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HI! Welcome to our first monthly Fethiye news update of 2024!
How was January for you?
As I write, Fethiye’s very wet and mild winter has suddenly turned its back and made a very quick run to make way for freezing breezes and Real Feel temperatures in the negative figures.
Maybe we’ll get more of Fethiye’s traditional winter after all.
The current dusting of snow on the shoulders and summit of Babadağ suggests this may be the case.
When the weather is like this, we can still admire wonderful sunsets!
It makes wrapping up warm and venturing outdoors so much more enjoyable when we can admire – and photograph – our local natural environment.
Towards 2024
And that’s how 2024 really started for us.
All very peaceful and quiet. And simply appreciate local life.
Walking, running, buying seasonal winter products at the Sunday market in Çalış.
On a cloudy winter day, this stand of carrots, oranges, mandarins and clementines really adds a little sunshine to the shopping process. We buy from this guy every week lately.
Some chores around the house, cooking, a bit of TV… and blogging!
On the Blog – Guide Updates
We stayed so busy with the blog.
If you are a email subscriber, you won’t have received many new articles in your inbox throughout January. But that doesn’t mean we’ve neglected the blog.
January was spent preparing for the year ahead and ensuring our guides are up to date. This is where we are:
- If you’re traveling or on holiday and using Fethiye as your base, don’t miss our top things to do in Fethiye.
- If you’re staying in the local beach towns, we’ve also updated our guide to Çalış beach and our guide to Ölüdeniz.
- If you want to be in the country (or not, as the case may be) during national holidays, Ramazan or famous festivals, we have listed the 2024 dates on our top Turkish festivals page.
- As for local events, our Fethiye events calendar is ready. Sunrise and sunset times are year-round, so you can plan your sunset meals and photography when you’re in the area.
- And for those of you who like to run, we have completely updated and revamped our Turkey running events page. Already many dates confirmed across the country, including later in the year.
On the Blog – Articles
While on the topic of running, we’re currently training for one of our favorite running events. So we have also updated our article about it.
Runtalya takes place every year on the first weekend of March in Antalya. We will be there again this year.
And much of our cooking in the kitchen has, of course, involved lots of stews, casseroles, and soups.
We have added a new recipe to our collection of Turkish recipes: a real winter chafing dish with regional Beyran soup.
Do you dare to dream of summer?
If summer holidays seem far away, here are some little rays of sunshine.
We’ve already noticed some summer preparations going on in Çalış! People here obviously don’t think the season is too far away.
Continuously evolving
The Çalış Fishermen’s Cooperative is constantly evolving. And, recently, they made another new addition.
If you dine there, instead of being sheltered by a tarpaulin roof, they have now added a much smarter structure around the wooden terrace.
The roof covering and deck railings just seem a little more permanent. Less likely to blow down the channel after a gust of wind.
Painting umbrellas
A recent morning run was accompanied by a strong smell of spray paint in Çalış.
A look across the street to see where the smell was coming from revealed a couple of guys with spray paint.
They were repainting all the colorful umbrellas that line the beach every summer.
New ticket office/reservations
And if you like to use the water taxi from Çalış to Fethiye or take a boat trip from there, you can buy tickets and book trips in the new office.
Same place. They simply destroyed it and built a sturdier, more attractive office.
The final touches still need to be made we will post a photo when it is finished…
Around
Well, if you’ve been reading this article from the beginning, you may have realized that we haven’t gotten very far this month. And it was adorable!
We had sunny pizza at Calisto earlier in the month when it was t-shirt weather.
And one Sunday we ate pide and beyran çorbası in Can Çekti on the way to the market.
Never be afraid. We will be out and about more in the coming weeks.
So many new restaurants around Fethiye that we have yet to try.
A cold January was just what we wanted.
In the kitchen
If you’re like us, you have shelves full of cookbooks that rarely get opened. Because – life.
This month we made an effort to cook something at least once a week from any of our books. It was great to leave the comfort zone of the kitchen we know and prepare and eat different dishes.
Of course, it being January and all, the casserole has been very busy!
More familiar territory
In our more familiar world of Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine, green lentil soup (yeşil mercimek çorbası) warmed us up. And the homemade falafel filled us up!
Last month we also shared our Turkish Potato Cake recipe: tuzlu potatosli kek.
Well, I decided to experiment and replace one of the potatoes with small cauliflower florets. It was great!
Let us know what you think if you try it.
And for National Cake Day on January 23rd we shared a Turkish cake made with yufka (phyllo dough) – tepsi böreği.
We love a good börek!
In sports
First of all, congratulations to 32-year-old football referee Emre Kargın.
In January he became a referee in the Turkish Super League. Big news here because Emre Kargın is also from Fethiye.
Now we go down a couple of leagues to League 2 (2. Lig) and the local team, Fethiyespor.
Well, let’s work on the motto “new year, new beginnings”.
Their league position isn’t great (and they lost 3-1 today), but they currently have a game less than the four teams immediately above them.
Here are the past results and upcoming matches from the second half of the season if you want to get involved and lend your support.
In other news
Our little section of random news away from Fethiye – but this one stands out to us.
Ebru Baybara Demir
And what better way to start the new year with a beautiful story like this?
A Guardian article on Ebru Baybara Demir; an award-winning chef from Mardin in south-eastern Turkey.
“Chef” doesn’t even come close to describing the work and actions performed by this extraordinary woman.
A great read!
Greek Orthodox cross recovery ceremony, Istanbul
January 6 marked the Epiphany in the Greek Orthodox religion.
Every year, to celebrate the event, a cross recovery ceremony takes place in which the Greek community of Istanbul and those who have traveled from Greece, dive into the Golden Horn to recover a wooden cross thrown into the water by the Patriarch Bartholomew I.
Rather them than us! Moreover Here.
Two firsts
Two firsts for the country in January…
The first in space
As I write, the first Turkish astronaut is in space at International Space Station.
Turkish Air Force fighter pilot, Alper Gezeravcı is in space for two weeks to conduct experiments.
It won’t surprise you to know that he brought the Turkish flag with him.
First Medal
And big congratulations to Muhammed Bozdag who won Turkey’s first ever medal at the Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Bozdag won the silver medal In the Speed skating on a 1000 meter short track event in Gangwon, South Korea.
And finally…
Have we started the year how do we intend to move forward? By distributing this monthly news on time? We see…
We’re both turning 50 this year and have a lot of vague ideas about what we’d like to do in the next few months; partly, weather permitting!
Of course, everything will unfold on these pages as we go along…
Let’s all hope for a good year ahead!
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