The Denizli Teleferik – Cable Car

Posted on February 20, 2018 by livingtheturkishdream

The Denzli teleferik (cable car) was something I didn’t even know existed until last year. Whilst visiting Berkay’s family in the city last May, we took a slight detour with his younger cousin who came along for the adventure!

Built in 2015, the cable car was made to help more people appreciate and spend time in the beautiful nature surrounding the area. It’s not too far from the city centre, and takes you 1400m above ground.

Turkey isn’t really known for it’s health and safety, so I admit that I was a little nervous when we parked the car and I realised just how high up this thing was going to take me, that was, if the steps from the car park up to the lower cable car station didn’t kill me first! ~~I’m So unfit.~~

It was nice inside, very modern with really nice toilets, something that always excites me. You have no idea how many petrol stations I’ve had to rely on for a semi-decent toilet while visiting places! We queued up and bought our tickets, which were very cheap, 6tl each for a return trip, or free for kids under 6 years old. Imagine how much you’d pay for a similar trip to this in the UK? It certainly wouldn’t be less than £1.20!

It was quite busy but we didn’t have to wait long, less than a minute and we were ushered into one of the little cars, and set off on our journey!

There are 24 of the cars, one comes along every 30 seconds, and up to 800 people an hour can travel on the teleferik.

The journey from bottom to top takes 7 minutes and provides you with lovely views, you can even spot Pamukkale in the very far distance. Unfortunately the day we went it was very misty and cloudy so my photos aren’t great, they really don’t do it justice!

When you reach the top there is a cafe/restaurant with a look out point where you can enjoy the view with a tea. Alternatively, a free shuttle bus service to a park area called Bağbaşı Yaylası further back in the mountain runs every few minutes (or you can walk to it instead). We joined the queue for the dolmus-type bus, it was only a 5 minute journey and then we arrived at the park.

The park has bungalow cabins to rent overnight, tents you can stay in, play areas, a cafe, little shop huts, a kebab restaurant and a newer activity park built in the forest trees with climbing and rope obstacles. It was nice to walk around and would be great for kids, but we only stayed about 20 minutes then walked back to the bus to head back to the cable car.

We made a brief stop at the look-out point for more photos, then back on the cable car for the journey down which was just as pleasant as the journey up!

It’s a shame it wasn’t a sunnier day as it would make the photos look better, although I’ve recently seen photos of the area in the snow and how amazing the view was then – I guess the cable car runs in all seasons, other than strong winds.

Apparently 1.5 million people had visited the Denizli Teleferik in the 2 years since it opened, quite an impressive number. I hope it continues to be successful as I loved it and really want to go on it again. It’s location is also handy for those visiting Pamukkale to take a slight detour to it.

For those of us who are regulars to Fethiye, you have probably heard about the plans to install a similar cable car going up to Babadağ mountain, and after going on this one I am so excited to have a go on that when it opens! I believe work has already started to build it. From what I could see of the one in Denizli, it hadn’t affected the nature around the area too much, something that is always a worry when it comes to major work on the forest areas. I only hope that the price of the Fethiye one will be similar, and not significantly more expensive to take advantage of the high tourism in the area. I can see it being very popular with both tourists and locals in Fethiye and it will definitely be something to add to my bucket list!

A morning at Ölüdeniz Waterworld Aquapark!

Posted on September 6, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Today I spent the morning at Ölüdeniz Waterworld Aquapark.

I’ve been wanting to go since it opened in June but it was proving impossible to convince Berkay to come with me as it’s quite expensive. My friend messaged me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go along with her as part of a large group since her husband couldn’t make it, so I took his place. It was a large group of mummies & babies/kids from the Fethiye area, so they had got a good deal on entry tickets.

The actual waterpark is located in Ovacik. We got there early and were allowed in before anyone else even arrived which meant it was compTletely empty. Lovely! After a while other people who were part of the group arrived and it got busy really quickly. I was surprised at how many British women with Turkish partners and children there are in the area! I recognised a couple of faces from Facebook groups, and it was so surreal having a few people come up to me and say ‘Hi Danni, I feel like I know you – I read your blog!’ – It always surprises me when I meet people who read it, people are usually shocked by how quiet and shy I am in person compared to my ramblings on my blog and Facebook. It’s also a reminder that everything I write on my blog is public knowledge and that real people read it – not just online profiles. It’s lovely meeting them, even if I was totally out of my comfort zone and having to overcome my shyness.

