Back To Istanbul's Sultanahmet

We're here at last. Now, the idea was that I would take a photo of our bus in the otogar in Fethiye, showing that it said Istanbul on it. However, we went for a pide (very nice) for our tea and a pretty big flash storm came. We ended staying in there till the last minute - the road in front and some of the kebab shops opposite were badly flooded. Luckily, there was a break in the weather and we made a dash for it. By the time we reached the otogar, we just jumped on the bus and we were off.

Taksim Square flower sellers

And so here we are in Sultanahmet. Not a lot has changed since we were last here. The metal work on top of the mosques has been very noticeably polished up, probably for the European Capital of Culture stuff and a few of the döner kebab stalls in Eminönü have been replaced by balık ekmek (fish in bread) stalls. Nothing too desperate. We can still eat on a shoestring and our mackerel half-bread was absolutely lovely.

Walking across Galata Bridge

Our service bus dropped us off in Taksim so we walked from there, down the lovely Istiklal Caddesi, through Tünel and across the Galata Bridge to our hostel in Sultanahmet. We could have got the tram or a taxi but we wanted to see everything again. Sultanahmet is where all the classic Istanbul 'must sees' are such as Aya Sofya and it's very touristy but it's also cheap for us to stay here (always a winner for us) and central for the people we need to see while we're here. Got to say, if you're planning on coming to Istanbul for European Capital of Culture year, book your accommodation. It's busy busy busy around here and that's on a cold, dull February day. Our hostel is fully booked.

Okay, so we're off to Kadıköy on the Asian side now. Getting the ferry across. It's all go. There's a restaurant that I really want to go to. We've got a rough idea where it is but if we don't find it, I'm sure somewhere else will suffice. Photos are the first couple I took today. A very cloudy and damp day today so I loved all these flower stalls in Taksim Square...and Galata Bridge, well, it's Galata Bridge isn't it. Perfect. Hoping for a bit of sun tomorrow.

See You In A Few Days, Fethiye

A lovely Fethiye birthday in Deep Blue Bar last night and now looking forward to my Istanbul birthday tomorrow. Anyone would think we don't get out much with the way I'm going on about our little jaunt to Istanbul. We haven't actually been anywhere overnight since we went back to England last January so you'll just have to humour me. I'm all excited. Just about managed to squish everything into the rucksacks and now we're just going to go out and get some tea (maybe a pide - Turkish pizza) and then we'll be off to Fethiye otogar to get our 9 o'clock bus to Istanbul.

Official arrival time in Istanbul is 9am but from past experience of getting buses at this time it's going to be later than that because we'll get stuck in commuter traffic as we reach the toll roads into the city. All will be well, though. MP3 players and books are all to hand if we get bored of upright sleeping. 

Fethiye harbour on a sunnier day 

Have laptop, will blog. The laptop is coming with us to Istanbul so we'll be blogging from there. Prepare to be bored by ridiculous amounts of photos - my camera batteries have been on charge all day. I wrote a while back about going to loads of places in Turkey with no digital camera and the photos are now lost somewhere back in Blighty. Well, this is our 5th or 6th visit to Istanbul - the last visit was four years ago - but this is the first visit with my camera. A busy busy few days ahead and probably a lot of patience required from Barry while I wander around aimlessly, snapping away. Ooooohhh, can't wait.

Right, hopefully, the next time we write a post on this blog (tomorrow), we'll be sat overlooking the Bosphorus from the Antique Hostel, maybe a bit cold, most definitely a bit goggy-eyed from non-profitable kip...but also most definitely ready for action and itching to go out and re-explore. This will be an unintentional manual on how to explore Istanbul on a budget (as we do everything on a budget). Street food it is then. Brilliant! Our favourite.

(The weather in Fethiye is actually grey and rainy today but I thought I'd put a sunny Fethiye photo on while we won't be seeing home for a few days).

Street Dogs in Fethiye

Awww. Meet Korky. She's a little street dog around our parts - we've got a pack of around ten at the moment - and we feed her sometimes. We've called her Korky because 'korkmak' is the Turkish verb for 'to be afraid.' This little thing is scared of her own shadow. She'll walk behind us occasionally but as soon as you turn round, whoosh, she's shot off somewhere. She's only a pup herself and she's just given birth to her second litter of pups. There's a daddy dog in the pack who seems to enjoy himself with his little harem - hence loads of pups being born who are all similar colours to Korky and they all have dad's white 'socks'.

Korky

Fethiye has a got a lovely animal rescue centre on the road going towards Üzümlü and the staff from there have been round here a few times to round up the street dogs and cats but there's always a couple that manage to escape...and so begins a new pack of street dogs. A never ending cycle.

Generally speaking, the street dogs of Fethiye absolutely crave a bit of love and attention and will nudge at your hand if you stop stroking them. We must live in an area of little nutter dogs though because there's not only Korky who's afraid all the time. The whole pack do a runner if you walk anywhere near them. A few of us have started leaving the odd bits of food out for them now but it has to be placed in the same place and if you're lucky, you might catch them (from a distance) eating what you left. It's like sitting in wait for a rare breed of animal to show up.

We can feed Korky sometimes

We've managed to get little Korky dog taking food from our hand now but she edges towards us, takes the food really quickly and moves away a few metres to eat and if you as much as breathe in, she's gone...and then she'll inch back towards the food. Funny. Korky's first lot of pups are now bigger than her (and look like dad!). We've never seen the new lot but some Turkish families in the area have now started taking pups in so we're hoping they've gone to a happy new home.

By the way, if you see a street dog with a tag in its ear, it means it has been picked up in the past by the Fethiye animal rescue staff and had all its injections - and its little bit n bobs removed so it can't produce more babies. Awww! Kont the Dog is one such dog but his tag was removed by someone who took him in for a while.

Fethiye News Round-Up

Lots of little bits of information to write about today so it might all seem a bit disjointed but never mind.

