A change in weather?

Posted on September 29, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

As soon as the calendar page turned to 1st September, it was like the weather just changed overnight.

The last week of August was the hottest of the year here, reaching 42oc in the shade during the day, and around 28 oc during the night. I was going to bed with an ice pack or hugging frozen bottles of water to cool down (I’m serious, the joys of having no air-conditioning). Then the 1st of September came and the weather changed quite dramatically, with temperatures dropping around 10 oc suddenly! Of course there were still very hot days, and daytime temperatures still averaged around 33 oc and 24oc at night, but those of us living here could definitely feel the change.

As the 2nd half of September came rolling in, so did the clouds, and the thunder! I was walking home along the beach one day and greeted with the following view – it was so dark. There was an almighty crack of thunder and people walking past me jumped about a foot in the air, it was very loud! I only felt 2 spots of rain, but boy did those 2 drops feel good!

Since then it’s been cloudy a lot, threatening to rain, but nothing really happened until Friday evening when the first real thunderstorm since the beginning of June arrived! I was sat in my house around 2 am on Saturday morning and saw flashes of lightening out of the corner of my eye. I went and sat on the balcony to investigate and the sky was lit up every few seconds from all directions, it was very pretty. I tried to capture it on camera, but failed! Oddly, there was very little thunder, but a lot of lightening and wind… After sitting on the balcony for 20 minutes I felt rain. A few spots, then a lot of spots, then it started pounding down on my head, I can’t tell you how good it felt! No rain for 4 months makes you go a little crazy, I felt like staying outside and dancing in it!

On Saturday, we had planned to go for a BBQ with two English guests staying in the hotel Berkay works in. It came to 3 pm and the skies were grey and cloudy and it was very cool. We decided to drive to Kayakoy and go to a restaurant there instead, Cin Bal. If you live in Fethiye, you’ve probably heard of it, it’s very popular. They sell meat by the kilogram, and have whole sheep and cows hanging up like a butchers shop! They cook the meat for you on their BBQ or bring one to your table to you can BBQ it yourself, it’s a cute idea! When we were on our way it started to rain, the windows on the car were steaming up so we opened them a little and it felt cold. It was the first time I’d felt cold, fresh air for months, it was amazing! When we got to the restaurant around 3.45pm it really started raining, we sat outside under a shelter but could see, and hear the rain coming down, our poor friends could be forgiven for thinking they were back in England! We had a lovely meal and a chat, and over 2 hours later, the rain was still pouring down. We got back in the car and headed to Fethiye and I was freezing. The drive was beautiful, somehow Fethiye manages to look just as charming, or even more so, in the rain. We drove down the hillside and the view over the whole of Fethiye was breathtaking, the clouds were low over the mountains and it made a lovely photo, unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to take one, I wish I had! It was so cloudy, so dark and all the car and shops lights lit up reminded me of Christmas!

We got home and I went for a shower. Part of the joy of living in Turkey is interesting shower experiences! I think every single house has solar panels on the roof which heat the water, great in summer when there are clear blue skies and bright sunshine, but in winter, when it’s cloudy all day, these solar panels are useless and we have no hot water. Some people have an electric shower (we do, but it is not safe to use due to dodgy wiring) or boilers, but a lot of people don’t. In order to have a hot shower, I had to first heat up some water in the saucepan and take this into the shower and wash with a jug! I actually don’t mind this at all, it makes it so much more satisfying in a weird way, especially when washing your hair! It makes me feel all cosy and homey aftewards, I think that’s because when I lived here for two previous winters, we had no electric shower again and this was a normal, everyday thing. In England you might have a hot bath to warm up and relax on a cold day, here, for me, it’s a hot water in a saucepan and jug thing! After the ‘shower’ I was freezing, I even put my warm, fluffy, dalmatian pajama bottoms on. This is my, ‘yay it’s cold enough to wear my fluffy pajamas’ face (:

It’s not all bad, today was sunny with only a few clouds and temperatures were around 25oc. Good enough to sunbathe, and although the pools are cooler now, the sea is still quite warm and pleasant to swim in. The cloudy skies and cooler temperatures make daily life and chores so much more pleasant, it’s lovely being able to walk out of the front door without breaking into a sweat! Berkay even asked me to iron his long sleeved shirts for work! That’s one bad thing about the weather, when I packed my case to come here, I seem to have neglected the fact I’d be here for some of the cooler weather and forgot to bring any warm clothes!! Short sleeved tops and denim shorts or dresses are all I seem to have in my wardrobe… Ooops.

