An army update & going to visit!

Posted on March 19, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Berkay has been in the army for 6 weeks today and although he hasn’t gone quickly, seeing the marbles in my ‘days down’ jar increasing everyday is quite reassuring and a good reminder that time is actually passing!

So far, Berkay’s not been having too bad of a time. We’ve spoken every single day over the phone, and had skype sessions on his day off for the past 3 weekends, although he’s not allowed out this weekend because there’s a chance of trouble due to a Kurdish holiday… I’m so relieved we’ve had contact everyday, even if it is mainly just a 2 minute phonecall. The fact it’s such a limited time we get to speak means it’s hard to say everything I want to, we used to live together, know what each other were doing all the time, and now suddenly we don’t really know anything about each other, living two totally separate, vastly different lives.

Aside from that, it’s been going ok. Berkay tries his best to help me understand army life, he tells me things they’ve been doing, once last week they all played paintball to practice shooting terrorists and his team won. That’s a good sign, right? They also go to the cinema in the base quite a lot to watch army practice videos and to regular lessons. It all seems quite organised.

The main worry for me since even before he joined the army, was where he would be placed – he’s in Izmir at the moment for training, but once that’s finished he’ll be moving someone else… Well, finally last week he called me and sounded very excited – “guess where I’m going after Izmir?” He said…. “not the bad place! Kayseri!”. Kayseri is a big city right in the centre of Turkey, on a map it’s literally the exact centre point. It’s a long way from Fethiye – around 12 hours on the bus, so this gives you an idea of just how big the country is – its takes well over 24 hours of non-stop driving from one side to the other. We were both very relieved when he learnt he’d be sent there – it’s supposed to be a lovely place, and there was a real possibility that he could have been sent to the Syrian border, in fact he said 60% of the 400+ people he’s with in Izmir are being sent there, something we obviously didn’t want, so he is really very lucky.

We’ve also been waiting to find out the date he’ll be transferring bases and can take some leave – he asked for 10 days and it starts on 3rd April, so as soon as he rang me and told me that, I booked my flights out there. I was deliberating whether or not to go, but I think my mind was made up all along – although he’s only been in the army for 6 weeks, I’ve not seen him for 13 weeks and it will be 15 before the time I do, so I think it’s a necessary trip to break up the time a bit. I’m out there for 7 days from 4th April, which means flights were very expensive because it’s Easter, and the school holidays – in fact they were so expensive that I couldn’t even justify paying the extra £50 (rip off..) for baggage, so all I have is 5kg worth of hand luggage to stuff my clothes in – a scary thought! It won’t be a relaxing holiday – we probably won’t stay in a hotel as it’s too expensive and Berkay wants to visit his family in their village for a few days too, and of course lots of walkies and cuddles with Boncuk while we’re in Fethiye! It’s my birthday the day before I fly back so it will be nice to celebrate that there too, I’ve never been in Turkey for my birthday!

At least I have something to look forward to, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that Berkay’s leave dates don’t change at all. For now, I’ll keep counting down the days, sticking those marbles in a jar and keeping busy – I have a job interview tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed for me please!

~~15 days to go 😉~~

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.

Countdown jars..

Posted on February 20, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

It’s difficult not to wish my life away these days. Since Berkay went into the army I’ve been ticking the days off my calendar but wanted something more visual to see the days ticking past. While I was looking around on Pinterest, I found a brilliant idea that someone had created while her husband was deployed in the US army, and decided to create my own!

These are my new ‘countdown jars’ , sat on my chest of drawers opposite my bed reminding me of how many days I have left. The ‘days to go’ jar is full of marbles, one for each day of the year Berkay will be gone, and each evening I transfer one of the marbles from that jar into the ‘days down’ jar. At the moment I only have 15 transferred over, as he’s only been gone 15 days, but as the days and weeks pass it will be exciting to see the number of marbles in the ‘days to go’ jar decreasing!

I’m sure a lot of us have countdowns to something, a special date, birthday, perhaps a holiday to Turkey? 😉 You could try making your own, it doesn’t have to be marbles, it could be jelly beans, stones, seashells….I think it’s something kids would enjoy, my little sister comes to me in the evening and asks to help me with the marble and understands that it’s for ‘Berkay in the army’! Bless her.

