Fethiye – sometimes it’s the simple things!

Posted on August 31, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

There are so many things to see in the Fethiye area, the whole area is so diverse and it’s easy to overlook the small things. My favourite place of all is Fethiye town centre, there’s no doubt about it. It’s busy all year around and it doesn’t become a ghost town when the summer season is over and the tourists have gone home, life continues as normal and businesses stay open.

There is so much to see and sometimes even just taking a walk the long way around while doing daily errands can provide you with beautiful sights and surroundings.

On Friday we needed to pop into town to go to the bank, change some money and pay some bills. We waited til the late afternoon, the bank was empty and we were in and out so quickly we had some time to spare. We took the back road to the exchange office and walked under the much photographed multicoloured umbrellas. I love this idea. Fethiye is a beautiful area, and you could easily get carried away taking photos of the amazing views, who would have thought a few coloured umbrellas tied to some string would be so popular? They look amazing, and it certainly brightened up our trip to the bank to pay bills!

There are also lovely water features and topiary around the town. One display being opposite the exchange office we use. It’s an old boat with fake sand, stepping stones and sea creatures made from bushes – it’s pretty, well kept and makes for an interesting photo.

In quite a contrast to the rest of this area of town, there is an ancient Lycian Sarcophagus just behind the marina area, next to the Nufus office/town hall. It looks like it doesn’t belong there, it’s very random. I’ve seen old photos of Fethiye from hundreds of years ago (1800’s!) and the sarcophagus can be seen surrounded by water, now obviously it is inland due to development – it’s interesting how things have changed and built around it while it just sits untouched. (Link to the old photo HERE)
We took the long route back to the bus station via the ‘new’ town square, which has actually been completed for nearly 2 years now! The most interesting and quirky parts of this area are the wonky buildings next to the main concrete square. They’ve been wonky for as long as I can remember, and after various earth tremors have become worse. The rows of houses on the other side of the road behind these are also slanted, they lean backwards. Apparently they have become more slanted in recent years after work to improve the pavements in the town took place – but I don’t know for sure about that. I can’t imagine they’re very safe to live in, I don’t think they’d meet the minimum safety requirements required for earthquake insurance etc..!
Aside from the wonky buildings, the park hosts a statue of Atarturk, (there are several of these in Fethiye and at least one in every town in the country) water fountains, flowers and pretty wooden benches. The fountains don’t seem to run on any kind of schedule, sometimes they’re on, sometimes they’re not, and sometimes it looks nicer than others, but it seems to be well-kept during the season and it is a lovely place to wander around and kill some time. There’s a playground for children which is often busy with passing tourists and locals, and yet more impressive topiary along the pathways. I love to watch the fountains here at night, they are all lit up and look beautiful. I’ve written a post about it previously – click HERE.

I love just walking through Fethiye, it has a real working town atmosphere. I love how there are elements of the old town mixed in amongst the new, modern, fit-for-tourism town – like the ancient sarcophagus sat surrounded by hotels and restaurants and the modest fishing boats sat in the harbour amongst the bigger daily tour boats which take hundreds of tourists out sunbathing and swimming around the islands everyday.

I think that’s what I love about Fethiye the most, it can be as quiet or as loud as you want – it’s so diverse with so many things to see, but sometimes it’s just the simple things that make your walk to pay the bills that little bit more fun, that are the best.

Swimming, dogs eating ice-cream and man flu!

Posted on August 27, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calis from the hillside!

Posted on August 23, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Two days ago we went for a long walk up to the furthest point of Calış beach and back again.

We walked from our house all the way to Koca Çalış and up a hill at the far end of the beach – the views were lovely and I saw Calış/Fethiye from a whole new angle!

The walk from our house to the end of the beach was around 2.6 km, so we walked over 5 km together – not easy in the 40oc heat! We waited til 6pm to leave because we’d melt into a puddle on the floor otherwise. I’d never been so far into Koca Çalış before, the furthest we’d really been was Sunset Beach Club/Surf Cafe. I definitely wouldn’t want to live there as it’s too far from anything else. We came across some pretty multi-coloured holiday apartments though which looked lovely, it’d certainly be more peaceful there!

We took Boncuk too, we love taking her on long walks. The downside to taking her with us is that a lot of stray dogs approached us. At one point we walked past a restaurant with a dog roaming loose and it spotted Boncuk and started growling and barking at her, setting off a chorus of at least 4 other dogs – it’s quite scary, although most of the animals are harmless, you never know (we had a bad experience when she was a puppy, and I’ve been bitten by a street dog myself which meant I had to have rabies injections – not fun!) Having so many dogs roaming free is something that puts me off walking her on my own most of the time and we always have to plan our routes so as to avoid places where we know there are a lot of strays.

The Koca Çalış end of the beach appeared to be very popular with local people – there were lots of people swimming and having BBQ picnics which smelt amazing! When we reached the end of the beach we found a track leading up the hill and decided to climb it. It wasn’t too steep or difficult to climb, although there were a lot of sharp thorns and bushes which scratched our legs quite badly, but the view at the top was worth it. We let Boncuk off her lead while climbing up the hill and she loved it.

The sun was just starting to go down as it was around 7.30 by this time, so it was fairly cool (by cool I mean around 35oc!!) but we were dripping with sweat from the walk – we tried to take a ‘selfie’ together with the view in the background but we just looked ridiculous!

I think it would be lovely to come and sit up there with a drink and a snack to watch the sunset, or even to just sit down and watch the stars at night – quite romantic! Berkay was also eyeing it up as a potential fishing spot!

