Usual C. J. Airey Senior start to a holiday, with almost zero sleep. I swear it’s because Charlie is the Yang to my Hypnos Ying, with him able to sleep 14h a day! The closer our proximity the stronger the insomnia effect.
Benefits to it however, were:
1. I had a ‘Number 2’ & abluted for the first time here. Not unexpected in its own right, but the ‘clean up’ afterwards was from revolution to revelation! Skipping the toilet roll phase, I remained fully seated & used the right-hand tap.
After a minute of pressure-washing my ring and surrounding lowlands, 3 small sheets of bog roll, a drying dab or two and clean as a whistle!
Impossible for me to now understand how we don’t have this feature as standard in the UK!
2. I faintly heard the 5:30am Güneş Ezan (pre-sunrise prayer calls), which was quite relaxing actually, and a gentle reminder to be respectful of the people & their belief.
3. I got up, put some shorts on, went downstairs, out onto the big balcony (it’s big!), flopped into and across the big beanbags & dozed in the 24C dawn & watched the sun come up over the mountains.
Time passed. More time passed. The boss hadn’t doled out any TLira, so wasn’t sure it was worth an early trip to the local (mini)Market.
Instead, I donned the Speedos, then donned swim shorts, and given no-one else was up, so I couldn’t offend them, I headed down to “our pool”, which as I understand, has recently been upgraded to include a DJ booth, fridge, glass wash facilites & as I discovered, some of the loveliest beer mats.
Cool, but refreshing! Not the pool, the Baileys Birthday Cake liqueur that I had been encouraged to try. A teaspoon full was had, to be clear – it was only 8am, I’m not an animal you know! It really does do it’s job – it tastes of a Jammy Victoria sponge with icing on!
The pool happened to give off the same vibe though – a few strokes & I felt alive!
I then started reading a physical book, something I’ve not done in a while, with my last read being the very enjoyable Kindle version of The Twelfth Man, by the venerable Howard Hockin.
This physical book though…it’s been staring me down since Jane bought it me. ‘End to End’ by Paul Jones is a book about an ex-head teachers attempt on a Lands End to John O’Groats record attempt. 15 pages in, and it’s already punching mental buttons. I think I’m still suffering LEJOG-PTSD. See earlier blog posts from 2012, if you’re a real masochist for ‘holiday diaries’.
Finally Mrs A stirred, a full 5 hours after I first got up. Operation ‘Recon’ went into full pelt, leveraging off my 3 hours of googling info and geotagging all of our recommended bars & restaurants. If only I had a spreadsheet setup so I could plot average walk times, based on local altitude & temperature!
Jane & I had a really nice, albeit hot walk down the main Ataturk Cd. road, heading towards Hisarönü & Oludeniz. Immediately noticeable how friendly people are here. I know the shop staff have a job to do in terms of selling their services, but nothing pushy, and more just a welcoming smile and or wave.
One required stop was to see the very charismatic Mr Dongle, who explained he was sure that Jane would like to rent his black dongle whist on holiday. Unlimited data later for the next 13 days, and that’s Charlie & Jane now sorted whilst we’re out and about.
Once you get down into Hisarönü as the road splits, there’s puerile humour of sorts to be found in the shop names – Harrools, Mark Spengler, Adli, Sainsdurys or other such name twists.
This is where the grey/somewhat dodge clothing, shoes & bags can be bought. An area that Charlie will investigate further I suspect whilst we’re here. Pretty sure he’ll have his head turned by the BayRan sunglasses or the Air Gordon trainers…
At 3.6km of walking later and we succumbed to the heat, grabbing a Taksi back up to near the Apartment, and stopping off at the ÇEŞ Market just down the road. We took the lighter stuff, but they delivered the heavy stuff (water, “Orijinal Tat” Cokes etc) to our apartment later in the afternoon. All good!
Rest of the afternoon was spent by the spotlessly clean pool, sunbathing and cooling off. Repeat to fade.
Eventually, it was back inside, cool showers & freshen ups before we headed to the nearby Shiraz Restaurant for tea (& a beer).
[In advance of ordering, I’m expecting Charlie to find, then order the biggest, most expensive steak, then end up getting meat sweats and not finishing it, as a side bet].
Was great to be served by Suat, a friend of Gareth’s, who was incredibly welcoming. Charlie did pick a steak, but not the massive T-Bone, and did leave some of his chips, but in the main, did well.
Jane and I had mozzarella sticks and breaded crab claw to start, and both had the mixed (chicken & lamb) Turkish Shish kebabs. Bloody lovely!
A couple of Tuborg Golds, for me, and non-drinking Jane even had a (very strong) pink gin & tonic. Which led me to tell Charlie that the next thing you know, she’ll be impersonating ‘Tits Out Jackie’ from City.
Back to the apartment, sat on the balcony, with a slab of beer now installed in the fridge & cooling. The view at night from our main balcony, down towards Oludeniz is great!
I reckon after today, it’ll be another slow start, but with the aim of heading down to Olu for lunch, then a bit of time around the beach & Blue Lagoon, before eating out somewhere for tea. But who knows!
So for now, I bid you ‘İyi geceler’!