Autumn and winter also mean beautiful sunsets, remember me saying on previous sunset posts (click HERE for one) that in winter the sun goes down next to the island in the middle of the sea, rather than behind the mountains on the right hand side? Well it’s nearly there! I took this beautiful photo this evening, with the sun setting just behind the island. Just gorgeous.

❤

One year ago today, leaving Turkey & the army..

Posted on September 27, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This time last year I had just landed in England after packing up two years of my life and removing all traces of myself from my house here in Turkey. That was the worst day of my life so far, without question.

I remember crying from the minute I walked out of my front door, said goodbye to my dog and got in the car, to the moment I went through passport control at the airport, and then again regularly during the flight, especially when taking off and seeing Turkey, Berkay and Boncuk getting further and further away from me through the plane window. Actually thinking about it now still makes me want to burst into tears!

People normally look back and say ‘look how far we’ve come in the past year’, for me I’m still stuck in the same place. I stuck it out in England for 8 months working and decided to give it up to move back here for the summer, it’s nearly October now and I’m facing packing up and leaving my home, dog and Berkay all over again. I’m hoping it will be easier second time around but somehow I think that’s just unrealistic, wishful thinking.

Even though I’m still stuck in the same place and haven’t moved on at all in the past year, I don’t regret coming back here, even if it means another stupid goodbye… if anything, I regret getting on that plane a year ago, I wish I’d just stayed here for another year instead.

Alas, I am in the same situation, in a month or two I’m going to have to get on the plane again and watch as the things I love get further and further away until they’re just little blurry lights on the ground, tiny dots in a big, big world. It’s something I think about every single day. Everyday I’ll be doing something and catch myself thinking ‘maybe it’s the last time’. Maybe it’s the last time I’ll go to that shop, maybe it’s the last time we’ll eat a certain food, maybe it’s the last time we’ll go to a certain place. It feels like a never ending list of ‘lasts’. It’s awful, it’s constantly in my mind that I’ll be leaving here again one day very soon, a constant, dull, nagging in my brain driving me crazy, but I can’t do anything about it.

Berkay has yet to do his national service for the Turkish army. While we were shopping in Fethiye last week, we walked past the military office, while I went to Migros to buy bread, Berkay went in to enlist for the army. It’s something that is so casual here, it’s mindblowing to me! Every Turkish male has to do national service, it’s a part of their culture, I think Berkay is actually quite excited to go, it bothered him quite a lot that his younger brother completed his service a long time before him. It’s a very important milestone for most Turkish men, I suppose it links back to the pride they have in their country and their flag, they are very patriotic. Anyway, he enlisted and will be going away at the beginning of February 2015. He has to go for a year, a whole 12 months, although I believe he is entitled to a few weeks leave. Depending on where he’s based he should know far enough in advance that I will be able to book time off work to go out and visit him, and obviously I’ll be booking a flight out at the end of January to say bye too.

I really do not know how we’ll cope not being able to talk to each other daily, depending on where he is based he may be able to call me often, but we’re used to seeing each other everyday. Even during the months we were apart, we saw each other everyday on Facetime, skype or via good old MSN webcam in the ‘old’ days. We normally send each other hundreds of Facebook messages each day, ‘I’m awake now, just going to have a shower’ – ‘I’m just waiting for the train’ – ‘I’m in work, what you doing?’ etc, every single day, even while in the same country!! It will be so weird going about my day and not writing Facebook messages to him, of course he won’t have any internet access. I’ll probably still write long old messages to him when I need a rant to someone, but it will be like talking to myself, there will be nobody to answer, nobody to share my day with.