We couldn’t stay and admire the view for too long as Berkay had to get back for work, but it was nice to see Calış from an alternative view point, and lovely views across to the mountains too. Such beautiful scenery.

Calis beach – Canals, sunsets and ladybird cakes!

Posted on August 18, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

It’s been a while since we went for a long walk along Calis, in fact I hardly left the house last week apart from to walk the dog! It’s been extremely hot for the past week or two, with recorded temperatues hitting 40.5 oc in the shade on a couple of occasions, so it’s quite honestly been too hot to go out anywhere.

Today, although it was still a roasting 36oc we decided to go for a walk after dinner around 6pm, and the breeze along the sea front made it bearable.

We walked all the way from our end of Calis seafront to Mutlu hotel at the other end of the promenade. We stopped in the little garden area next to it, which was really busy with Turkish people enjoying their Sunday off and having a picnic in the park – it’s a bit weird, because it’s a not a big park area and certainly not somewhere you’d think to turn up with food and cay… I even saw someone had tied a hammock to the trees and was rocking their baby in it… each to their own though! It was funny as there were sprinklers all over the area watering the grass, and if any of them changed direction lots of people would end up soaked! We found an empty, dry bench and sat on that eating some sunflower seeds. Why is it when you decide to have one it turns into half a packet, and you end up with a handful of shells? I don’t even like them that much!

We decided to walk over the ‘new’ (it’s not really new anymore!) bridge behind the garden which leads to the other side of the canal – there’s a nice view from the top. They’re still working on improving the canal area, last winter they removed all the reeds and plants growing at the sides and replaced it with concrete and walls, and in the past month they have erected a green fence along the entire length of it – I’m not sure what the plans are for it eventually, but it’s definitely a work-in-progress. Lots of people seem to be concerned about the amount of wildlife that have been displaced during the process though.

We walked along the road where all the little gift shops are and crossed the junction at the ‘dolphin roundabout’ to a new-ish pastanesi (cake shop) that opened around the beginning of the season, it used to be a restaurant, but I definitely prefer it as it is now because their cakes are amazing! I’d never been in it before but my favourite thing to do in Fethiye is go to Mercan Pastanesi and get something sweet, so knowing that this new cake shop is just around the corner is going to be a big temptation! They sell coffee, drinks, spongecakes, cheesecakes, muffins, crossiants, biscuits, baklava…. there was a huge selection to chose from, but I knew what I wanted as soon as I walked in and spotted it…

How cute?! They had a hedgehog shaped chocolate cake too but I decided on the banana sponge lady bird cake, just because it was so adorable. Look at that little face! Honestly, I’m so easily amused, this cake seriously made my day. Who needs expensive presents from their boyfriend when they could just buy them a 4tl cake instead?! We actually ended up buying 10tl worth of cakes and took them home with us for later.

By the time we had walked back to ‘our’ end of Calis it was nearly 7.30pm and the sun was starting to go down, so even though Berkay had to be at work by 8pm, we sat and watched the sunset. I really notice how much earlier the sun sets now compared to a month ago – before the end of Ramadan the sun was setting around 8.30pm and today it set around 7.45pm! It’s not fun to think about but autumn/winter is on it’s way.

We strolled along the beach and dipped our feet in the sea, which was actually really warm, I could feel the heat coming off it every time a wave crashed against the stones, it looked very inviting.

We managed to catch the sunset before Berkay rushed home for a quick shower and went to work. It was a lovely walk, such a beautiful place to walk along in the evenings, I love it! We’re off to Fethiye tomorrow for a day full of visa paperwork. Oh the joys! It’s a good job the scenery is nice! (:

Kalkan, Kaputaş, Kaş & Fethiye..

Posted on August 14, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

A few days ago we hired a car and went off exploring once again – this time following the D400 road that stretches the length of the southern coast of Turkey, to Kalkan, Kaputaş and Kaş.
I’ve been to Kalkan before on holiday long before I met Berkay and we’d been for a day trip together, but never driven, and driving is definitely all part of the fun because the views from the road are stunning.

It took just over an hour to reach Kalkan, we pulled over at the side of the mountain side road overlooking the bay to admire the view, honestly photographs do not do it justice, it’s breathtaking – I bet watching the sunset would be beautiful from there.

We then drove down to Kalkan in the hope of getting some lunch. It was only 11.30am, so we went for a walk around town first. It really is pretty – lots of little backstreets, boutique shops and restaurants with rooftop terraces overlooking the sea. The only problem is it is a town on a mountain side, so walking down to the sea and harbour area means walking down very steep and very slippery stones and pavements. When we got to the bottom we headed towards the town’s tiny beach, although we didn’t actually go for a swim it did look very inviting. The whole of Kalkan is sheltered from wind as it’s a bay, which means the water is clear, calm and very beautiful.

We walked along past the VERY expensive restaurants over looking the harbour (31-39tl for a pizza!) and to the otherside, along the breakwater towards the lighthouse. There were people doing watersports, swimming and snorkelling on the sea side, and on the harbour side although all the boats were out on their day trips and it looked very empty, the view of the town going up the mountain side was lovely.

