Turkish Delights

Turkey. It’s a link between east and west.  This fascinating country has it all and it’s the country where we chose to spend our annual anniversary adventure.

What follows is not a day by day account of our trip, but more of a collection of our most memorable experiences.

CHAPTER 1 – THE ROAD TO FARALYA

Boston-Munich; Munich-Istanbul; Istanbul-Dalaman.  We’re on our way to Faralya, a tiny dot on the map situated between Fethiye and Kalkan on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.  It’s an hour and a half drive to our inn, the Villa Mandarin and we have very detailed directions on how to get there. The sun sets at 8 and we arrive in Dalaman at 6:30, so we should have no problem.  Not so – Turkish towns at night are ablaze with lights and it’s hard pick out the landmarks and follow directions as the car goes whizzing by, not to mention everything is in Turkish. So we stop at least 5 times, ask questions using sign language, have a couple of fights and finally we are on a road which we won’t appreciate until the next day.

It’s so dark we drive past what we think is the road leading to the inn, a narrow dirt road with no lighting; so we find a place to turn around, drive back up the road and make a very sharp right into the road that we are pretty sure is the Mandarin Inn.

The road from Oludeniz to Faralya

CHAPTER 2 – THE SHORT CUT

“It’s a short cut” the lovely General Manager of Villa Mandarin tells us.  “Just over the mountain to the other side and you’ll be in Kalkan, no problem.  “Part of the road is paved and part is not”  but what she doesn’t tell us is that a Jeep is the recommended vehicle not a Fiat.  This sounds great.  We’ll see some real Turkish countryside.  So off we go.  The mountains are the Taurus Mountains.  It’s very rural and beautiful and the landscape changes as we climb from pine forest to an arid, rocky landscape with goats the only inhabitants.  The views to the sea are breathtaking.  But that’s not all that is breathtaking.  The road is paved for part of the trip and then the paved road becomes unpaved and I’m sure we’re lost.  If we get a flat tire we’re screwed.  We are alone except for a random car or truck passing by; this would be considered a 4th grade road in the United States.  I’m sure we’ve made a wrong turn but we finally come to our first landmark “Blacktree Cottages”.  It’s a very rural bed and breakfast in the middle nowhere.  The next landmark will be a blue Mosque which we eventually come to; we take a right and a left and we’re back on paved road.  We keep driving and end up at a crossroad back on the highway.  But first we need take a break; the short cut has taken about two hours.  At the crossroad we stop at a local cafe where men are playing a game called “okey dokey” which looks something like Mah Jhong.  One of the men gets up and picks figs off a tree and hands them to me and Roy. They are the best figs we’ve ever eaten.  We have tea the Turkish way, in a glass with a saucer and small stirring spoon.  We say goodbye to the locals and head back on the road to Kalkan.  This has been one of our all time best drives ever!  So what if it took longer than had we taken the highway.

Please be on the look-out for Chapter 3….