Fethiye’s new look – multi-coloured umbrellas!

Posted on June 19, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Fethiye has been having a makeover recently, it’s seen lots of changes in the past few years and just continues to look better and better…

I’d seen photos on my friend’s Facebook of some pretty looking umbrellas hanging up in one of the back alleys in Fethiye and wanted to have a look for myself so the last time me and Berkay were in Fethiye I made sure I went in that direction!

I wasn’t disappointed – it’s such a simple idea but with such pretty results. I know I’m not the only one to stop and take photos as it’s really eye catching – you can’t miss the huge multi-coloured umbrellas above you! It really reminds me of those multi-coloured steps the residents painted in Istanbul last year to cheer the place up.

I’m not entirely sure what the aim of these umbrellas were – but it certainly brightens the place up and provides some much needed shade for passers by too, creating some interesting shadows on the floor.

The umbrellas can be seen on the back street behind LC Waikiki etc in Fethiye town centre if you want to check it out 🙂

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

Posted on June 18, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First week back in Turkey!

Posted on June 10, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I’ve been back in Turkey for over a week now – it’s gone quick, yet somehow it still feels like I’ve been here forever. Weird! I failed at my plan to post daily updates, but I’ve decided to get my butt into gear and fully concentrate on my blog from now on, so as of tomorrow, I will hopefully be back on track and posting everyday.

Here’s what I got up to in my first week back in Turkey!

Tuesday.
Tuesdays are my favourite days, why? Because its Fethiye market day! I live in Calis, a 20 minute bus ride away from Fethiye, but Fethiye town really is my favourite place around here. I love walking around the markets, although it’s not so fun in summer when it’s absolutely boiling and the sweat just drips off you. On Tuesday we hopped on the bus to Fethiye in the morning as soon as Berkay had finished work, it was the first time I’d been there in 9 months, so it was really great to be back. Seeing the mosque opposite the bus stop and the street view as I walked around the corner was great, it felt like I was finally home!

We were really hungry so our first stop for breakfast was a tiny cafe opposite Is bank – I had Kiymali borek, which is basically mince in a puff pastry type pie – it might sound like a weird thing to have for breakfast but I love it, I love the potato ones too, mmmmm. Next we headed to the bank and then went for a little stroll along the seafront.

After doing some shopping for the boring stuff, tinned things and cleaning products, we went to the market. It was REALLY busy, which was surprising, as I hadn’t seen many people around until this point. There were coach load’s of tourists turning up for the market and wandering around, I guess the weather helped, it was raining so it wouldn’t be much fun sitting around a hotel pool trying to get a tan! 😉 We bought the essentials for our weekly shop – tomatoes, lettuce, melon, strawberries, blackberries, onions, peppers, potatoes, chicken and eggs. We never go to the supermarket for a weekly shop here – most things we eat are made from scratch. Walking around the market I really noticed the price of vegetables had gone up, last time I was here potatoes were 50krs – 75krs per kilo, now they’re 3tl/kg, what is that all about?!

After stocking up on it all, we went to Berkay’s friend’s little pancake van and shared a tomato, cheese and chili flake bazlama, yummy. I’ve previously written about all the other food you can find at the market if you’re interested, click HERE to read.
After all the shopping we got the bus home and went for a walk with Boncuk, she’s far too big to be cuddled like this nowadays!