Kalkan is a much classier, upmarket resort than others. There are no cheap hotels, you won’t find a ’50p English breakfast’ and there aren’t many loud bars. There are very few hotels at all, the town consists mainly of apartments and villas with sea views. The atmosphere is very different to other resorts I’ve been to, it’s a quaint town perfect for couples, it’s definitely not a party place, nor is there much entertainment for small children. There are many small restaurants with rooftop terraces overlooking the sea, perfect for sitting and watching the sunset over dinner with a glass of wine or two! The beautiful views and more upmarket feel comes at a price, everything is more expensive here. We looked at a few menus and found prices were significantly more expensive than we’re used to, I joked that if we lived here, we’d be stick thin as we’d never be able to afford to eat and the steep uphill roads would be brilliant exercise!

When it was time to head back up to the car, which was parked at the top of a very steep hill, we definitely chose the wrong way up. Instead of choosing the shady, steep but relatively easy walk up through the backstreets the way we came, we walked up a big, ridiculously steep road next to ‘Foto’s Pizza’. I wish I’d taken a photo of how steep it was… we underestimated it, and the midday sun along with the fact we had no water with us and had not eaten a single thing all morning made it so much harder, we suddenly realised how unfit we are!

We stopped at a little Migros on the way out of the town, as we decided it was too expensive to eat anything in Kalkan and we were starving! Refreshed and fed with mini chocolate croissants, we blasted out the aircon in the car and drove back to the main road high up in the mountain side heading towards Kaş. This stretch of road is beautiful but a little scary! The views are stunning, blue sea, islands in the distance, waves crashing on the rocks below… We drove for around 20 minutes and then saw the sign for Kaputaş beach. I’ve been a few times before but never seen it so busy, there were so many cars parked on the edge of the road that it was difficult to pass through, we had to park a good few minutes walk away from the entrance as there were just too many cars!

I guess Kaputaş is very popular with local people, rather than tourists. It’s kind of a hidden gem, at the bottom of a mountain gorge. When we parked up we climbed over the crash barriers on the mountain edge and admired the view, the sea is SO blue, these photos are an accurate representation of just how turquoise the water is.

The only way to access the beach is either by boat or by walking down ALOT of steps – in fact Berkay counted 191 in total. Going down the steps isn’t so bad – climbing back up nearly 200 steps to back to your car afterwards is the hard part! When you’re at the bottom you can see the bridge that joins the mountain side together, with Kaputaş canyon behind. I believe you can access the canyon by walking towards the back of the beach, but we’ve never tried.

I’m not sure if we picked a particularly busy day, but the beach was full! I could understand if it were a Sunday when lots of locals have the day off, but it was only Friday! The beach is free, but there’s not many facilities. There was an old man at the top of the steps selling fruit, and a stall at the bottom where they were selling traditional Turkish pancakes – I’m not sure if this is a new thing as I’d never noticed it before. There were also umbrellas and sun-cushions to rent, but no sunbeds. There were 4 small cubicles to change clothes in, and a hose pipe on the floor behind some bushes which people seemed to be using as a shower. There were also 2 toilet cubicles (which I didn’t even notice until we were back at the top of the steps looking down) but I’m puzzled at how anyone is supposed to access them as they were higher up on some rocks, blocked off by bushes, plants, pipes and more rocks… quite comical really!

We went for a swim in the sea, but it was very wavy as it’s not sheltered at all – just open water. We could hear people screaming everytime a large wave approached, and they were pretty powerful too, definitely not a place for non-confident swimmers to float and relax. It was beautiful nonetheless, the clean turquoise water is much nicer than the murky looking water here in Calis.

We stayed at the beach for around an hour then got back in the car and carried on driving to Kaş. Neither of us had ever been there before so we didn’t really know what to expect to where to go! We ended up parking in the main town which reminded me a lot of Fethiye actually, just a smaller version. We found a cheap-ish (but still more expensive than good old Fethiye!) Turkish lokanta and got some lunch. Berkay had rice and beans and I had some kind of mixed dish with potatoes, green beans, tomatoes and aubergine all cooked together in a tomato sauce – it was lovely.

We didn’t do as much exploring as I hoped, we really didn’t know where we were going! We wandered to the small harbour area and down a few back streets where there were lots of small boutiques, jewellery shops and more traditional shops selling carpets and rugs. One shop name in particular stood out, ‘Kaş and carry’. (Kaş is pronounced ‘Kash’). When walking around different towns and cities in Turkey one thing I love to do is spot the statues of Ataturk – the founder of the Republic of Turkey as we know it. There are statues of him in every single town in the country, something I find really impressive. Can you imagine having a statue of the same person in every single town in the UK? You’ve got to love their pride. I love seeing Turkish flags flying high everywhere too.

Berkay was tired as he’d been working all night and hadn’t slept all day, and he’d had enough of walking around in the heat, so at around 3.30pm we got back in the car and started the journey back to Fethiye. The views from the road are just stunning, photos don’t do it justice at all. The gorgeous blue sea, the waves, the boats sailing, the view across to several islands, including the Greek Meis… The only part which is a little frustrating is getting stuck behind tractors or big trucks carrying concrete etc, especially when you’re driving up steep sections of mountain side road – I felt as if if we were going any slower we’d end up going backwards – literally!

We arrived back in Calis at around 5pm and after a quick stop at home to get BBQ supplies we jumped back in the car and drove to Fethiye. There are so many lovely bays around there to stop and have a swim and a picnic, but one of my favourites is Aksazlar Koyu – it’s not ideal for swimming as it’s relatively close to the dock yard and all the boats mean the water is not the cleanest, however, for BBQ picnics, it’s brilliant. Pine trees cover the whole area so it’s always shady, it’s often empty and there are picnic tables which means we can bypass the typical Turkish method of eating a BBQ – sitting on a rug on the floor. The only thing I’m not a fan of is the bees – lots appear when they sense the food, but luckily we were there later in the evening this time and as it started to cool down there were hardly any at all.
Apart from realising we’d forgotten the plates and Berkay having to speed off in the car to borrow some from a local shop while leaving me in charge of the BBQ (which meant everything took twice as long) we had a lovely time and a lovely dinner.

