Looking out over Ölüdeniz…

Posted on September 19, 2018 by livingtheturkishdream

Back in June we made the most of having the rental car by driving around and visiting various places. One of them being the look out point at the start of the Lycian Way, over looking Ölüdeniz.

We drove a little way up the mountain road, parked up and walked for about 5 minutes to the look out point, passing an old abandoned tent on the way! It involves climbing up a few rocks and it’s steep and bumpy under your feet so you need to wear decent shoes, not flip flops! We went on a particularly hot day and thanks to my Fit-bit, I could see my heart rate rising a lot, it was quite hard work in the heat!

When you climb down the other side of the rocks, you’re greeted with this beautiful view…

I’ve never really been a fan of Ölüdeniz, controversial I know! At ground level, I don’t think its that impressive, but from above it’s really stunning. Because it was so hot the day we went, it was very hazy so my photos aren’t the clearest, and they were only taken on my phone, but I have taken higher quality, better ones on my camera before and posted them HERE a few years ago if you want to take a look. Photos don’t really do it justice though!

The view of the lagoon is lovely, and the sea to the left hand side is an impressive shade of blue. You can hear people playing in the swimming pools at the various hotels at the foot of the mountain, watch the boats sailing, or people walking along the beach. I love the mountains in the distance too, just a shame it was hazy.

Of course, as with most patches of natural beauty, human interference has had an impact. While trying to enjoy the view, we couldn’t not notice the amount of rubbish in the area – carrier bags, beer bottles, cigarette packets, food packets, water bottles, and the charred remains of various fires people had lit for BBQ’s! It really spoiled it, and Berkay decided to do his bit and went around with a couple of empty bags collecting a lot of the rubbish up… It’s sad everyone doesn’t take their own rubbish with them!

You can access the road leading up to the look out point by foot or by car, but you have to walk the last little bit. It’s worth the effort for the view, and nice to see Ölüdeniz from a different angle.

Panoramic views of Fethiye

Posted on August 11, 2018 by livingtheturkishdream

If you want beautiful, panoramic views of Fethiye, a good place to head to is ‘Aşıklar Tepesi’ – roughly translated to ‘hill of lovers’. You can reach it by car, up a very steep winding hill road, or via foot, up 163 steps from a backstreet below.

Whenever we rent a car, we usually drive up and pull over for a while so that we can take in the views, and on our last trip we did that twice.

The view at the top is just stunning. The boat yard, harbour and amphitheatre to the left, the main bay, marina and town in the centre, and Calis in the distance to the right. All the buildings, especially the more traditional houses with white walls and red/orange roofs look good from high above too. You can see various mountain ranges in the far distance and the trees growing on the hillside just frame the view perfectly.

There are wooden seating areas hanging over the edge, some of them are very rustic and wobbly and I’m always a bit afraid of them breaking! There used to be a little cafe up there but it’s been gone for a few years now and it still looks a bit of a mess really. You’ll also find piles and piles of sunflower seed shells on the floor, since it’s a popular place for locals to come and sit with a packet of them, a beer and their friends. You can sit here for ages, watching the boats sail in and out, but it’s equally as spectacular at night with the whole of Fethiye lit up down below.

On the last day of our holiday back in June, Berkay’s family came to visit for the day since it was Bayram/Eid, so we took them up to the look out point and sat at a table with a couple of bottles of coke and some ice creams. His step-mum was too scared to stand too close to the edge so she took this photo of the rest of us instead, Berkay’s dad, brother, his brother’s fiancee and us.

Flying with Turkish Airlines again!

Posted on October 10, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

I flew with Turkish Airlines for the first time last year, and wrote a post about it on here (click HERE to read). We flew with them again last month and it was a little different, so I thought I’d do an updated post.