Anyway, the current plan is to leave Turkey in November sometime to find a job, earn and save as much money as possible. I wanted to stay longer and go back just before he goes to the army in February, but we’ll be homeless as we won’t be able to afford rent for our home here in Fethiye as Berkay won’t have a job after mid-end October. If he finds work here in Fethiye for the winter he’ll probably stay under the hotel grounds (even though it’s closed) as he did last year, and if he doesn’t, he’ll head to his village and hopefully find work there and be able to save for 2 months so that he can have some money saved before going to the army, for days off or leave. As for our dog Boncuk, I know I have a lot of concerned readers always asking about her, she’ll be staying with Berkay’s family in his village too, unless I can find her a ‘foster’ home with someone I trust here for a year, but that’s not likely. We won’t abandon her, we want her back as soon as Berkay is out, don’t worry!

I hope to earn as much as possible by the time Berkay has completed his year’s service, and if my income meets the visa requirements, great, if not, that’s fine too, I’ll come back here instead. I’m sick of waiting for our lives to begin, once the army is done that will be a huge weight lifted, I feel like we’re constantly waiting at the moment, we can’t move forward with our lives til that’s out of the way, and once it is, I don’t care which country we’re in, as long as there’s no more waiting involved. People say ‘you’re only young, you’ve got you’re whole lives ahead of you’, which may be true, but it also may not, one of us could drop down dead tomorrow, nobody knows, life is a funny old thing, and if all this long distance, army issues and constant goodbyes has taught me anything, it’s to live everyday to the fullest and enjoy every precious moment!

Wow, what a depressing post this is eh? I haven’t written a personal, ‘thoughts and feelings’ post for a long time, normal, happy, touristy, summery photo posts shall resume shortly, I promise.

Thanks for listening/reading. (: ❤

Perfect Turkish Rice..

Posted on September 26, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I’m not a great cook, never have been and probably never will be, but for the past few months I’ve been cooking more often and trying my hand at some Turkish dishes after being ‘trained’ by Berkay. He rarely compliments my food, it’s never salty enough or oily enough, but a few days ago he told me my attempt at Turkish rice was great, and that’s good enough for me! ‘Turkish rice’ as I call it, is a tough one to master but I think I’ve nearly got it. I know it’s a favourite of some so here’s our version!

Ingredients for 2-3 people:
1 cup white rice ( In Turkey, we use Baldo rice, you may be able to find that in certain supermarkets in the UK but if not, basmati rice will be ok)
2 tablespoons şehriye (This is like a thin pasta, if you’re in the UK look for ‘orzo’ pasta which is almost identical)
A knob of butter
2 cups of hot water
half a chicken stock cube
salt and pepper to taste
+ a shallow saucepan with a lid

Firstly rinse the rice in cold water, then you need to soak the rice in HOT water for around 30 minutes before cooking. After the 30 minutes, wash the rice again in cold water, the water should run clear. Drain it well.

Heat the butter in the pan on a medium heat and once melted, add the şehriye. You need to keep an eye on it and keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn. Wait for it to change to a darker, toasted color.

Once it has changed colour, add the rice into the pan and stir thoroughly for a couple of minutes, again make sure the heat is on medium so that the grains do not burn.

Now add the hot water, half the chicken stock cube and a little salt. Stir a few times, turn up the heat and bring to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low-medium and cover.

Leave the rice to simmer for 8-10 minutes. Now, if there’s one thing Berkay has taught me it’s to NOT lift the lid to check if the rice is done, this is apparently very important. How do you know if it’s done if you can’t open the lid? Well, give the pan a little shake, judge the best you can and/or just turn off the heat and hope for the best! It’s difficult to judge – it can either end up soggy, stuck to the pan or perfect and there is very little time between each stage. I find that 10 minutes is the perfect amount of cooking time for 1 cup of rice with 2 cups of water.

