Day 1 – Turkiye Supper

A leisurely start this morning, readying ourselves for the 11:30am taxi to the Airport, involved “ditching the dog”.

The worst part of going away is watching Toby getting stressy as he realises there’s something afoot. Hopefully he’ll be ok, once he realises he’s also on his holidays, having a sleepover with his mates Denbeigh & Sadie across the road.

The look on Anthony’s face when Jane left a ‘birthday bag’ and explained it was for Toby, as he turns 7 whilst we are away. The bag contains some doggie treats for him and his buddies.

Sammi arrived on time in his Prius, and a few minutes later, we were checking in our bags at EasyJet, Terminal 1. We’d already had an update from EasyJet saying the flight was delayed by half an hour, which is better than a cancellation, given what’s been going on over the last few weeks.

After the chaos & disruption that’s been occurring at Manchester, we weren’t sure what to expect, but as it turned out, we breezed through a relatively quiet security area & ended up through & in the concourse within about 30 minutes.

A nip to Duty Free to buy a bottle of Red for our soon-to-be neighbour, Mustafa & then into the concourse for some Fanny’s (Kebabs).

Actually, we didn’t end up eating the Fanny’s, instead plumping for a veggie breakfast, two chicken burgers, and three drinks – all for the princely sum of just over £60! Whilst the service was slow (over half hour wait), it was a good job that the food was actually really good, & a decent portion size.

Next stop, Gate 3D & boarding our Airbus A320. Some shambolic boarding ensued due to a lady who decided to sit where she pleased rather than her allocated seat, and being asked to move, kicked up a fuss as she was now away from her hand luggage which had been stored a few rows back.

Pushback at 2:40, and out via 24-Right, over Ashley/Mobberley, through the steel grey clouds, and into the Blue at just after 3pm.

An hour later Bag Lady kicked up a fuss again, getting her travel bag out of the overhead locker & putting it between her legs at her window seat, causing a combination of disruption and entertainment for us & the other nearby passengers. It took around 3 minutes before the Head Stewardess explained it couldn’t be left there as it was a safety hazard. Begrudgingly, she put it back in the overheads after bartering for a space that was 4ft from to her seat as opposed to the previous 6ft, breaking her nail & then kicking up a fuss for Nail Repair glue!

Otherwise it was a great flight! It’s around a 4 hour flight from Manchester to Dalaman, and with wonderful clear skies, it meant a decent bit of watching the world fly by.

We’ve been really lucky with this holiday, having been able to use a friends Apartment in Ovacik, Turkey, a place and a country we’ve never been to before. Noz has been amazingly generous with his time & knowledge, having not only left us with pages of maps, lists of bars, restaurants, beers, beaches & other such recommendations, he’s even pre-arranged the Airport transfers us.

Arriving at Dalaman, we switched from Manchesters 17C afternoon to a balmy 27C Turkish evening. Bags collected, we made our way down to Blue Lagoon Transfers to meet up with our Driver.

It’s just shy of an hour transfer door to door, as we got our first (in the dark) look at the “Turkish Riviera”/Muğla region & head off up the valley towards Fethiye, then Ovacik.

Arriving at the apartment, we were greeted by the neighbourhood dog & the apartments Goat (No, not greatest of all time, an actual goat)!

Following Noz’s very sensible advice we followed his “4 B’s” instruction – boiler on, bedroom choice, balcony & then beer!

Oh, I’m now officially the furthest East I’ve ever been, having really only headed West for previous holidays!

Tomorrow? Well, we’ll orient ourselves and have a wander down through Ovacik to Hisarönü, maybe down to Oludeniz & see what takes our fancy! That’s assuming we can coax Charlie out of his bed!

Yarın görüşürüz, as they say!