Wednesday.
On Wednesday we went to the second hand market held on the first Wednesday of every month in the same area as the food section of the Tuesday weekly market. Our friend had a stall so we used her table and managed to sell some old clothes, shoes, bags, hats, nail varnish etc. It’s amazing what people will buy. Some of the stuff you see really is crap, teddies with missing eyes, clothes with holes in, used, dirty, holey shoes… but people are happy enough to buy as they only pay 50krs- 2tl for each item. Our clothes were all in good condition and we managed to make around 20tl – not much, but those things were just sitting in a cupboard taking up space at home, so it was better than nothing! We gave the bag of clothes that we didn’t sell to Berkay’s mum to take back to their village and hand out to the needy. The lady who’s table we were using is good friends of ours – Berkay works with her husband and last year we always used to go on picnic’s etc with them, they have a little boy, Cinar, who was only 9-10 months old last time I saw him, now he’s over 18months and going through the terrible 2’s! He didn’t remember me, wouldn’t come over to me or let me hold him without kicking and hitting me, what a nice welcome! Haha. He loves Berkay though. After the market had finished, we headed to the fish market and spent our profits on dinner, we picked out our fish and took them to one of the surrounding restaurants who cooked and served it for us – lovely. (:

Thursday.
On Thursday we had no plans to do anything as the weather was bad. I was woken up at 5am by huge cracks of thunder and lightening which led to the customary mad dash around the house unplugging all electricals before the power surge blows them up (I’ve learnt this from experience!!) Berkay slept in the morning, woke up at 3, and we planned to cook dinner and stay at home – that plan was altered a bit when we realised our gas bottle had ran out. Berkay’s friend works in the place that delivers the gas bottles on their little scooters, so a quick phonecall to him and the crisis was averted, however, the inevitable happened and we ended up being invited around to his friends house, so we went after dinner. Last August I posted about these friends and congratulated them on being pregnant with twins (click here to read), well these twins are now 3 months old so I met them for the first time, they are so, so, cute. One of them took a liking to me and found me hilarious! It’s funny how one has light, fine hair and the other a full mop of black, fluffy hair! Sweet. Their names are Emir and Emre but I’m not entirely sure which is which, so for now I know them as ‘hairy baby’ and ‘non hairy baby’!! Although incredibly cute, they were incredibly hard work, the mum didn’t have a minute to herself the whole time we were there, and both the grandparents were there helping non stop too! These are spoilt babies, never out of someones arms and they only slept on a blanket for 10 minutes the whole time we were there – life lesson = don’t have twins! At one point both babies were screaming so they laid each of them down on a white blanket, lifted up the edges and formed a kind of hammock and began swinging them back and forth. ”Turkish!” their grandad said to me with a big grin on his face. Crazy was my opinion on the matter, so I couldn’t help taking a photo. They were stood rocking them both for at least 30 minutes each, and this took 4 people… goodness knows what would happen if the mum was ever alone with them both!

Friday.
I woke up early Friday morning and headed off to the hotel Berkay works in as the boss needed me to help with something, an hour and a half and a free buffet breakfast later, we were still there. This was the first really sunny morning I’d had since I was there, it was really hot so the pool looked really tempting! Boncuk was really happy to see me at the hotel and came running up to me then proceeded to run around me in circles for 5minutes not letting any of us get her to put her back inside, she’s crazy! After we’d finished helping at the hotel, we went for a walk with Boncuk along the seafront where I managed to get sunburnt. It was really hot!

Berkay must have thought it was hot too, as when we were in the middle of walking Boncuk he turned around and said ‘Do you want to go for a swim?’ – Berkay NEVER says this, its always me bugging him to come to the beach with me! So off we went to get changed and have a dip in the sea. It’s so lovely now we live a 60 second walk away from the beach. The sea was a bit wavy, and kept knocking me over which I hate as it means I end up swallowing a mouthful of salty water, gag! It wasn’t too cold, just nice, we only stayed for 30 minutes or so but it was nice to cool off. When we came home we both had a sleep and woke up to another thunderstorm and heavy rain, it’s crazy to think that in the morning it was boiling and clear blue skies, then a few hours later, pouring with rain and stormy – in June! Madness.

Saturday.
On Saturday we had no plans so just caught the Dolmus to Fethiye for lunch – we had Doner. Mmmm. You can’t beat a good chicken doner, especially with chips inside and a side helping of tiny hot pickled chili peppers. Much better than the greasy kebabs back in England! I also got a slice of this amazing cake for my dinner – banana cake with cream and lots of layers. Mmmm. Are you sensing a food theme here on my blog?!

