Manavgat, Markets & Moggies

Life is relaxed here in southern Turkey, and we feel lucky to have managed so much time away in this ravaged year. We continue to embrace our new surroundings.

Tuesday 10th November marks something of a milestone for us as it’s our 50th day in Turkey, making it our longest continuous stretch outside the UK so far.

As we prepare for our Tuesday and look out across the rooftops to the sea, the air is suddenly and unexpectedly filled with the sound of police sirens, not a common sound in Side, and we are a little puzzled as to what might be going on. A few minutes later, crossing the boulevard on our way to breakfast, we notice that the huge Turkish flag which flies above the traffic island, is hanging limply at half mast.

At first we don’t connect the two, but it transpires that today is Ataturk Memorial Day, remembering the Republic’s founding father, who died on this day in 1938. Throughout Turkey, even in the biggest cities, at precisely 9.05am, traffic comes to a standstill, people stop in their tracks and observe a minute’s remembrance. Emergency vehicles sound their sirens in their own tribute. And so it all falls into place.

There is something hugely edifying about the fact that it’s almost the middle of November and we’re still in T shirts and shorts and taking a dip in the sea most days, even though the locals consider it to be winter now that the daily temperature has dropped to about 25-27. To be fair, the mornings and evenings are now quite a bit cooler, which means that about 4pm each day you will see visitors dressed like us sharing the pavement with locals in puffa jackets and hoodies.

Our quiet neighbourhood just a short walk from the tourist areas gives us all we need in terms of daily life: local restaurants with good food at low prices, local shops for topping up on essentials, a butcher, ATMs and even a decent ladies’ hairdresser (which according to Michaela is a godsend!).

Side does lack a decent market, the weekly Saturday affair being nothing more than a second outlet for the tourist trap shops in the old town; they even advertise their prices in euros. Fortunately though, there is a very different, terrific food market in neighbouring Manavgat, which is where we’re sourcing our provisions for home cooking at very low prices.

Prices are so low in fact that, if your chosen quantity of, say, tomatoes, falls a few kurus short of a lira, you will be given an extra tomato or two, instead of change. Bearing in mind it’s now over 10 lira to the £, that’s not so bad an option.

Manavgat has seriously won us over and we are both agreed that we would be comfortable living in the town for an extended time. It’s a larger town and therefore has all amenities; it’s also a very well designed town with plenty of parks, gardens and green spaces, and is a transport hub with buses to all destinations within Turkey. 

But Manavgat’s crowning glory is the riverfront. Sipping beer in the cafes alongside the deep green coloured river, feeling the warm sun and watching people and cats, is very relaxing: perhaps a little too relaxing, as we end up losing at least a couple of hours here after each market trip.

Cats are, by the way, everywhere in Turkey, just about all of them in good condition and most of them adorable, especially the kittens. The cats enjoy an odd relationship with humans here; most of the cats don’t have a home and live outdoors, indeed the locals call them “street cats”, but are fed and cared for (and loved) by everyone: you will regularly see communal feeding stations. As a consequence they are all well groomed cats with silky coats, without having lost the guile to know where their next meal will come from.

Back in Selcuk, the townsfolk had even clubbed together to pay for a permanent cat vet, armed with a brand new cat ambulance!

The fact that Turkish people love cats is a clue to their character; Turks are a caring, thoughtful race eager to help anyone anytime. We have witnessed many examples.

One way and another, Turkey continues to make us feel at home.

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