By the time we had finished it was nearly 8.30pm, the sun had gone down and it was getting dark. Berkay had arranged to go into work an hour later than normal at 9pm as he was owed some time, so we made the most of being together out of daylight hours and drove up to the ‘hill of the lovers’ (Asiklar Tepesi) to get a better look at Fethiye. I never see Fethiye at night, the last time I did was on my last night here last September before heading to the airport (how was that nearly a year ago?!) as Berkay is always working, so I’d forgotten how beautiful it looks. Once again, my photos don’t do it justice. We also took the scenic route home past the town centre fountains, I’d not seen them lit up since last September either, unfortunately I couldn’t get any photos as I only had a glimpse through the car window, but it was nice nonetheless!

As you can tell, we had another busy day. I’m so glad Berkay got his driving liscene so we’ve been able to hire cars and drive to places we’d never normally go to. Although it’s using money we don’t really have to spend, it’s worth it.

There’s a short video of clips of our day over on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/livingtheturkishdream 🙂

Vets, infections & injections…

Posted on August 2, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We spent the afternoon at the vet with Boncuk yesterday.

I noticed a few days ago that she was shaking her head a lot and she had started to cry when we were stroking her left ear, I tried to get a look inside to see if I could see something stuck in it but couldn’t see anything. It was Bayram so our vet was closed and we decided to wait a few days to see if it would get better itself or if she was still in discomfort – obviously if she was in pain we would have taken her right away, but she was her usual crazy self, jumping all over us and wagging her tail!

It didn’t get better over the holiday period – and I could tell it was infected as it was red and crusty… ewww. So this afternoon we took her. It was really hot and humid today so I was dreading the 2.8km walk to the vet, and the 2.8km walk back again… luckily Berkay spoke to his friend and managed to persuade him to take all 3 of us in his car, with Boncuk in the boot on a bedsheet. She hates being indoors so I thought she’d be scared in the car but she seemed to quite like it, no fussing, she just laid down, bless her.

She’s a clever doggy, she knows exactly what it means when she sees the outside of the Vet’s surgery, we attempted to walk inside and she sat her bum firmly down and wouldn’t move, she definitely is not a fan! We eventually had to pick her up to get her inside, she always gets so much attention in there, the vet and his mum are so friendly, you can tell they really love animals!

He had a look in her ears which made her yelp in pain, I felt so sorry for her. She was so good just laying on the table, a lot of dogs would growl or bite them if they felt threatened but she just laid down, she’s so sweet-natured! The vet was so gentle with her and his assistant stood and stroked her head and was talking to her. He decided he needed to give her an injection to make her sleep so he could look inside and clean them properly, he told us to go outside and sit with her for 15 minutes and that she should fall asleep – she was really fighting it bless her, she refused to sit or lay down and just stood up next to us with her nose resting on Berkay’s leg. Look how sad she looks in the photo, her ears were all floppy, eyes all droopy… but she was still fighting it and even managing to wag her tail at us!

Eventually she did go to sleep, the vet managed to clean her ears and confirmed that she had an infection probably caused by ear mites. We were worried about how much it would cost, but it wasn’t too much. It was 65tl (£18) altogether for the injection, cleaning and ear drops… we ended up paying another 20tl (£6) and getting her booster vaccination and flea prevention done too.

The best thing about the whole experience was when we walked out of the surgery, and the vet said ‘geçmiş olsun’ (get well soon) to Boncuk. Is that not the cutest thing?

By this point Boncuk was feeling very sorry for herself. Again we were really lucky that the vet had to drive past our house in order to drop another dog home, so he let us take a free ride in the back of the car. The whole car journey home Boncuk wouldn’t look at me, she had her head down and was definitely being a sulky pants. Her face just said “I’m not talking to you anymore – you made me go to that nasty man who poked my ears.”

Boncuk’s sulky ‘I’m not talking to you anymore’ face.

I think she’s gotten over it now though, Berkay’s been at work all night so he’s been at the hotel with her, he says she’s happy again now with her little waggy tail and no more sulky faces! Hopefully the ear drops will work and we won’t have to make another vet trip anytime soon.

It’s really hard to find a decent vet around here… some I feel are very over-rated, while others rightfully have a bad reputation. I think we’ve found a good one though – Suckun at Ankavet. He obviously really loves animals and is so gentle with them. Boncuk went there last month to have her hair cut and they ended up giving her a pom pom fluffy tail, she looked so cute! They are so friendly and really helpful too. Today they let us take home a 80tl (£22) 15 kilogram bag of dog food on a ‘pay later’ promise… we’ve done that before so they trust us to pay it back. We also purchased Boncuk’s kennel from them previously and they have boarding kennels for dogs to stay in short-term. If anyone is in the Fethiye area and needs a vet, I definitely recommend them. A link to their website with contact details – http://www.e-fethiye.net/ankavet.html
Here’s hoping Boncuk is back to her normal, crazy, rolling in grass, hyperactive self soon!

From sunshine to sunset in Calis..

