddenly dramatically decreased. No more good morning or goodnight messages, no more ‘I’m on the bus going to work’ or ‘im just having a shower’ messages. No more moaning to him when I’m annoyed, no more quickly FaceTiming him to share good news or when I need his face to cheer me up. It’s really hard knowing he’s not just a Facebook message away. He will have no internet access until he gets days off or holidays when he is able to pop to an internet cafe, but neither of us have any idea when that will be. He doesn’t have his phone in there with him, a lot of people try to smuggle them in unnoticed, but if caught they can be punished with days in army-prison and forced to make up the extra days at the end of their service, it’s just not worth the risk. Instead we’ll have to make do with phonecalls, hopefully as regularly as possible. It’s the uncertainty that bothers me, and the not knowing when he’ll call, I’ll have to try and avoid no-signal zones as much as possible! Will I miss a call while I’m stuck on the underground trains? In the cinema, in the local supermarket with no signal, at work? I’m hoping we’ll settle into a routine soon enough though.

For now, I’ll settle for crossing the days off my calendar and going to bed and waking up with this little reminder staring at me. “Love you honey. Going to army but coming soon. Wait me”. He sent me this little post-it note along with some of my favourite Turkish treats in a package last week, all the way from Turkey. I’ve framed it and have it in my room, I love reading it over and over again!

364 days and counting.

The cost of living in Turkey…

Posted on August 6, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

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I have been wanting to write this post since I started my blog last year, but I knew it would take a lot of research to get it right, and I also know a lot of people will disagree with me, but after discussing it with someone today, I was determined to post my view on this.

People think living in Turkey is cheap… It’s not. Unless you’re living off a British pension or have an income from other sources in the UK, it’s not cheap to live here at all. When I say to people it’s hard to live off a Turkish wage and that we always end up getting into debt, people tell me ‘you just need to budget better and not have a holiday lifestyle, it’s so cheap to live in Turkey’… I know for a fact that it’s not, and people just do not realise how local people really struggle.

Ok, now a little disclaimer, this is NOT about me. It’s not a pity party. I can get on the next flight home to England if it becomes too hard to live here. This is for the local people, the Turks, the thousands of people working in Turkey who do not have the luxury of choosing where to live or have many job opportunities.

I have always said that living in Turkey is actually more expensive than living in the UK. When you compare like for like, Turkey appears cheaper, but when you consider local wages, you realise it’s not. If you’re an expat in Turkey and have more than £250 a month in income from a pension or other means, you are financially better off than a lot of locals in Fethiye, and all over the country. The minimum wage here is 895tl a month after tax – that equals £255 a month or roughly £3068 a year. (For arguments sake throughout this article I’m using an exchange rate of 3.5tl/£1 as this is the rate being given in town as of today). This is minimum wage across the country. Compare this to minimum wage in the UK which is £6.31 an hour – for 40 hours a week this would be £11,380 a year AFTER tax, or £950 a month, roughly. This means that the minimum wage in Turkey is 3.7 x less than the UK, therefore, for Turkey to have a cheaper cost of living than the UK, the prices of everything would have to be 3.7 x lower than in the UK… let’s look into that and see if that is the case.

I have investigated the prices of many everyday items – I looked online at two main supermarkets – Migros for Turkey, and Tesco for the UK. These are pretty much the same thing, big supermarkets. Of course there are cheaper options for all of the foods listed, I could have looked at Aldi & Lidl compared to Turkey’s Bim & Sok for lesser known brands and cheaper choices, but for ease I’m looking at the two main supermarkets. The fruit and veg prices were compared using Tesco prices vs Fethiye market prices – the cheapest possible place to find them.

The photo below shows my findings.

As you can see, for most of the products, the price of these when converted into pounds is cheaper in Turkey, but not by very much, and certainly not 3.7 x cheaper. Things like bread, water and some fruits such as grapes and cherries are significantly cheaper here in Turkey, even with the difference in wages. For most things however, when considering the wage difference, are more expensive here in Turkey. For example, I did not find one single house product that was cheaper here, in comparison. Bleach, toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo and deodorant are all more expensive, along with everyday food items such as pasta and milk.

Meat prices here in Turkey are ridiculous – as you can see from the table all red and white meat is significantly more expensive here when you factor in the wage differences.

