It's been a long time since we wasted half a day at a shopping mall

It was almost 11:00am by the time we got going from our nice beach site. We filled our water tank and said a temporary goodbye (more like a "see you later") to Katja and Yves. They were headed into Kuşadası to do laundry, and we were headed to a big outlet store mall to do some shopping.

The plan was to meet later at the Miletus ruins, but we never made it that far!

It was only about an hour drive to the small city of Soke. There is not much to see in Soke... it's an industrial city. But there is a big outlet shopping mall, and our clothes are wearing out!

Sunrise Saturday morning.

We left at just before 11:00am.

Big waterslides at the Adaland waterpark.

We had to drive through Kuşadası, but we didn't stop. It's a big resort town and we had been there in 2020 and weren't overly impressed. 

Views around Kuşadası.

We got to the Novada Outlet Mall and learned that they have an actual motorhome/caravan parking area that has electric and water available.. and it's totally free. Wow. 

Now, it's not scenic by any means... but still, good for them for offering it. 

By this time, it was already noon. We had to do some grocery shopping at the big 5M Migros superstore, then find a Turkcell store to try to put some money on our cell account, then look for clothing and shoes... we realized that we would probably be most of the afternoon, so we made the decision to stay and take advantage of the free electricity despite the fact that it's not very scenic.

The Novada Outlet Mall.

Max, in the RV parking area.

My Tilley travel pants that I have worn a lot since I got them in 2014 finally started wearing out to the point they were no longer repairable. Our Oboz hiking boots are almost worn out. Ruth's walking shoes were done. She needed a new pair of jeans. I needed sunglasses. I needed a new hoodie sweater. 

We don't spend very much money on clothing. In fact, neither one of us enjoy shopping for clothing which is why we put it off until we absolutely have to! So when we do, we kind of want to buy stuff that will last.

That's not always the case. For example, in 2016 I needed a sweater and bought a cheap Walmart brand hoodie at Walmart for $30. I figured it might last me a year. Here we are in 2022 and I am still wearing that damn sweater. It won't wear out! But finally, the zipper is starting to go, so it's on it's last legs. But I never figured a cheap sweater would last this long. 

We got the groceries out of the way first. 

Then we each got a pair of jeans. It's mostly "designer" stuff at these outlet stores, so it's pretty expensive by Turkish standards. Still, the stores were pretty busy. Our jeans were approximately 200 lira ($18.75 CAD, $14.75 USD) each, taxes included. But in a country where you can buy no name jeans for as little as 30 lira ($2.75 CAD, $2.25 USD), these are pricey. Still, cheap by western standards.

I liked this sweatshirt, but I didn't like the color.

I was looking for a thicker material for a zippered hoodie, but couldn't find one thick enough. I guess I will continue wearing my Walmart one for now! I'll have to get a replacement soon though.

And we're looking for new hiking boots, but couldn't find anything that we thought was good enough quality. There will be some kind of outdoors store in Fethiye or Antalya.

Ruth did buy a pair of walking shoes for 190 lira ($17.75 CAD, $14 USD). 

And I splurged on a nice pair of sunglasses for 358 lira ($33.50 CAD, $26.50 USD) that were regularly double that price. Hopefully I can go a year without sitting on them!

Ruth tried on this t-shirt, but it didn't fit the best.

I also bought a pair of warm pajama bottoms that I can also use as lounging around pants! They were a bit pricey at 90 lira ($8.50 CAD, $6.50 USD), but they are fairly thick and they were comfortable. I had tried on some cheaper ones that didn't feel nearly as nice. 

Then we went to the Turkcell cellular store. I had seen online that I could buy a refill package that was 320 lira ($30 CAD, $23.50 USD that included 70 GB of data and was valid for the whole time we would be here. But I couldn't get the online site to accept my Canadian credit card. Now, it has been activated and we should be good for cellular data for quite a while!

By the time we finished, it was well after 4:00pm.

The night was quiet enough. This morning we are headed out to the ruins at Miletus.

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