Turkey

Here we are in Turkey where east meets west. Turkey joins Russia, Iran. Iraq, Syria, Bulgaria and Greece. This southern part of Turkey is the Lycian coast. It is mountainous and wild, the Lycians, living here in the 2nd Millinium BC, were said to be as wild as their environment and were never defeated in battle. On two occasions they fought to the last man, then burned the city, women children and old folks, rather than submit. They were declared by the Romans to be an independent state in 167 BC.

Turkey does not belong to the EU and is predominantly Moslem, but has petitioned to join the EU and is a secular open society. You will see some ladies covered head to toe and others wearing shorts - real mixed, open society, at least from my limited view. One can get a beer at most cafes and the people vary from peasants in the villages to very stylish in the cities. They don't get around to eating dinner until about 9PM, and no one stirs before 9AM. The Turkish wine that we have had so far is pretty rough. Bacon/ham is not available in many places and is expensive. The country is a very pleasant, mountainous, very civilized, clean and nice people. It would be great if we could all speak some common language. We can’t even read the road signs and often don’t have a clue what we are ordering for dinner. When we buy something we just hold out all our money and they take what is fair, we think! Tough learning Turkish. Thank you is: tesekkur ederim. Try to pronounce that all at once, as one word, like the locals. In Egypt, we often got ripped off at tourist spots when we ordered a cup of tea. Here if you are in a shop when tea is being ordered, you are included along with the local folks.

We went for a long bike ride in the country and took the small trails. The local folks really know how to live with their environment. Every square foot of tillable ground is growing something - fields of oranges, cherries and peaches. Each house has a garden with many vegetables growing, and lattices covered with grapes, fruit and bougainvillea. Goats and chickens wander about. Very laid back – they work a bit in the morning, have a nice lunch, take a nap during the hot afternoon, then liven up for the evening. The houses blend in with the landscape. The older ones completely shaded with large trees. Many families zoom around on motorbikes, taking the car or tractor only if necessary. I often see very old folks, even as old as me, riding around on motorbikes. It is OK to get 3 or 4 people on a motorbike and helmets are not required.

This must be the tomato growing capital of the world. We are here in Finike, a small village of about 15,000 people and they have an open air market on Saturday.

Great peaches, strawberries, cherries and melons, big bunches of Arugula (Rocket), etc. We are just taking it easy after our long haul (6000+ miles from Malaysia) and have been mostly horizontal since arrival, just soaking up the good food and pleasant weather. We have not needed heat or A/C, or long pants for that matter, for over a year now. The water is very clear with lots of places to anchor, but very deep. You often anchor in deep water and tie a rope from the stern to a tree. The marina costs are very high, like $80/day, but much cheaper if you stay a month, so we plan to stay in a marina one month then cruise around and anchor in different bays the next month. All of the prices are higher than in USA, so we are careful. Gasoline & diesel for example costs about $8.00/gallon. Cost to fill the small propane tank - an astounding $52!! We rented a car for one day at cost of $45.00. After driving to the airport and back we needed to return the car with a full tank of gasoline, The 7 gallons of gasoline cost a whopping $54.00 The local buses are good. We just made an overnight trip via bus to Marmaris to see about having our boat hauled and stored for next winter. This boat is a tad bigger than our old catamaran. Many marinas’ have 80 ton travel lifts that are 24 ft. wide. We are 24'- 9" wide and need either a 100 ton travel lift or a rail sled. So our places to be hauled are more limited.

Marmaris has about 2000 boats stored on the hard each winter and a vast community of retirees from all over the world just hanging around in their boats.

We made a day bus trip over 25 Km. to the small town of Demre to see the church of St Nicolas, the tombs of ancient Lycia, and a Roman theatre. St. Nicolas (Santa Claus) was a real person: a bishop during the 4th century.

He is the patron saint of children and sailors. It is said that he was generous and once wished to give money to a poor family and remain anonymous, so he crawled up on the roof and poured some coins down the chimney. The children of the family were drying their stockings in front of the fire and the gold fell into one of them. So they say!

There is a huge festival here each December honoring the Saint.