Perhaps most shockingly, some of the everyday items are actually significantly more expensive in Turkey without even looking at the wage comparison – cheese, eggs, bananas, potatoes and pet food are all more expensive here in Turkey than it would be if we were shopping in Tesco. There’s also the fact that supermarkets in the UK often have “buy one get one free” deals which I rarely see in shops here.

I see where other expats are coming from – their pounds go further here than at home in England for the most part, but for people living here off a local wage life is very hard and a daily struggle. I have no idea how large families cope.

Groceries aren’t the only things that are more expensive in Turkey. I looked online and compared typical internet broadband prices, in the UK the average price worked out at £230 a year. Here in Turkey we pay around 90tl per month, or 1080tl (£308) per year. Again, that shows that the price of the internet luxury here is more expensive than the UK, without even considering wage differences.

I tried to compare electricity prices, but there are such vast differences in the amount that people pay each month it would be impossible to do a comparison, our electric bills every month are between 30-50tl, while I know others who pay 200tl a month, and I have no idea of the breakdown in prices either here or in the UK.

Petrol prices here in Turkey are far more expensive than the UK before even considering the wage difference. Car prices here are also ridiculous, a car that you would pay £1000 for in the UK is likely to sell for the equivalent of £5000 or more here in Turkey – no wonder I see so many ancient, non road-worthy cars around, nobody can afford models less than 20 years old.
White goods, fridges, washing machines etc and other general household goods here in Turkey are around the same price as in the UK – again when you consider wages are a lot less here, this makes them a lot more expensive in comparison.

Another significant thing here to remember is there is no free healthcare. For local people working their bosses should pay for their health insurance which enables cheaper treatment, and for those not working, the amount they pay for health insurance is means tested, but it’s not free. There are also very little income benefits. In order to be entitled they have to have worked and paid insurance for a certain amount of days in a period of time, Berkay was entitled to it last winter and got 300tl per month, who could ever live off that?

There are things that are cheaper here in Turkey, for example, council tax, road tax, insurance etc, but when everything else is considered, this is so small and insignificant.

Rent prices are a different story. Rent prices are undoubtedly a lot cheaper here in Turkey. From searching online, I found the price of a one bedroom flat in England varied considerably – from £400 in Northern areas, to over £700 in London. In comparison, prices for a one bedroom basic apartment here in Fethiye vary from 300 – 650tl (£85 – £170) – I can’t deny that they are much cheaper here.

You may be thinking to yourself, ‘why dont they work harder to earn more’ – it doesn’t work like that. I can only comment for people working in Tourism, as that is all I have knowledge of, but generally people working in this sector will be stuck in it for life. It doesn’t mean they’re lazy or unqualified (Berkay has a diploma in hotel management!) it just means they have no choice. It’s not like they can take on a second job to bump up their wages either – working days here are long with people working up to 12-15 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no time for another job.

All of the above isn’t even considering the fact that a lot of people in tourism don’t have work during winter, and those that do are more than likely working for less than minimum wage as their employer knows they are desperate and will work for any money they offer – some take total advantage and do not even pay them at the end of the month, they simply refuse, and because they have been working without insurance and for less than minimum wage they have no option but to accept it.

Im not suggesting the whole of Turkey is poor, there are of course people with very good jobs earning tens of thousands lira a year and people who would be rich even by English standards. But that doesn’t change the fact that for Turkish people, living here in Turkey IS more expensive than living in the UK. I know there will be people who disagree, but if you do the research you might be surprised at what you find.

Let me know if you agree, or disagree, I’m open to all comments. I’m really curious at people’s opinions of the cost of living here in Turkey. Before I moved here I had no idea, I didn’t care, I was ignorant, but it’s something that really fascinates me now and I can’t help but get into discussions about it when I see people saying the infamous words ‘it’s cheaper to live over there’.

Of course there are many positive things about living here, perhaps the quality of life here outweighs the increased cost of living? Let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, If you got this far, well done, what an essay this turned out to be!

Mountain scenery…

Posted on July 26, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This evening we went for another walk – this time along the whole of Calis promenade to the furthest point of the beach.

In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never been so far along the beach – we had been to Şat restaurant at the end once way back in October 2010, but it’s expensive so we never bothered going so far again – what a mistake that was!

I thought there must be something past Şat as I’d seen photos previously, so I convinced Berkay to carry on walking. “There’s nothing there, you can’t walk there it’s just the restaurant” he said… he was wrong!