15 days down (and boy does it feel like a whole lot longer), a whole jar full of marbles to go…

Berkay’s birthday, rescuing puppies and cake..

Posted on February 1, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Back in December it was Berkay’s 24th birthday, it fell on the day before I was due to fly back to the UK.
He had arranged to have a half day at work, so we got to spend the afternoon and evening together. I woke up early to make him a special Turkish breakfast – eggs, cheese, bread, tomato, turkish sausage and çay, with balloons! I managed to hunt down a birthday card in Fethiye (why on earth are birthday cards SO expensive there?!) and Boncuk even wrote one for him herself, “to my human”.

Off Berkay went to work, and after a bit of packing I walked to the hotel to sit and have a few hours with Boncuk. Around lunchtime Berkay finished work and met us, we planned to take Boncuk out for long walk together but didn’t get far… 2 minutes down the road she stopped to sniff something in the grass, we went over to see and it was a tiny dog laying on a pile of twigs and rubbish, hardly moving. We tried to pick her up and see if she was ok but she yelped and wouldn’t stand…nobody knew who she belonged to, although a restaurant owner nearby said he had seen a truck dump her there the day before. We were really concerned about the poor dog and didn’t want to just leave her because she looked so sad and poorly, so we rang a local vet who we knew worked with street animals and provided treatment for them for free through the animal aid charity. We took her on the bus and she just laid on Berkay looking really scared and sad, I don’t know how anyone could dump her! The vet done some scans and xrays and found nothing much wrong, just a bit of fluid around her belly due to a dog bite which he cleaned up and disinfected, and a serious vitamin D deficiency which had resulting in the puppy’s legs being bowed, we suspect this is why she was dumped. Once he had treated the bite and given her some painkillers and vitamins we took her back, we couldn’t keep an eye on her ourselves as we had nowhere to keep her, so we asked a nearby cafe to watch her. I was worried they wouldn’t look after her but we went back a few hours later and they had given her a box with a tshirt in, a blanket, food and water. The best part was that someone else had seen her, fallen in love and arranged to pick her up in a couple of days! That was our good deed of the day done.

By the time we got home and I finished packing a few more bits, it was time to get ready and leave for the restaurant we had booked – Mancero. We got dressed up, hopped on the dolmus and went. We got off wayyyyy too early by accident, but it turned out well as it meant we could admire the beautiful view just after the sun had gone down. We walked along the promenade and the sea looked absolutely stunning with the yellow, orange and blue tint of the sky, a few fishing boats were out which looked lovely in the foreground with the multicoloured horizon behind.

We had a lovely dinner in Mancero, but I’ll write about that in another post! Then we headed back to Calis and to Hüner cafe, where we’d arranged to meet friends for some birthday cake.

Funny story about the cake.. Berkay rang up to order it, then I told him to ring them back and ask for it to say ‘happy birthday askim’…as if I had arranged it for him… because I thought it was cute but didn’t know how to ask them myself…hahaha poor Berkay ordering his own cake eh? It was delicious and we had good company, including our two best friends and their twin boys… Adorable… look at the teddy bear bums!

I love these photos of us, we look so happy.

We had a lovely evening, although there was a very sad atmosphere lingering over us knowing it was our last evening together… It’s funny looking back at these photos knowing it was 7 weeks ago! It doesn’t feel like that long ago, yet it does feel like years ago at the same time!

2014 – a year in photos – part 2

Posted on January 5, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Continuing on with my look back at 2014, here’s part 2…
click HERE to read part 1 (January – June)

July

July was a busy month! We celebrated our 4 year anniversary together and had lots of days out, making the most of Berkay’s pay rise and driving license! We drove to Marmaris for the day as I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, the first photo was taken on the beach there – I much prefer Fethiye, though. A couple of weeks later we went on a boat trip for the first time in a year which was lovely, I love being out at sea, I think I should have been a pirate 😉 The blue sea, clear skies, sunburn… oh I miss it.