I spent the morning playing with my friends children, having water fights (which I definitely lost!) and playing catch with giant yoga-type balls, all great fun. Someone commented “the little ones seem to be drawn to you” and that it must be helped by my experience with my little sister. I love young children and have always wanted to work with them, that would be my dream job I think!

The children’s area was really impressive and there were lots of small slides and things for them to do. I didn’t take any photos once it got busy because I didn’t want to put photos of people’s children on here without permission, but it looked really good with all the water fountains in the pool turned on. There was a shaded area with toys, lego, colouring etc too which I thought was a brilliant idea. There were staff around the pool area making sure things were kept safe too.

After a while the big slides were turned on and I went off to have a go on those – they were great fun, I wish I’d taken my underwater camera to take photos and videos. The view at the top of the steps was pretty impressive too!

At 12.30 the big slides were turned off and the lazy river was opened, apparently it only stays open for an hour a day but I don’t know how true that is. There was quite a big queue and we had to wait a while for a rubber ring to go around in, but once we got in it was nice and relaxing, although entering and exiting the rubber ring was impossible to do elegantly! The only thing I’d say about the lazy river is how the bottom of the floor looked, all the paint had flaked off and the walls felt a bit slimy – I guess this will be fixed for the start of next season though, the park is new so teething problems are to be expected.

We were only able to stay until lunchtime so we missed the wave pool, but that sounds like fun too. The whole park was well designed, it looks beautiful with the mountains as a backdrop and is a great day out. The toilets are well kept, there are lockers available to keep belongings in and the food and drink prices weren’t overly expensive.

Overall it was a good morning out and from what I saw of it, it’s a well looked after, fun day out for children (and big kids like me!). I recommend it. I probably won’t go back again because the full price is too much to justify when we live off a Turkish wage, but when you convert it to pounds it’s around £12-13 each adult, around £9 for 6-12 year olds and free for 0-5’s, a good deal for the amount of things to do I think.

So grateful to my friend for inviting me along, I had a lot of fun, even if I did get quite sun burnt! Ooops!

Football, Fethiyespor & icecream…

Posted on September 5, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

On Sunday we had a rare evening together and went to a football match – Fethiyespor v Menemen Bld.Spor. Berkay arranged to go into work 3 hours later than normal so after dinner we headed into Fethiye town centre.

We had been trying to get tickets for the game in advance but they kept telling us to ‘come back tomorrow’ – much like everything else in Turkey it was very unorganised! In the end we just gave up and got them from the gates on the day. We got the cheapest seats which we only 5tl… bargain!

After getting tickets from the stadium (just behind the Tuesday market area) we walked back in to the main town and sat down in a little cafe for some ice-cream. It’s real Turkish icecream and if you’ve ever eaten it you’ll know what I mean when I describe it as slightly chewy – it’s delicious and really filling. We got 4 scoops for 2tl which is an absolute bargain. I’ve heard horror stories in recent weeks of people being charged £10 for one ice cream in resorts – even 10tl would be extortionate! This was a massive ice cream, I got a mixture of lemon, blackcurrant and chocolate chip…dipped in chocolate sauce and nuts. Yum. They have so many different flavours to chose from too.

After that we took a slow walk through the park in Fethiye and managed to catch the sunset – click HERE for my previous blog post for photos of that. I love this park and it’s so much nicer to walk around in the evenings when it’s cooler and the sun isn’t directly overhead.

Berkay popped to the shop to stock up on sunflower seeds for the match (you’ll see why if you keep reading) and then we headed off to the stadium again.

I was suprised by how much security was outside the stadium. There were stewards searching people and police with guns and truncheons, it was really quite intimidating. I used to have a season ticket for Chelsea FC and considering the massive difference in the standing of both clubs, there wasn’t an awful lot of difference in the security measures in place, the only things that were missing were police horses! At Chelsea games we were allowed to take our bottles of water inside the stadium as long as the lids were thrown away (or hidden in our pockets – shhh) but here they didn’t allow any kind of bottles – strange.