Sunday.
There are no photos from Sunday – at 11pm Thursday night Berkay came home from work to pick up some change of clothes for his brother who was rushed into hospital to have his appendix out. Berkay’s boss covered for him so he stayed all night at the hospital with his brother and didn’t come home til 4pm on Sunday. Then his Dad and Stepmum traveled from Denizli so that his brother wouldn’t be alone at the hospital. She popped into our house to say hi and bought us some goodies from their village – homemade butter and yogurt, a leg of lamb, chickpeas, lentils, corn kernels, onions… His brother is still in hospital at the moment recovering, hopefully he’ll be back to himself and at work in Hisaronu again soon!

Monday.
Today Berkay wasn’t home again until 5pm as he had to go and do a one day course to get his food hygiene certifcate. I had dinner waiting for him when he came home and then we went off for a stroll along the seafront – it was lovely and warm but very quiet. It seems like the season still isn’t in full swing yet. Hopefully when we get into July/August things will start to get busier!

As you can see, we had a pretty busy week. Berkay works night’s so he’s been having a couple of hours sleep in the hotel then either staying awake til 3-4pm so we get all morning and lunchtime together, or going to sleep when he comes home and waking up at 3pm so we get the afternoon and dinner together. I much prefer him working night’s to days, or I’d never see him.

Sorry for the long, photo heavy and overdue post. I WILL be back tomorrow with another! ❤

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 🙂

Saklikent gorge

Posted on February 11, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Sometimes when abroad, it’s nice to stray away from the beach and pool for a few hours and see some of the natural beauty of the country you’re visiting.

If you’re in the Fethiye or Kalkan/Patara area, a visit to Sakilikent gorge is the perfect opportunity to do just that.

The gorge is about an hour from Fethiye, easily accessible by car or by one of the many tourist buses/jeep safari’s that go there. We’ve been twice and loved it, although it can be a little scary..the first time we went with my mum, who didn’t enjoy the experience in the slightest.

The gorge is 300m deep and 18km long, one of the deepest in the world, but only 4km of it is walkable. You can only enter it in the summer, between April and October, as in the winter, all the snow from the mountains means the flow of water is too strong, too deep and too dangerous.

When you first arrive, you have to pay an entrance fee, last year it was around 5tl, but it can change each year. Before you enter, make sure anything you have is secure and made waterproof… cameras, phones, cigarettes, keys.. whatever you have in your pockets will get wet. It’s also wise to bring a paif of sea shoes with you, or you can hire some jelly shoes from a stall opposite the entrance, DO NOT wear flip flops or shoes that fall off, because they can and they will. The amount of solitary shoes we saw flowing down the gorge was amusing…

A solitary flip flip belonging to someone very unfortunate..

Once you’ve paid the fee and have entered, you’re greeted with a very old, unsturdy looking bridge, complete with missing pieces and dodgy nails, high up over deep, fast flowing water…crossing this bridge is the easiest part!

The old bridge suspended above the water is the only way to enter the gorge.

Once you’ve crossed that, you get a seating area, benches, trees, a small cafe and very pretty looking rocks with the water flowing over them. The sound of the water is impressive! A lot of people only enter the gorge to sit here, because it is so beautiful and cool. The water is freezing, the spray it creates is cooling and the trees provide a lot of shade, its a welcome relief to the 40+ degree temperatures outside!

If you are feeling adventurous, you can carefully make your way down the rocks to the main section of the gorge, but in order to get to the the other side and start the 4km walk, you have to cross the main fast flowing section of water. This is the difficult part, and it’s terrifying! The water is often waist height, and is so fast and so powerful. It’s also freezing… literally if it was any colder it would be ice. There is a rope attached to the rocks either side which you cling on to in order to cross, but its still difficult, definitely not recommended for older people or children, although I have seen some who managed to cross, I’ve also heard horror stories from people who haven’t been so lucky..