The second half of the month wasn’t as busy, and we took time to enjoy walks together during the afternoons before Berkay went to work. One of the best hidden gems we discovered was the amazing view at the far end of Calis beach, behind Şat restaurant, there were little benches overlooking the water and the mountains formed the perfect backdrop. We also visited our friends who had escaped to their village (Kizibel near Uzumlu) to get some cooler air. It had been 8 weeks since I’d seen their twins who had grown a lot, they couldn’t be more different – one small with no hair and the other a giant baby with long locks, they’re still the same now!

August

In August we visited Kalkan, Kaputas and Kas for the day, the coastal road between them is so beautiful and driving along listening to some music with the amazing views of the sea outside your window is just perfect.

Of course it was another hot month, even poor Boncuk found it hard and needed plenty of evening walks along the beach and ice cream to cool her down – twister lollies are her favourite.

We went to the first Fetiyespor game of the season, which was disappointing but a good evening spent together before Berkay headed off to work. The sun began to set earlier in the evenings as the month went on, and I had plenty of sunset photo opportunities, it’s my favourite thing to take photos of!

September

As soon as September arrived, the weather started to cool slightly and it was clear that Calis was starting to wind down for the winter months as the beach became emptier. We went on lots of walks and discovered beautiful places we’d never been before like the Lycian way with this breathtaking view of Oludeniz.

One of the things I miss the most is sitting out on my balcony eating or playing backgammon and that is something we done everyday over the summer. One September morning Berkay came home from work and made this adorable Turkish breakfast for me, who wouldn’t smile at this? So sweet. September was also the month that a stray cat found our balcony and decided to come and visit every single breakfast, lunch and dinner time, I often found her curled up on our garden chairs waiting for us or as soon as she heard the plates she would climb up the tree to see us, she carried this on til the day I left in December!

We carried on exploring areas a little off the beaten track, one being Yesil Vadi in Yuvurlakcay, where we had fun swinging over the river – until I fell in fully clothed..oops!! As always, we finished our day out in the car with a BBQ, but this time we bought Boncuk along. This was one of my favourite days, so simple but so relaxing.

The 3rd and final look back at 2014 in photos coming soon…

Saying goodbye to Turkey and hello to England..

Posted on December 18, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

On Sunday I packed up my life into a suitcase once again, boarded the plane alone and arrived back in the UK, this time for longer.

I’d been putting it off for weeks, but a month ago I booked my flight and tried to make the most of everyday I had left there in Turkey. Each day was marred by the constant thought of ‘this is the last time I’ll do this’ or ‘this is the last time I’ll eat this’, ‘this is the last time I’ll go here’. Those thoughts filled my head and everything just felt different, I could no longer enjoy my time there, once I’d booked my flight the countdown began and it was awful.

While everyone else was excitedly opening their advent calendars and counting down the days til Christmas, I was wishing time to go slower, hoping that by some miracle the 14th December would never arrive. Inevitably it did, of course.

Berkay had been able to get the day off work so we could spend the day together, we done a lot of our favourite things, had a lovely Turkish breakfast outside on the balcony, played backgammon with a cup of coffee, walked Boncuk along the seafront and had a gorgeous BBQ outside. The hours ticked by and once I was all packed and ready we went to the beach to watch one ‘last’ sunset. (See what I mean? Always ‘lasts’ on my mind!) It reached 5.30 pm, I took my case and walked out of my front door for the ‘last’ time (again…). “Bye house”.

We went and waited in the hotel garden for Berkay’s friend to arrive, he was taking us to the airport in his car. I played with Boncuk and explained to her what was going on, although of course she’s clueless and is probably still waiting for me to go back and play ball with her and wondering where I am now. We saw our friends car drive around the corner and then it hit me, it was time to go.

Berkay took my suitcase to the car and I sat on the steps cuddling Boncuk, telling her to be good and that I’d see her again soon. I gave her a little treat and she ran off with it, bouncing around all happy and none-the-wiser. She was so happy with her little treat that when I climbed over the fence and walked away she didn’t even come to say bye. She usually stands with her paws up on the fence, crying or howling as we walk away, but not this time. At least one of us wasn’t!

A 45 minute minute car journey later and we were in Dalaman. Our friend hadn’t had dinner so we stopped at a Çiğ köfte place to kill some time and eat and then carried on to the airport.