Once through the turnstiles we searched for our correct seats, but failed to find them. The numbering seemed to be totally illogical – I ended up sitting in seat 245 and the seat next to me was numbered as ‘407’ – go figure! It didn’t matter, because despite the speaker on the tannoy announcing that everyone should stick to the seat number stated on their ticket, very few people actually did.. at least not in our stand. There were very few stewards inside the stands, I can’t actually recall seeing any.

There was a small snack place to buy food in, none of the usual hot dogs, burgers, pies and pints of beer though – toasties, chicken doner kebabs only. There was also a crate full of packets of sunflower seeds for sale which seemed to be everyone’s snack of choice! Turkish people do love their salted sunflower seeds, they eat them like a little chipmunk or something – it’s quite a skill to master or you end up with a mouth full of cardboardy shells. Bleugh. Literally everyone was eating these, and none of them seemed to care where they disposed of the shells – look at the massive pile Berkay made on the floor!! After all the salt we needed a drink of water so had to buy one from the young boy selling them from a massive ice barrel in the corner of the stand – they were 1tl each, for a tiny little carton.

It was soon national anthem time, something the Turkish people take very seriously. Everyone stood still with their hands by their sides singing along. Nobody moved a muscle apart from the photographers!

I enjoyed the game, although it was very frustrating as neither team managed to score and boy did they have a lot of chances! Even my Fethiyespor themed nails didn’t bring them luck.

The match was pretty much the same as any other game of football I’ve been to, passionate fans, jeers, swearing and booing at the referee, fights on the pitch leading to red cards and players diving all over the place. Oh, the beautiful game eh? Don’t get me wrong, I do love football. I thought it was interesting how they had a ‘water break’ 23 minutes into the game due to the hot weather, something that is certainly never necessary in England.

There are a very passionate set of Fethiyespor fans in one of the other stands, they’re the hardcore, season ticket holders. They were singing and banging drums for much of the match – I found it so funny how most of their chants were to the same tune as the football chants I’ve heard at Chelsea – different words, different language, same tune!

The match ended in a 0-0 draw which was disappointing, but it was a good evening regardless. As soon as the full time whistle was blown we hurried out of the stadium, got on the dolmus and headed home, Berkay went straight to work. I wish he’d get a full day off sometimes, he’s not had one day off since the end of May and isn’t likely to until the season is over in November. I’m thankful that his boss and his colleagues are flexible and will allow him to make up hours if he asks to go in late.. that’s better than nothing (:

Park, Bluebells and Marshmallow Icecream..

Posted on May 5, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This post is way over due. In fact it was over 2 weeks ago that these photos were taken, but one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place was so that I could look back over time on what I was doing ‘this time last week’, ‘this time last month’, ‘this time a year ago’… so i’m still going to post them anyway.

These photos were taken on Good Friday, the day before Berkay flew back to Turkey. We spent the morning in the park, first in the playground then through the woods and ruins.

The play area was full of children (duh!) but that didn’t stop us having some fun, Berkay enjoyed himself far too much, can you tell? He nearly fell off the funny little swing and had me in fits of giggles.

After the play area we went through the woods at Lesnes Abbey, it was so beautiful. We were the only ones wandering around so it was so peaceful, there were bluebells everywhere, which although we later found out we’re not supposed to pick – Berkay did pick a bunch for me! Sorry bluebells. I love being outside and just walking through the trees and flowers – although the insects, especially wasps, are the not-so-good part. Ewww.

I love these photos of us – we just laid down in the bluebells to get a good photo – look at our happy big brown eyes, ahh. (:

Anyone who knows me knows I love the minions from despicable me, why not embrace your inner child every now and then? I bought this Minion bag a while ago but never use it for fear of looking a bit nuts, but when you’re walking through the woods with nobody else around, why the heck not eh? Hehe. We had some fun with it – sticking it on the wall next to the ‘please keep off the wall’ sign – what a naughty minion 😉

After we’d been at the park for a while, my dad, step mum, brother and sister came for a walk too, since it was good Friday and everyone was off work for the day. My sister had fun climbing the tree and posing for photos. She kept picking daisies for me and running up to give them to me, she’s so sweet.