Fethiye Harbour
First of all, look what we walked across the other day! Woo hoo. The bridge over the canal on Fethiye's new harbour is up and running. It's a pretty bridge too. The workmen are still treating all the wood and stuff (whatever it is that workmen do) so I'll get a nicer, sunny photo when they've moved on. Benches are popping up and a couple of new 'constructions' (we can't even begin to imagine what they might be) are being built as well. I'll get some pics after we've been to Istanbul and hopefully, we might have a bit more idea of what's being built, although we're not holding our breath...

Bridge-building in Fethiye

Fethiye Market
Next bit of news - I think this is great. The new trend over the last couple of years has been for someone to scrawl graffiti all over the whitewashed part of the walls in the inside of the Tuesday market. There's not a lot in life that bugs me but I hate graffiti. The council would paint over it all and then the day after the scrawl would be back. Well, sad that they're needed but great idea. We walked through the market (this is the inside of Fethiye market on a non-market day, just in case you didn't recognise it) yesterday and cctv cameras have been fitted at each end and as you can see, no more graffiti.

Fethiye market on a queiter day

Fethiye Central Mosque
We also walked past the main mosque in Fethiye yesterday - the one next to the dolmuş station. That's having a major facelift on the inside. New windows as well it looks like. Ashamed to say we've never been inside it. A classic case of not doing stuff that's right on your doorstep. We've lost count of the number of mosques we've been into in other Turkish cities and we've never even thought about going into Fethiye's main mosque. Maybe we'll have a nosey when the refurbishment is done.

New McDonald's

As for the McDonald's rumour, well one of my friends is doubting whether it will be that building. I'll get another photo soon and if it is going to be McDonald's, it's going to be big. It looks like a small multi-storey car park at the moment.

Fethiye Weather
Last little Fethiye weather report. Huge storm last night that caused power cuts for loads of people except us. Our internet's never worked so fast - we were probably the only people in Fethiye with access to it. Constant thunder and lightening shooting straight into the sea. Huge forks across the sky. All very exciting. The sky was still a bit grumpy and grumbly this morning but it's brightened up a bit now. And the forecast for Istanbul is looking good too. Yeahy.

Getting Around in Turkey - Intercity Buses

One of our favourite places in Fethiye!

Happy happy. We've been to Fethiye Otogar (the bus station) today and booked our bus to Istanbul. Absolute bargain as well. We decided to choose Metro just because we've used them in the past and we like them and it's only cost us 45 lira each. We paid more than that when we went up there four years ago. There are loads of cheap flights going up to Istanbul at the minute from Dalaman so maybe the bus companies are trying to compete with them. All better for us anyway.

The photo of Fethiye otogar probably looks very boring to most people but we love this place so no apologies. Don't worry, I'm not bus spotters. We just find the otogar quite exciting. Travelling around in Turkey is ridiculously easy and cheap because of the intercity bus system and Fethiye otogar is a main hub. That's why we like it so much. 

There is no major town or city in the whole of Turkey that you can't get to from this little area and all you need to do is walk into any of these offices and book your seat and the bus will take you there. No faffing about changing at such a place and trying not to miss connections and your connection being cancelled - of course I'm thinking of the public transport system in good old Blighty. Public transport is heavily relied upon in Turkey and the buses are modern, cheap and reliable. All the buses have a member of staff at your service as well. They come round with free hot and cold drinks and little snacks throughout the journey (which is the main reason me and Barry are now addicted to Dankeks - a little sponge fairy cake) and some of the buses have wireless internet and satellite TV now as well. What more could you want eh?

So, our overnight bus journey to Istanbul is going to take around 12 hours. It's a night bus so we can read and kip all the way and wake up in a busy new world in the morning. And why are we going by bus and not flying? (You wouldn't believe how many times we've been asked this!) Well that's because we've fallen out with flying a bit. There's something nice about feeling the size and vastness of a country by travelling on the road. Okay, there's probably going to be a few really loud snoring men - and women - but we'll stop every few hours at the otogars of other Turkish cities and at service areas for soup, kebabs or loo visits. It's all just very exciting! And when we arrive at Esenler Otogar in Istanbul, it's a few kilometres away from the city centre. So how do we get there? By the free service bus provided by the bus company. That's service!

**Update August 2012: Most buses arriving in Istanbul from Fethiye now terminate at Alibeyköy. This makes your journey slightly quicker and free service buses are on regular standby to take you into different areas of Istanbul. 

Great Weather Equals Great Trekking to Kayaköy

The Fethiye weather was back to its lovely 'spring is coming' best yesterday so a few of us managed to do a bit of trekking from Fethiye to Kayaköy. The English section of the group were in t-shirts because it was so nice. No tortoises or snakes (we have seen a snake along the route once) yesterday but once we reached Kayaköy, all the farm animals were out and about in the fields. There was one bit we walked past in Belen and it had that British farm smell - something I then realised you don't normally get here.

Cows in Kayaköy

I've got loads of photos of Kayaköy and the surrounding villages and countryside so I spent most of yesterday taking photos of the cutest cows and chickens and also the Spring flora and fauna. I know absolutely nothing about the plantlife of any country and to be honest, I never took much notice of it in Turkey until I got my camera and started feeling the need to take flowery photos. For instance, I think this wild plant - photographed in Kayaköy yesterday - is beautiful but I've got no clue as to what it might be. I think there's a book you can buy on the flora and fauna of Fethiye (I'm getting boring in my old age) but I can't remember where you can buy it from, who wrote it or what it's called. Think I might be struggling to get hold of that then.

Do you know what these are?

Apart from the beautiful scenery along the route, the great thing about walking to Kayaköy is that your final destination is a peaceful village with ample choice of watering and eating holes to replenish your spent energy. We went to Bülent'in Yeri for gözleme and I would just like to point out here that the unhealthy English section of our group of 7 opted for cold bottles of Efes Pilsen as their refreshment. Hmm. Not jealous and bitter at all. Me? Diet Coke. I'd better lose weight during this 40 days of torment.