My flight was the only one flying out that evening so the airport wasn’t very busy but the queues to check in were very long as the flight was one of the last ones direct from Dalaman before Christmas and it was full of expats flying back to the UK for the holidays. We queued for around an hour, but I didn’t mind as that meant delaying the ‘goodbye’ further. Eventually the inevitable happened, I got to the front of the queue and after trying to reduce the weight of my case from 25kg down to just 20, I was all checked in and ready to go.

After a tearful goodbye and a cuddle, I walked through security and passport control where they stamped my passport with an exit date stamp, that was it, the point of no return. I looked back and waved at Berkay and he blew me a kiss, cheesy! Then that was that, I walked around the corner and found my gate, which was full of people already waiting. I spotted a Facebook friend who had previously told me she was on the same flight with her husband and daughter, she too has a Turkish husband and has faced the same teary goodbyes. I went over to her and she asked if I was ok and gave me a big hug, at which point I burst into tears. Poor woman! Still, I felt better after that and I didn’t have to wait very long until we started boarding the plane. The plane was full of young children and before take off there were alot of screaming babies, they looked exactly how I felt on the inside!

On take off I said ‘bye Turkey, bye Berkay, bye Boncuk’ and had one last look out of the window, I even gave a little wave.

Before I knew it, the plane was landing back in Gatwick. “Welcome home” the pilot said. Not really home for me though. I got through passport control quickly and retrieved my baggage. I saw my friend again and apologised for crying on her, “it’s ok I know how it feels” she said, which was reassuring. Then I walked out through the doors and saw my mum and dad waiting for me with more hugs, along with a cheddar cheese and HP sauce sandwich and packets of pickled onion monster munch, yum!

I can’t tell you how strange it is to be back here. The moment I walked into my room again it just hit me, but it was like nothing at all had changed. My calendar is still stuck on the page of June, the month I left. Everything is the same here, yet different. It really does feel like I’ve never been away, like the past 6 months were all just a dream, like I wasn’t really there. I have to keep looking at photos of our house to remind myself that it wasn’t all a dream.

It upsets me that I’ll probably never step foot in my house again, a week ago I was there, sleeping next to Berkay, waking up next to him, eating breakfast together on the balcony, making dinner in the kitchen, watching films in the living room… now all traces of us are removed from that house, and someone else is living there.

Berkay is now living under the hotel (which is still closed for the winter) in a concrete room which is used for staff accomodation during the summer. Boncuk is staying there with him for now and will go somewhere else once he’s in the army, we’ll get her back again once he’s finished in February 2016, which seems like a lifetime away.

Forget about the arrival of 2015 in 2 weeks time, roll on 2016 when we can finally settle and live together without the worry of these goodbyes again, that’s what I say!

See you soon, Fethiye. ❤

The day that Fethiye flooded…

Posted on November 25, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

On Thursday I had one of the most bizarre experiences I’ve had in all the years I’ve lived in or visited Turkey – we got caught up in a flood in the centre of Fethiye.

The morning started off grey, wet and gloomy. It was one of those ‘lets stay inside with a hot chocolate and all the lights on’ kind of days – but we had errands to run in preparation for our visit to the village (where I currently am writing this) so we had no choice but to brave the rain and go out. Just as we stepped out of the front door, it really started to rain heavily. Luckily we only had to cross the road to catch the Dolmus into Fethiye, and I remember we were both weaving in and out of the pathway to avoid stepping in puddles, which is ironic considering what we were about to experience!

As the Dolmus reached Fethiye, we realised we may have made a big mistake. The Migros turn off on the main road was flooded, there were cars broken down and the road resembled a giant swimming pool. The dolmus got through and carried on to the last bus stop, next to the mosque on the hill in the town centre…the rain kept falling, along with giant hail stones, and there was a man in the corner shop shouting ‘umbrellas – 10tl’ so we grabbed one. Something tells me he probably sold his entire umbrella stock that day!