Turn off the heat and keep the pan covered until you are ready to serve, again this is apparently very important!

Use a fork to fluff up the rice and serve. Berkay puts black pepper on his to spice things up a little.

Enjoy!

Do you like this ‘Turkish rice’? Have you mastered it or found a better recipe? Let me know (:

Kuru Fasulye – Turkish white bean stew recipe

Posted on September 14, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I really like Turkish food, and this is a delicious, easy dish to make. I posted a photo on Facebook earlier this week and a few people asked for the recipe, so here is the version I follow…

Please note, we judge things by eye, we don’t really measure things, you’ll need to adjust the recipe based on your taste. This recipe is more than enough for 2-3 people, we had leftovers.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of dried white beans. (Dried cannellini beans is the name I believe, you can buy them in supermarkets in the UK – I checked).
1 or 1.5 onions, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon of tomato paste
olive oil
salt
red pepper flakes
water

First, you need to soak the beans in water for around 12 hours, or overnight the day before you plan to cook them.

When you’re ready to start cooking, drain and rinse the beans then put them into a large saucepan/cooking pot with 4-5 cups of fresh water, bring this to the boil and then turn down to a low heat. Leave this to boil gently for around 45-60 minutes, but keep checking back and topping up the water as required. You need to cook the beans until they are soft, but not quite fully cooked.

Once they reach this stage, you can begin to prepare the other ingredients, but don’t turn off the heat on the beans.

Add a little olive oil to a frying pan and saute the onion with the olive oil for around 3-5 minutes or until soft, don’t let them burn. (If you wanted to add meat, you could at this point, diced red meat works well. You could also add peeled, chopped tomatoes and/or peppers if you wish – we didn’t).

Then add your tomato paste, stirring it into the onions. Once it is all stirred together and soft, add this mixture to the beans and water and stir gently. You can add salt and red pepper flakes, we like this dish both salty and slightly spicy, so we added quite a lot of both.

Leave this on a low heat to simmer for around 20-30 minutes, or until the beans are soft enough for your liking, there’s no set time and cooking times vary according to the appliance, just keep an eye on the beans and keep testing them until you’re happy with the taste and texture.

The result is a delicious, hearty bean stew. We serve it with a plate of rice and fresh, crusty bread, which is perfect for dipping in and mopping up the ‘juice’ – yum! Berkay eats his with a quarter of raw onion covered in salt, I never understand that, it must be a Turkish thing!

It’s such a cheap and easy dish to make, it’s filling and really warms you up too so it’s a very popular winter dish here. We don’t make it too often as it uses up a lot of our gas bottle due to the length of the cooking time, but you can easily make it in bulk and freeze the leftovers. It’s also possible to skip the first 2 steps and use canned white beans instead, which greatly reduces the cooking time.

I’m always a little nervous posting recipes, I’m not a very good cook and all these Turkish dishes I learnt from Berkay so I’m hoping he knows his stuff and is teaching me well – it’s difficult to learn when he’s not very specific on exact measurements! Let me know if you try this recipe, or perhaps suggest a different version? Have you tried the dish before?

I’ll be posting a Turkish rice recipe soon.. (:

Sunday market day in Calis..

Posted on September 8, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We went to the market for the first time in over a month yesterday, we used to go every week but haven’t been recently for one reason or another – I was ill, we had plans with friends, it was too hot, etc. We normally wait for the Tuesday Fethiye market as it’s bigger, but we needed fruit and vegetables for this weeks meals, so we headed to the Sunday market in Calis instead.

I love the food on market days, we used to always go to one of the snack cafe’s inside to have a Turkish pancake for lunch, but we had leftovers from yesterday’s dinner today so we didn’t go there. I’ve written posts about our favourite market cafe food before, click HERE to read that.