Just a quick note to say thanks to the people who've joined the Turkey's for Life group on Flickr and have very kindly added their photos. So we now have different areas of Turkey being displayed all the time. Nice. Feel free to add your photos to the group then we can see more Turkey photos displayed on the blog - but you'll need to sign up to Flickr first - very easy.

A Little Bit of Fethiye Everything

The rain heading across the sea in Fethiye

The weather:
Well, Spring might have arrived in Fethiye but it's all still unsettled. We were supposed to be trekking from Fethiye to Kayaköy today but we've had to postpone it till tomorrow. This was the view of Fethiye this morning. The line across the sea is the rain fast heading towards us. It's glorious sunshine and warm now but still very windy - so windy in fact that there were only a few stalls on Çalış market this afternoon. Apparently, all the stuff was blowing away this morning so a lot of the stall holders gave it up as a bad job and took off home. We still managed to get some gözleme though and the pickle tub today consisted of pickled aubergines, chillies and celery leaves. The celery leaves were an interesting one. Nice though. You still get that celery flavour but with loads of spicy vinegar mixed in.

The television:
I wrote about Yetenek Sizsiniz last week - Turkey's answer to Britain's Got Talent. We couldn't really work out what was going on because it looked like there was some sort of pre semi-final semi-final, then a semi-final and then we thought maybe the final was last Sunday. Well, it wasn't because there was another semi-final on last night and it's on again tonight. Is this the final? Absolutely no idea but it's on for about 4 hours again and I'll be an avid viewer. And I'm willing to bet it'll go off and we'll still be none the wiser as to who won what and whether or not it was the final. All good entertainment though. I'm even looking forward to the presenter doing the Turkcell adverts. It's like Simon Cowell suddenly launching into a BT advert, without warning, in the middle of Britain's Got Talent or the X-Factor.

Turkey travel in the press:
Times Online had a good write up on Turkey's quieter holiday spots in the travel section yesterday. I meant to mention it yesterday and forgot - top journalist again. Anyway, we've been to four of the six places it mentions and the descriptions of the places are pretty accurate - and positive, which is what we like for our blog. We can feel quite pleased with life as well because all 6 of the places it talks about are in this lovely Southwest corner of Turkey - a couple of them right on our doorstep. My only qualm with the article is that it says Fethiye is a 'busy resort town'. It's not. But I'll forgive that because it says the old town (Paspatur) is delightful - and delightful it is too!

Some blog success:
Oh yes, and get a load of us. We are officially an Expat Focus recommended website for the Turkey section of their website. How posh is that?! We're proudly displaying our badge somewhere on the left hand side of this page near the Twitter stuff. It makes us look all useful and sophisticated I think...well I suppose the chunterings of a pair of Wiganers in Turkey could be useful to some people...No idea how long we have this acolade for so I'm lovin it while we've got it.

Spring Has Arrived in Fethiye

Wow, the weather in Fethiye is just amazing at the moment. We've just been out for a run along the harbour in the sunshine, mp3 player blasting music in my ears (which actually helped me to carry on or else I'd have quit today - not been running for 2 weeks) and now we've just got back to fling open all the doors and windows and let Spring into the house. It's not even 11am yet and it's at least 20 degrees. Good mood weather.

Basking lizards at the Sundial

Yesterday hit even dizzier heights - for February anyway. We've got friends out at the moment so we went up to the Sundial Hotel while the weather was so lovely. It must have been around 25 degrees by the time we got up there and we even had to move to the shade - we've all got a bit of a sunny glow to us now anyway. Even the resident Sundial lizards were playing out, basking and warming their bodies up.

Another basking lizard

The trouble with the Fethiye weather getting more and more pleasant as the days go by is that it makes you want to drink beer. You know, an ice cold bottle of Efes Pilsen straight from the fridge, sitting looking at the sea...well, scratch all that because I've quit beer for Lent and it's extra hard in this glorious sunshine.

Let me just clarify my Lent intentions. I've given up beer, not alcohol, so red wine and white wine & soda is still firmly on the menu and I won't be cheating when I drink them. Also, I'm not religious. It's just that 40 days and nights without touching a drop of Efes Pilsen helps me to lose a good chunk of weight before the real summer starts and then I don't have to walk round Fethiye wishing I'd started a diet while I had the chance. For health reasons it's good too. Wine isn't dead cheap in the bars and restaurants of Turkey so I make sure I drink it slowly and if it's the middle of a sunny afternoon, the last thing I want is a glass of red. So, while Barry enjoys his icy cold, refreshing, lovely beers, I usually plump for a glass of Diet Coke...Great! Roll on Easter.

8 Reasons to go High Street Shopping in Fethiye

Until recently, shopping for clothes in Fethiye was very difficult for me. I gave up in the end and started to do rushed catch-up shopping whenever we were back in England. The reason it was difficult is because there wasn't a lot of choice in the shop department and also, I haven't got the figure of Twiggy. I mean, I'm no sumo wrestler either but it seemed that everything I picked up, even if it was 'Extra Large', was tiny.

The Nike shop was a popular addition to the Fethiye high street shops

Joy of joys, all that has changed and there are now more high street shops; some of them selling normal-sized (for me) clothing. So this is my little plug for high street clothes shopping in Fethiye. A lot of people who come here miss out I think because the big Fethiye Market is so famous and everyone just heads there for the fake designer t-shirts, bags, jeans, trainers. I've never been a 'designer names person' so all that does absolutely nothing for me. I'm also the worst haggler ever so I'd end up paying a lot more than I ought to do.

Çarşı 95 has many famous designer names as well as independent stores

Enter the high street shop. Some are chain stores and others are smaller, independent shops where you can find something a little bit different.

