Election Countdown

We are well into the last 4 weeks of campaigning for the local elections. There are two front runners to be the first mayor of the New Bodrum "Big" municipality - both current mayors of Bodrum  and Konacik. All the stops came out on Sunday with parties to celebrate the official openings of their election offices.  Holding the meetings at the same time forced the fence-sitters to choose to be seen at one or the other.

I hope Mehmet Tosun's photo standing in front of the windmills of my last post  suggests he is going to do something to keep them standing. 

Mehmet Kocadon's campaign is backed by before and after  photos of   how Bodrum has changed during the past 5 years 

Bodrum has certainly been spruced up along the seafront and I'm sure that another 5 years will see the sanitisation spread inland.  All the flower beds, marble pavements, outdoor gymnasiums and matching sunshades are fantastic but I do miss the haphazard tattiness of old Bodrum.  I'm feeling churlish even saying this, but the "touristic face" of Bodrum is beginning to resemble the inside of the many shopping malls that are proliferating in Turkey today.   For anyone else missing old times, click and watch the intro of "Leylekli Melek", filmed in Bodrum in 1978 - persevere a few minutes more for some superb 70's macho moustaches and medallioned, hairy chests. 

You Tube -Bodrum 1978 - Leylekli Melek

Photos c/o Eski Bodrum Facebook site

New British Ambassador to Turkey

“Meet Ambassador Richard Moore

Our new Ambassador, Richard Moore, will be touring Turkey next week on official visits and would like to meet members of the resident British community at a series of meetings organised by our Consulates in Mugla Province.  This will be an opportunity to hear the Ambassador speak with a short question and answer session followed by tea and coffee with Richard, his wife Maggie and members of our consular teams.  Later, you will also have the chance to be updated on the latest issues affecting British nationals in Turkey by our consular staff.

You are cordially invited to the following meetings:

Tuesday 11^th March  15.00-16.00   Ecesaray Hotel  Fethiye   

Wednesday 12^th March  14.00-15.00   Grand Azur Hotel  Marmaris

Thursday 13^th March  11.15-12.15   Marina Vista Hotel  Bodrum

Please note, whilst we will try to accommodate everyone, space may be limited at some venues.”

RSVP bhcbodrum@fco.gov.uk  or your local British Consulate Office. 

Richard Moore's blog

Bodrum Windmills and the Wind of Change

There is a high, narrow peninsula dividing Bodrum town from neighbouring Gümbet. Its crest, crowned by a line of windmills, has long been a favoured dog walking, flower picking and romantic liaison spot for Bodrumites. It has an unrivalled view of the castle on one side and of the rapidly proliferating hotels and holiday flats on the other.  About 25 years ago there was a big fuss when a hotel (Club M) was built facing the Greek island of Kos on the end of the peninsula and now there is another fight brewing as a local family has started to build on land facing the castle.  Much has been written about the change in the degree of planning protection which has allowed this construction to go ahead and I won't add to this, but while everyone else is worrying about losing the view of the windmills to new construction, I'm hoping that someone will step in to restore the dignity of these "giants", all but one of which are crumbling, covered in graffiti and surrounded by broken glass. 

Gümbet                             Panoramic view from the first windmill                          Bodrum 

In 2012, there was talk of a municipality restoration project which involved cafes and walkways, but no mention since.  One owner of two of the windmills has had his redevelopment plan rejected  and I wonder how long these basic structures will remain upright.  Maybe this controversial development of expensive, single storey stone villas will have a silver lining and those buying into the "Bodrum dream house concept "  will feel obligated to have the rubble-strewn, windmill-topped land behind their luxury homes cleaned up for another generation to enjoy.  

The rear windmill has been saved from destruction

Club M to the left of the picture and the proposed houses in the middle. 

Picture Post

As someone who can't even go up a ladder, this is my idea of a nightmare job.

The new mosque in Ortakent 

Not Slough

"Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now,

There isn't grass to graze a cow."