We bypassed all the cafes and went straight to the fruit and vegetable stalls, this is where we buy all our weekly fruit and vegetables as it’s generally much cheaper than the supermarkets or small shops. Prices vary dramatically throughout the year for certain things, obviously it depends what is in season and what is not, for example – a month ago we got kiwi’s for 6tl per kg, now they’re 20tl per kg, that is one crazy price increase.

The colours you see in the market are so diverse, vibrant and fresh, from the multi-coloured spices to the pastel coloured Turkish delight and the bright fruits and vegetables. It all smells so good too, apart from the olive and cheese sections, I always hold my nose around both of those stalls…stinky.

I was surprised at how quiet the market was, there were very few tourists around at all, in fact I can’t recall seeing, or hearing any! We went around 5.30pm, perhaps it was too late? That’s another trick you quickly learn, shop in the early evening to take advantage of both the cooler air and the lower prices as people prepare to pack up their stock and go home. The atmosphere at the Calis market compared to the Fethiye one is very different – its less busy and there’s less of a sense of urgency, everyone is always in such a rush during the Tuesday one! There was even a cute fluffy dog just strolling around.

As well as all our fruit and vegetables we usually buy all our chicken here too, from the ‘ay pilic’ van which is our favourite place to buy from. They also sell eggs, but we usually avoid buying those here as the whole tray rarely survives the journey home, there are always a few casualties! My favourite thing about this stall is the fact is sells HP Sauce. This is the only ‘English’ item I regularly buy and insist on always having in my cupboard! I ran out a few weeks ago and we were waiting for pay day to arrive to restock my supply, so I was very pleased when I saw some on the shelf today! Last year they sold it for 4.5tl, now it’s gone up to 6.5tl (£1.85) , along with the beans. Who in their right mind would pay 6.5tl for a tin of baked beans? They’re not even Heinz! The price of imported goods has rapidly increased here. While we were at their van/stall I spotted a big bottle of sweet chili sauce and asked how much it was, 11tl they said (a good deal for the size of the bottle!). We only had enough money on us to buy this or the HP sauce, and of course the latter option won. “We’ll buy the other one next week” Berkay told them, “no, no, take it now, you can pay next week, we know you!” they said. Now this made my day, how kind and how trusting? People are always complaining about Turkish people ripping them off in resorts, and I don’t deny that that does happen, but some of them are so kind and really lovely, genuine people. It makes no difference to them whatsoever if we bought the sauce this week or next, yet they let us take it away anyway. They know us, we use them all the time, but that’s still a really trusting, nice thing to do.

Apart from food, of course there are other aspects to the market too – there are stalls selling clothes, shoes, belts, bags, toys, homewares, baby clothes, towels, sunglasses and an abundance of ‘genuine fakes’. I wrote about some of that in a previous post from last year, click HERE to read.

We ended up coming home with 1kg of chicken wings, 1 chicken breast, 2 chicken drumsticks, HP sauce, several kilograms of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, peppers, bell peppers, green beans, apples, pears, 2 garlic bulbs and one huge 8.6kg watermelon. (Ouch!) This will probably last us 7-10 days and all came to a total of 60tl or £17, which yes is cheaper than you’d pay in the UK, but please consider the wage differences here in Turkey, this is more than a days wages for Berkay.

When we lived at our old house, the bus route didn’t run along our road, so we had to walk for 15 minutes, that was never fun with several kilograms of fruit and vegetables (we certainly wouldn’t have been able to carry that massive watermelon!), so I’m thankful the bus now goes practically to our front door!

The markets are always worth a visit even if you don’t intend to buy anything, it’s a brilliant place to sit and enjoy a cool drink, a Turkish pancake and do some people watching too. (:

Sailing the day away on a Fethiye boat trip..

Posted on September 7, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This post is long overdue! 10 days ago we went on a boat trip to the islands around Fethiye. We went along for free with one of the tour groups that visit the hotel Berkay works in – the perks of the job!