Posted on July 24, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

One of my favourite things to do here in Calis is go for a walk. I love walking. Often after dinner we have some spare time before Berkay goes to work and we always end up just going for a stroll, although it’s a lot more enjoyable in the winter when you can step outside the front door without sweat dripping off your face! The views are amazing, there’s just something so special about all the mountains in the background – it makes a perfect backdrop for our day-to-day life and sometimes it’s just nice to appreciate it all a bit more. Apart from that, it’s free entertainment, I like wandering along people-watching, seeing couples walking hand in hand or children playing on the beach.

Calis beach is never really busy, there’s always sunbeds avaiblable and plenty of space to lay out – it’s not like the cramped and compact beaches I’ve seen in other resorts. These photos were taken around 6pm so anyone at the beach had probably already gone home – you can see how empty it is! It was a particulary clear and slightly cooler day and without the normal haze from the heat, the mountains and view over to Fethiye were so clear – beautiful.

We normally stop at the junction and turn back but sometimes we go the longer route and walk down across the bridge where the Calis water-taxi’s are. The canal looks totally different than it did a year ago – click HERE for comparison photos – the reeds, plants and wildlife that were once lining the canal have been removed and replaced with bricks, weeds and a bright blue fence – it still looks pretty but it’s definitely not the same.

Calis is at it’s most beautiful just before sundown. In summer the sun goes down behind the mountains on the right, but in winter the sunsets are more spectacular with the sun going down almost exactly centre on the horizon. I love sitting alone on the beach and watching the sunset – it’s just so beautiful. On this particular day a big wave caught me unexpectedly and soaked the whole bottom half of my body – I had stones in places there shouldn’t be stones – it was quite amusing though, luckily there was nobody around to witness my little mishap!

Isn’t it just a beautiful place?

If you haven’t already, please like my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/livingtheturkishdream – I’m nearly at 1000 likes – I post updates on there daily and lots more photos. I’ve just posted a short video made from clips walking through Calis, and I really enjoyed making it so I think I might make some more – I’ve always got my camera with me so I’m going to take the opportunity to film more of the area and see how it turns out.

❤

A day out at sea…

Posted on July 20, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We had planned to join a tour group from Berkay’s hotel and go on a free boat trip on Tuesday, but Berkay had to spend the day in his hometown in Denizli as a member of his family died suddenly, so we missed it. Instead, we went to Fethiye on Wednesday and booked a boat trip ourselves. We spent ages wandering around the marina trying to chose one, some were smaller and more expensive, others were cheaper but the food on offer wasn’t as good etc. Eventually we settled on one of the biggest boats in the marina area, Hanedan 2. I’d never been on a boat that big before, it holds up to 380 people at maximum capacity which is a lot! I usually prefer the smaller, more personal boats but they are often more expensive. The trip was advertised at 35tl including pick up and drop off’s, but we decided to make our own way to Fethiye and back and got the price down to 30tl each, which is around £8.50 each – a good deal I think.

We got to Fethiye at 10.15am, after a quick stop off at the fishing shop so that Berkay could buy some bait – he’s got his own rod and used to go fishing for his dinner most days in the winter. I was pleasantly suprised at how empty the boat was – there were around 70 people on board in total but it was so large it didn’t seem like there were that many at all. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get a sun cushion on the top deck but we did manage to grab the last two – obviously they do not have anywhere near enough for the maximum capacity of people. While we were grabbing our spaces Berkay realised that four guests from the hotel he works at were also on board – they’re Turkish and he’s known them for years, they return to the hotel every year and have become good friends of his, what a coincidence that we ended up on the same boat!

At 10.30am the engine started, and the boat headed out of the marina, along with many more others – it was quite funny to see boats of all shapes and sizes headed off in the same direction towards the islands.

The boat itself was really nice, although it could do with a repaint. The bottom of the boat was entirely shaded with lots of tables to sit at and a bar in the middle. Underneath were the toilets which were actually a lot nicer than any boat toilets I’d come across in the past – 6 individual cubicals, one shower and 3 changing rooms for the girls, and the same I assume for the boys. The top deck of the boat was mainly open and in direct sunlight, with lots of soft sun cushions to lay on. The best part about the boat for me was the built in water slide – it ran through the whole boat and into the sea – it was great fun. There was music playing while sailing but it wasn’t too loud and it certainly wasn’t a ‘party boat’.

There was a man walking around the boat dressed up like a pirate with his pet parrot – weird. He went up to random unsuspecting sunbathers and put this parrot on their feet, hands, head… if he had come near me I would have jumped out of my skin! It was a beautiful parrot and really well behaved, but I’m not a bird fan, when he started flapping his wings I couldn’t even watch, it made me go all cold, eugh. I did want to have a photo done with it, but after a while he disappeared downstairs into the cabin and I didn’t see him again. There was a photographer walking around the boat taking photos of everyone, sunbathing, jumping in the sea, etc, but we know from experience that these photos are very expensive – they charge around 50tl for a copy of the CD of your photos – they were good quality, but not worth it for us. If you were worried about taking a camera on board and leaving it there whilst you were swimming etc, and felt more comfortable with having someone else take your photos instead it’s a good idea, I guess.

We stopped off at an island for 45 minutes before lunch and Berkay done some fishing, then we both went in for a swim – the water was fairly warm and so calm. He managed to catch a couple of fish – the first was a really pretty multi-coloured fish, which he threw back in, and the second was some kind of flat fish which we planned to take home to eat. On later inspection and confirmation from the man at the fish market, we realised that it didn’t have much meat on it and wouldn’t be worth it, so we took it home, cooked it and gave it to our dog instead, at least it wasn’t wasted!