Calis beach is quite long, it starts off wide in Koca Calis and the further along the beach you get, the more narrow it becomes. Eventually, near Şat restaurant, the beach becomes a narrow strip, with the sea one side and the canal the other. When we reached the end, just before the restaurant, we found a cute wooden bench on a platform over the water – it was so peaceful. We sat down and admired the views. The water was murky, it’s where the canal meets the sea so it’s not the cleanest.. it wasn’t very deep and I could see to the bottom – I even saw a few crabs waddling sideways under the water checking us out – I tried to take a photo but the water was so murky it was too difficult. It was such a lovely place to sit and chill out.

It was around 18.45 at this point and we had to walk home in time for Berkay to go to work, but I was determined to walk to the very furthest point of the ‘beach’, so we got up and walked further around. There were signs everywhere saying that fishing was forbidden, yet we saw several people fishing for both fish, and crabs – they had bags full so were obviously quite successful!

We made it to the very furthest point where it was impossible to go any further without getting wet. It’s where the water taxi’s from Calis – Fethiye travel and where the canal meets the sea. It’s sheltered so the water was very calm, so still it was almost like a mirror, I bet it’d be beautiful to walk along there just after sunrise in the early morning.

The most impressive thing for me was the view across to the mountains. I’ve mentioned before that when you’re on your way back to Fethyie and see those mountains you just know you’re ‘home’ – they’re part of the backdrop we see everyday, but seeing them from here made them look even more beautiful. In fact, I thought one of these photos was so beautiful I made it my new blog header, as you may have noticed!

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay and admire the view for too long, I’m not even 100% sure we should have been walking there in the first place, but we had to head back home for Berkay to go to work. As we were walking back some boats were boarding passengers at the jetty, and the sun was just beginning to go down.

I’ve really noticed how much earlier the sun is beginning to set now – at the start of Ramadan it was around 20.45, now it’s more like 20.20 – I wonder why the sun sets so early here, even in summer? It will soon be winter!

The opening of Erasta Fethiye Alışveriş Merkezi – a new modern side to Fethiye?

Posted on June 18, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Last Friday the new, 80 million lira, ‘shopping & lifestyle’ centre opened in Fethiye. I dragged Berkay along to the opening ceremony to be one of the first inside.

I’d seen adverts all over the billboards and bus stops in Fethiye and Calis regarding the new shopping centre – Erasta Fethiye Alışveriş Merkezi – and when they announced the opening day and time, I knew I wanted to go and check it out. Berkay came home at 9am and we rushed to get ready and on the bus so that we could be there for the official opening at 10am…~~like I actually expected it to be on time!~~

Most people had taken the sensible option and were waiting under the shade of the building or using the coffee shop seating area – but I wanted to get a good view, so chose to stand under the sun, my poor red shoulders regretted that decision later. There was a separate seated area sectioned off which was for the special guests, they even had an armed policeman guarding it! Once all the guests of honor had arrived, including the designers and the major of Fethiye, the barriers were removed and all us normal folk were allowed to move forward and fill in the remaining seats, I’m certain it was just because they wanted a photo showing a crowd of excited people!

The speeches began, all in Turkish so I of course had little or no idea of what they were actually saying, but whatever it was seemed to go down well with the crowd as there were a lot of happy faces, loud cheers and clapping hands, especially when the major of Fethiye – Behçet Saatcı – stepped up for his speech. The people of Fethiye clearly adore him, Berkay included, as I’ve never seen him clap so enthusiastically before! After the speeches were over, a ribbon was cut and a plaque presented signifying that the new centre was now open. An Imam was then called up to the stage to say a prayer – I’m assuming as a kind of blessing of the new building. Everyone in the crowd joined in the prayer by cupping their hands, although I did not. I felt a bit guilty, but I’m not a religious person and wouldn’t want to fake anything. My guilt was short lived when the Turkish lady behind me answered her phone and was shouting loudly down it all whilst the prayer was still going on…

After all was said and done, they opened the doors and everyone piled through them. They had metal detectors which everyone, including the armed police, ignored even though they were constantly beeping!

The major went around to each shop, cutting more ribbons and shaking the hands of all the employees – it seems like he is really respected and loved, he seemed genuinely happy and excited about the whole thing which was really lovely to see.