So, here are our 8 reasons to try out a bit of high street shopping in Fethiye:

• The shops are grouped together in the town centre near the sea, bars, restaurants and the cooling shade of Paspatur (the old town) where you can also buy your souvenirs.
• Many of the shops are selling good quality fashionable clothing at reasonable prices - sometimes very cheap.
• If you're into designer brands, many familiar names (the real thing) are present in the shopping area - Tommy Hilfiger, Polo and the like.
• If you're like me and haggling is your worst nightmare (some of us Brits just haven't got it in us!), well, high street shopping in Fethiye is for you because the clothes have got price tags on them. Woo hoo!
• If you're shopping in summer, you get the chance to cool off under the air conditioning and you can try your clothes on in the changing rooms.
• Even when the sales are on you don't need to fight your way through a rugby scrum and you can get some real bargains. I've just bought a winter coat in the end of season sales. It's been 22 degrees here today so it felt odd buying a cosy, warm jacket - but Istanbul will be cold next week. I'll wear it there and then I can put the coat away for next winter. It was reduced from 120 lira to 30 lira - much cheaper than the market I might add. So if you're in Fethiye during the sales, get shopping!
• Feel good about yourself for going green. Most of the clothes in the high street shops are made here in Turkey so your carbon footprint is baby-sized and you're supporting the local economy. There, you've done your bit for humankind.
• And last but not least...I said it before but I'll just remind you. You're right near Fethiye's bars - so when you've bought all your goodies, it's not far to go for an ice-cold Efes Pilsen.

Turkish Food - A Kısır Recipe

When is tabbouleh not tabbouleh? Answer: When it is a Turkish dish made with slightly different ingredients and called kısır. Kısır is made from the fine bulgur wheat (cracked wheat). When I've written about other Turkish foods in the past, I think I've said that a particular dish is my favourite. (Maybe when I wrote about Antalya Usulü Piyaz). Well, I'll just have to have more than one favourite because both of us love kısır. I always make a ridiculous amount for just the two of us - it lasts in the fridge for a few days so we always get through it and we're sorry when it's gone.

I first came across kısır in Turkish recipe books but I wasn't over keen on the outcome. I've since found out that - as with lots of other Turkish food - it's made differently in different regions of Turkey and I had made an Eastern version with a lot of tomato paste. The only restaurant I know that serves kısır in Fethiye is Mozaik Bahçe (the best restaurant in Fethiye in our opinion but closed for winter at the minute) and as they specialise in food from the Hatay region of Turkey, their kısır is the version I made - but much more edible!

Far too much kısır for two people

A Turkish Recipe for Kısır
And so this is the version I make now and, as with the mücver recipe, it's amazing how so little effort can produce such amazing food. And again, as with the Turkish mücver recipe, I got it from Almost Turkish Recipes but I change it a little. Don't be put off from making it if you can't get hold of any nar ekşisi (sour pomegranate sauce). Lemon is fine. If you're in Turkey, you can get sour pomegranate sauce from the supermarket or local shops and if you're lucky enough to know someone who makes it - great! The real thing made a big difference to my kısır. I also use tomato paste rather then red pepper paste because I prefer the flavour. It's sweeter.

• Pour 2 cups of fine bulgur wheat in a bowl
• Melt a couple of spoonfuls of tomato paste in 2 and a half cups of hot water, pour it over the bulgur and leave for 10 minutes or so to go soft. (It's traditional to use red pepper paste but I know this is nigh on impossible to get hold of in Britain and probably other countries - and I prefer the flavour of tomato paste in kısır)
• Chop a bunch of spring onions, a cucumber and a couple of red peppers and put in a large serving bowl. De-seed and chop a couple of tomatoes and throw these in as well. (It's worth taking the time to get rid of the seeds then you're just left with the 'meaty' bit of the tomato and not the juices).
• Fork through your bulgur adding a little olive oil as you go and then pour it all in your serving bowl and give it a good mix.
• Chop a bunch of parsley and add it to your mixture. (We're not big parsley fans and I thought this was going to be far too much at first but it works.)
• Add salt, a pinch of mint and chilli flakes and mix those in. (I'm not saying how much exactly because it's up to you - make it to your taste).
• Add a couple of tablespoonfuls of nar ekşisi (pomegranate molasses) and / or the juice of half a lemon. Taste it to check how much lemon you need.

Kısır goes really well with grilled meats - especially lamb. Turkish people also eat it as a meze on a bed of lettuce and me, I eat a spoonful whenever I go in the fridge.

Afiyet Olsun

Valentine's Day In Front Of Turkish TV

Well, I had a perfect Valentine's Day yesterday because we got to do the barbecue we wanted to do. The Fethiye weather held up and even though it was cloudy, it was still really warm so we ate outside. Middle of February and eating outside at night! What's going on? My kısır tasted so much better with the home made pomegranate juice in it and the pirzola (lamb chops) was fantastic. A bowl of natural yoghurt sprinkled with chilli and mint and some sweet red peppers and onions thrown on the barbecue. Mmmm. I could eat it again now. Sometimes your own food tastes so much better than what you can get elsewhere doesn't it?

Valentine's Day barbecue

We decided not to go to Deep Blue Bar because we've got some friends out for the next couple of weeks - and that always makes an extra big dent in funds - so it was a good idea to stay at home really. All was not lost though because it meant we could watch Yetenek Sizsiniz. Classic weekend Turkish TV. If you're reading this in the UK, think, 'Britain's Got Talent.' We watched a couple of the earlier rounds a few weeks ago and of course, they're always the best episodes because you get all the 'triers' on who are completely atrocious but make for much better - and probably a bit cruel - viewing. Last night, we got a bit lost because we couldn't work out if it was the final or the semi-finals but it was still great. I was rooting for a group of lads doing a breakdance routine - I've found out this morning that they're from Didim and are quite well-known there so if you know and visit that area, go and see them because they stood out more than anyone else for me.