The tour group we went with is calls ETS, they go traveling around on excursions from Istanbul and stay in the hotel for 3-4 days, using it as a base while they see the sites of the surrounding areas. We hopped on their coach and headed to Fethiye where we boarded the boat.

The boat’s name was Grand Baris. We set off around 10.30 and went on a different route to most of the other ’12 islands’ trips, which I quite liked, although we seemed to be sailing forever until our first stop, it must have been over an hour.

The first stop was called Olive Island and was near Gocek I think, we had a swim and stopped there for 45 minutes. It was all going well until my foot touched a sea urchin, those things really hurt. I didn’t even step on it, just brushed it with my foot and it hurt for the entire day! I could see a really tiny black dot which I removed, but my foot felt like it had painful pins and needles until the following day – it was so weird, thank goodness I didn’t step on one completely and get the entire spike embedded in my foot, because that would definitely have ruined our day!

After that, we moved onto the next stop, I’ve forgotten the name but it was lovely there, turquoise water and really pretty. This is where lunch was served. Everyone else on the boat had to pay 15tl for their dinner (I assume because they didn’t pay for the boat trip individually, it was just part of the tour group’s excursions) but we got it for free as we knew them. It was fish, chicken or meatballs with spaghetti, salad and bread. It was a big plate full too, I couldn’t eat all mine, but it was lovely. I found the price of the drinks/food on board more expensive than usual. We had a small glass of Turkish tea which were 2tl each, and I noticed the 5tl Cola and Fanta were smaller glass bottles, rather than 33 cl cans. We also paid 5tl for a tiny plate of about 20 chips… I know we can’t really complain as we got everything else for free, but everyone else who were paying customers still had to pay those prices.

After another swim, the next stop was Flat Island. It was a lot busier here but really beautiful. We got off the island and had a walk around, it looks even better from photos above (google search ‘flat island fethiye’ to see some!). The flat part of the island is shaped almost like a number ‘6’ with a calm, shallow area of water in the middle which you can walk through. We walked along the flat strip until we reached the hill and then turned back, it was so hot we didn’t fancy hill climbing! There were some ducks and chickens present on the island hiding in the shade of the bushes – cute. After another quick swim we got back on the boat and headed off to our last stop – Red Island.

Red Island is the name of the island you can see from Calis and which forms the backdrop of most of my sunset photos! Berkay had had no sleep and had been working all night, so he was napping on the boat, but I went for a swim and took my goggles so I could look for some fish. The boat moored near a corner of the island and I was able to swim to it, there were alot of beautiful fish there, I wish I’d taken my iPod in with me to get some good underwater photos, but I forgot! I’m so glad I took my goggles, because towards the side of the island the water became shallow and I could see and feel the rocks underneath – I peeked through my goggles to see if it was safe to step down and there were so many black, spikey sea urchins waiting for my feet… Definitely learned my lesson the first time and kept my feet firmly off the ground! More boats starting arriving at the island so I swam back towards ours and after 45 minutes they pulled the anchor up and set off back towards Fethiye.

This is always my favourite part of the journey, it was around 5pm so the sun wasn’t directly overhead, making it slightly cooler. I love sitting at the back of the boat with my feet dangling in the water watching people fishing – they caught 2 fish and a starfish – Berkay was jealous, wishing he had bought his fishing rod! The sight as you come into Fethiye marina is beautiful, with the mountains and rock tombs in full view – lovely.

The boat itself was nice, clean and well-kept. The women’s toilets were large, clean and well-lit but Berkay said the men’s weren’t so nice – so much so that he actually used the women’s one instead! The staff were really friendly and it was a good day out, but we probably wouldn’t chose to use this boat again ourselves, we preferred the one we were on back in July. (click HERE to read the post about that trip)

Also, I always cringe when British people complain about the lack of fellow Brits in their hotel or on boat trips etc, we are in Turkey afterall… but there was one small family of English people on the boat who booked separately to the huge (over 100 people) entirely Turkish tour group that we went with and I can understand that they may have felt a little awkward mixed in amongst them. I do wonder if they were informed when they booked that a large tour group was booked on the boat for the same day? That being said, the staff made sure everything was announced in Turkish and English and were equally as welcoming to both groups of people from what I saw.

