Best of Life In Turkey Holiday 2014 In Review

Things are a bit different for 2013. At this time of year, we usually do three separate blog posts which highlight our year in Turkish food, our year in travelling Turkey and, of course, not forgetting, our year in Fethiye. This year, all of those are being brought together in one post...well, we've got so much else to tell you, you see. 

But we can't ignore a little look back at 2013, so let's get cracking:

January 2013 - Food & Travel
January was all Izmir and food. It was September 2012 when we were in Izmir, but, as always with us, we were still catching up on blog posts. Izmir likes to do things differently - it's almost like a little republic - and they have their own words for some things. One of these is gevrek rather than simit. This is our post about the simit gevrek mystery; it caused much discussion on our Google + Turkish Food Community and the findings were added to that post.

Simit or gevrek?

February 2013 - Travel-inspired Turkish Recipe

We ate well in Izmir - and one of our favourite street food snacks while we were there was an unlikely one; nohutlu pilav. So much did we enjoy this, it's now a regular on our menu at home and we regularly recreate it. It doesn't look particularly pretty...but looks can be deceiving. Here's our recipe for nohutlu pilav. 

Nohutlu pilav in Izmir

March 2013 - Fethiyespor: the beginning of a not-very-secret love affair

A lot has happened to Fethiyespor in 2013. March was their 80th anniversary - one of their happy moments. The guys at Fethiyespor 1933 got in touch. Let's promote it, they said. We couldn't really promote something without going along to the match ourselves - that wouldn't have been right - so we went along. 

Can't say we watched any football and this post makes us laugh now - it feels like a looong time ago - but hey, we've all got to start our Fethiyespor-supporting careers somewhere. You live and learn. And if you go to a Fethiyespor match for the first time, you could well have a similar experience to this. This is our post about going to our first Fethiyespor match.

April 2013 - Travelling Turkey For The Day: Kaş

We really are blessed to live in this region of Turkey - so much natural beauty, so much to see and do. Occasionally, we get an urge to go off and explore in more detail places we've been to many times previously. One day in April, we took ourselves off to Kaş to take a closer look at Antiphellos Theatre. 

Kaş from Antiphellos Theatre

May 2013 - Travelling Turkey & The Realisation Of A Few Ambitions 

May 2013 was the month where we took ourselves off on a bit of a round trip of Turkey, using all manner of public transport and seeing sights that have been our ambition to see for so long. This is our summary of how we got around from Fethiye and back to Fethiye. We've made a start on the blog posts about that journey but still have many more to come. And as for Fethiye, the town played host to a fantastic World Music Festival - we'd love more of the same next year! The festival was in April but we created this Fethiye World Music Festival playlist in May.

June 2013 - Rallying 

In May 2013, a few protestors entered Gezi Park in Taksim, Istanbul to try to save the park. As Facebook updates filtered through over the next couple of days, it soon became clear this wasn't going to go away; it was growing - and you don't need us to tell you subsequent happenings. 

Fethiyespor's triumphant return from Konya where they won promotion to PTT 1. Lig for the first time in their history coincided with an organised rally in support of the Gezi Park protestors - both events to take place on Fethiye town square, Beşkaza Meydanı. Never will we forget that day. We've always been proud to call Fethiye home but that day took the biscuit. This blog post about that day tries to explain that.

July 2013 - We went travelling, remember?

First stop on our travels around Turkey in May was 2013 Turkiç Capital of Culture, Eskişehir. 

Odunpazarı in technicolour

We were told not to miss Eskişehir's old city - and we were glad we didn't miss it. This is our photo post about the Ottoman houses of Odunpazarı in Eskişehir...complete with old cars, too.

August 2013 - A Night of Solitude in Kabak

Barry's birthday present from a couple of lovely friends of ours was a night at the Olive Garden in the paradise that is Kabak. Scenery, solitude and fantastic food - one night in Kabak wasn't enough... 

September 2013 - Travelling Turkey For The Day: Patara

As with Kaş, back in April, September's little urge took us to the village of Gelemiş so we could explore the ruins around Patara and pay a visit to the world famous Patara Beach. We've visited the ruins in the past but the purchase of our Müze Kart meant we could enter for free. Why not make the most of it. This is our photo post about exploring the ruins of Patara.

October 2013 - Fethiye Celebrates 90 Years Of The Turkish Republic

Torch procession in Fethiye

This is another photo post. This is how Fethiye celebrated Cumhuriyet Bayramı.

November 2013 - Travelling Turkey: Ankara And Istanbul

November is the anniversary of the death of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. That seemed like the most apt time to write about our visit to his mausoleum, Anıtkabir in Ankara. November was also the month Barry ran the Istanbul marathon. I did the 10 km and took photos as I went along. Here's our photo post of the 2013 Istanbul Marathon. 

December 2013 - Fethiyespor Make History Again
Three historic events for Fethiyespor in 2013: 80th anniversary celebrations, promotion to Ptt 1. Lig - and then, in December, this...

Fethiyespor beat Fenerbahçe 2-1

There's no denying it's not been a happy time for Fethiyespor in PTT 1. Lig. However, drawing Fenerbahçe in the 4th round of the Ziraat Türkiye Kupası AND beating Fenerbahçe in the 4th round of the Ziraat Türkiye Kupası, well that was just amazing; dreamlike even. This is our post about the night Fethiyespor made history. And, more importantly (we think), it's had a positive impact on their league games. Yes people, Fethiyespor won in Denizli last weekend and now we're looking forward to this weekend...can they stay in PTT 1. Lig, we wonder? We'll keep the faith.

And Our Most Viewed Blog Post Of 2013 is...

Well, we were stunned. What a year it's been - good and not so good - all sorts has happened, but it seems people always go back to the old familiar favourites. Our most viewed blog post which we published in 2013 is back to Izmir where we were falling in love with the döner kebab all over again. 

Life's funny like that. Wonder what's in store for 2014...?

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