After the first stop, we sailed for another 35 minutes and done some sunbathing (resulting in sunburn, ouch!). It was then time to make another stop at another island and have some lunch. Lunch was included in the ticket price, but all drinks and other snacks were extra. We were all asked when boarding what we wanted for lunch: fish, kofte or chicken, and given little cards with our choice on. The staff came around the tables and asked for our cards which they exchanged for a plate of food – I’d have prefered an open buffet with more choices, but the food was nice regardless. It consisted of our choice of meat, pasta, salad and a bread roll, followed by watermelon. After letting our food go down for a while, I had another quick swim, and Berkay carried on fishing.

An hour later, it was time to sail to our next stop – Pig Island. By this point I was finally feeling brave enough to try out the waterslide and was so glad I did because it was great fun! You can’t tell from the photos, but the first part of the slide was a really steep drop, I don’t think my bum even touched the slide it was like free-falling! Then it leveled out and went through to the other side of the boat and ended up splashing into the sea, I loved it! The photos of me tying it out are pretty amusing, check out the goggles, oh the joys of wearing contact lenses! I went on this slide about 30 times in total, Berkay was fishing and I was bored so I just kept going down the slide, swimming to the steps, climbing back up and going again – such a big kid!

For the braver people, there was a step on the top deck that you could dive or jump off from – it was terrifying, it must have been around 25-30ft high. I’d jumped off one on a smaller boat before, but this was just too high, I didn’t even attempt it. Berkay dived from it though! I couldn’t even bring myself to jump in from the lowest deck – Berkay got a photo of me attempting it, I was holding my nose and about to jump off but just couldn’t. It was only around 10ft, what a wuss!
I can’t remember if we made another one, or two stops after that, but the final stop was rabbit Island, appropriately named because there are hundreds of rabbits resident there, if you’re lucky you can sometimes see them all come out when the boats leave them some leftover salad – cute. We didn’t see any this time though. Berkay was asleep at this point as he’d been at work all night and was tired, so I spent most of the time alone. The boat had anchored close enough that we could walk off the ramp onto the island and I went exploring on my own – it was really pretty and so peaceful as there were no other boats around.

After stopping there for around 45minutes and going down the slide a few more times, it was time to head back to Fethiye. Berkay was asleep in the shade on the lower deck and I’d had enough of the sun so I sat down there and joined him. We got back to Fethiye around 6.20pm, so it was a whole 8 hours we had on the boat – but it always goes so quickly!

I had a really lovely day, I just love being out at sea, it’s so relaxing, I definitely have sea legs! I love the swaying of the boat and all the beautiful scenery, there are so many beautiful islands and bays around the area. I’d go on a boat trip every day if I could! Just look how beautiful and calm the sea is? Nature at it’s finest.

If anyone is in the area and wants to check out the Hanedan 2 boat, you can visit it’s website here, or pay it a visit along the marina, just past Address restaurant in Fethiye.

Marmaris & İçmeler..

Posted on July 13, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

On Tuesday, to celebrate our 4 year anniversary, Berkay hired a car for the day again and we went off on a day trip to Marmaris & İçmeler.

It’s great now that Berkay has his driving license – we’ve hired a car 3 times in the past 6 weeks. His friend lets us have the car cheap and it runs on gas so it’s not expensive to travel far with it either. I’m loving going out and exploring other places.

We were either going to go to Patara & Kas, or Marmaris & İçmeler and decided on the latter as neither of us had been before. I was really curious to see if Marmaris was as bad as I’d imagined, I see lots of people saying it’s like Blackpool, which doesn’t appeal to me at all. It’s certainly a million miles away from what I’m used to here in Fethiye & Calis.

Berkay came home at 9am after a long night at work, had a quick shower then off we headed. It took us around 2 hours in total, with a quick stop off for brunch. We got to Marmaris around 11.45am and spent AGES driving around trying to find a parking space. It was clear that Marmaris was huge and we had no idea which end or where was best to start from.

We ended up parking at the end by the Marina & castle. I really loved this end of Marmaris, it reminded me of Fethiye a lot. We wandered around the corner and along the fish water fountains that I had spotted while driving past and wanted to check out.

I loved this little area with the water features, gardens, statues and clock tower. It was really pretty.

After taking lots of photos there and a quick look in LC Wakiki we walked towards the Marina & castle. We walked through an area of undercover shops which I now know is the Grand Bazaar. It felt like one big giant maze, it was crazy, literally hundreds of shops pretty much all almost identical, selling the same things etc, it felt like we were going around in circles! I have no idea how any of them make any money, it was empty when we were walking around and there are so many shops the same how do you chose which one to give your custom to? It was all a bit weird, I just can’t understand the point of having so many similar shops next to each other – but it must work I guess! We didn’t go in any, we were just concentrating on trying to find a way out, but I did see some cute t-shirts with Frozen and Despicable Me characters on, they’d be perfect for my little sister, she was the first person I thought of when I saw them!