On the way home we got some ice-cream from the ice-cream van – I chose the marshmallow one was literally what it looks like – a huge vanilla whippy icecream covered in marshmallows and strawberry sauce, it was the best icecream I’ve ever had!! Yum!

I can’t believe this was over 2 weeks ago now – it seems a lot longer. Oh how time flies.

London with Berkay – part 2

Posted on April 23, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I posted part 1 of my birthday day out in London yesterday, and as promised, here is part 2.

On our way to Buckingham Palace, we found ourselves at St.James Park. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and it was absolutely gorgeous walking through the park at this time of the day. There were beautiful yellow daffodils, blossom on the trees, flowers growing, green grass- beautiful! The lake looked lovely with the water fountain and ‘duck island’ in the middle.

Anyone who knows me know’s I’m an animal lover – so seeing all the cute ducks, swans and pelicans was sweet, the pigeons not so much- I hate it when things fly near me! This duck was so funny, doesn’t it just look like he’s posing for the camera?! He turned around, looked at me, tilted his head then started walking towards me – I think he was hoping for food, but we had none… sorry Mr Duck.

Berkay was trying to get the pigeons to sit on his arm, ewwwww. A nearby man who was obviously a regular at the park spotted him and gave him a handful of bird seed from a huge sack he had, he told him to hold his hand down low and feed the birds… and he did! Look how happy he looks, he’s an animal lover too.

We spotted some squirrels who were surprisingly not shy at all – they were obviously used to being photographed as I held my camera literally an inch away from his face and he just sat there eating his nut…cute!

When we came to the end of the park, we could see Buckingham Palace, or ‘The Queen’s house’ as Berkay calls it. We made our way over and dont the typical touristy things, took a photo of the guard, took a photo of each other standing outside the gates.. thought about popping in to visit my old mukka Queenie for some tea and scones…

There’s something about London that makes you feel patriotic. I’m not the least bit patrotic normally, I’m normally moaning about the country, but standing outside Buckingham Palace and looking out accross The Mall, seeing all the Union Jack flags – it really made me feel..well… British.

We walked to St James Park station, again relying on my phone’s GPS to guide us, what a lifesaver that was – and got off at Leicester Square. It was really busy with street performers, people laying on the benches and grass, there was even a dog playing in the water fountain – sweet! One of the street performers was a magician, he had a little mouse with him… we missed most of the act, but at the end he put his little pet mouse on the floor and let everyone go and stroke it. ‘Please be careful with her’ he said … it melted my heart! Nothing cuter than a man and his pet mouse hehe!

The main reason we were at Leicester Square was for M&M’s world! I’ve been to the one in New York before while I was there on a school trip, but I’d never been to the London one. The smell when you walk in … oh.my.god. Chocolate heaven! After a while it all looks the same, and you get sick of seeing all the overpriced merchandise – but some of it is cute. I think I purchased the cheaperst thing in the shop – a £3.50 fluffy m&m purse. There are giant M&M statues all around the store – all 4 levels of it – making for some perfect photo opportunities..

The best part about the whole place are the walls with tubes stacked full of M&M’s in every single colour possible, chocolate ones, peanut ones, crispy ones… ahhh, I’ve just realised I still have some left over from the bag we made up – as soon as I finish this post I’m going to tuck into them!

After a good 45 minutes in chocolate heaven, we walked all the way to Oxford Street – and to the massive Primark. We didn’t get much, a few bits for our friends baby twins, and a pretty awesome pug duvet cover for me. What’s the point of having birthday money if you can’t spend it eh?

We met up with my dad, stepmum, brother and sister for dinner. We all went to a little Indian restaurant near Aldgate, in London. It was really yummy.. Berkay went for a hot dish and think he regretted it later!

How cute is my baby sister? ❤ She adores Berkay.. and me. She follows me around like a little sheep when I come home from work. Bless. She gave me lots of birthday cuddles, and helped me show off one of my birthday presents- a sweet picture for my wall made by my step mum. A photo of me, Berkay and Boncuk and the word ‘Happiness’ – that says it all.

London with Berkay – Part 1

Posted on April 22, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This post is over a week late – there were so many photos to go through! I’ve had to split it into two parts as there were just so many good ones – so here is part 1 of our little adventure in London!

