TIME FLIES, ESPECIALLY IN KALKAN

Well a whole year has passed since I last wrote, and yet I have been out three times.   Just a hectic year for us, and I sadly didn’t get round to recording each trip.   I will try and cover all I have seen and done in and around the area since then.

When you round the last bend this is the first view you get of the glorious view of Kalkan bay.

I came out for the first time without George and with  just a girlfriend in early June.  She is actually Canadian but has a house in England,  and apart from a gulet holiday had not visited Turkey, so it was an ideal time.   She absolutely loved it, and shamed me by swimming in the pool which I found far too cold.  She actually loved it so much she ended up buying an apartment!   She is an artist, but her husband is retired (sort of) and she thinks this is the adventure they both need.   She found a newly completed two bedroom apartment in a block of six, nearer to the town than we are, and plans to let it but they want to use it themselves as much as possible.   It was great fun showing her around, and for the first time I was the driver, and drove from the airport at night to Kalkan, an hour and a half’s journey.   It’s a bit scary as the dual carriageways aren’t lit, and turnings and road works sort of appear unannounced, or with very little warning.   However it was an empowering exercise and I’m glad I did it.  Parking is a bit haphazard, and the hills are very steep, but kind DB (dearly beloved) booked an automatic so I didn’t make a spectacle of myself stalling all over the place. 

The blossom was mostly over but the wild flowers were as always wonderful.  We shopped, read, partied, chose furniture for her apartment and caught up with six months news.  

The big holiday of course was September.  We had two friends staying with us who had never been to Turkey before, they flew out with us, and stayed for a week.  We had so much fun, swimming, going out on a boat for the day, always a favourite.   New restaurants, old favourites, up to the mountains, tortoises, turtles.   We had several friends staying locally so we were often a big party.  We had one hiccup when we inadvertently locked the door to the apartment when we were having dinner round the pool.   Thank goodness everything was on the table, including adequate bottles of wine.  We didn’t have a phone or any method of communication  to get help, but in the end managed to find a young man who scaled the bougainvillea, ripping his leg in the bargain and thank goodness all the doors were open onto the balcony.   Memorable evening!

We did our usual drive round in the hills where we often find real country markets, a bit more true to their roots than a more typical English one.  This rather contented looking animal was one offering!

One of my favourite things was two days before we went home, George along with quite a crowd were watching the World Cup in a bar (there are one or two big screens, always well attended) and I could hear a wedding going on down by the Harbour.  I had seen one before and loved it, so walked down.  The wedding was between two  local Turkish families and was huge.   It was held in what is normally the car park for the harbour,  and chairs were set out with lovely white covers and big bows and what seemed like hundreds of people  watching the bride and groom who were on a mini raised garlanded platform.   There was lots of dancing.  You’ve probably seen Turkish dancing, both men and women raise their arms out to the side, but the men keep theirs higher, and they dance separately.  Turkish music, lots of drums, lovely ryhthms   so many children running round, all beautifully dressed.  Some guests were dressed in long evening dresses, some in jeans and tee shirts, it didn’t seem to matter.  The guests file up and attach money to the sashes which the bride and groom both wear and are thanked.  This all takes upwards of an hour!  Then, more dancing, fireworks, I was very tempted to join the dancing and am quite sure I would have been welcomed, buit didn't quite have the nerve!  Lovely joyous occasion, and as always so interesting to see another culture.  

As usual left in September in glorious sunshine ready to face a long and cold winter.  As I write this in November, I have just spoken to someone recently back from Kalkan.  They were eating outside earlier this week at night, without any sort of sweater or covering, and swimming.  Maybe we'll be back before long!!