When we eventually found our way out we walked towards Marmaris Castle, which I really wanted to look at, but didn’t have time. We walked through all the little back streets past small, quiet cafes, I loved it. We saw signs for ‘Bar street’ so I’m assuming it was around there somewhere – but it looks like loud, obnoxious bars wouldn’t fit in there at all, perhaps it’s one of those places that is quiet and lovely during the day and a whole different place during the night? I don’t know. We reached the main marina and had a wander around there, the restaurants looked fancy and there were some very nice looking yachts and boats in the harbour. We reached a certain point then turned around and came back, walking along the promenade and past the normal day-trip type boats, we were CONSTANTLY pulled over and hassled to look and chat to them, Berkay is far too polite and instead of just ignoring them like I would, he let them all speak for a minute about how wonderful and amazing their boat trip was and then hit them with the fact that we were only there for a day – I bet they were cursing us for wasting their time! I found it quite funny how they automatically spoke to us in English, normally when we’re home they can tell Berkay is Turkish, and even when I’m out alone they assume I am – I guess we must’ve really looked like tourists in Marmaris that day!

We walked all the way back to the car and drove further along the beach towards the old Point Centre/Blue port. We parked literally right outside and went inside to get into the aircon as quickly as possible. One thing we really noticed about Marmaris was how ridiculously hot it was, there was no air! It was just hot. I was sweating in places I didn’t even know possible, it was awful! People have since told me that it’s because Marmaris is sheltered by the mountains so there is no wind. That’s something I’m so grateful that Calis has – wind! It’s always windy here and I’m always moaning that the sea is too wavy as a result.. I won’t complain anymore that’s for sure!

We had a look around Blue Port, it’s like a smaller version of Erasta in Fethiye. I did laugh to myself, we drove 2 hours to go to Marmaris where most people go to have fun, swim, sunbathe and drink lots of alcohol, and what were we doing? Walking around the Turkish version of B&Q looking at plant pots and paint for no reason! We’re such old souls, it really did make me chuckle. The best part about this little shopping centre was the fact it had a real KFC! We didn’t actually eat in there because it’s expensive, but it looked like a really fancy KFC, not like the minging ones in the UK – I’m guessing it was new. There was a Burger King too, but that wasn’t quite as exciting as there’s one of those in Fethiye too. You know what Turkey really, really needs? A NANDOS!

When we’d recovered from the heat and made the most of the aircon, we headed back outside and just walked along the promenade. This was the first we saw of the beach, which I didn’t really think much of. It was really narrow, with sunbeds crammed in here, there and everywhere. It was the same when we went to Gumbet. Here in Calis there’s one single row of sunbeds which are mostly unused. It’s a totally different place and atmosphere. I thought it was weird how they had buckets of dirty water for people to use and rinse their sandy/dusty feet in – gross. I did love the paved floor and huge, tall palm trees, they looked really lovely.

Another thing I noticed was just how many big 5* hotels there are in Marmaris, it seems the place is definitely more focused on big, all inclusive hotels rather than the smaller 3* bed and breakfast types here in Calis. There’s not a single 5* hotel here.

Up until this point I was really surprised at how much I liked Marmaris. The marina end looked lovely and the right hand side of the beach going towards İçmeler was nice with all the big hotels. When we started walking back and went past Point Centre, we came to the smaller hotels, bars and restaurants in the middle section of the beach that we’d missed out – and this was where things began to get a bit.. tacky. The cheap hotels and football bars. This was the part I’d previously seen photos of and based my opinion of the whole area on. Honestly, I didn’t like it – and I can only imagine it gets worse at night, I’m so glad I wasn’t there to see it, not my cup of tea at all. All in all, Marmaris was a lot better than I imagined, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I only visited during the day, I’m not sure my opinion would be the same if I saw it at night… I did like how there seemed to be something for everyone, all inclusive 5* hotels and cheaper, smaller apart-hotels for those who prefer that. Loud, busy bars for some, and quiet little cafe’s for others. I was amazed at how big it was, it’s 100x bigger than the main area’s of Fethiye, Calis and Ölüdeniz – It’s huge. I was only there for a couple of hours, so there’s a whole lot more to see, I’d like to go back again and experience it all a bit more. I should add here, that these are just my opinions based on observations I made in the very few hours I was there.

After all the walking around, we were hot, tired and grumpy, and got back in the car to drive to İçmeler where we were going for a swim. Honestly I can’t really comment on İçmeler as we didn’t explore, we literally only drove through a road, parked up and walked a few meters to the beach, but it did look more ‘personal’ and slightly more quiet there.

We paid 10tl for 2 sunbeds and an umbrella which I thought was really reasonable, stripped off to our swimsuits and took a dip in the sea, which was freezing. I love how calm the sea is there, it reminds me of the lagoon at Ölüdeniz, I guess İçmeler is sheltered like Marmaris, although it seemed a lot cooler there. There were no waves, it was just nice and calm which made swimming much more relaxing as whenever we’re swimming in the sea at Calis i’m constantly worrying about the waves and trying to stop myself getting a mouthful of salty water- gag! The beach was much like the one at Marmaris, hundreds of sunbeds and umbrellas all crammed together with barely an inch to move – weird. It’s also not really stoney like the ones here, it was more just dusty, muddy, sand, which I’m not sure if I preferred or not really – why are there no pure golden sandy beaches around here? Patara is the best one I’ve come across so far.

I did really like the views from the beach – it was beautiful.

At around 4.30pm we drove back to Marmaris and stopped for dinner – I’d asked for recommendations on Facebook and was trying to find a couple of the restaurants suggested but we couldn’t, we were really hungry, hot and had to leave as quickly as possible so that Berkay could get back in time for work, so we just settled on a random one that we came across – Natalies Steak House.