Now onto the actual shopping centre – it’s situated near Fethiye otogar – the main bus station that all the big coaches go into. The building is very impressive looking, it’s really well designed, but it cost 80 MILLION Turkish Lira, which is an awful lot of money, so you’d expect it to look pretty amazing.

The first things we saw are the huge letters spelling the name of the shopping centre ‘ Erasta’. There is a huge wooden frame design covering a large garden and seating area with water fountains at the bottom. To the left of that is the main entrance from ground level, which had a huge Turkish flag draped above it- but I’m not sure if that is a permanent fixture – knowing the Turkish pride it may well be!

There are around 50+ shops inside, although not all are fitted and open yet. There’s a good variety of shops, some fashion ones such as LC Waikiki, a shoe shop – Deichmann, some swimwear shops, a good sized Migros, and a superdrug type health/beauty shop by the name of ‘Gratis’. Those are just a few of the shops currently open – there are many more.

There are water fountains all around the centre, both inside and out, which really adds to the modern look. The whole place is air-conditioned too which is a big bonus for hot days! There are escalators to the 2nd floor, which as well as more shops hosts a small cinema, a children’s indoor play area and a food court, all of which were not fully open when we visited. From what I could see of the food court, there were a few kebab restaurants, a Burger King and an Italian, there was a good amount of seating and a large outdoor seating area attached too. Apparently escalators are not a very common thing in Turkey – I remember that Berkay had never been on one until he was at Dalaman on his way to England the first time, which I thought was really bizarre, but it turns out he’s not the only one… While trying to go upstairs we became stuck behind 2 Turkish women who were afraid to step on the escalator and had no idea how they worked.. it was amusing to say the least!

We had a little walk around the shops and made the most of the freebies on offer – we got given free cakes in Migros which were delicious, and then queued up for free candyfloss outside afterwards, embracing our inner child!

One of the things I was most excited about was the fact the centre has TWO coffee shops, with almost identical names. We went to Kahve Dunyasi (coffee world), and had a drink. I had the cappucino with icecream, it was yummy, but I’d have preferred a Starbucks! The menu was really expensive, think Starbucks prices, my coffee was 8.5tl. There were all kinds of hot and cold drinks on offer, a huge selection of chocolates and cakes too, but again, these were expensive at 9tl for a piece of cake. Both of the coffee shops were really busy and I can imagine that they will be very popular even after the inital opening period.

After our coffee, we went to pay and noticed there were a band and dancers performing inside, so I went out to get some photos. There were women and men on stilts dancing, people dressed as clowns juggling and people playing instruments – it was all quite impressive really and a large crowd gathered quickly!

I know that when people first heard about this new shopping centre they were afraid that it would take away business from the smaller, family run shops in the surrounding area, personally I don’t think this is the case at all as the new shops are all part of large chains and are more expensive than the small, family run shops you find in Fethiye town. The centre is definitely aimed at certain types of people, in my opinion, and we probably won’t visit much because of how expensive most of these shops are. I don’t think it will be overly popular with tourists, as it’s not in the main resort/town area. However, I love that it adds a modern side to Fethiye and think it will be very popular with university students and expats as a place to meet up. It’s definitely worth a visit for the air-con alone and would be a great meeting point for friends to just walk around, shop and relax. It’s definitely something that Fethiye was lacking. I just hope that the new centre continues to be popular and busy and that Fethiye continues to grow and modernise, whilst still keeping it’s more humble roots in mind.

Best things about living in Turkey..

Posted on September 2, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

I may complain a lot, but I do love living in Turkey too, and going back to the UK soon has made me realise just how much I do love it. I thought I’d share a list of the best things about living in Turkey, in my opinion. Don’t worry, I’m not wearing rose tinted glasses.. I’ll be posting the worst things about living in Turkey soon.

Weather
This is actually on both my best and worst lists.. The good is the constant, guaranteed sunshine for 4-5 months of the year, sunny days cheer everyone up, and when the rain and storms do come in the winter, we welcome them with open arms.

Scenery
Nobody can deny the views and scenery in Turkey are amazing. I am so lucky to live near the sea, something that I really take for granted, the sunsets are amazing over the sea in winter. The natural beauty of the beaches and the mountains, the contrast between the holiday resorts on the turquoise coast, the fancy hotels and office buildings and landmarks in big cities like Istanbul and Izmir, and the typical Turkish villages in the rural countryside, they are all beautiful in their own way.