We walked down the hill and realised it was flooded, cars were still going past and the water was only an inch deep, just covering our shoes. We carried on walking, as we were attempting to reach Is Bankasi, but the water was rising as we walked, it was pouring out of the school yard, coming up out of the drains and still falling from the sky. By the time we made it to the bank, it was closed for lunch, so Berkay had the idea of going to his friend’s hotel in the Dispanser area of Fethiye – Vizon hotel. This was the worst idea he’s had in a long time. We walked to the hotel, but the water was ever-rising, what started out as an inch deep ended up being knee-deep! We arrived at the hotel where they were struggling to keep the water from gushing through under the doors. We went in, sat down on the floor in our soaking wet clothes and watched as Fethiye town centre became a giant swimming pool right before our eyes. It just keep rising, and rising. The water got so high they could no longer stop it from pouring in under the doors, and after stuffing it with bags, newspaper, towels and attempting to push the water out with a broom, the hotel staff gave up and sat down resigned to the fact that the lobby would inevitably end up very wet. People were driving past in cars, even though it’s a pedestrianized area, which caused little waves to form in the water pushing it inside buildings even further. There was an inch of water covering the majority of the hotel lobby and we were all sat on tables, but they got off pretty lightly compared to the shop across the road (Citlembik, for those of you who know Fethiye) which had an awful lot of water inside.

It was so bizarre to witness, there were news agencies in cars driving past taking photographs, people carrying each other and street dogs, people cycling through the 2ft of water and even council men in wellies and wetsuits driving past in vans helping stranded people get to dry ground! The water rose to the height of the benches and up to the rim of the plant pots which are pretty high. People were standing on them to keep dry.

We were ‘stuck’ in the hotel for over an hour, we couldn’t open the door to get out because that would mean more water pouring in. Eventually, we had no choice as we had to get to the bank, so we braved it and stepped outside, it was pretty dangerous as we couldn’t see the kerbs or steps. The water was murky and dirty, bits of rubbish were floating past, bins, cigarette packets, bricks, even bits of carpets and mats… The weirdest part was the fact that a 30 second walk up the road was clear, with just a few puddles left behind. The rain had stopped and although the drains were still blocked in certain places, others were fine like nothing had happened. We had most definitely been in the wrong place at the wrong time, although it was an experience to say the least. I was documenting it on my Facebook blog page and the videos and photos I posted have been shared by hundreds and viewed over 80,000 times. Click HERE to see one of the videos.

The next day, we went back to Fethiye to get supplies for our journey to Denizli, and you’d never have known the events of the previous day. The sky was blue and the sun was out, there were no puddles, all the shops and businesses were open again and although there was probably water damage in some of them, everything looked ‘normal’ like nothing had happened.

Just another day in paradise!

Sarigerme beach..

Posted on October 22, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

A couple of weeks ago we hired a car again (for the 6th time this summer!) and just drove. We didn’t really have a plan, we considered going to Dalyan but when we saw the signpost for Sarigerme, we decided to go there instead.

I’d heard of Sarigerme before but never actually been, I knew there was a beach and some fancy all inclusive hotels, but had never looked into it further as I’d never planned to visit. We followed the signpost and drove for about 20 minutes, getting further and further into small villages and farm land, often getting stuck behind tractors. There were beautiful orange tree orchards on either side of the road for as far as I could see – quite impressive! Eventually we arrived at a small town, which I now know to be the main area of the resort. We asked for directions to the beach, and drove straight down a road where we arrived at a small cabin with a sign outside stating they charged a fee for entry to the beach (which goes towards maintaining it). Now, we’re cheapskates, and if we can find a cheaper alternative we will. Berkay spoke to the lady and said we only wanted to drive to the car park to take a photo, turn around and come back, so she took a note of the numberplate and let us in for free. We stuck to our promise and literally only stayed for 10 minutes – we got out of the car, walked along the first section of the beach, took a photo and left. I wish we could have spent more time there and I do hope to go back again because it was just so beautiful, I was really very pleasantly surprised!

The impression I got was that this area was a sort of hidden gem, I don’t think many people holidaying in the Fethiye area will have heard of Sarigerme and probably never been there, just as I hadn’t. It definitely seemed very quiet when we were there, but this was at the beginning of October so that’s not too surprising.

I researched the area online and found that Sarigerme is actually the name of the beach, not the small neigbhourhood close by. The neighbourhood is actually called Osmaniye, but is listed under the beach name in the holiday brochures – it is very small, so small it recently lost its ‘village’ status! The resort is near Dalaman, just a 20 minute drive to the airport. and is home to 8 large, 5* all inclusive hotels such as ‘Holiday Village’ and ‘Hilton resort and spa’ who work with travel agents such as First Choice and Thomson. These massive all inclusive hotels are my idea of hell honestly, I think it’s so sad that these hotel grounds are so large and have so many pools, restaurants, bars, spas and entertainment options that the people holidaying in them will never experience the real Turkey, or see anything more of the country than the mountains in the distance past the grounds gates. Perhaps this explains why the beach was so empty?

