A Journey Through 2021 – Another Bumpy Ride

Share this article

‘Twixtmas’ is the increasingly popular term for this time of year.

Those few days between Christmas and New Year where many of us bumble aimlessly towards seeing the year out.

The anticipation and excitement of Christmas has been and gone. And it’s time to get cracking for the new year ahead…

Right after we’ve done these last few days.

Easing Back Into Daily Life

We’re not bumbling completely aimlessly.

We’ve had our celebrations and as of yesterday morning, we were back out there enjoying some of what Fethiye has to offer.

We got out there and we ran.

And we’re back to shopping for our favourite seasonal produce at Çalış Market and Fethiye market.

Last Of the Festive Treats

Don’t get us wrong.

The fridge and cupboards still have those leftover Christmas goodies lurking.

Reminding us that we’re not out of the festive woods just yet.

The last two mince pies were eaten a couple of days ago.

As was a leftover sausage roll – for breakfast!

It’s Twixtmas!

The chicken liver pate is almost gone.

As for the rest, the homemade chutney and pickled red cabbage are there for us to delve into whenever we like. No rush with those.

So, we’re not fully into New year mode just yet. But prepping is in full swing.

And we’re ready for action.

A Look Back At 2021

In the blogging world, Twixtmas is the time where we look back at the year that’s passed.

And, let’s face it, 2021 has been another topsy turvy, turbulent twelve months.

Whatever’s happened in any of our personal lives – the ups and the downs – the Covid backdrop has been, and still is, ever present.

But we did bumble our way through the last 12 months.

And so here’s a few highlights with regards this little blog of ours…

Most Popular Article(s) Of 2021

Every year, we look through the stats and pull out our most read post of 2021.

And every year, we’re completely surprised. This year was no different.

The self-imposed criteria for this is that the article had to be written within the last year, too.

This puts us into a bit of a grey area for this year’s winner. Because it’s an article that has been on the blog for some years.

BUT, at some point in 2021, we rewrote it. And gave it a new lease of life.

So, despite its age, it’s still a new article.

Our recipe for kuru fasulye and where we love to eat it in Istanbul was the most read article of 2021.

Like we said, a (pleasant) surprise for us.

And, actually, looking at that photo, it’s perfect post-Christmas and New Year festivities healthy comfort food.

Mental note to make it again in January!

And, if we bring ourselves out of the grey area and go for a completely brand new article?

Well, second place goes to that oh-so-comforting Turkish dessert of sütlaç.

40 New Articles

As you know, our blog covers three big aspects of our life in Turkey:

Fethiye, Turkish food & slow travel Turkey.

Throughout 2021, we added 40 brand new articles to the blog, covering all three of those areas.

Fethiye

Our Fethiye articles cover our monthly news updates, of course.

This is where you’ll read about, amongst a multitude of other things, any extremes in the Fethiye weather and how local football team, Fethiyespor, are ticking along.

No ‘ticking along’ for them this season!

They’re flying and end 2021 sitting very comfortably on top of the league!

And there’s always a new bar or restaurant that we can review and add to our list of places to eat and drink around the Fethiye area.

We love seafood.

So, two standout restaurant memories for the year have to be meals at Girida Port on Fethiye marina.

And at Çalış Balıkçısı along Çalış Beach.

Turkish Food

2021 wasn’t without its lockdowns.

So cooking in our house really came into its own – as it certainly did in lots of other households.

No surprises then that many of our articles on the blog, this year, have been of the foodie persuasion.

Continuing the theme of our love of seafood, for some reason, seafood recipes are a bit thin on the ground on the blog.

We started to remedy this by sharing our ekşi balık (a lemony fish stew) recipe earlier in the year. Much more seafood to come in 2022!

Towards the end of 2021, we started to group some of our recipes together to make them easier for you to find.

We’ll be continuing with this endeavour throughout 2022.

First up was our Turkish aubergine recipes.

This was the natural choice for the first list.

Purely because we’ve been saying for some time that we have a lot of recipes on the blog where aubergine is the star attraction.

This list brings all of those recipes together.

We’re very much an organic blog which follows our daily life.

So our second list was all about Christmas and New Year buffet ideas. Many of which give you the opportunity to bring a bit of Turkey to your table.

Through 2022, we’ll be gathering more articles together.

Whether they be foodie, travel or Fethiye related – so that you can have a resource on tap.

Travel

Another year ended where we haven’t done nearly as much travel as we would have liked.

For obvious reasons.

Part of our ‘slow travel’ lifestyle is about using public transport.

We’ve used precious little of that over the last couple of years; preferring to walk and be outdoors.

The travels we were able to do involved a hire car. Which naturally added financial cost to our trips. So we weren’t able to do as many.

That meant that the couple of breaks we did manage were even more appreciated than usual!

Because we had a hire car, we took the opportunity to have a good explore around the stunning, peaceful Bozburun Peninsula.

The pretty village of Selimiye was our base. And it’s somewhere we’ll definitely return to one day.

In October, the Bodrum Yarı Maratonu (Half Marathon) run went ahead. So we got to have our annual Bodrum fix. And explore some places we hadn’t visited before.

Those tales are yet to be told on this blog. But they’re all pencilled in for the New Year.

Whilst the annual Runtalya road race went ahead in March in Antalya, restrictions meant bars and restaurants were still closed.

That persuaded us to give Antalya a miss, this year.

And, as for Istanbul and the Istanbul Marathon; we were registered for that event. But various things conspired to just make the trip difficult.

So, no Istanbul either.

Frustrating – but we’re grateful for the breaks we did manage and we have lots of ideas pencilled in for 2022.

At this stage, however, we know we’re playing things by ear.

We guess anyone reading this is as hopeful as we are for a more positive 2022 where travel is concerned!

Into 2022

Looking back propels us to the act of looking forward.

Running Events

You might remember a couple of years ago when we published our page of running events around Turkey – we couldn’t have timed it much worse!

The pandemic meant many races were promptly cancelled or postponed.

Well, for 2022, registration is already open for many events. Whoop!

We’ll be updating that page in the New Year.

And crossing our fingers that all goes smoothly for organisers…

Blogging

Whether by car or by public transport, we have plans travel plans for 2022.

We hope we’re not tempting fate. But, near or far, there will be new places for us to explore. So we’ll be expanding the travel section of the blog.

Fethiye and food are the constants in life and the certainties for the blog.

Well, we live in Fethiye and we love food = we will be blogging about both.

And, for 2022, we’re going to be venturing more into the world of the motion picture.

Blogging and vlogging are two different beasts. And we have no aspirations to become the next big YouTube, IGTV/Reels or TikTok superstars.

We will, however, be having a bit of fun dabbling in making short clips that will support articles on the blog, be they foodie, Fethiye or travel related.

Thanks To All Of You

And that just leaves us to thank you all for reading throughout the last year and to wish you a very happy new year.

Yeni Yılınız Kutlu Olsun. Mutlu Yıllar!

We’ll see you on the other side!

And if you’re planning holidays and trips in Turkey for 2022, here’s hoping for big, happy travels for all of us!

Share this article