6 March 2015 - Our last day in Bodrum

Last morning for a walk with Tim to the Aegean Sea.  I made a special note of the cats and other animals en route - and there are many!

Where's you bin, puddy cat?

Lots of chickens pecking about!

Pheasants!

Citrus trees

Cactus!

Last minute finishing off of school work and submitting it as it is Friday. Easier said than done!  Karl is trying to make it more efficient with small file sizes.

Aegean Sea tickling the gravelly shore.

Postbox!

Truck squeezing down a street!

Restoration project of St Nicholas' Church

Abandoned amphora!

Friday is the main market day - not sure when the official day off is!  Shops and workers seem to be in full swing all week.  Friday is generally a day off in Muslim countries.  The market was clearly flourishing and the busiest we've seen.  Huge pancakes which are used like filo pastry to roll meat in to make a pastie type of meal.  Raw milk (from what I could glean), fresh from the cow, in old Sprite bottles, borek (pastry/bread-ish parcel with filling) and baklava, and plenty of produce including honeycomb and cream cheese.  Oh, the feast for our senses.  We were offered samples of Turkish Delight and pistachios and bought some sut borek - a cheese pastry.

Homemade goods and produce

Check out the bottle of olives and bags of cream cheese

Nuts and dried fruit

Huge platter of strawberries

Face of Bodrum Market

Bus tickets for Pamukkale booked, we went back to Maccas along the beautiful streets.  I tripped over one of the many knee high bollards, designed to keep the drivers on the one way narrow streets and off the footpaths.  I just couldn't save myself from falling and sprawled flat on the footpath.  Ow!  My knees are really painful, my right elbow is grazed and bruised and my fingers on my right hand look and feel as if they've been in a vice.  Not looking forward to sitting on a bus tomorrow for 4 1/2 hours!

We HAD to try some pufuduk - cheese borek

The sunset was stunning (as usual) and I took at last look at it from the kitchen window.  Bodrum has won my heart.

Batman comes to Bodrum!

5 March 2015 - Springtime in Bodrum

Every day seems more Spring like and Bodrum is coming to life!  Blossoms on the citrus trees and grapevines about to burst into bloom.  And the sky is a rich Mediterranean blue.  As it is quite a rural town, roosters crow at random times during the day and chickens run across the road.  Little household veggie plots are green and productive and it is simply lovely to be here!

Morning walks are always lovely...

Aaah!

Airbnb accommodation is unknown until we get there.  Mostly we stay in places with good reviews but this one had no reviews and we took a chance.  It is so homely and comfortable with million dollar views, we wish we had signed up for a month!

Schoolwork dominated the morning's activities although Tim and I did have a lovely walk to the Aegean Sea prior to breakfast this morning and then off to "work".

Olives!

Blood oranges

In the afternoon we walked down town to check out bus times to Pamukkale for our journey on Saturday and wander around the little market there.  I would like to sample everything!!!!  I had a test taste of the BEST dried fig ever and I could drool over the olive and cheese selection!

Down a lane...

Wandering through the lane ways we made it to the prettiest ever Mc Donalds for a cheap ice cream.. It even has a roof top dining area!

Prettiest little McDonalds ever - only go there for cheap ice creams and a giggle at the menu!

Maccas Turkish Menu

Must try these...

Calamari a la Maccas!

View from Macca's roof!

As the kids have just about completed this week's schoolwork we had a movie night: Batman!  Only one more evening here, next time we'll book a month!  We love you Bodrum!

One of two resident owls down the street.

4 March 2015 - Down time after busy time

It was really great to be back on Bodrum, in our lovely homely accommodation.  We all slept in a bit which was great after two days of travel to Ephesus and back. 

It was essentially a school day to catch up on work for submission prior to our next port of call when we don't know the quality of the Wi-Fi.  Here it is good so I encourage the kids to take advantage of it and plan ahead.

After lunch, the sparkling day beckoned us!  We just had to go out for a walk!

The colours are true!!

 Up the hill from us there are another couple of turns before the end of the estate.  There is a playground, outdoor gym and tennis court up there!  They've thought of everything!  the kids and I decided to go up there and explore before our walk to town as we knew our legs would not want to walk further after our steep climb to our place.

Spices and loofahs

Cinnamon and chilis

 Then we walked down through the town.  It seemed busier today now that the sun was shining or perhaps we had coincided with the end of school or something.

Bodrum Marina - always so beautiful

 We walked to Burger King for cheap ice creams and then along the marina, just cos we could!  The Aegean Sea was clear and beautiful and the boats moored happily.  Luke of course wanted to visit the fishermen and check out their catch and buy some more fish!  Catch of the day was a huge stingray which I don't think was for sale!  I bought a small amount of sardines because Luke is so fascinated with them even though I end up doing the cooking and most of the eating of them!

This stingray made Luke's day - note his bag of sardines for dinner!

 Now that we know the town well, we can take side streets back to our place confidently.  As we walked through the bus station market, I noticed the little gathering of local vendors.  if only we had taken notice of them earlier - home made olive oil , preserves and home baking.  We settled for a piece of home made baklava dripping in honey for 1 Lira which was as pleasing as expected!  A dear old man was selling carved wooden spoons - a lovely memento, I thought!

I spent quite a lot of time on my blog from yesterday as there was SO much to pack in as well as helping each of the kids with their various projects.