The meze is as important as the main

We try to watch Turkish TV because the theory is that it improves your Turkish. Hmm, well it might help some people but it's just not happening for us really. Apart from that though, there are some good programmes on that you can kind of follow but the amount of advertising is mind boggling. There were times during last night's Yetenek Sizsiniz where the adverts were on for a good ten minutes AND the main presenter was breaking away from the presenting sometimes to do some more adverts (our friend said this happens to cut down on the other adverts). These little side presentations must have been pre-recorded because the guy just kept appearing on the stage with a bottle of Coke or a Turkcell symbol and doing a little talk on them - cue pre-recorded shots of the audience laughing and applauding and a bit of bad editing to link back to the live audience applause for the actual show. Bizarre. I presume all these companies must pay for the programmes in the first place. If you've ever watched a football match on Turkish TV, you'll know what I mean with all the adverts. Just at a crucial moment in the match, a motif for some company or other will pop up on the screen, flash for a couple of seconds and then disappear again - along with the crucial moment in the match.

Oh, and I've no idea who won the final / semi-final of Yetenek Sizsiniz last night because the programme just went off. Do the panelists decide? Is it a public phone vote? There were numbers being read out...don't know, and probably never will.

(Oh yes, I wrote my recipe for Turkish Ezo Gelin soup the other day. Well, I've done a little addition to the post because it popped into my head this morning (I don't know why) that I missed something out. Blend or mash your soup once it's cooked.)

Beautiful Weather In Fethiye For Valentine's Day

Is spring on its way in Fethiye? If it is, it's early but we're not complaining. We've got the snow on Babadağ but there isn't half as much as there normally is. There's normally little pockets where the snow sticks around till the beginning of May but we can't see it lasting much longer if this mild weather carries on. We've even got buds and blossom on the trees. It all goes towards helping a good mood though - I feel nice and Sundayish today...but I mustn't be feeling Valentinesish because I forgot today. Oops.

Early almond blossom

Valentine's Day (Sevgililer Günü) is pretty big in Turkey and has become more commercialised in the Fethiye area since we moved here. Being the practical and 'living on a budget' people we are, we went out yesterday for an early Valentine's lunch. This is because all the restaurants do things tonight - just like in the UK - that I can't be doing with. Special menus that cost a fortune, floating love heart balloons, roses and the like. Well luckily, the weather in Fethiye is so lovely today that we're getting the barbecue out for our Valentine's meal. Woo hoo. The first time it's been out of it's little corner in 2010. Lamb chops (pirzola), veggie şiş kebabs, kısır and some Spanish potatoes. Can't wait!

A snowcapped Babadağ

By the way, we went to Buffalo Steakhouse for our Valentine's lunch yesterday. It's a new steakhouse restaurant in Fethiye and it was great. The menu doesn't look cheap (for Fethiye) when you first look at it but when your food comes out, it feels like a bargain. Anywhere that does massive battered onion rings is always going to be a winner for me though. We both ordered a burger off the lunch menu and a portion of onion rings between us but you get a big salad bowl and hot bread and dips as well. I can't leave anything like that alone so I was full before the burger had even arrived. Of course, when the burger came, it was a big, meaty doorstop served with potato wedges and salad and I was disappointed with myself that I had to leave some wedges. The meal worked out cheap though because we didn't need any tea later on!

Whatever you're doing today or tonight (we'll be sat with an Efes Pilsen or 5 or 6 in Deep Blue Bar) 

Happy Valentine's Day / Sevgililer Günün Kutlu Olsun!

Turkish Food - Ezo Gelin Çorbası

Sour pomegranate dressing

Food is our favourite subject so I'm going to write the recipe for the lovely Turkish food that is Ezo Gelin Çorbası (spicy red lentil soup). If you're wondering why you're looking at a photo of plastic cola bottle right now, all will be explained later in the post. For now, back to the soup...

I've been making ezo gelin soup for a few years now. As usual, I started off following Turkish recipes in books and it's gradually changed to how I make it now, a few ingredients altered here and there to suit our taste. I've had a quick look around on the internet as well and I've still to see the same recipe twice so that's going to be my back-up if anyone says to me, 'That's not what you do.' (It happens a lot here!) Turkish recipes are passed down through the generations and different families have their own, slight variations.

As with a lot of Turkish food recipes, you don't have to be really careful with your quantities for ezo gelin soup. It depends how thick you want it to be so you can just experiment. These very rough amounts I'm writing here make 4 decent-sized 'hearty' portions - when eaten with a loaf of crusty bread that is!




A Turkish Recipe for Ezo Gelin Çorbası

• Finely chop an onion
• Peel and dice a large potato
• Put these into a big pan and add about three quarters of a mug of red lentils
• Pour in a tin of chopped tomatoes (or use fresh ones if you're in a country that produces tomatoes in abundance - like we are - sorry)
• Add a couple of mugs of hot water or stock - don't do what Barry did one time when we were trekking. He made a flask of courgette soup, used chicken stock and proudly presented it to a vegetarian friend to show he was thinking of her. Luckily, she knows exactly what we're like - complete meatatarians - and asked him what he'd used as stock. The penny dropped and she ate her sandwiches - and there was more soup for us.
• Salt, pepper, chilli (it's supposed to be spicy) and I also add a bit of cumin as well because we love it.
• Bring it all to the boil and simmer for about 40 minutes
• Done!

If you like your soup smooth, you can blend it at this point. We like ours to be a bit more 'meaty' so I just mash it a little bit. Some people add rice or bulgur wheat to help thicken the soup and I've experimented with these but I prefer to just use potato. You can also add a bit of salça (tomato or red pepper puree) for a bit of extra richness.

A steaming bowl of spicy ezo gelin çorbası

When you serve it, it's lovely with some chilli flakes sprinkled on top (as in the photo above) and the juice from a wedge of lemon - and of course, the fresh, crusty Turkish bread.

Nar Ekşisi
So, what is the photo at the top all about? Well, in yesterday's photo, you might be able to see some brown drops in the soup. These brown drops are what is in the plastic bottle. It's not cola, it's nar ekşisi (sour pomegranate sauce). It's used in Turkish food a lot and is normally drizzled over salads or eaten with fish. You can buy factory produced nar ekşisi in the shops but it's also really easy to get hold of homemade versions. This is home-made (hence the plastic cola bottle). We bought it from a friend's mum who lives in Kayaköy and it's delicious. It's not traditional to add nar ekşisi to soup but we had no lemon and needed something tart to put in the soup. It works.