Going out, we flew from Gatwick to Dalaman via Sabiha Gökçen airport in Istanbul, which I’d never been to before. The previous 4 times I flew with them, the cabin crew came around with a small piece of Turkish delight and a menu, just after take off, but this time they didn’t – I think they must have stopped doing this now! The menu was handy as it told you the meal options in advance, rather than just waiting for them to come around with the trolley and having to make an on-the-spot decision! When they did come around, about 45 minutes into the flight, we got given the option of a meat dish or a pasta dish – I chose the meat. We had chicken, vegetables, mash, salad with feta cheese, tomato and cucumber and a bread roll with butter. Dessert was some kind of mousse, I think it was mango or something similar with chocolate flakes on top! We also had a little carton of water, and a drink of whatever we wanted, including alcohol! I love that you get a little sachet of olive oil for the salad, we all know how Turks love their olive oil, and salt, pepper and ‘real’ metal cutlery too – nothing worse than trying to cut meat with a plastic fork!

When we came in to land at Istanbul, the view of the city from the plane window was really interesting, the airport is so close to so many buildings, and there are some really fancy tower blocks too. All you can see when taking off/landing at Gatwick is fields, so it made a nice change! We had an hour and 25 minutes between flights, but our first one was delayed by around 30 minutes, so it was a bit tight! We walked down the steps off the plane and onto a waiting bus to take us to the terminal. There was a MASSIVE queue for passport control and we panicked a little as we only had an hour to get through, go to the international terminal, find the gate and board the plane. Luckily, there were airport staff directing people with domestic connecting flights to go through a fast track passport control desk and straight into the international terminal, without having to re-enter through security so that saved us a lot of time. After a quick wee, we checked the board, found our gate number, walked down to it and breathed a sigh of relief as we sat down in the seating area. We must have been sat down for less than 60 seconds when they announced that it was time for us all to go towards the desk and have our boarding passes checked, then taken onto another bus on the tarmac ready to take us to the plane!

We got to walk up the steps to the plane which I always love doing, so much more fun than walking through the tunnel to board! This particular plane was different to any others I’d been on and had little footrests under the seats which I loved – really comfortable. By the time we sat down, the sun was just beginning to set outside, which made it feel like a really long day of travelling as we had left our house at 7.15 am that morning!

The flight from Istanbul to Dalaman is really quick, less than an hour, and almost straight after take off the cabin crew came around with some snacks. On the domestic flights you don’t get a full meal, just a snack, and no alcoholic drinks, just soft drinks or tea/coffee. The last time I flew the food was given in a little paper tray and had a sandwich, pot of salad and dessert, but they have changed this, now it’s only a toastie or something similar. We had cheese, tomato and olive toasties. Berkay, being the growing man that he is, asked for two, and they gave them to him, he was very thrilled about this as you can tell!

The domestic terminal at Dalaman is currently under construction so when we landed we were taken to a corner of the International airport through a door to collect our luggage from the carousel, then it was straight outside, down the ramp and into our transfer car to Calis!

Fast forward two weeks and the inevitable journey back home again began. Of course the flights out to Turkey are always much more exciting than the flights back home again, right? We had been awake since 5am for our 8.30am flight, and although the excitement of going on holiday keeps you wide awake on the way out, when you’re tired on the flight home and facing the reality of going back to work the next day it’s not quite as fun! With one last glance down at Dalaman, the plane soared up to 30,000 ft and we waited for our in-flight breakfast snack – a cheese and tomato panini!

As soon as we had finished that, it was time to land in Istanbul again, this time at Atatürk Airport. We had longer between flights this time – almost 4 hours to wait, so we actually left the airport for an hour and hopped in a taxi to a local shopping mall. On our return to the airport, we went through security, passport control, one more security with full body scanners, then through to Duty Free. When we checked the departure boards, our gate number was already up so we found that and had our boarding passes and passports checked not one, not two, but three times, and Berkay had his hand luggage thoroughly searched in a spot-check too! The security there is really good, but I suppose it’s expected. We didn’t have to wait too long before boarding once again, and Berkay had his last sniff of Turkish air before stepping on the plane.

