Welcome to our April edition of monthly news from life in Fethiye – where spring is springing!
The lemon blossom is out, the honey bees are busy and the temperatures are slowly creeping up.
The Fethiye weather still throws a bit of wind and rain around but, generally, there’s a feeling that summer is on its way.
April Festivals & Events
It’s been a month of Turkish national holidays and festivals by way of National Sovereignty & Children’s Day on 23rd April and a trip up to Yeşilüzümlü for the annual Yeşilüzümlü Dastar & Morel Mushroom Festival.
The 3-day mushroom festival is so popular, these days, that we decided to go up on the first day – the Friday – so that we could have a wander around in the sunshine and have a browse of some of the craft stalls without battling through the crowds.
Babadağ Ultra Trail
The weekend of 25th-26th April was another of the fast-growing Turkish running events: the Babadağ Ultra Trail.
Runners from around the country (and the world) set off from Belcekiz Beach in Ölüdeniz taking part in various distances with VERY varying degrees of difficulty.
From a 5k run along the beach road (and back) to the 56k Babadağ Ultra – and various distances of uphill and downhill races – some taking in the summit of Babadağ – in between.
And Some Hardcore Cycling
29th April was the 4th stage of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey with route running from Marmaris to Fethiye.
As Fethiye was the finish line rather than the start, this year, we decided to go up to Cafe Park Teras to get a view from above of the cyclists coming in.
Summer Season Prep
Amongst the various local Fethiye events taking place, prep has quietly continued for the summer season.
New Benches
If you take a walk along the harbour between Fethiye and Çalış, you’ll notice new seating along the stretch between Denizatı Restaurant and Şehit Fethi Bey Park.
They don’t look brand new. Perhaps acquired from another town or city, elsewhere? But they do look heavy duty.
And they’re double-sided. So you can either sit and look over the bay or you can sit with your back to the sea and watch the world go by.
Interesting how many people we’ve seen choosing the latter option.
What would you be? A sea-gazer or a people-watcher?
This stretch of the harbour now also has new lighting, too, which we presume to be LED lighting like the ones along the main road and the cycle track.
And in the park, the woodwork has had a spruce up. Rotted wood replaced, all other wood sanded and restained.
Çalış Beach Prep
Every winter, storms raise the sea levels so that waves wash up right up to – and sometimes over – the beach wall.
With them, they bring all sorts of debris and rubble – the natural and the not so natural.
Earlier in April, the beach was trawled and bigger stones and boulders removed.
As I type, the parasols are gradually being placed along the beach and beds have quickly followed…
It’s beginning to look a lot like summer...
Boat Prep
And, of course, the Çalış Water Taxi has resumed its services – daytimes only at the moment until the season kicks in, properly.
And whether you’re in Çalış, Fethiye or Ölüdeniz, the local boats are all spruced up for the season and advertising their services for daily boat trips – and longer.
Out & About
Quite a quiet month, April, as far as Fethiye bars & restaurants are concerned.
We were staying in Antalya for a few nights at the beginning of the month for the Runtalya running event so eating out hasn’t really been on the agenda.
We did, however, manage to treat ourselves to a yummy kuşbaşılı pide at Nefis Pide Kordon.
Along Çalış Beach, April has seen Calisto as a usual haunt for us – along with Geyik.
Bar Restaurant News
And just a couple of updates for the local bar and restaurant scene…
- Congratulations to Kanatçı Mert BBQ. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know we love going to eat juicy chicken wings, there. They’re now opening a second branch along Beşkaza Meydanı (the town square). Good luck to them!
- In Fethiye centre, Cafe Park Teras and Deep Blue Bar are now both fully open for the summer season and are currently advertising their respective Happy Hours. Various drinks on offer from 11:00-18:00 at Cafe Park Teras (they serve draught beer as well as bottles). Draught Guinness and draught Kilkenny on offer from 16:01-21:59 at Deep Blue.
- And yet more changes along Çalış Beach as we say goodbye to Motif and George’s Restaurant. We’ve heard tales of what will replace them – but we’ll wait and see what materialises. We never went to George’s but it was very much a part of the fixtures and fittings of the promenade. We’ll miss the food at Motif.
In The Kitchen
No new recipes this month. But it has been a month of easy bakes.
These are great because we can share them with Barry’s mum, too.
A lovely big tray of delicious fırında mücver (courgette fritters baked in the oven). And then, a few days later, we followed that with our Turkish potato cake.
And springtime is just the season of abundant seasonal food.
Whilst we haven’t made any of our old favourite Turkish aubergine recipes, they’re right are in season at the moment.
So we’ve been enjoying them sauteed and then topped with thick, creamy süzme yoghurt!
On The Blog
Because we’re usually in Antalya at least once a year, we can keep our articles about the city fresh and up to date. So April has really been about that.
Karaalioğlu Park has had a spruce up. As has our article about one of our favourite pubs, Dubh Linn Gastro Pub in the old town, Kaleiçi.
We spent a few hours wandering Konyaaltı Beach and surroundings. So we’ve have added a couple of updates to that article.
And, last but not least, if you need to get there, our article about how to get from Fethiye to Antalya by bus is all refreshed and updated.
Fethiyespor
The final match of the season was away to Mardin. And that means all the fixtures and results are completed.
And these are the final league standings.
Another season of hope for the die-hard Fethiyespor supporters will commence after summer…
In Other News
A few of the stories that jump out at us as the month progressed.
Formula 1 Back In Istanbul
We’ll kick off with the news that it was announced last week that Formula 1 is set to return to Istanbul in 2027. Much to the delight of Turkish F1 fans.
This cat didn’t seem over impressed with proceedings, however. The video has gone viral – it casually sauntered into shot while F1 driver, Yuki Tsunoda, prepared to set off through the city in his F1 car.
It’s not an Istanbul event if there isn’t a cat!
Döner Discovery
You can never be too old to try your first döner kebab!
This nun, Sister Irmıngard is 92! She tried her first döner and declared her delight – but she was going to save the rest for later.
We’ve all been there.
It’s Another Significant Statue
Laodicea, between Pamukkale and Denizli has been on our radar for a while. But we are yet to make it there. We need to put that right, this year…
Ongoing archaeological digs recently revealed a large 2 metre statue of the goddess, Athena.
The statue is from the Augustus era which lasted from 27 BC to 14 AD.
Into May
More events to come by way of oil wrestling and the Çalış Spring Fayre – and no doubt lots of other happenings, too.
Let’s see what the new month brings…