February 2008 - USA, Turkey
March 9, 2008
Merhaba We've another busy week. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with our refrigeration project. My stove will move from the floor back into place by Tuesday. We have two coats of varnish on exterior. Many social events since I wrote last. We took a group to an English Restaurant off the beaten track. We had a lovely English roast beef and turkey dinner complete with Yorkshire pudding.
March 1 was our Carnival. The costumes and masks were great fun. Enjoyable dinner and dancing. Fun was had by all. We continue to have hikes every Sunday. Last week was a short bus ride away where we walked part of the Lycian Way through pine forests and orange groves. The Navigator Restaurant had birthday cake for Al on Thursday.
Friday was NOT an evening to miss the orchestra concert. Tchaikovsky's piano concerto No. 1 was energetically played by a Bulgarian pianist Milena Mollova followed by Symphony No.4 No one was falling asleep that night! Last night our new marina manager honored the women of the marina for World Women's Week with a party in his office. We were given a glass of wine and a flower.
March 9,
Today we boarded the bus at 8:30 for a three hour ride to small ancient city of Side (See-deh). It was colonized by Aeolians (Greeks) around 600 BC. Later Romans controlled the area. The modern town is built into the ruins. Quite touristy but well worth a visit. The temple of Apollo sits on the beach. I can imagine it's quite spectacular when lit at night and passing by boat. The theater seats 15,000 and is well preserved. We ate our picnic lunch there. Then walked among the sand dunes and ancient site. Camels took tourists for rides in the dunes along the shoreline.
Next we went to Seleukeia (Lyrbe)another ancient town on a mountain top. Spectacular views and few tourists. beautiful pine forests and meadows. We didn't arrive back to Kemer until 6:30 so quite exhausted now. Have a great week and we'll try to settle down and get some more work done.
Love Sally and Al
February 27, 2008
Merhaba (hello/hi) We're finally back to normal with our days and nights. We had a great day in the mountains last week. Al and I hiked while others skied. I forgot my sunscreen so got a pink nose. Then I fell into a cactus plant that looked like a soft mossy spot to plant my hand. Wrong! I'm still picking prickers out of my hands. One nasty one has festered and just won't work it's way out :-(
February 27 Today I left Al home to continue the project while I went on the bus to Antalya with a group shopping. We visited a costume shop for the Carnival planned for this weekend. Then we went to a huge open market with everything imaginable for sale. Crowds of people and piles of merchandise to dig through. Everyone looking for a bargain. If you acted disappointed about the price they were quick to say for you only ... lira! Our final stop was a shopping mall with a large Super Target type store called Migros.
Poor Al was at home work, work, working. He still has to find a tool to clean out under the unit before we can begin re-insulating. It's a big job but it needed to be done. Meanwhile our upholstery projects are coming along. Our new cockpit cushions are done and half of the interior ones are completed. They look and feel great. When the project is done we'll take pictures for Pat to upload to the website. The weather is fantastic this week. Sunny and high 60's. It's hard to stay inside and do boat projects but we have done a few bike rides too.
Love Sally and Al
February 24, 2008
Sunday we had a gorgeous day hiking near Antalya in the mountains with about 45 people and had a picnic. Yesterday Al and I began our refrigeration project. Once we got the counter top off we spent the rest of the day digging insulation out from around the refrigeration unit. So lots of new scratches and cuts.
February 19, 2008
We are still acclimating to Turkish time zone after our return from USA. Hopefully we'll start sleeping through the night. We've been busy busy since we've been back. Seems always something going on. We had a fun mountain hike and trout dinner last Sunday Feb. 17 . Dinner was at a family owned "restaurant". The young son and daughter set the table and delivered the platters of bread, salad, rice pilaf, olives and pickled vegetables. The bus driver passed out beer. While the mom and dad grilled the trout. It took them a couple of hours to get us all fed but we relaxed and just enjoyed visiting.
The Kemer Quartet performed at the marina last night Feb. 18 and we'll go to Antalya to the Symphony on Friday. We missed the sign up for Fiddler on the Roof for Saturday. Tomorrow Al and I are going with a group to the ski area up in the mountains. Some will ski while others like me will enjoy the views, read and play card games. It's a two hour drive and suppose to be quite spectacular. Soon it'll be time to start boat projects and we'll have to cut back on social time during the day :-) We had a cold spell when we first got back but now the temps are high 50's and into 60's by the weekend. It feels like Spring.
Love Sally and Al