The meal on the flight home was again a choice of a meat or pasta dish. We had kofte (meatballs), rice, vegetables, cacik (yogurt with cucumber), a bread roll and a chocolate mousse for dessert.

Other than the food, my favourite things about Turkish Airlines are the personal entertainment touch screens on the back of all the seats. They have lots of games, music and films on them, including some films not even released on DVD yet! The ones on the plane home even had USB ports so you could charge your phone through them, really handy! I’m a big kid and can’t travel without a a bear, I always get him out on the plane as you can see! By the time I had watched a film and had a sleep, making the most of the empty seat one side of me, the Captain announced it was time to descend into Gatwick, right back to down to earth with a bump, literally!

Overall I love flying with Turkish Airlines, and this time they were actually cheaper than Easy Jet, Thomas Cook etc with the added bonus of 23kg hold luggage included, 8kg hand luggage and the free food and drinks. The only downside is the waiting time between flights but I think it’s well worth it!

Village adventure – day 3

Posted on December 3, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

We woke up on our last day in the village and knew we were going to be busy – we planned to leave the village at 12pm and travel to the nearest city center to visit more of Berkay’s relatives. The previous day Berkay’s dad had announced that since all the family was going to be together (including me, Berkay and both his brothers), something that happens very rarely, he was going to kill one of the animals from his garden so that we could all have a big family BBQ.
By the time we had woken up, had a shower and packed our bags ready to go, it was 10 o clock and Berkay’s grandad had just arrived to do the honors. I walked over to him to say hello with the traditional hand/head kiss and he seemed impressed by this, even more so when he said ‘nasilsin?’ and I answered in Turkish. There wasn’t much time to sit around and talk and we all headed out to the garden. I was walking around having one last look at all the animals and became friends with a goat, I was talking to him (yes…talking…) and he was licking my hand, it was all very sweet. Little did I know, that an hour later I’d be eating this goat for dinner.

Just 10 minutes after my encounter with the goat, Berkay’s brother walked into it’s little pen and led it around to the side of the house where they had been digging a hole. I knew what this meant, the poor goat was the chosen one.

I’m not sure what possessed me, but after giving him one last little stroke, I stood and watched as they removed it’s collar, laid it down with it’s head over the hole in the ground and tied it’s legs together. The goat didn’t protest at all, I guess it knew what was coming as much as the rest of us. Berkay’s grandad slit the goat’s neck, the blood drained out into the hole and that was that. Over in minutes. Quick, calm and as a little suffering to the goat as possible.

The worst part for me came after, was watching his grandad strip down a piece of skin from the goats ankle and blow air (from his own mouth…) into it, blowing the poor goat up like a balloon. I wasn’t entirely sure of the purpose of this, but I researched online and it says it makes it easier to skin them by doing this first. At this point I decided I didn’t want to watch anymore, and wandered back to the other animals instead, one of the sheep had actually escaped the pen it was in and was actually stood watching what they were doing to the goat… I wonder if it actually understood what was going on though.

I went with Berkay in the car to pick up his cousin and her daughter, who were coming back to the family house to enjoy the BBQ with the rest of us. It was a 20 minute drive and by the time we got back, the goat had been fully skinned and its meat was now lying on trays being chopped up into pieces. Including it’s head, eye, brain, intestines, liver and other organs. Bleugh. The family will probably make soup and other dishes out of these parts, they certainly don’t waste any edible parts – they even gave their dog the goats four raw hooves.

We all sat down to eat the BBQ, which included the lovely çintar mushrooms we’d found the day before, and it was really delicious. Of course I felt sorry for the poor animal we were eating, but I’m not vegetarian and eat alot of meat. We don’t usually think about where our food comes from because it’s all cleaned, neatly packaged and sold on supermarket shelves, we take it for granted and don’t consider where it actually comes from, so it’s definitely interesting, although a little disturbing, to see the process from furry animal in the garden to lump of cooked meat on your plate.