Panorama of sunset

Sunset over the bay was beautiful tonight!  What a privilege!  We are in Turkey!

More sunset

I could stand on our balcony for hours and just gaze!

Last postcard for the evening!

1 March 2015 - A small church in Bodrum. * now moved to the Oasis Shopping Centre in Bodrum which is near to Gumbet. The Church is from 11:30 to 13:00 and in order to find the Church just look out for Starbucks and then we are below that in the conference centre.

I was reflecting last night that this area of the world has had tremendous Christian history and yet there is little evidence of such these days.  The call to prayer from the mosques remind us regularly that this is a Muslim area although we see very occasional Muslim dress.  Istanbul certainly had a much more obvious population of Muslims as seen by women wearing various hijabs, niqabs and burqas.

I thought I would search for a church in Bodrum with the possibility of attending today and I found Bodrum Grace Church, next to the Otogar (bus station) which looked easy enough to find and had a service at 11.30AM.

Bodrum Grace Church

A humble gathering

Entrance to the room where the church assembles

Karl, Annika, Luke and I walked in the direction of the church and finally were directed through what appeared to be a private courtyard and upstairs to the tiny church.  In an upstairs room there were 9 people singing familiar worship tunes in Turkish.  I was overcome by what I would say was a deep spiritual sense and tears streamed uncontrollably down my cheeks for that worship song and the following song of praise which was in English.  This tiny fellowship of Christians representing God's people in this old city of rich heritage meet every Sunday.  The sermon was Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" and given in both Turkish and English.

We were welcomed to their community meal which happens on first Sunday of the month - today!   There were two English couples who had retired in Bodrum, Susan from Singapore (who did the English translation of the sermon) and is married to a Turkish local and a few Turkish families.  We had a lovely lunch and chat to the lovely people of Grace Church and were so glad to have gone there.  

In the fellowship room - Psalm 18: 1-2

The day was lovely, the first day of spring, and we walked down to the shores of the Aegean and around the backstreets.

Checking out the clear waters of the Aegean Sea

Dog man again!

Tim had stayed home to do schoolwork and we walked back up our hill to join him.  To make it a "proper" Sunday, Annika thought we needed a treat!  So, cheap 1 Lira ice cream cones at Burger King fitted the bill on our late afternoon stroll.  Karl and I declined but we all enjoyed the view over the sea from the upper storey at Burger King!

Room with a view - Burger King!

The castle and yachts

Grandeur!

 A relaxing evening with dinner on our laps watching: Peabody and Sherman end our weekend.  Annika declared that it felt like a real weekend, so I guess that's good!

Sunset...

28 February 2015 - Picnic at the old windmills and hillside of wildflowers

As today is Saturday, the kids wanted to do something different to differentiate weekend days from school days as every day was feeling same-ish.  I was in agreement with them as I feel I have been on a treadmill of doing school with Luke which seems all consuming and I need a break, too.

Tim and I went on another lovely walk to the shore just to look at the Aegean Sea!  The thunderstorms last night were so noisy but in such a hilly place, the water drains quickly and there were virtually no puddles.

Twisting side streets and interesting buildings

Always eager for a cat chat...

We played some Skip Bo and did a bit of school work.  I packed a picnic and we set out for the old windmills.  We can see them in the distance from our window and as they are mentioned as a tourist site, we thought it would be good to go there for a picnic.  Built in the 18th Century for milling flour, they were used until 1970's.  It was a pity to see them run down and graffitied.  The walk up the hill (s) kept our muscles pumping and as we neared the wind mills were good see a path through wildflowers to get there.  Unfortunately, there are broken bottles and rubbish  along the path but the wildflowers were lovely!

Group of men singing and dancing to their friend's Turkish version of bagpipes - mournful sound.

This guy had 5 dogs with him.

 There are beautiful planters all along the marina - all different and all depicting Bodrum!

Olive planters

Prickly pear planter

Octopus!

 As we walked up the hillside, the wildflowers are just starting to herald springtime.  Beautiful daisies and an orchid and dozens of wild red poppies..

Wildflowers

So many wild red poppies!

Approaching the mills.

Panorama looking northwest

Panorama looking north

Looking over to Gumbek - next town.

We were offering chocolate chip biscuits after lunch but weren't entirely sure that they didn't contain peanuts so we told Luke he couldn't have one.  He told us that "It was beginning to feel like a "deservement" - a punishment (!) due to his biscuit nicking episode earlier in the morning.  I think the word will stick around in our family for a while!  "Deservement" - love it!

Lunch with a view!

Windswept!

Panorama looking north

 

Shame about the graffiti

One of 7 windmills

Distant mountains

Semi-restored mill

Sad that it is in ruins but beautiful none-the-less

Stately!

Bodrum Castle from a different angle

Old city walls

We walked back along the marina with Luke pulling us towards the fishermen but we were not going to buy any more fish.

Dolphin phones!

More beautiful planters

Plenty of these cock-a-doodle-doing around Bodrum

Saturday night menu: home made kebabs and sitting to watch : Jason and the Argonauts.  We all enjoyed the meal and the movie.  It was good to claim Saturday as a different day.  Everyone was so much happier at the end of the day!  The movie was perfect. Good choice Tim!  We could relate to the old buildings and bit of marble here and there in the scenes.