Sir John Betjeman

Apologies to anyone living in Slough, but this rather unfair poem of Betjeman's came into my head as I was surveying our back garden in the village and feeling smug. I was also contemplating how wonderful it would be if humans could graze. Sometimes just looking at a lush rural scene isn't enough and I want to get in there and munch.

As I was pondering why being "put out to grass" is a negative phrase in the English language, a neighbour arrived and, as her livestock chomped their way through the vegetation  (ignoring the flowers), she gave me a quick lesson in collecting wild asparagus. 

I can usually find 6 or 7 stalks but never enough for a meal, but she let me into the secret - tilkişen hides in the midst of prickly plants, so always look for the spiky bush first and then focus in on the thin stalks of asparagus.

 Tilkişen is usually fried in oil and/or butter with an egg scrambled in at the last minute but I posted a slightly more sophisticated recipe  here.

My daughter and her partner went in search and between them, (being generous to Esi here - Celal found all of it) came up with a good haul.

Last Chance to See Mumcular Street Market

There is nothing quaint or attractive about the working town of Mumcular.  Before the coastal road arrived, it was the last town before the small fishing village of Bodrum and it specialised in providing bread, honey, cotton  and car mechanics.  When I moved to a nearby village in 1992, Mumcular still had a thriving reputation for car repairs but Bodrum had grown up enough to look after itself  and Mumcular had reverted to being the backwater. But a new reservoir  provided much needed irrigation water and land started to rise in price as small farms growing vines and vegetables began to appear.  In the past ten years, Bodrum has grown and grown and demanded more and more public sector workers, but hasn't built anywhere affordable for them to live so Mumcular has become the favoured place for teachers, firemen, policemen etc to settle.  It's only 30 minutes from Bodrum and minibuses are inexpensive and frequent.  Spacious flats have been built that don't come with inflated Bodrum rents. Gradually Mumcular has grown and the one pide oven and one canteen restaurant have multiplied and now Mumcular can boast a "night life".

Throughout all the changes, the one steady regular has been the Sunday street market.  It starts early and is finished by lunchtime. It's crowded and haphazard and you are likely to trip over a misplaced tent pole or a chicken on a bid for freedom.  Cars aren't meant to drive through it but many will try and chaos will reign for a few minutes. Occasionally, tourists turn up to enjoy the informality but most shoppers come from the surrounding villages.  It hasn't changed in the 20 plus years that it's been my local market, but if you'd like to experience one of the few remaining street markets in this area you'd better move fast because there are only a few Sundays left.

The new covered market is scheduled to open in early March and the days of flapping sunshades and mismatched tables and chairs will be no more.  The items on sale will be exactly the same but the fun will be gone.

Hearts, Flowers, Chocolate and Dance in Bodrum

Hearts, flowers, chocolate and dance ...does this sound like your ideal St. Valentine's Evening celebration?
In Bodrum, they were all on offer in the Town Square at lunch time.  Flowers are always on sale on Fridays as it's market day, but today there were flowers everywhere, and few resisted the urge to buy, although I noticed that the boxed roses were mostly ignored in favour of bunches of anemones, wild hyacinths or narcissus.

There was a much sweeter scent hanging over the town square as chocolate making lessons, laid on by the municipality, were in full swing.  The unseasonably warm weather was causing a few problems as the chocolates weren't setting in their moulds and there was a lot of frantic fanning going on.

After the chocolate came the dancing.  This year's "One Billion Rising" dance to highlight violence against women was well attended. Read about last year's event : One Billion Rising 2013

Sorry the photographs of the dance are not very good, but having made an effort to learn the steps this year, I was trying to dance and take snaps at the same time.

Fount of all knowledge Bodrum echo Chris and I had obviously not got the memo that this year's colour was purple, not pink.

On such a warm day, I was surprised to see so many wearing thick scarves until I saw that they were being handed out as freebies. Those that didn't get a scarf received a clock and here we are back to hearts again.

A reminder that the local elections are only a 6 weeks away. 

