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Sunday, January 3, 2021

Strange to go out for a walk during lockdown

On Saturday, we contacted our Airbnb host here in Antalya and once again extended our stay. Because of our eye surgery and the weekend lockdowns, we haven't had a chance to explore the area nearly as much as we wanted to. So rather than moving on just for the sake of moving on, we decided to stay put.

We thought about getting another place further east of here, and driving back for our eye doctor appointments, but we are really happy with the apartment. It's got a comfortable bed, and fast, consistent WiFi... and it's only 125 lira ($21.50 CAD, $16.85 USD) per night. 

The weekend lockdown continues here in Turkey. Because of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, this was actually a three day weekend lockdown that began Thursday night at 9pm, and continues until Monday morning at 5am.

We can't seem to get an accurate answer as to whether or not tourists are excluded from this particular lockdown, however yesterday was too nice of a day (sunny and 21C, 70F) and we decided to risk going out for a walk. For the locals, the rules state that you are allowed to walk to the nearest grocery store to get supplies if necessary. And yes, the little corner shops were almost all open. And we noticed the occasional person out buying a loaf of bread, or something to that effect.

And essential businesses are still open. But very few people were out and about. We did a 5 km (3 mile) power walk around a busy block of fairly major streets. Very few cars, and we were surprised to not see any police vehicles or anybody checking to see if people were following the rules. We had our passports with us just in case we were questioned at all.

But we've noticed that the Turkish people are generally very good at following whatever directives their government puts out.

This is a major street that would normally have a lot of vehicles on it.

The normally busy street that runs through our neighbourhood.

Ruth is such an angel.
If I stood here, the halo would probably not show up in the photo!

Nice old Beetle for sale.

Today is supposed to be the same beautiful weather, and we are going to go out and do the same route again, but in reverse.

On a different topic, I noticed the other day that our Pageviews counter on the right side of this blog is going to cross the 10 million mark at some point in the next 24 hours. I don't know what's going to happen when that occurs. Is there going to be another digit, or does it reset to zero...? (Edit: Apparently it adds another digit... now showing over 10 million...)

Almost 10 million pageviews.

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Record low deal on the popular Instant Vortex Pro Air Fryer Oven 9-in-1.

And in Canada...


13 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the reader count.
    We also have a counter on our post also but neither show up on my Computer but they do on Kathy's.
    Be Safe and Enjoy exploring your area.

    It's about time.

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    1. Strange, your reader count shows up on my computer.

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  2. Not sure why tourists would be allowed and not the locals. I don’t believe the virus picks and chooses who it infects. Lol

    But some Canadians do have this strange concept much like the Americans that everybody else will get the Covid19 but not them.

    However, realistically it is only a matter of time before the world population has been infected by some form of the virus.

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    1. Yep, Turkish folks follow the rules but not the Americans or Canadians!

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    2. We aren't sure why either but we suspect that it is to keep tourism up. In the Cappadocia area, foreign tourists are allowed to continue to do their tours on the weekend and they are even allowed to do the balloon rides on the weekend but nationals and residents, even if they are coming from other parts of Turkey to vacation there, are not allowed. Totally not fair!

      Up until this past weekend lockdown we have stayed inside and not exercised "our" right to go out but with all this eye stuff going on and the bad weather and then the three day lockdown we needed to get out, so we did our quick 5km walk around the neighbourhood and then straight back inside. Hopefully yesterday was the last of the weekend lockdowns!

      Rita, Turkey may be following the lockdowns on the weekends but they like every other country out there, other than a handful of them, are still having problems with big numbers so it is not just the Americans or the Canadians that aren't following rules!

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  3. Our Ontario lock down continues. being rural dwellers it hasn't had a whole lot of impact on our day to day. We figured Sunday would be a nice quiet day to do the grocery shop. Busy enough mind you.
    Love the Beetle. We had one the same in 74.

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    1. We really aren't sure that all these lock downs are doing what the government is hoping it will do!

      Our daughter was in Costco one day just before the lock down and she said it was an absolute zoo in there and won't be back! I don't know what happened to them keeping track of how many people are allowed in a store at one time. Ontario closed the ski hills where people can get out and get exercise and fresh air yet Quebec has theirs open so what are skiers in Ontario doing, going to Quebec to ski of course. So much of the governments rules just don't make much sense sometimes!

      We love these old beetles! I would have loved to have had one in the day.

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  4. Congrats on the 10 million page views. The angel picture is a keeper! That looks like something from a record album cover.

    Based on the prices you post, I wonder if there is an ex-pat community in different Turkish cities?

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    1. Thank you Chris! We sure have been at it a long time now!

      I was waiting for that halo to come down and strangle me, lol. ;-)

      Oh yes, there are definitely expat communities here in Turkey. Actually the city of Antalya where we are right now is supposed to have the second largest community of expats in Turkey.

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