Turkey Holiday Guide 2014

Spicy as  salsa roja , intoxicating as a shot of tequila, volatile as the volcanoes of the central sierra, surreal as a Frida Kahlo canvas, monumental as the pyramids of Teotihuacán and warm as its inhabitants, Mexico fills the senses, tweaks the intellect and nourishes the soul. The phrase 'something for everyone' comes to mind: for nature enthusiasts, whale watching, monarch butterfly migrations, coral reefs off the Yucatan coast and the world's stoutest tree (at Tule, Oaxaca); for hedonists, ecstatic nights spent dancing on the beaches of Cancun; for archaeology buffs, hundreds of painstakingly preserved remnants of ancient civilisations; for gourmands, a tantalisingly varied cuisine, from toothsome tacos to magnificent  moles ; for art lovers, miles of murals; for shopaholics, weavings, silverwork and fantastic animal figurines; and for beach bums, 10,000 kilometers of coastline, hammocks included. And with an extensive, inexpensive public transport network, copious ac

Kuşadası is one of Turkey's largest and most cosmopolitan resorts and a stopping off point for the big cruise-liners. It is a good all round resort, offering great beaches, excellent shopping and some serious nightlife. Kuşadası literally means 'Bird Island' and takes its name from the tiny islet known as Güvercin Adası or Pigeon Island, which is attached to the mainland by a causeway and boasts a 14th century Genoese fort. There are a number of sandy beaches in the area. Kadınlar Plajı or 'Ladies Beach' is central but can get crowded so it is wiser in high season to head a little further out of the centre where the beaches are just as sandy but offer more space. Kaleiçi is the old centre of the town and is a popular shopping and entertainment area. The Ottoman Kervansaray or traveler's inn is now in private hands but is an impressive building and a landmark in the town centre. Today's travelers can find comfort in a full range of accommodation in all catego

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

However long we live in Fethiye, there's always something new to discover - and yesterday, we took ourselves off in search of another curiosity. Around a month ago, I noticed that a Turkish friend had liked a page on Facebook. Nothing new there - it's a constant in my ticker - except this one said,  likes Saklıbahçe Cafe Fethiye.' Immediate interest! What's Saklıbahçe Cafe Fethiye? Why have we never heard of Saklıbahçe Cafe? Where is this Saklıbahçe Cafe? It says 'Fethiye' in the name but we've never seen it.  'Saklıbahçe' means 'hidden garden' in Turkish, so we assumed that kind of explained why we might not have stumbled across this cafe previously. We're always  wandering around Fethiye and hadn't even noticed any clues there might be somewhere new to sit and have a drink and something to eat. We clicked into the Facebook page. No, definitely never seen this anywhere. Fortunately (and sensibly) however, they've got a map on the

Chicken schnitzel, or tavuk schnitzel as it's known in these parts: such a simple dish but so tasty, too. It's not a traditionally Turkish dish, of course, but it's highly likely to make an appearance on the menu in many of the restaurants around Fethiye and, no doubt, elsewhere in Turkey.  Schnitzel is traditionally a dish from German-speaking countries - but these days, it's eaten worldwide. The schnitzel (escalope) can be made from pork, beef, veal (wiener schnitzel) or chicken - and in Turkey, chicken (tavuk) is commonplace. We don't order it in restaurants very often because it's one of those dishes: get it right and it's a meal from heaven, get it wrong and it's like chewing through cardboard-coated leather. This is a meal we like to cook at home - and this one is Barry's department. A Turkish Recipe For Tavuk Schnitzel Apart from the fact that tavuk schnitzel is just dream food, it also uses minimal ingredients and it's economical, too. On

type="html"> A while back, you may remember we stayed overnight in Kaş in a seafront hotel; Gardenia Boutique Hotel. That stay was very kindly passed on to us by a reader who could no longer go there. Idyllic autumnal views, everything starting to slow right down in Kaş, we just felt really chilled and relaxed after a busy summer. We wanted to prolong the feeling and decided to stay one more night. Except, we would have to find somewhere else to stay. You know us. Boutique hotels do not feature heavily on our travel agendas. We would have to find a pension. Meltem Pension, Kaş We sat in a tea garden and looked up some places to stay in Kaş online. "This is the one - Meltem Pension. Good price and great reviews and it's not far from the otogar." We booked it there and then from the tea garden. Don't you just love the internet!  Meltem Pension - tucked away on a quite side street, not far from Kaş otogar Barry took himself off for a walk (I had a silly, pai