Archaeology at the airport

Air travel is not on my list of favourite things, but a wait at Athens airport is ameliorated by a visit to the onsite museum. Excavations prior to the building of the airport, revealed a wonderful slice of Greek history and over 150 finds are displayed on a mezzanine floor above the check-in desks.  While waiting for your steel bird to carry you off into the sky, imagine the ghosts of the Neolithic first settlers, the Bronze age warriors in their fortified settlement,  the gold and ivory wielding Mycenaeans lying in  their chamber tombs, the affluent Atticans at the birth of democracy, Roman farmers enjoying their comfortable farmsteads and villas  provided by the ample vineyards and olive groves and Byzantine Christians worshiping in their tripart basilicas - all sharing the geography if not the time of your visit.  Such informed daydreams are a great way of forgetting that you are about to spend a few hours enclosed in a metal tube.  Non of the aforementioned would believe you if you told them it could fly.

Underneath the arches

I am very fond of an arch, especially a stone one.  There aren't many in Bodrum so I'm indulging my passion for 'curved symmetrical structures spanning an opening' on a short trip to Hydra.

On my previous visits I didn't venture to the top of the town; using 'too hot', 'too steep' and 'too busy' as excuses, but a wander yesterday in the first sun after a massive rain storm revealed arch after arch after arch.

Here are photos of just a few. 

Eye Opener

I like to think that I'm keeping up with technology. I manage to write this blog and get it read over the majority of continents (come on people of Antarctica - aren't you interested in Turkey?). I can work the smart TV and even upgrade the apps. I listen to The Archers via an automatically updating podcast application on my Samsung tablet, which feels kind of wrong on so many levels for a radio programme that is older than I am.  But occasionally I am side-swiped by technical advances and left to feel bit like a dinosaur.  My eyesight has never been good, and I've either worn glasses or contact lenses since the age of 17. I had my eyes tested in late 2011, just before I left the UK and in the past 6 months I have found myself taking my glasses off to see clearly, rather than wearing them.  I had also been persuaded to try photochromic lenses as I was coming back to sunnier climes, but found they were next to useless as they don't darken when I'm driving in bright sunlight, but stay dark for ages when I walk from the sun into a dark room - cue falling down steps and walking into pieces of furniture that I had forgotten I'd moved.  Time had come to get some new glasses. I ummed and ahhed about where to have my eyes tested but in the meantime saw the glasses I wanted.  I am too tight-fisted to splash out on two pairs of specs, and clip-on sunglasses have the taint of the anorak about them, so I got quite excited when I saw these magnetic stick-on shades.  Clip-ons finally got cool! (Italian-made - say no more) 

I now had to have my eyes tested.  The chap who sold me the glasses was called Teoman, he recommended an opthamologist called Teoman and as my husband is also a Teoman, I booked and appointment at Bodrum's Acıbadem hospital to see Dr. Teoman Özek.  (This is probably not a good basis for choosing you doctor if you are seriously ill.) 

The last eye test I had in the UK was pretty similar to the first one I had in my teens: heavy wire rimmed glasses with different lenses slipped in and out to see which is the clearest and that difficult question "is the black dot brighter on the red or green light?" (I've never been able to answer that one honestly). The Acıbadem test was like being beamed into an episode of Startrek. As my daughter is modelling above, no wire glasses, just a clicking pair of high tech binoculars which measured my eyes in seconds and then just two or three questions to check and I was off to the optician with my prescription. As I am astigmatic and need varifocal, the glasses took a whole day to make, but my daughter's were ready in 2 hours.
For the first time in ages I can see really clearly, both close to and far away and now have to concentrate on not losing my "stick ons".

Acibadem has the reputation for being on the expensive side but if you live in and around Bodrum you can sign up for their Bodrum card (all you need is proof that you live in the area)  and you will benefit from at least 50% discount. My eye test, which included two types of glaucoma test, cost 110 TL (about 36 Euros at today's rate) with the card.