It was my birthday on Friday 11th April, I had booked the day off work so I could spend it with Berkay, and we decided to go to London.

After opening some presents from family at home, we headed off and got the train to the O2 at North Greenwich – where we got on a boat. It was a thamesclipper boat (information can be found by clicking here if you’re visiting London soon and interested) which only cost us £4.50 as we had a TFL travelcard for the day too, which makes the price cheaper. I’ve been on one before a few years ago but forgot what they were like inside – quite fancy! The chairs are leather and so comfortable, although unless you sit on the 6 seater ones facing each other, they are a little squished – like being on an aeroplane. Berkay was impressed – it was definitely different to the typical ‘boat tour’ ones he’s used to seeing in Turkey – and so much faster.

We sat inside for the first 15mins, then stood outside on the deck for the last 25mins to get a better view of everything, which provided plenty of photo opportunities. It would have been better if it were sunny, but the clouds went away later in the afternoon.
We had a good view of all the sites -Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the Shard, the Globe, London Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, the London eye, Big Ben..

The trip down the river Thames lasted around 40 minutes, from the O2 to Embankment, where we got off.
We walked over the bridge at Embankment – stopping to pose for more photos – before finding somewhere to eat. The only place we could find along South Bank without a huge queue was ‘EAT’ – what a simple name for a restaurant, and how could we refuse 😉 We ate al fresco on a bench overlooking embankment and Big Ben – it was just starting to warm up so it was lovely!

After lunch we walked along South Bank past the street perfomers, some of which were really impressive – others just plain weird.
We stopped near the Southbank centre at the ‘Udderbelly’ festival – nothing was going on but it was free to walk around so we had a little look around – they had areas of grass and trees with little gazebos and benches, the trees all had fairy lights on and it was so cute – would be great to sit there with a drink in the evening, but I’m sure it gets really busy when the comedy, music and circus acts are on during the festival. The main part was an upside down cow – hence udderbelly- which I assume had a stage inside, but it was closed so I’m not sure. There were little stalls around the outside selling wraps, hot dogs, burgers and beer, but they looked expensive so we avoided them. The festival is on from April 10th – July apparently, but I’m not really sure what it’s all about, the upside down cow was enough to impress me!

Walking past the London eye I noticed the surrounding area of trees had carrots in. Weird – a special Easter thing I’m assuming! I thought I was seeing things for a while.

Next we headed across Westminster Bridge, posing for yet more photos, and carried on walking. We were hoping to arrive at St James’ Park – in order to find our way to Buckingham Palace. I used my phone GPS, which was a life saver that day, and we eventually arrived at our destination.. but those photos shall be in part 2! On route to St James’ Park, we stopped at this typical, London red telephone box. Berkay had no idea why I was asking him to pose for a photo with it, but he played along, pretending to make a phonecall and stepping inside – big mistake because it seems someone had been using it as a urinal. Lovely. Needless to say I avoided that one and posed for a photo in the next one we came across.

Part 2 will be coming up tomorrow 🙂

Picnic in the park..

Posted on April 16, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Yesterday while I was at work Berkay text me and said we could go for a little picnic…I knew a cute little place a 15 min walk from dad’s house, so we decided to go there. I picked up some supplies from the shop after work and Berkay met me at the station when I got off the train.

We took a detour to a chip shop then walked up the hill to the park, which even though it’s literally around the corner to my house, I’d never been to before! It has ruins of an old Abbey on the grounds which makes it a really pretty looking place.

We found an empty bench, sat down and served up our picnic. Pasta, chips,crisps, bread, muffins..sunflower seeds 😉 By this time it was 6pm and everyone else in the park were just there to walk their dogs…they must’ve thought we were really strange. It reminded me of the good old days back in Turkey where we’d rock up to the beach fully clothed, pots and pans, cutlery, plates, food, blankets & salt pots in hand…while everyone else was sunbathing!

After we’d eaten we went for a wander around the park, through the ruins, which made for some good funny-photo opportunities 😉

I had no idea how old these ruins were before – but according to google, Lesnes Abbey was built in 1178 … That makes them pretty old!!