We've all seen the photos - you know the ones; all the ornate boats bobbing about on Istanbul's Golden Horn against the dreamy backdrop of the minarets of Süleymaniye Camii. Inside the boats are griddles, constantly on the go, with rows of mackerel fillets sizzling away, waiting to be placed between a half bread with rocket and onion. Just in case you're not familiar with the scene, here's that very view from Galata Bridge .  We've never actually had uskumru ekmek (mackerel sandwich) from these boats. We always go over to Karaköy fish market on the opposite side of Galata Bridge - it's still got the same sublime sandwich and, for us, a taste of Istanbul... and now that taste of Istanbul is in Fethiye, too!  Of course it's not grand Ottoman style - this is Fethiye It's not an ornate Ottoman-style boat by any stretch of the imagination - we like to keep it real here in Fethiye. This is Anacığım and the guys on the boat are at your service, producing a ver

Anyone who doesn't know us and who has only read the last few posts of this blog would think we were intrepid travellers or something, because we seem to be writing often about Turkish hotels and hostels we've stayed in. Actually, it was a year of good hostel / hotel stays. We've had very few disasters in the past (well, a couple of stinkers but they were both many years ago) but 2013 did leave us with a how-lucky-are-we smile on our face when it came to our accommodation choices. Earlier in the year, we stayed in the SRF Hotel in Eskişehir and Han Hostel in Ankara. More recently, we were in Kaş and over two nights, stayed in a boutique hotel and a pension; Gardenia Boutique Hotel and Meltem Pension. Both just lovely in their own ways. Well, we're going to tell you about another how-lucky-are-we hotel now. Remember when we were Istanbul in November and we wrote about how we stumbled into Before Travel Agency to ask them where our hotel was (and realised they were peop

So, where were we? A continuation of a tale from the last post. You may remember, we were at Meltem Pension in Kaş and singing its praises - deservedly so - but the story we want to continue with today is this running theme that has threaded its way through our ten years of living in Turkey: People know each other in Turkey and you become a part of it. This little tale is but one small example of what we mean.  If you remember, we were chatting to the owner of Meltem Pension and he said he was friends with people who work for V-Go in Fethiye. So are we. Now, when we went to see our friend at V-Go Guesthouse, we were shown round by someone who we later had a few drinks with and became Facebook friends with, as you do. Never thought anything else of it. Walking to Sultanhmet over Galata Bridge Fast forward to November 2013 when we go to Istanbul for the Istanbul Marathon. We've been on the bus all night, walked from Taksim over to Sultanahmet (stopping for a second breakfast of hamsi

type="html"> Today feels like the start of the reality part of the new year for us. The bit where the Christmas tree is dismantled and normal daily life resumes - and so today is as good a time as any to tell you about what's (hopefully) going on with the blog for 2014. We're very excited about this year!  New Year's Resolution We all know New Year's resolutions are there to be broken but we've made a sensible one around the blog and that's to publish at least three posts a week . You know us; there's never much pattern to what we publish - so sometimes, there'll be more than that. But we want three to be a minimum, barring any unforeseen happenings. In the run up to Christmas and over that period, it's been less than three a week, and here's why... A New Look Turkey's For Life ...We've been working very hard on the new look blog - Barry's learning as we go along - and we're almost ready to go. It's all there,

Maybe it was the fact the sun was shining, we're not sure, but both of us said this year's Istanbul Marathon was the most enjoyable yet. Sunday was the third time we've taken part, and there was a completely different atmosphere to usual; a bit of a culture change. More people taking part just for the fun of it. Yes, there were the serious runners - and good luck to them; full admiration from here - but so many people were there on Sunday just to be there and enjoy the day.  There was support along the roadside (this has never really happened much in our past runs) in the form of music but also people clapping and the security teams shouting encouragement: "Koş, koş, az kaldı." (Roughly translated as, "Keep going, you're nearly finished.") Some people were in fancy dress, others had full sports gear on, more people were taking part to raise money for charity or raise awareness for causes than we've seen before. It was just a privilege to be a pa