Turkish Food - Çorbalar (Soups)

My personal favourite - Ezo Gelin Soup

Soup; a bit of an institution in Turkey. In Britain when you come staggering out of whichever pub or club you've been in, at the end of the night, the tradition is to go for a kebab...well, if you can call it a kebab...if you can call it food! I think The Streets best described the British version of the Turkish döner kebab as 'shit in a tray' and in our opinion, it must NOT...EVER be compared to a real Turkish döner kebab - which are of course lovely and wonderful and, most importantly, they contain real meat. They are real food.

And so, when our friends come out to Fethiye on their holidays, we stumble out of Deep Blue Bar at some ridiculous early hour and someone pipes up with the inevitable bright idea, 'Let's go for a kebab.' Well, they're in Turkey after all. Don't you eat döner kebabs in Turkey? But going for a kebab at the end of the night is not what people do in Fethiye. When you feel the need to eat food before that long, never-ending journey home, you go for soup (çorba). 

We used to think this was a bizarre idea - but having spent many an early hour in various 24 hour lokantas and soup kitchens around Fethiye, we're true converts. Your soup is served with a big pile of fresh Turkish bread and usually a plate of salad (salad and soup - it's a winner!) with a few whole, fresh, head-exploding chillies on top and some wedges of lemon. If you go to a decent place that takes pride in its soup serving, you'll also get a bowl of mashed up garlic in vinegar. A couple of spoonfuls of this, a squirt of fresh lemon and a sprinkle of chilli flakes in your soup is just a dream!

When it comes to soup flavours, there are the ones I can get with - and are probably familiar to you as well - and then there are the ones that - well, my nana and grandad would have liked them in their day but they're not for me.

So, here is our Turkish soup chart based on what is served in the lokantas in Fethiye:

1. In at number 1 is most definitely Ezo Gelin Çorbası - spicy red lentil soup. 
Stick some extra chilli flakes on top of this and it's the daddy of all the soups for me.
2. Mercimek Çorbası - 
White lentil soup. I opt for this one if there's no Ezo Gelin available.
3. Domates Çorbası - 
Tomato soup. Sometimes served with some grated cheese sprinkled into it. White tops not recommended! Think melted stringy cheese dripping with bright red tomato soup and you get the picture. Click this link to follow our Turkish recipe for tomato soup.
Okay, we're getting to the golden age of when this sort of food was commonplace in Britain. It still is commonplace in Turkey and is quite rightly making a comeback in Britain too. It's just that my tastebuds (and mind) don't 'do' it. They're in the chart because Barry and Turkish friends always order these.
4. Paça Çorbası - 
Hmm. Well, it can be either sheep's shin soup or - as a friend matter of factly dropped in the conversation one night - sheep's skull soup. This is Barry's favourite and is basically the scrapings of meat from near the bone. (You see, that description just doesn't do it for me even though the soup itself looks lovely).
5. İşkembe Çorbası - 
The one my nana and grandad would have wolfed down. Tripe soup! If that's for you then good luck to you but you won't be catching me with a bowl of stomach lining soup at 4 or 5 in the morning.
6. Last and very definitely least for us: Beyin Çorbası - 
Brain Soup! No, no, no. When I've had a drink, I'll try anything and we did have brain salad one night/morning. If you've never had brain, the texture is as you'd imagine (well, it was as I imagined anyway) but it was actually quite tasteless. We had to drown it in vinegar. Anyway, little floating morsels of brain in hot liquid don't really make me think, 'Beltin,' so I leave that one alone.

And there you have it. There are loads of other Turkish soups but these are your lokanta late night/early morning favourites. Obviously, soup is available all day in these places. It's just that we end up there at ridiculous hours, but then so do loads of other people. And by that time, when you've had all sorts to drink and when you're convinced food is the way forward as a magic hangover cure, whichever country you're in, if you're gonna be rough, you're gonna be rough! Just enjoy the soup anyway.

Today's photo, by the way, is my Ezo Gelin Çorbası that gets us through many a winter. Recipe tomorrow. (Click the link for the recipe.)

Public Transport in Fethiye - The Belediye Otobüs

We always had a car when we lived in England but we've never felt the need to buy one in Fethiye. There aren't many places in this area that you can't get to by public transport and on the odd occasion when I feel the need to drive, we hire a car. It works out much cheaper and much less hassle for us - and I can't be doing with hassle.

The Fethiye council bus

So, apart from Shanks's pony (the act of getting to one's destination on foot - if you're from Wigan), the cheapest way to get around in Fethiye is by taking the council bus (Belediye Otobüsü). We use it whenever we can because at the moment, it's only 80 kuruş to get into Fethiye. '...whenever we can,' is the key phrase here though. You can guarantee that whenever we need one, there isn't one. They start running at around 6:30am and stop at around 6:30pm with later services in the summer months and I think they were originally put on for ferrying employees to their places of work. Hence the odd times of running I suppose - put there for other people's convenience, not ours. They even have a lunch hour (well, 90 minutes), a break at around 10am and one in the afternoon some time.

The Fethiye Council Bus Stop

As you can guess from this, there aren't loads of them in a day but if you're lucky enough to need a bus at the time they run, they take you all the way into town very cheaply. Even better, if you're on the Fethiye-Çalış-Fethiye route, the council bought two brand new buses about three years ago (see photo) so it's all modern and comfortable. If you're not on this route, well, maybe you'll get a new bus soon for your route but for now, at least they're cheap and they run on time.

The system has become a bit more strict on our route recently and you need to wait for the bus at the designated stops - a blue-rimmed sign with a black D in the middle - or else they'll go careering past you. Pay the driver when you get on - and when you're close to your stop (they're quite close together so it's not the end of the world if you miss your nearest stop) - press one of the many bells and he'll open the doors. (If you're on one of the old buses, the bell is the little silver circular thing at the top of the doors.)

