Turkey’s For Life First Birthday – Part 1

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Twelve months ago today, I was sitting on the couch in our little living room in Fethiye and I decided to (finally) take action on starting the blog we’d been pondering for a while. We knew absolutely nothing about blogging and didn’t really know if anyone would read it. No matter; it was going to be something that would entertain us for an hour or so each day through the winter – a little hobby.

Since that day, we’ve done 307 posts, we’ve learned more than we could ever have imagined about the blogging world, social media (Facebook, Twitter and the like), site statistics, html, photography, photography software, cuisine, travel. We’ve ‘met’ hundreds (if not thousands) of people from all over the world, in the virtual world and actually met some of those people in the real world, online friends have become real life friends. We now look at Fethiye and wherever else we go in Turkey through different eyes – through blogging eyes, I suppose – and as a result, I very rarely leave the house without my camera just in case a good photo opportunity comes up for a blog post. You never know…

As you can see – and if you write a blog yourself, maybe you’re in the same boat as we are – our ‘little hobby’ of writing a few words about Turkey (mainly the Fethiye area) has completely changed our lives; for the better of course. And, a ‘little hobby’ is now, well, it’s not even a full time hobby. Our Turkey’s For Life blog is a part of our life. How odd…how fascinating. Apart from the ‘little hobby,’ none of the above was ever on the agenda.

Yesterday, I sat and went through a few past posts because we thought it would be nice to have a mosaic of photos that represent what we’ve covered; what we’ve done, where we’ve been, what we’ve seen, what we’ve eaten, what we’ve cooked, over the last 12 months. This photo of photos is the result.

By default – and what a great ‘default’ to have – most of our Turkey posts are about our life in, and observations of, Fethiye, Kayaköy, Ölüdeniz, Çalış. Our favourite posts from here are the Fethiye Blast From The Past post and the Cin Bal, Kayaköy post. Both hold memories of when we first came to Fethiye in 1998, which I suspect is the main reason.

Favourite Turkish food posts? Well, the best meal this year has got to be the hamsi ekmek (anchovy sandwich) we had at Karaköy fish market in Istanbul. I’m not joking! Barry’s is Petek’s Turşucu in Istanbul. More to do with the memories of the shop making the pickles taste extra special.

Favourite recipes? Barry’s is Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası. Mine? I love Antep Ezmesi – it was one of the first meze dishes I learned how to make – but my heart says kısır; the best salad ever!

Favourite places? Well, we live in Fethiye, don’t we? But, Turkey hold endless fascination for us and we love to travel around whenever we can. Fethiye is a perfect base for this. Istanbul is special for both of us and of the cities we’ve seen in the world so far, the definite favourite.

Any Turkey favourites of your own? Either from Turkey’s For Life or something we’ve not written about yet? Well, I could go on and on but you’ll be fast asleep before getting to the end of the post so I’m going to leave it right there…for now.

Thank you to everyone who reads Turkey’s For Life and keeps us posting!

Read – Turkey’s For Life First Birthday – Part 2

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