After eating, it was time to say our goodbyes. Berkay’s step-mum cried when we were going and gave us both big hugs. She is really sweet, she sent us home with a massive bag of onions, spinach, spring onions, nuts, butter, chicken and leftover goat, all things grown on their farm! I really, surprisingly enjoyed our time in the village, and I really didn’t expect to. It was just so peaceful there, so relaxing and it felt so far away from everything else, no worries, no thinking about anything.

us with Berkay’s stepmum.

But now it was time to change out of the village baggy pants, say bye to the lovely people and views and head to the city instead…

4 years ago – our first holiday…

Posted on October 15, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ölüdeniz from above!

Posted on September 23, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Two weeks ago we decided to go for a long walk up part of the mountain overlooking Ölüdeniz . The path we took forms part of the ‘Lycian Way’ – a 540km long walking trail between Ölüdeniz and Antalya.

We got on the dolmus near the otogar in Fethiye, and what an experience that was. I’d never seen a dolmus so full! 3 drove past us completely full to the brim before we managed to squeeze (literally) onto the next one. It was a horrible journey – far too many people which made me feel quite claustrophobic, I’m so glad the Calis-Fethiye dolmus’ are rarely like that! We got off the bus on the road down to Ölüdeniz near Montana Pine resort and crossed the road.

This was the part of the walk that I struggled with most and this wasn’t even part of the trail! It was fairly steep uphill and not shady at all which made it quite difficult. I’d hate to be staying there, although Berkay used to work there (I swear there’s not many places he hasn’t worked…) and says they have a free shuttle bus, presumably for that reason! We reached Montana Pine resort hotel around 5-10 minutes later and saw the archway signifying the start of the ‘Lycian Way’.

We followed the road and had our first glimpse of the sea through the beautiful pine trees that cover the area. After a while the road split into two, one which headed down to another hotel, and one which was a more narrow road leading through the trees along the mountain side. It became more shady here which was a real bonus, and being quite high up from ground level meant temperatures were very slightly cooler too.

Every so often we’d get another glimpse of the sea and beach through the trees and realise how high up we were going, the further we walked, the further around the mountain we got and we were able to see more of the lagoon which looked beautiful. I kept stopping to take photos because everytime there was a break in the trees, we got an even better view! We stopped after around 15 minutes of walking and sat down to eat some of the watermelon we’d carried along with us (don’t ask!) It was actually really refreshing and juicy, just what we needed. Apparently we weren’t the only watermelon fans as lots of bees/wasps decided to come and join us for some as well. Ugh. I have a somewhat irrational fear of wasps/bees, I’ve never once been bitten but cannot cope with having one within a meter of me without wanting to cry! Needless to say, I didn’t sit down enjoying the watermelon for long and ended up standing flapping around instead, much to Berkay’s annoyance!

We walked a little further and stepped off the main path towards an area on the right-hand side which had a few little sheep shacks made out of sticks.

We couldn’t see the beach at this point, so we climbed a few rocks and down the other side where this view greeted us. Wow

I think this may be the look-out point that is quite well known, but I could be wrong. We were standing on the mountain edge, surrounded by trees and rocks, one that seemed to have formed a bench – a perfect place to sit and admire the view. It was obviously a popular place to stop as there was litter around, cigarette packets, bottles, crisp packets – quite sad really. We had the entire place to ourselves and didn’t see anyone for miles, just us, bees, birds and butterflies. Lovely.

We had a breathtaking view of the lagoon from this angle too. The boats looked so beautiful on the other side and the mountains behind the lagoon made for an even more beautiful backdrop. I just couldn’t stop taking photos! It’s amazing how blue the sea really looks here, the colour of these photos isn’t altered in any way, the sea really is that colour.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Ölüdeniz , I have always thought it looks absolutely beautiful from above when I see people’s paragliding photos, but when you’re standing down on the ground, it’s not that special and I always felt a bit disappointed, so it was great to see it from above for myself for the first time. Very impressive.

