Old friends

One minute Dave was chatting, beer in hand, the next his bottom was on the gravel and his legs in the air. The deckchair had given way with a loud rip. When Kath and Dave last visited me, this deckchair was a bright red, comfy and secure. Dave chose to sit in it on the day it gave up hope and surrended to old age.

Their 2013 visit was in June and five of us travelled around in their camper van recreating our Famous Five archaeological trips of the last century. This time, August was too hot to venture very far and of the original five, there are only 3 of us left so a copy-cat trip would have been tinged with sadness but Finley hopped into their new van for a photo before they left.

It's lovely having old friends to stay, especially these two who I worked with for 6 years in the 80s. Our friendship has spanned almost from first jobs to retirement. We had lots to reminisce about and we fitted in a quick visit to Yali boatyard which is one of the few places that hasn't changed much in 40 years, even if everything around it is hard to recognise. A bit like us - no longer sun-bleached yachties. A bit like my deckchair. But its message is still clear and shall be heeded.

You don't have to be a millionaire

If you believe all you read on Facebook and in glossy magazines, Bodrum is: 1.Overcrowded 2.Empty 3.Awash with beautiful young influencers drinking gold flecked cocktails 4.TOO EXPENSIVE 5.Only visited by tourists who never venture out of their All Inclusive hotels. I'll give you "Crowded", but what holiday resort isn't in high season. "Empty" - really? If a restaurant is empty there is usually a good reason why. I can't comment on the cocktaileratti as I don't have the clothes (or the figure) to mix in those circles but I can address the last two points. On Sunday I had supper at the Dinç Hotel on the Kumbahçe beachfront in Central Bodrum. A football shirt gave an excuse to start chatting to the family of 4 on the next table as Liverpool had just trounced Manchester United and I felt congratulations were in order. These Liverpool supporters were staying in an All Inclusive hotel about 10 kms outside Bodrum. They had picked the hotel for its child friendly facilities but prefered to eat in Bodrum because they liked food more varied than the hotel buffet and they didn't think it was expensive to eat out. Similar meals in Stoke on Trent, their home town, would be twice the price and they cetainly wouldn't be dining on a beach with a golden sun sinking behind a Crusader castle. Our own meal of a starter, two substantial main courses and fruit with 2 lemon sodas came in at 1,150 TL or 26 Pounds/32 Euros. No alcohol as Guinness had been drunk earlier at 190 or 4.30 pounds for 50 cl. This amount is more than we would have paid last year and is a challenge when living on a fixed TL income but it should not discourage visitors who would be hard pressed to find these prices for a similar venue in their home country. Our new friends said that they would be back again next year and I got up from the table encouraged that Bodrum is still an affordable holiday option for young families despite Facebook warriors telling me that tourists have or will abandon us.

BacktoBodrum Back Again

 

I wrote a blog about returning to Bodrum after 12 years away. I stopped blogging and now 12 years after I created BacktoBodrum, I'm going to start again.   I've missed writing about Bodrum and have got a bit upset reading articles about my hometown which bear no relation to the place I live. A recent Times article claimed that everyone who lives here has a boat, (I wish) and the rest imply that you can't holiday here without spending 1,000 Euros a day.  Time to resurrect the tale of everyday folk in Bodrum.  

Etrim - photo by Kath Davis

This photo gives you an idea what's been going on in the past few years. I squatted down to take a photo and my subject asked me if I needed her stick to get up - my hips aren't as supple as they used to be, but when we compared birthdays, she was impressed that I'd got down there at all.   My phone is full of pictures of lovely village ladies to use as inspiration for my art work. When I gave up this blog, I was painting pictures of fruit and veg, inspired by my day job as a travelling cook. Covid put pay to that occupation but gave me lots of time to practice brushwork, and a photo of my neighbour by the pond started me on a series of working-women images. 

So here's to BacktoBodrum mark 2 - a general mishmash of what life is like living  in a busy holiday resort some days and a quiet village on the edge of a forest other days.  I hope you'll join me. 

