Day trip to Marmaris, Turkey and a nice lunch out

Friends Heather and Volkan had invited us to join them for lunch in the seaside resort town of Marmaris, Turkey. I say "town", but really it's a small city and quite a bustling place. 

It's located only a 20 minute drive from our cottage. One of the reasons we chose this location is that there are a lot of places to go and things to see within a 100 km (62 mile) radius, so we have lots of day trips to do over the next couple of weeks.

As we were driving into the city we saw a sign that stated the population as being 94,000 people. Again, it's fairly dense because looking at the map it doesn't seem that big.

We got there about 11:30am, and it was just after a rain shower went through. We weren't meeting Heather and Volkan until 12:45pm so we had some time to wander around.

Lots of scooters around.

You really have to keep your eyes open for the scooters. They believe the rules of the road don't apply to them (and maybe they don't?) so they could be going the wrong direction, passing on the wrong side when everybody else is stopped, and even driving on the sidewalk. Yes, you have to watch for them when you are walking or driving!

Pedestrian street.

Nice statues.

Tour boats line the waterfront.

You'll not see many people in the photos... we think because it had only just stopped raining. After lunch there were quite a few more people around.

Again, we are a little surprised by the amount of English. But we are starting to realize that this coast is frequented by the British, so it's no different than finding a fair bit of English in Puerto Vallarta or Cancun when we are in Mexico. We will find a lot less English once we head inland.

Waterfront walkway.

Me, at the Marmaris sign.

Marmaris has a pretty bay surrounded by mountains.

I had read that Marmaris has a Thursday market so we made our way up to the market building. I'm actually looking for a pair of walking shoes. I only have one pair of footwear with me... my hiking boots. So it would be nice to have something a little more geared towards wandering around a town like we did yesterday. I'm not in a rush to buy something, but I'll keep my eyes open.

It turns out that this market is 95% fruits and veggies. The other 5% are selling maybe spices or cheeses.

Grapes, anyone?

The grapes are seedless, sweet, and juicy. And about 1/4 the cost of what you would pay anywhere in North America. Yes, cheaper than Mexico too! We bought a big bag and the cost was $0.65 CAD.

We didn't actually buy anything right then, because we would have had to carry it around with us until we got back to the car. We did go back after lunch though.

We met Heather and Volkan on schedule at 12:45pm.

I had chicken shish.

Ruth had lentil soup and a salad.

A delicious meal, and the total came to 60 lira ($10 CAD, $7.50 USD). Which makes us think that we slightly overpaid for our roadside lunch the day before which was almost double that. Now, we did have beef and lamb then which are more expensive. Anyhow, we were very happy with the meal and we would go to the Ege Vera restaurant in central Marmaris again.

And we finally got a photo of Heather and Volkan!

Hey Doug... you could eat here too!

After lunch, we wandered down to the old central area and had a look around.

Narrow laneways.

Volkan had our camera for a while.

Not often you see candid photos of the two of us.

Of course Ruth has to pet the cat!

There's the cat.

Scenery along the way.

We parted ways and Ruth and I walked back to the market and picked up the fruits and veggies we needed. No photo of the goods today, but we continue to be shocked at how cheap they are. We walked away with two bags of stuff and the total was 26 lira ($4.30 CAD, $3.25 USD). When she was buying some peppers, she put them in a bag and handed it to the guy to weigh. He added another pepper to the bag and declared the total was 1 lira ($0.16 CAD, $0.12 USD)!

Stopped in at the grocery store as well, to pick up a few other things including some stuff for the kitchen. We are overall happy with where we are staying, but the kitchen is not very well equipped. Yes, we understand that most people on holiday don't cook very many meals, preferring restaurants. But there are a few things we need to talk to our host about that need to be more accurately described in his listing. 

Didn't make it back home until almost 5:00pm. Sat outside and had a drink on our patio, and while we were there our host came by with a plate of fresh hot french fries for us, cooked to perfection. They were really nice. That's twice in one day I've had french fries, and I don't have them very often!

Today, we are headed inland up into the mountains to do some exploring.

We walked about 5 kms (3 miles) yesterday.

Total distance walked in Turkey 74 kms (45.8 miles).

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