I would have loved to have carried on walking a bit further up the mountain to get even better views, but we had limited time and Berkay had come off a night shift and was very tired, so after admiring the view from this point for a while, we headed back on the path down towards Montana Pine again. It was a much easier walk downhill, although it wasn’t particularly hard going up either, and it only took around 25 minutes to get back to the main road where we hopped on the dolmus (an empty one this time, thank goodness) and headed back to Fethiye.

It was a lovely walk and I really recommend it for the photo opportunities. You can go as high as you wish, but be mindful that the walk does get a lot harder the further up you go, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it in the height of summer. Now would be a perfect time to go as the days are getting a little cooler. I wouldn’t advise going after 4pm at the moment as once the sun goes down around 6.45pm it gets dark very quickly and there are no lights whatsoever along the path we took. If you’re in the area and feel like doing something different, definitely check it out. You most definitely will not be disappointed by the views!

I’m so glad we went. We’re always looking for things to do that are free, or cheap, and this only cost us the bus fare so it was perfect. Sometimes you just can’t beat a nice walk with amazing views like this, it’s so easy to take our surroundings for granted but when you see them from a whole new angle it’s a real eye-opener and a great reminder of how beautiful Turkey really is.

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.

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 🙂

Mountain scenery…

Posted on July 26, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This evening we went for another walk – this time along the whole of Calis promenade to the furthest point of the beach.

In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never been so far along the beach – we had been to Şat restaurant at the end once way back in October 2010, but it’s expensive so we never bothered going so far again – what a mistake that was!

I thought there must be something past Şat as I’d seen photos previously, so I convinced Berkay to carry on walking. “There’s nothing there, you can’t walk there it’s just the restaurant” he said… he was wrong!

Calis beach is quite long, it starts off wide in Koca Calis and the further along the beach you get, the more narrow it becomes. Eventually, near Şat restaurant, the beach becomes a narrow strip, with the sea one side and the canal the other. When we reached the end, just before the restaurant, we found a cute wooden bench on a platform over the water – it was so peaceful. We sat down and admired the views. The water was murky, it’s where the canal meets the sea so it’s not the cleanest.. it wasn’t very deep and I could see to the bottom – I even saw a few crabs waddling sideways under the water checking us out – I tried to take a photo but the water was so murky it was too difficult. It was such a lovely place to sit and chill out.

It was around 18.45 at this point and we had to walk home in time for Berkay to go to work, but I was determined to walk to the very furthest point of the ‘beach’, so we got up and walked further around. There were signs everywhere saying that fishing was forbidden, yet we saw several people fishing for both fish, and crabs – they had bags full so were obviously quite successful!

We made it to the very furthest point where it was impossible to go any further without getting wet. It’s where the water taxi’s from Calis – Fethiye travel and where the canal meets the sea. It’s sheltered so the water was very calm, so still it was almost like a mirror, I bet it’d be beautiful to walk along there just after sunrise in the early morning.

The most impressive thing for me was the view across to the mountains. I’ve mentioned before that when you’re on your way back to Fethyie and see those mountains you just know you’re ‘home’ – they’re part of the backdrop we see everyday, but seeing them from here made them look even more beautiful. In fact, I thought one of these photos was so beautiful I made it my new blog header, as you may have noticed!

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay and admire the view for too long, I’m not even 100% sure we should have been walking there in the first place, but we had to head back home for Berkay to go to work. As we were walking back some boats were boarding passengers at the jetty, and the sun was just beginning to go down.

I’ve really noticed how much earlier the sun is beginning to set now – at the start of Ramadan it was around 20.45, now it’s more like 20.20 – I wonder why the sun sets so early here, even in summer? It will soon be winter!

Back in Turkey!

Posted on June 6, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

So, I’ve been back in Turkey for 3 days now and still haven’t had a chance to post about it yet!