I’d heard about it from Facebook groups in the past, so thought it would be good to try, but I wish we hadn’t – everything was SO expensive. We did look at the menu outside first, but we were in a rush, so didn’t really look hard enough. I know it’s recommended for its steaks, hence it’s name I guess, but we couldn’t afford those so settled on chicken dishes – I had chili chicken, and Berkay had plank chicken, I found that the waiter kept pushing us to have something more expensive, which was annoying. There was no free ‘puffy’ bread that we normally get for starters either – perhaps that’s not the norm in Marmaris? I’m not sure. When the food arrived, it was nice, no complaints about that at all. When we got the bill though, we were amazed to see that the two large cokes (watered down with a lot of ice!) had been charged at 9tl each – 18tl for two cokes?! That’s just totally crazy to me – I don’t know if we just picked a silly restaurant or if Marmaris is expensive compared to Calis?

After all that, we left Marmaris at 5.30pm, were back in Fethiye at 7.45pm and Berkay was back at work at 8pm! Good timing or what? Even though he was grumpy and tired by the end of the day after having no sleep, I love it that he works nights as it means we can do things during the day together sometimes.

All in all, It was a good day and my opinion of Marmaris did change, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. İçmeler looked lovely but I need to explore them more, maybe we’ll get a chance another day. Both places were in beautiful locations with amazing views of the mountains, sea and islands – Turkey is a truely beautiful country.

I have to say though, after going away somewhere else, whether it be for a day, a week or a year, I just absolutely love driving back through the mountains on the Dalaman road, turning the corner and seeing Babadağ mountain, that’s when I know I’m home. Fethiye is my most favourite place.

Just a little note to apologise for neglecting my blog, I’ve not been in the mood for writing lately, and I have just been so busy. I do have a couple of posts planned for next week so hopefully I’ll get my motivation back and start posting more regularly again soon. Thank you for reading as always ❤

Settling in?

Posted on July 6, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

So, I’ve been here in Turkey for 5 weeks now, where on earth has the time gone?

It’s been a while since I done a personal thoughts & feelings post, I’ve been focusing more on writing about days out and things to do and see. When I started this blog it was just going to be something personal, a kind of diary to look back on, but as time has gone on, more and more people read and as grateful as I am for the nearly 160,000 views I have, I’m less comfortable with sharing now, you can’t trust anyone on the internet and writing posts sharing personal thoughts and feelings gives people a lot of information to judge you on.

I do want to be as honest and as real as possible though. That being said, I thought it was time to do a post about how I’ve settled back into life here in Turkey and what I’m missing about England.

The first night I was here alone as Berkay had to work, and it hit me that I’d be spending a lot of my time alone again, I started to question whether I’d done the right thing and that maybe the grass is always greener on the other side… I also didn’t feel as ‘safe’ in this house, it’s much more central than our old one and there are more people around, it’s not as private.

The first few weeks I was here, I didn’t want to be in the house much, I was always bugging Berkay so we could go out and do something, walking, swimming, pointless trips to Fethiye… I think I wanted to spend as little time as possible in our house so that I didn’t get attached again, if it feels like home it’ll be harder to leave…

Well after being here 5 weeks I’m well and truly settled, our house DOES feel like home, there’s nothing I like more than sitting on the balcony with Berkay after dinner and just playing backgammon or watching a film. It’s just like the old days. I feel totally safe in our house and love it here. It took some getting used to living in a basic house again, no bath, no walk in shower, just a wet room with a tap and shower on the wall that makes the entire room and toilet seat soaking wet after each use! Not being able to flush the toilet paper took some getting use to again too!

I honestly do not miss England. I miss my family sometimes obviously, but I speak to my mum and grandparents everyday on Facetime without fail. I miss my little sister the most because we’re so close, no matter my mood she always cheers me up – I’ve been facetiming with Dad and seeing her, she always says ‘are you coming home yet Dan’ or mentions something about me coming back so I think she misses me too (:

I thought I might miss English food, a nice roast dinner, Cadbury’s chocolate, Monster Munch, ham sandwiches but I don’t really – although I am now drooling at the thought of all of the aforementioned! I love a lot of Turkish food so it doesn’t bother me much – perhaps the only thing I do miss is being able to chuck a ready made jar of sauce on the pasta or get some easy to cook, ready flavored Birdseye chicken out of the freezer. Everything has to be made from scratch – not much frozen food exists here!

I do not miss work at all, but I do miss having structure to my days. Anyone who knows me knows I have to have plans, I have to know what I’m doing and at what time, I’m not very spontaneous!

I’ve fallen into the habit of adapting to Berkay’s work/sleep pattern again. He works from 8pm – 9am everyday and sleeps either during the morning or the afternoon. I’ve started following that and not sleeping all night which is really bad – I’m still awake the same amount of time as anyone else, just all night instead of all day, which sometimes is a blessing as I don’t feel the unbearable heat. I’m still reliant on Berkay most of the time, when I lived here before I never went out without him. This time I walk the dog on my own and walk along Calis seafront a couple of times a week when he’s gone to work and just sit on the beach alone and watch the sunset. I love that.

All in all, I’ve settled back in and am still determined to make the most of every minute here. On Tuesday 8th Berkay and I have been together for 4 years. That’s really crazy, it seems like just yesterday we met, but then again sometimes it feels like we’ve been together so much longer, we’re like an old married couple, yet we’re not old and we’re not married. (;

I cannot believe it’s July already, how scary. More than half way through the year and I only have a few more months in Turkey… it’s not going to be any easier leaving this time than the last.
I’ll leave you with a few photos of the beautiful sunsets I witnessed in Calis last week. ❤