To round out my time in Turkey, I spent a few short days on the Mediterranean coast in the small city on Fethiye. Ozgur's parents (Suzan and Muharrem) graciously hosted me. His sister (Aysegul) also visiting Fethiye on holiday with her son (Ozan, age 7), is married and lives in England and spent tons of her time showing me around the area and translating. Ozan was born and raised in England, so despite some initial troubles with my crazy American (Japanese sounding?) accent, I also spoke and hung out with him. Five star hospitality, in every aspect.
I say that Fethiye has everything you could want in one place because it is basically this little enclave up against the Mediterranean surrounded by mountains. Muharrem and Suzan have a large garden in front of their home, where Muharrem spends most of the day working, and from where Suzan gets many of the ingredients for her delicious cooking. As in Ankara, I wish I had taken photos of the food because it rocked. At least the delightful dishes are ingrained forever in my taste memory. There were these pastries filled either with a thin layer of garlic minced meat or feta and something green, maybe basil. Mmmm. I ate them with each meal (including fourth meal). There are four houses on their little block, surrounded by fields and farms. Each of the homes are inhabited by a member of the extended, and we spent a lot of time visiting and drinking Turkish coffee and tea, or nescafé, and socializing. One day I drank ten teas and coffees gratis! Although too cold to swim, we visited a few beaches that are practically therapeutic just to look at. The neighboring Greek village was also a highlight. Okay, let's get on with the photos:
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| Garden. I probably ate those grape leaves in the foreground. |
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| Old shed in front of their home. |
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| Bay. Thatz Fethiye off to the left. |
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| Aseygul and Ozan, putting up a bit of a fight. He wasn't a big fan of taking photos with anyone else. But he was a master photagrapher. |
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| Swingin with Ozan along the bay coast. |
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| Ozan, Suzan and I walked around behind their house, toward fields of vegetables and ascending to the mountains. Ozan proclaimed it the best adventure of his whole life. |
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| Suzan catches us a baby goat to pet. |
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| Frolic. |
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| Two baby chicks. Pooped on my hand. |
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| That beach therapy. |
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| Old Greek village. After independence in the 20s, this town full of Greek people was evacuated back to Greece and abandoned. Asyegul specified that the community had not been entirely isolated from the Turks. There were inter-marriages and friendship making the schism painful. It has become quite desolate, yet entirely open to exploration. |
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| A Turkish bridal magazine was having a photo shoot behind an old church. It was a bit spellbinding. |
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| The other side of the church and beyond. |
Evidently it's insane to only spend seven days in Turkey. Ozgur recommends that I return to Fethiye exclusively for at least three weeks, to really benefit from la vie en Turquie. I hope that I will someday, to visit the people I met plus see some other treasures, including Izmir, Antalya and my old buddy Murat (high school AFS student). Plus it would be cool to learn Turkish. In the meantime, anyone want some tea?