I got up at 6am on Monday morning, finished packing last minute things, said my goodbye’s and got in the car with Dad and Mum who took me to the airport. My flight was at 11.20am, and we arrived at the airport around 3 hours before. There was a huge queue of people waiting to check in, but I finally got to the check-in desk and waved my suitcase off down the baggage ramp, I was worried it was going to be too heavy and over my 20kg allowance, but luckily it was bang on 20kg, good judgment eh? (:

We went up the escalators to departures and that’s where I had to leave Mum and Dad and go through security. After faffing around having to unpack my entire hand luggage so they could scan my laptop, and take my shoes off, I eventually made it through and came out the other side where I looked back and saw Mum and Dad still waving at me ❤ Later on I realised she’d written a Facebook status about that moment : “Took Dan to airport this morning with her Dad…. waved her off (once again) as she heads back to Turkey & Berkay…..all smiles, I can see her smiley face as she waved to us at departures…..priceless….Love you BIG as the Sky” – sweet. (:

After getting through the maze that is Gatwick South’s duty free shop leading to the main departure hall, I had a look around, sat down and started to get excited. It took ages for the gate information to pop up on the screen, so I was getting rather impatient! Once the number showed up and I took the long walk to the departure gate, it all became rather real as I could see my plane outside the window, eeeek!

We didn’t have to wait very long after that, almost as soon as I got to the gate people began boarding. I was in row 14 so I was the second from last lot of passengers to board. I flew with Pegasus (for the first time!) so when I stepped on the plane all I could see were Turkish signs, and hear the stewards speaking Turkish amongst themselves. “Welcome” one air steward said to everyone else boarding, then he turned to me and said “hosgeldin!” (that’s Turkish for Welcome) – he must’ve thought I was Turkish, so that made me smile. I found my seat, sat down, got comfortable with my blanket out and my cow slippers on, and waited for take off.

We took off 40 minutes late, but the flight was only due to be 3hours and 30 minutes (instead of around 4) due to tail wind so I didn’t mind! One thing I really loved about Pegasus was the fact they had little tv screens on board showing exactly where we were in the air, the altitude, which countries we were flying over and how long left until arrival at our destination.

After a bumpy end to the flight which meant having our seat belts fastened for 40 minutes – we landed safe and sound at Dalaman. I went through passport control, who didn’t even look at my evisa (honestly, I’ve never been through immigration so quick!) and went downstairs to locate my baggage.. Around the carousel it came, and off I went to find my transfer bus. I wish Berkay was there to meet me but it would have been to expensive to hire or borrow a friends car as the petrol is just so expensive out here. Instead I booked the transfer bus which only cost me £8. It was ready waiting for me when I arrived and only took 45minutes to get to Calis. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I realised we were getting close. Around 7pm, the driver turned off down the road Berkay’s hotel is and stopped outside, where Berkay was waiting with Boncuk for me. Off I hopped and they both gave me a welcome hug!

After saying Hello to them both, we put Boncuk back in her kennel and headed off to my new house, which I was excited and nervous to see. I like the house, it’s in a much more convenient location than the last one, although that one will always be more special to me as it was my first house away from England. I’ll do a post about my new house in the next few days if anyone is interested to see it! (:

We quickly got the internet set up and eventually managed to get it working so that I could Facetime family and let them known I’d arrived. By the time all this was done it was around 8pm and Berkay had arranged to go into work an hour later than usual at 9pm – we had no food in the house at all, so decided to go out to a restaurant along the sea front for something to eat instead. We went to Letoon hotel, which I knew had a new rooftop restaurant which looked really good. The view from there was lovely. It was cold though. The weather has been so weird since I’ve been here, wet, cloudy and windy. Honestly it was warmer in England the day before I left! Crazy.

We ate our dinner in record time, and got back home just after 9pm. Berkay made sure I got home OK then went straight out to work. Might as well get used to those long working hours alone again!

I was tired but didn’t want to go to bed, so spent a couple of hours unpacking everything. The house has definitely been Danni-ed now. Nail varnish bottles now surround the bedroom mirror and my two favourite bears sit on the bed. (:

After all that travelling and packing, I went to bed around 2am, and knew I had to be up early ready to go to Fethiye market. A post about that will follow tomorrow! ❤

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