Us clinging on for dear life to cross the river.

Once you’ve managed to get across, hopefully without loosing a shoe, camera or your pants in the process, it becomes a more pleasant experience…temporarily. The water the other side varies in depth, but for the first km or so, it’s only ankle deep. The water is cloudy and the bed is slippery and covered in obstacles like rocks, hidden by the cloudy water. It’s advised to stay a foot behind someone in front of you, if they trip over or fall down a hole, you know to avoid that part 😉 There really is no other way of knowing..

The gorge is beautiful and impressive. In some areas there are rocks suspended above your head only by another rock.. If this gorge was in England you’d have to wear hard safety hats, straps and goodness knows what else. At the end of the 4km apparently there is a waterfall, although we’ve never made it that far, as the further in you get, the more difficult it is. There are big boulders to climb and manovue around, big dips down, steep steps up and fast flowing water knocking you off your feet. I dont know anyone who has managed to come away without at least one bruise! It really is much more fun than I’m making it sound though, the natural beauty of it all is amazing. If you have a waterproof camera, definitely take it, there are some fabulous photo’s to be taken!

Once you’ve had enough and have turned around and made the long walk back to the entrance, you step back outside and the heat hits you again, suddenly the freezing cold water doesn’t seem so bad! You can talk a slow stoll around the shops, market stalls, icecream stands etc around the riverside. On one side there is a lovely cafe/restaurant which has wooden platforms suspended over the river where you can sit and relax with an Efes or icecream to recover. There are hammocks to sit in, and pillows to sit back on. The cafe we went to had a great open buffet with trout fish or chicken and endless amounts of traditional Turkish food to chose from. Delicious and very relaxing!

It’s a very different and fun, if sometimes slightly painful, day out! 🙂

Dressing up as a Sultan at Bodrum Castle..

Posted on September 23, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

While in Bodrum last week we had some fun at Bodrum Castle, it involved headdresses, funny costumes and dressing up like a Sultan and his wife…

It was such a touristy thing to do.. The amusing thing was, the entrance fee to the actual castle was 20tl each, we decided this was too expensive and just wandered around the grounds instead. While wandering, we found a cute little booth where you could wear traditional clothes and have your photo taken as a Turkish Sultan.. They let you pick your costume then took 30+ photos. It was 10tl for one printed photo, or 40tl for the whole CD. We were sucked in and bought the whole CD.. we could have just entered the castle after all!

Oh well, the photos are amusing, some turned out pretty sweet too. I like them.

An afternoon at the beach..

Posted on September 13, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

I always used to think how odd it looked when Turkish families rocked up to the beach in the height of summer, fully clothed with rugs, cushions and pots and pans in tow to enjoy a full on family feast. Today I realised I have become one of these people.

My level of Turkish-ness definitely peaked today. I wanted to for a swim with Berkay and thought it would be nice to take some food along with us, I found myself marinating some chicken breast in Nandos sauce (we’re addicted to it) at 6am this morning, ready to cook in the oven before we went this afternoon. We ended up taking the chicken, some pasta and salad all nicely stored in saucepans and old ice-cream tubs and shoved in my bag… along with towels, a blanket, 2 cushions, plates, cutlery, a bottle of coke and the trusty salt pot. God knows what the tourists thought, Calis Beach was pretty busy with bikini clad sun worshiping tourists, and there we were, walking along trying to find an empty spot to set up our little feast. We did find a fairly quiet spot luckily.

It was lovely, but by the time we had walked 20 minutes in the 38 degree heat and were sweaty, hot and bothered, we weren’t all that hungry and couldn’t finish it all. Boncuk was grateful for the leftovers for dinner though!

After a little mini photo-shoot (I am way too snap happy, 7000 photos taken on my iPod in just 5 months..) we had a little swim, the sea is still lovely and warm at this time of year, perfect.

We had time for a quick walk and hugs with Boncuk before Berkay went to work too, isn’t this photo adorable? True love 🙂