Public transport
I can’t comment about other cities, but the public transport in Fethiye is brilliant, especially the dolmuses between Calis and Fethiye, they run every few minutes and are reliable, cheap, and there’s hardly ever any traffic. There are bus links to and from all the main cities in the country via main bus/coach stations, and with car and petrol prices so high, these buses are very popular. The coaches go all over the country and are relatively cheap, often a lot cheaper than flying domestically (people think nothing of hopping on a coach for 12-24 hours to visit somewhere, rather than flying). In other main cities they have trains and trams, but I haven’t experienced either so cannot comment.

Turkish pride.
Anyone who has visited Turkey will know how proud of their history and background Turkish people are, as a whole. They are very patriotic, and you’ll find paintings, posters, monuments and statues in every town commemorating the founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Many people have his signature tattooed on their arms, others have stickers of him in their cars, jewellery with his name on, posters in their homes. In Fethiye there is a giant neon light up in the mountain of the shape of Atatürk’s head (It is surprisingly much less cheesy than it sounds). The Turkish flag is also very highly respected, you will see it everywhere, I very much doubt you’ll find any home, village, town or city without a flag somewhere around. It isn’t something that appears once a year (lets face it, the only time you really see English flags is when they’re playing in the world cup or it’s St Georges day) it’s a permanent thing, a permanent reminder of how proud Turks are. If you ever say bad word about Atatürk, Turkey or deface a Turkish flag, it is a great insult ~~and you’ll know about it.~~

Food.
Turkish food is delicious, and often homemade and fresh. It is very difficult to find ready meals in shops, even the big supermarkets, it is becoming more common though- I found fish fingers in the frozen section and nearly peed myself with excitement (small things amuse small minds..) Another thing I love is how cheap fresh fruit and vegetables are, at least here in Fethiye (You all know how much I love market day), in fact that is the only thing I do find cheap here (in comparison to wages) but that will be discussed in another post.

Way of life.
We live a very simple life. We don’t have a lot of luxuries but we enjoy this simple life. We basically live on a farm, surrounded by cows, camels, goats, chickens and sheep, fruit trees and vegetables growing in the garden. I love it. We don’t go out to bars or restaurants, we don’t go to shopping centres or the cinema, we don’t drive, we don’t even have a TV, we really don’t do a lot of things that require money, but we don’t need those things to have fun. From my experience, a lot of people living here are the same, they love nothing better than going for a family picnic on a Sunday, taking a long walk or having the whole family gather for tea. We go for a walk every day with our dog, it’s honestly the highlight of my day, I love just walking in the hills with Berkay and Boncuk, I love being outside (never thought i’d say that..) and taking photos of our surroundings. Sometimes, it really is the small things and when my family visit they really struggle to see how we live such a simple life but still manage to enjoy ourselves and be happy. When you have no choice, you realise you don’t need money to have fun, sometimes just going for walks outside, a little picnic on the beach or dinner and a game on the balcony is enough to make you smile.

People.
I’m sure some people will disagree with me, but a lot of Turkish people are very friendly and will do anything to help you when in trouble. Of course there are bad everywhere, and some people want nothing more than your money, but on the whole, I have found people very kind. Everyone says ‘günaydın’ and ‘Iyi akşamlar’ to each other, we often go to the corner shop and come out with a bag full of food on a ‘pay later’ promise, when on the bus Berkay always stands up to let the older people sit down (in London on the tube last April, he stood up to let an older lady sit down, her face was priceless – pure shock), people really respect and look after their elders, everyone knows everyone (Berkay can’t walk down the street without stopping to say hi to at least 5 people..it’s something that is alien to me and is really quite frustrating actually). Last winter Berkay and I were struggling for money to pay bills and buy food, his boss didnt pay him for 2 months and someone that we’d known for less than a year helped us out, our landlord also lets us pay rent late if need be. A lot of things are very relaxed and people are laid back with a ‘no panic’ attitude.

I know, of course these traits aren’t limited to Turkish people, there are friendly people all over the world, but all you ever hear about nowadays are the bad. These are just things I have noticed from living here.

I live in Fethiye, I am commenting on my own experiences and not suggesting it is the same everywhere, I would love to hear your own experiences in different towns and cities. Turkey is a huge country, I know not everywhere and everyone is the same. Wouldn’t that be boring? (:

What is the best thing about living in Turkey for you?