Annie's art work can be viewed at Bodrum Art Collective

Özlem Warren in Bodrum

I'm very excited that Özlem is coming to Bodrum. Don't miss her talks in the downstairs lecture room in the Oasis Shopping Centre on Thursday 25th October.  English is at 15:00 and Turkish at 16:30.  There will be a chance to get a signed copy of her wonderful cookery book which no kitchen should be without. Further details of her Bodrum demonstrations and worldwide travels are available on clicking this link

A Cookery Dream

Özlem Warren's Blog  has been my go-to destination for recipe checking and inspiration for several years now.  I joined the chorus of her many friends urging her to put all her recipes in one place and write a book.  She has gone further than this and produced a cookery memoir that paints an aromatic picture of what it is like to grow up in a Turkish household that appreciates its Eastern Mediterranean culinary heritage. Özlem has written a book that is so lovely to look at that my copy will be kept on the coffee table, not on the kitchen shelf. 

Book Launch in Vout-O-Reenee's

Congratulations to Özlem for creating a work of art - on the page this time rather than on a plate, and to have sold over 700 hardback copies before the book has hit the bookshops, shows how many fans she has around the world.  

Frangipani 2

This is a test to see if I can add photos on Blogger using my iPhone and Google drive 

Good news for dog walkers

Taking a dog into a bank in the past was a bit of a grey area, sometimes we were let in sometimes shooed out but today Murat, the friendly security guard at Ak Bank, confirmed that legally all well behaved pets on a lead have to be allowed to accompany their owners into the bank. That's very good news for Jake and me as I can now comfortably do my banking during our morning walk rather than before or after.

Bodrum is buzzing but I can’t show you the pictures

Where is the photo you ask - I’m asking the same question on every forum I can find about blogging. After losing my iPad and iPhone in the same week, I decided to buy a big phone to take the place of both. As everything is backed up in iCloud, I chose an iPhone 8 Plus with all the bells and whistles and massive price tag.  I have used the Blogger app on my iPad for the past 6 years so assumed I would just carry on only to find that it is no longer available for iPhones. I can use the web version on my phone to add text but it won’t download photos.   Hours of trawling the net came up with an app only downloadable to an iPad. Friend Angela luckily had an iPad mini for sale at a non-eye watering price, so I drove over to Yalıkavak on Sunday to collect it.  I set it up, installed the app to find that despite the description in the App Store, it didn’t support Blogger.  The only alternatives I have now are to 1. Buy a Google-friendly tablet or 2. Swap the blog to Wordpress.  Or I just have to stick near my desktop which still supports the blog but as it is now over 10 years old, there is a fair chance that it will give up the ghost soon. The first option is more expense, the second is daunting.  Any advice would be very welcome. 

Paws for a coffee

A pause was needed today - a dash in the pouring rain on Monday with a rucksack full of shopping lead to a smashed iPad.  Old age (the phone, not me) caused my iPhone to black-out on Thursday resulting in confusion over a missed rendezvous, (sorry again if you are reading this!)  A miss-placed brush while painting and drinking G&T at the same time ended with the glass and now purple drink crashing down on the floor.  Today was a day of picking up pieces.  It started well with a trip to Şule's to choose a colour for my new kitchen cupboards.  The shop wasn't open but I spent a very pleasant 30 minutes in Joy Art cafe next door, drinking very good coffee with Jake by my side.  I'm very happy to find another comfortable spot that allows well behaved dogs inside.  We shall go back to sample the food. 

Sagalassos Lodge and Spa

For once ignore the archaeological remains in this photo, I'll write about them next, but concentrate on the large orange building on the left.  This is the Sagalassos Lodge & Spa where friend Helen and I based ourselves for 3 nights to explore the treasures of Pisidea.  An inspired location at 1250 metres high and only 4 kms from the ancient site, the hotel grounds spread over 40,000 square metres of forest.  We made full use of the facilities as soon as we arrived and any lingering Lake Salda clay was washed off in the hammam and steamed out in the sauna, followed by a swim in the indoor pool with a panoramic view of the valley below. We even splashed out on an aromatherapy massage from Kaya, the resident modern-day Gaia who kneaded some life back into our tired muscles after we'd spent 6 hours walking around Sagalassos.

The food is locally sourced, tasty and extremely good value and the staff friendly and helpful. Go at the right time and there are yoga classes, art exhibitions, organised forest walks and bicycles are available in a rack by the entrance.  It is also very pet-friendly. You will be met by Fox the hotel labrador and six other mutts of various shapes and sizes are looked after by the staff. I didn't take Jake this time as museums don't have the same relaxed attitude to dogs but I will definitely go back with him on my next trip to the Taurus Mountains.

A morning smile

Look who we met at Yalvaç museum.  Discovered close to Pisidian Antioch this lion made me smile too.