On the Fethiye-Calis-Fethiye route the buses run on the hour and the half hour (apart from all the hours they don't run, that is) and they drop you right at the main palm tree roundabout in the centre of Fethiye so they're really handy - especially for me in summer when I'm going to Deep Blue bar in my great big wedge sandals!

Accidental Expats in Turkey

And so, we were the sort of couple who was never going to go to the same place twice on holiday. There's a big world out there to see after all. We got a bit grabbed by Fethiye though - why wouldn't you - and that was it. Three 'abroad holidays' in a row, all to Fethiye and now we're here. But loads of people say to us that we must have been brave to give everything up and move here. Well, we would have been brave if that's what we did, except we didn't. We had been brave I suppose because we sold up and quit careers in England - but just to come and travel around Turkey for 6 months and then go back to England and run our own business. We just never went back really. We bought a little house here completely on a whim and we've been on a (very happy, interesting, who knows what's next) plan B ever since. It's all a bit higgledy piggledy but normal as well.
Oh, and we did next to no travelling around Turkey in those 6 months. It went from a backpacking adventure to furniture buying, form signing and waiting nervously (for me anyway) for military clearance to say it was okay for foreigners to live in the region we're in. Once we got that clearance, we put a few pictures on the wall and stuff and we've been slowly making our home ever since. Yes, 6 years is very slow but sometimes you've got to decide what the money goes on. Fun usually beats house.
Our first year here, as I said in the last post, was documented in a big photo album that is sitting somewhere in Wigan. Most of that was photos of us in bars with friends who came out to visit (there were lots of them) and in the second half of the year, we actually managed to visit some of the places we wanted to see. As I mentioned, we'll have to go back to every one of those places because I now want photos taken with my digital camera. So be prepared for an Istanbul blast in a couple of weeks. We'll be taking the laptop with us so I can empty my camera of photos into the computer and we'll also be writing the blog from there for 2 or 3 days. We can't wait to go back there just for a city fix. For now though, the laptop has countless Fethiye (and nearby) photos available so today's photo is another favourite Fethiye view that I took at the end of last summer.

Pre-blog Turkey Days...and a hint of regret

I'm not a regrets type of person - life's for getting on with - so one of the regrets in my life that bugs me is going to seem very trivial to probably loads of people...but, well, that's life. When we first moved out to Turkey (we didn't move out here, as I've said before, but I'll write about that tomorrow) we based ourselves in Fethiye and travelled around quite a few places in the country in a short amount of time. All amazing and fantastic and...the big regret...minus my beloved digital camera.

I'm sure other people thought the same as me...please tell me you thought the same as me! I was very stubborn and as digital cameras first came out, loads of my friends bought them at horrendous prices, took photos and insisted on showing the photo to me immediately. I know, grumpy me, but I really wasn't interested at looking at me / other people on a screen when I was with them there and then in person. (If I sound like a 60 year old now, apologies...I'm 35!!) So, I stuck to my 'point and shoot' camera where you bought a Kodak film that could take 24 or 36 photos. No zoom, no buttons to play with - and no screen to show my mates what photo I'd just taken. I was perfectly happy with that!

My travel diary. There's still a place for pen and paper - and glue

And so, 'Barry and Julia's first year in Turkey' was all carefully photographed (I'm a bit of an obsessive taker of photographs), put in to one BIG photo album and then left I don't know where back in Wigan somewhere. The classic case of when you move house (or are maybe even temporarily between countries), you carefully box and label everything and then something always disappears. The album is gone.

My birthday 2008. Barry suggested I finally succumb to a digital camera (I think he was sick of queueing up at Max Spielman with me every Saturday afternoon). If it's gonna be a prezzy, who am I to refuse? We were back in Manchester at the time so I registered with 'Which?' and started to study cameras. I don't do technology at all so it was all very strange to me - the fact I'm writing this now on the internet is amazing if you knew me in a previous life! Anyway, I chose the camera I have now (hmmm, think I should be ready for an update soon?) and I can snap away to my heart's content without cramming the house with photos. Okay, okay, digital cameras are a great idea! I was just a bit late catching on....

...and as a result, have no photos from our travels.

Luckily however (cue today's photo), I'm also a compulsive hoarder of freebie and very cheap souvenirs from our travels. Quite ironic that I've had to use my digital camera to take a photo of my handwritten diary. Any entrance tickets we buy, any restaurant cards, postcards, club flyers, bla bla, they all go in my diary/scrapbook. This scrapbook is the only concrete thing I have from our travels now. I'm glad I've got it! And so, why this page? Because my birthday is again on the very near horizon, my camera is nearly 2 years old and we're off to Istanbul as a birthday break. It'll be our 5th or 6th time there - but the first time with my digital camera. Which of course means we have to go back to all the big 'must see' places that we've already seen just so I can get some pics. I'm not complaining! Oh, and I still love my scrapbook so I'll still be buying/picking up all things souvenirish to stick in there. Roll on my birthday - even if I will be 36.

 

Stormy Fethiye and Cheap Flights to Turkey! Yeahy!

Very broken sleep last night as the weather in Fethiye turned to winter storminess. The usual heavy, horizontal rain (I'm sure it hailstoned at some point too but I was half asleep so I could have dreamt that bit), high winds, thunder and lightening. It wasn't the thunder and rain battering the window that kept waking me up but the lightening. It was like constant strobe lighting flashing in the bedroom. Good fun though. I used to be terrified of the storms when we first came here because I'd never heard thunder so loud but I've got used to them now. Anyway, the aftermath is the photo above. Still a bit angry looking this afternoon and Fethiye has got waves! You can just about make out the white froth of the waves crashing against Red Island - a rare sight in these parts. The sea is also two different colours. I think a lot of mud must have slid down the hills into the water. And the weather forecast for the next few days isn't too spectacular either. Oh well. Such is life.

