We are going to like it here!

Thursday was a day of rest, for the most part. We spent the morning planning, although we still didn't come up with a firm choice as to where we are going next. Not that we're in a huge rush to figure it out because we are here until next Wednesday.

I know, that's only five days away, but there are a LOT of empty accommodation options available. Normally the British would be starting to come to this area for a holiday. But Turkey is not on the quarantine exemption list for Britain, so although they are welcome to come here, they have to quarantine for 14 days when they return home. So not nearly as many will be coming.

We met our Airbnb host. So far, we have just been communicating electronically, and he wasn't here when we arrived. He lives in the same building but he had left our key hidden for us when we got here. Nice guy... a local, but he lived in New Jersey for 15 years before returning to Turkey. Very helpful and happy to answer any questions.

He gave us the name and number of a taxi driver that he knows, a guy who speaks a bit of English. Taxis are not really cheap here though, and they have a good mini bus system once you figure out how to use it.

We've decided to rent a car, and our host also knew a guy for that too. We worked a deal for 3,000 lira ($500 CAD, $375 USD) per month. No idea what kind of car we will get, but we don't care. The best rate I could find online was 4,200 lira per month, so 3,000 seemed like a deal. Our Turkish friend Volkan agrees that it's a good price.

We decided to rent a car for a few reasons. We usually enjoy taking local transportation as part of the travel experience. But with Covid, we would rather stay away from people if at all possible, and public transportation would get us too close for our liking. Convenience is also a big thing and we will be able to visit a lot more places as a result. Fuel is about the same price as it is in Canada. There is a LOT to see and do, and we are going to like it here!

We don't pick up the car until the morning we leave here next Wednesday.

In the afternoon, we walked 3 kms (1.9 miles) down to a big grocery store. There are a few smaller ones that are closer, but we figured we would do a big stock up with perhaps some cheaper prices than the smaller stores. But it turned out that the prices were about the same and we would have had to pay a taxi probably 50 lira ($8.30 CAD, $6.30 USD) to bring our stuff back to the apartment, so we only bought as much as we could comfortably carry and walked back up to the apartment.

Beautiful mural.

They used the building's vent as part of the hat!

We heard from blog readers Judi and Charles who are from the UK. They are here on holiday and asked if we wanted to join them for a boat cruise on Saturday. The price is a very reasonable 100 lira ($16.70 CAD, $12.60 USD) each, and it includes a buffet lunch on board. The boat company even picks us up at our apartment! So we are looking forward to that.

Fethiye is a city of about 100,000 people. When I first booked us to stay here, of course I hadn't done very much research and had only looked at it on the map. It didn't look that big, and really it doesn't feel that big. But most people live in three or four story apartment buildings so it has a fairly high population density. There are very few single family homes.

Fethiye is at the red marker.

Our apartment is about where the red dot is.

Regarding Covid, on September 7th, the Turkish government made a law that made masks mandatory virtually everywhere outside of your own place of residence. I found the actual directive and translated the main paragraph to English...

Citizens are obliged to wear masks without exception in all areas (public areas, avenues, streets, parks, gardens, picnic areas, beaches, public transportation vehicles, workplaces, factories, etc.) throughout the country (excluding residences).

Of course wearing a mask outdoors doesn't make any sense, and when rules don't make sense, people tend to not follow them. And nowhere does it say how the mask has to be worn, so many people have the mask on, but it's under their nose, or even under their chin. Or even on their arm... but hey... it's still being worn, just as the rules say! And so I guess partly because they can't enforce the law, it is not being enforced. In general, we see very few police around at all.

But for the most part, people here are pretty good. If we are in any stores at all, everybody has a mask on. But once outside, it kind of depends. We judge what other people are doing, and follow suit. If we are inside (which we try to avoid other than grocery shopping), we always wear a mask. But outside, if the majority of people aren't wearing a mask, we don't either. If they are, then we do as well.

We bought a big turkey leg and thigh, and Ruth made us a delicious roast dinner!

We never get tired of the view from our balcony!

We didn't made it out for a hike yesterday, other than our 6 km (3.7 mile) trek to the grocery store and back. So while most of you in North America are sleeping, we are headed out to get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful blue sky and sunshine!

Total distance walked in Turkey 23 kms (14.3 miles).

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