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Making Roots And Planning Routes
It’s fair to say that we’re getting a bit restless. Here in Side it’s a little bit like becoming becalmed at sea, eager to press on with this voyage and even more eager to make more voyages in the future. Settling into a single place for an extended stay was always on our agenda, but probably not for several years yet. It’s an experience we’ve added to our repertoire rather earlier than intended, but then our travel in 2020 has been a very different shape from the original picture. Until COVID intervened and blew our plans apart, our intention after retiring last Christmas was to travel for around four months…
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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…
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Roman History In Aspendos And Köprülü
Our third and final road trip out of Side in this current hire car session takes us to the wonderful sights of Aspendos and Köprülü Kanyon and turns out to be the best of the three great trips. Earlier on in this trip somebody said to us that the whole of Turkey is simply one massive museum with an absolute wealth of history, and the fact that you can, if you wish, buy a nationwide ticket which gains entry to over 350 such places sort of proves the point. Even we aren’t here long enough to do that! You’d think we might have tired of these sites (can you ever…
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The Road To Alanya
Our second road trip from Side takes us further along the D400 coast road to what will most likely be our most easterly destination, the large town of Alanya. Alanya is just over 60 kilometres from Side, and like our previous Turquoise Coast drives along the D400, the views of the beautiful blue Mediterranean are fantastic. But the drive is noteworthy for another reason too; most of the second half of the journey takes us through an incredible run of gigantic resort hotels. These places are mind boggling, colossal hulking buildings shoulder to shoulder for mile upon mile; for us, the unacceptable face of mass tourism. Their appearance ranges from mock…
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Road Trips From Side
As we continue to enjoy our time in Side, the details surrounding our eventual return home don’t get any clearer, as our flight home has been cancelled again due to the second lockdown back home in England. The latest position is that we now have a flight booked for December 5th, but whether that actually happens is another matter altogether. Exploring our temporary home we collect a hire car for a few days and get out and about to widen our knowledge. Our first road trip takes us to the so called Green Canyon, up in the mountains closer to the source of the Manavgat river and at the far…
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Living In Side Turkey
As we approach the end of our sixth week in Turkey we also begin our second week in Side, with a few things moving on. October 29th is Republic Day here, Turkey’s biggest public holiday, commemorating the day in 1923 when Ataturk united this huge nation by declaring the existence of the Republic, although in reality the republic was effectively almost 3 years old by that date. In normal times, Republic Day is a nationwide festival with much celebration, but the Government has this year implemented COVID restrictions so the festivities are mostly restricted to draping of the Turkish flag over buildings and buses. Speaking of COVID, matters have changed…
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The Evolving History of Side
The storms and cooled nights of Cirali already seem a long way behind us: since arriving in Side we’ve stepped back into summer with unbroken sunshine and temperatures which have tipped 30 a couple of times but are consistently in the upper 20s. The crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean at East Beach are a constant draw. Several weeks ago, back in Selcuk, we commented to one of our new found friends, how much we love the fact that the ancient monuments are so accessible, providing the freedom to wander amongst the history rather than view it from the other side of a fence. His reply was that, with so…
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From Cirali To Side: Phase 2 Begins
Something different is stirring in Cirali tonight. Restaurant staff are standing in the lane looking at the sky, exchanging opinions. Children chatter excitedly. Tables and chairs are moved indoors, perspex partitions manoeuvred into place, logs thrown on to fires. Something is definitely stirring. Our final three days in Cirali have been punctuated with thunder storms, but it is clear that tonight’s storm, now looming in jet black clouds over the Taurus Mountains, is causing an extra stir amongst the villagers. They obviously know more than we do. What follows is a spectacular display of sheet and fork lightning, electric blue and stark white, from the flicker of a welder’s torch…
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Cirali: Cool Bars & Hot Rocks
The Mediterranean coast of Turkey stretches for a total of 994 miles, most of it with stunning scenery, and as we drive to our next destination it’s plain to see why its alternative name is the Turquoise Coast; the colours of the sea are so extreme as to be almost unreal. Our final day in Kas is spent at Kaputas, a cove beach much loved by Turkish weekenders just a few kilometres up the coast from the town. Despite being right on the D400 main road, the beach sits way below the highway down a steep cliff, and is a picturesque cove where the waves crash in over a high…
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Kas: Sunken Cities, Sarcophagi…And Santa
Well, the first news is, we’re not going home. Our tour of south west Turkey is giving us so much enjoyment that the thought of leaving this glorious place, and weather, and returning to quarantine and maybe lockdown as the short days of the English winter descend, has lost its appeal. If it ever had any. So we’ve changed our flights and will now be in Turkey for another seven weeks, not returning to the UK until 1st December. We know the weather here will cool down – summer is over, after all – and there may be COVID related changes here too, but we’ve decided it’s worth the risks…