Stormy Fethiye Bay

A bit of a mixed post today. The clue's in the title I suppose. I am just feeling the need to spread some good cheer! It's a constant pain in the neck for our mates and family who want to come out to see us that the flights to Dalaman are so expensive. Other people we know either who live here or come here on holiday have the same problem. Well, maybe it's going to pay to get in early this year if you're pondering a little jaunt to Fethiye or anywhere else in Turkey. My dad wants to come and see us in October so I had a look on the internet for him yesterday and it's now all booked and sorted. He's booked a package holiday to Fethiye for £180 for a week. If he flew the day before (I've not asked why the day before - Sunday - was no good) he could have had a week for £120. Can you believe that? AND the flight-only option was £98 return including taxes. Fantastic. I've had another nosey this morning at the flights in July and they were all about £170. Some potential cheap holidays for people flying to Dalaman from the UK then. I hope there's good flight news for people in other parts of the world too!

Well, I suppose I'd better tell you which site I've found all this on instead of warbling on about it. Have a nosey at the On The Beach website. You can book flight-only, flight and hotel or hotel only. They use different airlines and my dad's been told he'll be flying with EasyJet so maybe EasyJet themselves have got some good deals on too if you get in early enough? Not looked yet. Anyway, here's to cheap flights to Dalaman - and long may they continue.

Hmmm, just started raining hard again.

Turkish Food - Mücver (Courgette Fritters)

Slices of tasty fırında mücver

Mücver is one of our favourite Turkish dishes because it's a great, filling snack that you can just grab out of the fridge. We were pondering what to have for our lunch yesterday and we didn't have a lot of food in so I decided to make mücver. It's really easy to do and it is amazing that you can get something that tastes so good from so little effort.

I used to follow a recipe from a book where you fry the mixture in batches (hence them being called fritters) but they always ended up tasting too oily. Frying them is the traditional way though. The recipe I follow now is Burcu's from Almost Turkish Recipes. In fact, I follow a lot of recipes from her blog. She's a great cook of Turkish food - and has helped me to slightly impress Turkish friends. I like this recipe because she acknowledges that not everyone loves too much oil and so she posted this recipe for fırında kabak mücver (baked courgette mücver). It always turns out well and it's a great, lazy way of making this yummy meal. You basically throw your ingredients in a bowl - without being too careful on quantities - give them all a stir, pour the mixture in an oven dish and bake it for an hour. Really tasty lunch for yesterday and some left over for today's lunch in about an hour. Can't wait. We had a lone carrot in the fridge yesterday as well that was looking a bit sorry for itself so I grated it and threw that in too.

If you can possibly wait for your mücver to cool down - we never can - then it's much easier to cut up. Cut it into little squares and eat it with natural yoghurt. It goes really well. If you make mücver, you'll be addicted to it and keep making it all the time like me. I do have to admit to not being brave enough to make this oven version for Turkish friends. I can see the look on their faces in my head now. It's just not worth going there!

Change of subject. We went to Deep Blue Bar last night and sat at the bar so I threw a question in (yesterday's Turkey's For Life post). Is Fethiye in the Mediterranean or the Aegean? At exactly the same time, one person said Aegean and one said Mediterranean. So, it's not just me then. Anyway, it was like a 'wind 'em up and watch 'em go' situation. The laptop was opened and internet research began. Can, the bar owner said Mediterranean and he's from these parts so we were backing him up. He reckons it's the Dalaman River that divides the boundaries and when we looked at the map of regions of Turkey, the Dalaman River flows towards the tip of the Datça peninsula which means the Datça theory could be the true one. Some websites showed that and others showed Fethiye in the Aegean but we're sticking with the Datça theory now. Good! I know where I live now...on the Med. Got a nice ring to it that.

So, have a look at the map - us in Fethiye are pretty safely in the Mediterranean area of Turkey I reckon - and if you're ever looking for Fethiye information on the internet, you might have to (wrongly) select 'Aegean Turkey.' Hmmm.

Fethiye, Fethiye...wherefore art thou, Fethiye? One Of Life's Ponders...

Tip of the Datça Peninsula - where the Mediterranean meets the Aegean

I've been pondering this one for a few years so maybe someone could help me out in my ponderings. And here is my ponder...how do you define boundaries in a great big body of water? Where is the exact point where one sea or ocean stops and another one starts?

More specifically, where does the Aegean Sea (Ege Denizi) stop and the Mediterranean Sea (Akdeniz) start? You see, I think there's a bit of an identity crisis here for Fethiye because depending on which travel / geography website you look at, Fethiye is either in 'Aegean Turkey' or 'Mediterranean Turkey' - those same websites will place Turkey either in Europe, Asia or the Middle East. It's a wonder anyone finds any information at all on the internet on Turkey, let alone Fethiye.

So my ponder is, when people are in Fethiye, do they think they are in Mediterranean Turkey or Aegean Turkey and wherever they think they are, where is the sea border? I tend to think we are living on the Mediterranean. This is because we went to Datça (west of Fethiye) with a Turkish friend about 6 years ago. He said that the locals there say that if you go right to the end of the Datça peninsula, you have the Aegean on one side of you and the Mediterranean on the other. That's quite a nice division for me to register in my brain and places Fethiye firmly in the Med. But if you look at other information, it says Rhodes is in the Aegean, making the Datça theory wrong. It suits my logic though so I'm sticking with it - and if Rhodes is in the Aegean, I'm back to the same question. Where is the border? It's one of life's great mysteries...and the more I write this post, the more I want to know. It'll turn from a little ponder into a pointless research task because it'll start bugging me.

Beautiful weather in Fethiye today by the way. The haze caused by the wood burners has lifted and it's crispy clear and sunny. A bit nippy round the ears but I can deal with that. Might go for a stroll after.

Update: 19/04/2012 - Google maps backs up the Datça Peninsula theory, clearly showing the Aegean on one side of the ruins of Knidos and the Mediterranean on the other.