It was such a lovely place to just have a walk around – I think I’ll be going for a little wander around there myself once Berkay has gone back – so peaceful, yet popular with dog walkers and children on bikes. The weather was really good – Berkay has been lucky this time. Last April when we were both over, it snowed. He’s never seen England so sunny as it’s been these past 3 weeks, so we’ve been trying to make the most of it.

There were some really lovely trees and flowers around the park too – this being one very old tree – I can imagine it’s very popular with kids trying to climb it in summer, we just about resisted temptation to attempt to climb it ourselves, and instead settled for funny poses. Look at Berkay’s cool pose – all he’s missing is an Efes in hand ha!

We had a lovely 2 hours and it really made me feel like the whole day hadn’t been wasted at work as we’d had quality time together too. Only 3 more days before he goes back…

Calis is changing!

Posted on January 27, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Even though I’m no longer living there, I still like to see what’s going on in Calis Beach and Fethiye, so Berkay is keeping me updated with photos.

Last Summer, the area opposite Sevi hotel, next to Nokta market and behind the bus stop, was bare, dusty and covered in litter and general mess. When I left at the end of September, they had just started to tidy up the area and were putting paving stones down. I was intrigued to see what they were doing, and it turns out they were making a little park, complete with play area, mini excerise park, benches and fountains, a much smaller version of the new-ish park in Fethiye along the seafront. Berkay showed me on skype and has sent me photos, I think it’s his new favourite spot to walk the dog! It looks like a lovely place to sit, I do think it’s in a bit of a strange location though. I hope it stays tidy and looking lovely, and I’m sure it will be popular with tourists in summer, if they are staying around that area. It looks a million times better than it did before anyway, it was literally just an area of nothing.

Boncuk seems to be enjoying the new park area! The photo on the right shows the location of the new park, with Grand Vizon hotel in the background.

Another big change to Calis that I’ve been keeping up to date with involves the canal. Diggers turned up one day and started tidying up and breaking down the edges, in order to make it all wider. These photos arent the best (check out the colour of that water, a mixture of heavy rain and all the work theyre doing has turned it brown!!) but you can tell the difference if you know what it used to look like, it certainly is a lot wider now! One side of the bridge near the taxi boats has already been widened and has a wall built up, it appears as if they may be building a walkway down along the canal, which will make a real difference, it used to have thick reeds and trees and dangerous looking steps going down to the sides, I always wondered how people managed to get down there safely to fish!

Can’t wait til I get back there to visit in the summer so I can see it all completed and find out what other changes I’ve been missing out on !

Fethiye Fountains..

Posted on November 8, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

Feeling a bit ‘homesick‘ lately, so was looking through some old photos and thought I’d share some from my last night in Fethiye back in September which we spent watching the fountains in Fethiye.

They’ve been here for a year now, but because Berkay works nights we hadn’t had a chance to see them as he was always working.

The fountain show’s happen two times a day and are accompanied by music, very loud music! They are so pretty and I love them, even if they a little cheesy. They’re in the new park built opposite McDonalds in Fethiye town and look fab, brightly coloured and very cheerful. (: What do you think?

Just another day in Fethiye..

Posted on September 14, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

Off we went to Fethiye again today, Berkay wanted his hair cut and we decided to stop off for chicken doner for lunch too!

4tl, bargain. Perfect with the chips in too. Probably not too healthy having half a loaf of bread in one sitting but hey, who can resist when it tastes so good and is just as cheap, if not cheaper than cooking a meal at home?

We went for another walk around our favourite place in Fethiye again too. I love the fountains and the topiary in all shapes and sizes… all very pretty! Of course we had another little mini photo-shoot, I never go anywhere without my iPod camera! I LOVE my iPod.

I like the clock tower too, it has the names of a few cities and shows the current times in each location, London, Moscow, Berlin and of course Turkey! The temperature read 39 oC , I’m not sure if that was the actual temperature or just in direct sunlight, but it certainly felt like 39 oC was a true representation, it was absolutely boiling! We resorted to walking around Migros for 10 minutes to use the aircon and cool down, that turned out to be a bad idea as we got distracted by the goodies and spent 35tl on some shopping.. Oops.

The park was nearly empty, which meant we could have some fun taking silly photos without looking stupid.. but it’s sad that more tourists don’t come into the main town of Fethiye and see this place, they’re missing out.