We had a great day and I’m grateful we got the opportunity to go for free (apart from extras like drinks). I recommend the boat, we had nothing but a good experience, but I would suggest making sure there are no large tour group bookings on the day you plan to go if that bothers you.

I just love being at sea, perhaps I should have been a pirate! ~~Or married someone with alot of money and a fancy yacht.~~

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 (:

Fethiye’s best chicken döner kebab?..

Posted on September 3, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We don’t often eat out in restaurants here in Calis/Fethiye, it’s nice every once in a while to splash out and go out for dinner but it’s expensive when you’re on a tight budget. We do however, go to small Turkish cafe’s regularly – usually once a week.

You can’t beat the small cafe’s in Fethiye for their Turkish food, whether it be beans and rice, green beans, pide, köfte, chicken saute or our good old favourite – chicken döner. It’s all so cheap, in fact I think a lot of it is cheaper than actually buying the ingredients and cooking it yourself at home.

Our favourite place to go for a good chicken döner kebab is Dönercim. It’s located in Fethiye on the corner of the main town centre road behind Mercan Pastanesi and Cem Optik.

A Turkish döner kebab is nothing like the ones you’ve come across in the UK. They’re not greasy, mixed meats all slung together into a brown pile served in a pitta bread with chili sauce and greasy chips… When we were in a kebab shop in Essex, Berkay asked the owners (they were Turkish too) what the meat was in their version of a ‘doner kebab’ and was shocked at their answer – it was a mixture of everything and made up of several meats including pork, something Turkish people do not normally eat.

The döner kebabs here are different. There’s no such thing as ‘doner meat’ – it’s either seasoned chicken, beef or lamb. The name relates to the way the meat is cooked slowly on a vertical rotisserie. As the outside layers of meat get cooked, they are carved off and served. There are various ways the meat is served – e.g, over rice with salad, in a wrap (dürüm) or in a half-bread like a sandwich (yarım ekmek).

We usually get the half-bread, the perfectly cooked chicken is shaved off and put inside along with onion, tomato and lettuce. It’s always served with a side of pickled hot chili peppers too – I love them, although they took a bit of getting used to, once I managed to control the mouth burning sensation I grew to love them. (;

It’s not a very ‘Turkish’ thing to do, but we always order a side of chips, pour some salt and vinegar on them and stick them inside the half-bread too – trust me, it’s perfect!

We love this cafe so much, the staff know us. They see us walking down the road towards it, Berkay gestures to let them know we’re coming in, they know our order (including drinks) off by heart and have it ready and waiting by the time we’ve sat down at the table. That’s how you know you visit a place a little too often, isn’t it? The first few times we went they had to ask if we wanted ketchup and mayonnaise in the half bread (ewww no), what drink we wanted and always gave us weird looks when we asked for the vinegar (apparently vinegar on chips isn’t a normal thing to do here), but now they don’t even have to ask and the bottle of vinegar is always bought out to the table without thinking twice. They are so friendly and I really recommend the place. Our bill usually comes to around 12.5 lira. 3.5tl for one half-bread with ayran, 5tl for one half-bread with a cola light, and 4tl for the side portion of chips. Bargain.

This cafe doesn’t just sell döner kebabs of course, it has other Turkish meals – various kebabs, chicken saute, fish, liver, meatballs etc and it also caters for those wanting something more ‘British’ although I’ve never tried any of these meals, so I can’t comment. The prices are clearly displayed outside so there’s no ‘double price’ system for local people v tourists, something that is an issue in a lot of places.

If you’re in Fethiye give it a try – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, and for the prices you really can’t go wrong. There’s a good chance you’ll bump into us there too! 😉

Disclaimer – I’m not being paid to advertise, the owners have no idea I’m writing this post.

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.