Ending the month of April – and beginning the month of May – in a very wet Fethiye. Let’s take a look at some April news from life in Fethiye.
The local weather might be grey and damp at the moment, but April has given us some lovely, warm, sunny days and lots of beautiful blossom.
It was also a month packed with local events, a national holiday and spring festivals – and the gradual opening of the 2025 summer season.
A Busy Calendar
23rd April in Turkey is National Sovereignty & Children’s Day and in Fethiye, children from different countries around the world did a parade along the kordon and performed traditional dances both in Fethi Bey Park and at Beşkaza Meydanı (the town square).
For two weekends in a row, it was festival time for the Fethiye area.
Yeşilüzümlü Kuzugöbeği & Dastar Festivali
11th-13th April was the Yeşilüzümlü Dastar & Mushroom Festival – a celebration of the morel mushroom and the local weave, dastar.
Festivals like this are always attended by people in their traditional yörük wear and this chap in the photo had such pride in his.
We were with friends and he insisted we take his photo – and then insisted we had our photos taken with him, too.
The mushroom festival grows in popularity every year so, this year, we went up to Üzümlü on the Saturday instead of the busier Sunday.
The belediye put a free bus service on and even on the Saturday we were the proverbial sardines in the tin during the bus journey.
Always a great day, though!
Göcek Ot Festivali
The following weekend was the postponed Göcek Ot Festivali (Herb Festival).
This is quite a new festival compared to the mushroom festival – we think this year was the third year – so the crowds aren’t as big at the moment and it’s easy to get a dolmuş to it.
Not that we need an excuse to enjoy a bit of time in Göcek – but the herb festival is the perfect reason to make the effort to head there for the day.
And the postponement due to bad weather at the beginning of the month mean that we didn’t have to miss this year’s offering.
The 20th Runtalya
We were in Antalya on the first weekend of April for the annual Runtalya Marathon which is when the festival was originally taking place.
We did say it was a busy month!
Elsewhere on the sporting calendar, last week’s Fethiye Tuesday market became the Monday market for a day due to the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey heading off from Fethiye centre for the Fethiye to Marmaris leg of the race.
And we had another of the country’s running events.
The Babadağ Ultra took place with runners setting off on their various routes from Ölüdeniz.
Fethiye Summer Season 2025 – The Beginnings
In between festival attendance and running along the roads of Antalya, the Fethiye summer season has also been slowly getting underway.
Of course, we’ve had the Easter holidays and there were quite a few holidaymakers around during that fortnight.
It was lovely to see the Çalış Water Taxi up and running – and to see it so busy on market day as it left the jetty in Çalış.
Also in Çalış, a lot of the bars and restaurants that close for the winter months reopened their doors.
A special mention for Oben Restaurant at the end of the main promenade who opened their doors for their 40th season, this year.
Congratulations to them!
Towards the end of the month, the stakes were hammered into the sand and shingle – and the colourful Çalış Beach parasols were once more put into place.
It hasn’t been the weather for the beds just yet…
The boats are back in the water in both Fethiye and Çalış, and, for many, Fethiye’s daily boat trips have commenced!
Everything everywhere is waking up!
Out & About
Antalya and weekend festivals have kept us busy this month, especially for eating out.
Turkish street food has been the standout, really, for April.
Sucuk ekmek at the mushroom festival whilst we wandered around the stalls.
And then a recent jaunt to the Tuesday market gave us the excuse to visit the Fethiye street food trucks.
This time, we opted for the balık ekmek (fish sandwich) truck where uskumru (mackerel) and sardalya (sardines) are on offer.
A huge half bread with your choice of fish and salad, along with a small side of fries, all for a great price!
This truck has become our balık ekmek go-to since the seafood products cooperative along the canal in Çalış was demolished in April.
In The Kitchen
Springtime obviously means a perfect opportunity for seasonal eating.
We’re spoiled for choice on the local markets at the moment.
Swiss chard is piled high, so our Turkish pazı kavurma has been on the menu more than once. So lovely!
Fresh green peas are also in season. We use them to make this green pea and feta salad.
And we haven’t bought any broad beans, yet, but they’re great in this Turkish broad bean and orzo salad.
Oh, we did celebrate International Carrot Day on 4th April with some havuç tarator – carrot and garlic yoghurt dip – and Barry excelled himself this time with his best griddled köfte to date!
It’s the meat!
So no new additions to our Turkish recipes collection for this month – but this month has been more about exploring rather than food prep and cooking.
On The Blog
A bit of updating and some brand new articles, too, for April.
Explore Antalya
Our annual jaunt to Antalya on the bus means we get to update our Antalya content regularly.
As usual, we stayed in Kaleiçi and went to see developments at Hıdırlık Tower where the excavations have been taking place.
So, a couple of updates to our Kaleiçi (the old town) article because the famous Antalya clock tower is now also on full show after being restored.
On this visit, we also explored more of the stunning Konyaaltı Beach and surroundings and that is now an article on the blog.
Explore Göcek
A few visits to Göcek of late so we thought it was about time we updated our article on the pretty town seeing as it was one of the oldest articles on the blog.
So now, we have our guide to Göcek – the westernmost point of the Fethiye environs.
For further explorations around the Muğla Province (the whole stretch of coast between Fethiye and Bodrum) we’ve brought our article about using the dolmuş up top date.
And, as the Üzümlü Mushroom Festival is all about the celebration of morels, we’ve freshened up our morel mushrooms recipe – should you ever be lucky enough to get your hands on any morels.
In Other News
Short and sweet for this month.
ANZAC Day Commemorations
25th April is, of course, ANZAC Day and this year marked the 110th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign.
This year’s commemorations were attended by Princess Anne.
Patara Lighthouse
And big news from the world of archaeology.
Time for us to revisit the Patara ruins now that a team of archaeologists has completed the meticulous rebuild of the Roman era lighthouse by a team led by Professor İşkan Işık.
The lighthouse was built by Emperor Nero in 64 AD and was destroyed by a tsunami in 1485.
The stones laid buried under sand dunes and archaeologists have found them and used them to rebuild the lighthouse – an apparent world archaeological first!
Only 8% of the lighthouse structure includes new stones. 18% on the upper area where a new crown has been added.
You can see how the lighthouse looks now via the link to the professor’s Instagram account, above.
Into May
An action-packed April could well lead to an equally action-packed May.
We’ve got a few things lined up already so we’ll see…