I definitely wouldn’t want to use Sarigerme as a base for a holiday as there really isn’t much to do at all, there is a small town which consists of one road lined with a few restaurants and shops selling the usual ‘genuine fakes’, and obviously the beautiful beach is just a 20 minute stroll away which offers watersports. I suppose it would be perfect for people wanting to centre their holiday around an all inclusive luxury hotel within easy reach of the beach. I read that a few of the hotels have private spots on the beach so that would be a big plus too, along with the very short transfer time from Dalaman airport. Towns such as Marmaris, Fethiye, Dalyan and Ortaca are reachable from the resort, and I saw advertisements for excursions to all of these places.

I would definitely recommend a day trip to Sarigerme just for the beach, because it was absolutely beautiful. There are very few sandy beaches in this area of Turkey; Marmaris, Icmeler, Calis and even Olu Deniz beaches are all stony. This beach was lovely with 7km of soft golden sand and the blue, calm sea. There was also another section of sea water slightly inland and labelled as a ‘pool safe for children’, there was even a lifeguard on duty which is rare here. I was so tempted to go in for a swim because it looked so inviting! If the weather is still nice next week I think we’ll go back here, pay the entrance fee and spend a little longer exploring, even if it’s too cold for swim you can’t beat a good walk along a sandy beach. How romantic!

4 years ago – our first holiday…

Posted on October 15, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This time 4 years ago I was here in Turkey. I had flown here to spend a week with Berkay. Even though we’d only spent a few hours together before, we had been speaking on MSN messenger and via text messages everyday since I’d returned from Turkey in July, when I first met him while on holiday with a friend. Looking back now, it seems like a crazy thing to have done, and was totally out of character for me. I know friends and family were concerned as I’d spent so little time with him and didn’t know him very well, but I was confident and knew it was what I wanted to do – so I did.

It was the first time I’d ever flown alone, but surprisingly I wasn’t worried about that at all! Initally I had planned to stay in the hotel Berkay worked in, but by the time I arrived it was getting ready to close for the season so his boss gave him the week off and we stayed together in a nearby hotel instead.

When I had met him previously he spoke very little English, so there was a language barrier, but through speaking on MSN daily for 3 months, he had improved. It was weird being together in person! We spent the week doing the usual touristy things, boat trips, going to bars and swimming in the hotel pool. Actually I’d say that this was my last real ‘holiday’ as everytime I’ve visited or lived in Turkey since, has been for totally different purposes and a totally different experience. I love how I’m holding roses in one of the photos – how cheesy! He never buys me flowers anymore haha.

I remember the weather was particularly bad for that week in October, we had a few sunny days but also a lot of rainy days. I remember going for a swim in the hotel pool in the rain, the water was freezing and we had onlookers laughing and cheering us as we jumped in, it was fun! I also remember going on a couple of boat trips and on one of them it was pouring with rain and very cold, they had to pull the plastic sides of the boat down to close up the ‘windows’. They made us all get off at one of the islands with the promise of there being a ‘nice’ restuarant at the top, we all walked up the island, getting soaking wet from the rain, and all we were greeted with at the top was a smashed up, empty, old building – of course they knew all along and it was a joke, but we were cold and wet so it wasn’t very amusing!

Of course Fethiye was as beautiful as ever 4 years ago, look how peaceful it looks.

When searching through our old photos, I came across an abundance of cat and dog photos, anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals, so I found that quite funny. I love this photo of Berkay surrounded by little bunny rabbits on one of the islands the boat stopped at. It seems animals are always drawn to us, a cat has currently adopted us and regularly pops by our balcony for dinner.

We look a lot younger in the photos ~~and thinner…~~ especially Berkay, he has a lot more hair too, he blames me for him going bald… too much stress apparently, haha! I can’t believe it was only 4 years ago, it seems a lot longer, but then again sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday too!

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!