Rain doesn’t stop play

It’s been raining in Fethiye! The weather has been mixed for the last few days, plenty of sunshine but some showers too. Yesterday there were more showers than sun – drizzle actually which is not something we see a lot of here. It was still warm and didn’t really stop guests from doing things – but they did get a bit soggy when they didn’t time it right. As it’s half term week at home there are some families with children out too but the kids don’t seem to care and are in the pool even while it’s raining. It is better today and supposed to get hotter and hotter through the week.


It was unfortunate that the weather was miserable on Saturday morning as that was the day of the fourth Çalış Carnival. Most of the stalls didn’t bother setting up for the exhibition and though the sun came out for the parade in the afternoon, I think quite a few participants and spectators had been put off. Kaan and I made sure we painted a square each in the communal painting as we have each year. Other than that, the best thing was a forestry department helicopter which landed just above the beach (scattering people in every direction as they realized it really was going to land…health and safety at its best!)


painting at the carnival

Saturday was also Grant’s ‘official’ birthday. It isn’t actually his birthday until June but as it’s a big one Dawn thought he would enjoy celebrating it out here. We decorated the bar with the balloons and banners she had brought over – and when he walked in he asked whose birthday it was!! The cake was a masterpiece – with a particularly fetching photo of him balancing a lemon on his nose printed into the icing.

Grant's birthday cake

There was no water in Çalış yesterday. The water board was fixing pipes somewhere and said it would be back on between 5 and 6; actually it was the middle of the night before it came back properly by which time some guests were a little fed up (especially as it had rained most of the day!) and I was seriously stressed.

But everything seems worthwhile at times like this….a guest who arrived at Poppy for the first time a couple of days ago just told me she can’t believe people ‘dare’ (her word) write anything nasty on the internet about us; she loves it here and is going to put on a good recommendation when she gets home. Hopefully Trip Advisor will not start removing our good reviews like they did last year…

Hordes of students and football hooligans

The news for this week….


Fenerbahçe won the football league here. Everything still hung on the last match which was yesterday evening, so with Cem, the boys and many friends and family supporting Fenerbahçe, there was a lot of excitement round here. Personally I wasn’t bothered - my team is Beşiktaş and I only support them to annoy Cem – but I would rather they are all happy and celebrating than miserable and sulking. Some of you know how seriously they take their football here, and how noisy they are about it. Even the municipal tannoy system crackled into life at the end of the match with the Fenerbahçe march…so apologies to any guests who were hoping for an early night!

It was also noisy for a while on Saturday. As I mentioned last week, Turkish guests are not very good at making reservations and here is a good example. Twenty-six sixteen year old girls and nine teachers on a school trip turned up at about 6pm on Saturday night looking for diner and rooms for the night. That would not be SO unreasonable, except for the fact that they stayed here last year and had our phone number! We sorted the rooms out (including evicting Murat from his room) and then Cem went shopping while Yılmaz and I ran around in the kitchen, but it would have been less stressful if they had just telephoned even a couple of hours before to say they were on their way!

Still plenty of bookings coming in and we are full for middle of June and middle of July. We are now having a struggle with the agency, who sold at 15% discount for all bookings up to start of May (that is 15% off OUR money of course not theirs!), on the basis that they would pay 50% of all those bookings on 15 May. Guess what – they haven’t! It is getting so tiring, calling and visiting (and listening to their stories about what a difficult time THEY are having), that we are considering not working with them. The other agency we have a contract with are – apparently (we have only just started working with them) – much more reliable.

But mostly this week I am happy because Frank and Lorraine are here, Grant and Dawn are here (see photo of Kaan and Grant below) and my sister and brother-in-law are coming tomorrow so I’m giving myself the day off!


Kaan and Grant 'bombing'



.Horse riding and other stuff

I’ve been busy with my most hated task – checking all 20 rooms to make sure the taps aren’t dripping, the air conditioning works and they have their full complement of cups, plates, saucepans etc. etc. I hate it because it involves running up and down stairs and in and out of rooms until my feet hurt. I hate it because however many lists I make, there is always something you miss first time round. And I hate it because it is a never-ending task…even when I am satisfied that a room is ‘done’, of course light bulbs blow, cups get broken and people walk off with things, meaning that they need checking before each new guest.


This year I added to my job by buying new pillows, pillow protectors, shower curtains, table cloths and bedspreads, all of which had to be distributed/fitted/hung. One day I would like to get a pedometer and see how far I walk just round the hotel; it must be good fitness training! Happily I’m pretty much finished – for now – and the rooms are looking good.

On Sunday I gave myself the afternoon off and went horse riding with Kaan. It was the first time we had been to the place in Çalış. The horses are not big but they were quite lively and seemed happy to be going out. The great thing about it is that you ride right along the edge of the sea – in the water if you want! Kaan was very good - it’s a couple of years since he’s been riding, but he was confident and in control and really looked the part. I will still send people to the lovely stables in Kaya village for a good ride. Their horses are superb and they cater for all levels of riders from beginners to experienced – giving lessons in the school as well as taking people out around the quiet tracks of the village. But the horses in Çalış are fun for a ride along the beach.



Kaan the cowboy

 19 May is another holiday here – this time Youth and Sport Festival. The children have 5 days off school and I arrived at the hotel this morning to find we have 7 rooms of guests from Ankara, who seem between them, to have about 25 children! It’s certainly woken the place up, especially as the children were all excited on their first morning and therefore extra noisy.

Actually, there are only 3 weeks left until the school summer holiday begins here – even earlier than usual because of the general election. With Ramazan (the month of fasting) starting at the beginning of August, most Turkish people will be looking to take their holiday in late June or July. Unfortunately, many will be disappointed as hotels are pretty full already for that time and Turkish people are notoriously bad at making reservations (like the 7 rooms who turned up here at 7 last night without a booking). Maybe this year they will learn!

how cute is that - a 2-day old foal (and Kaan of course!)

Weddings

So…weddings seem to be the theme of the week!  I enjoyed watching a few bits of the royal wedding.  Being away from it all gives me a strange fondness for ceremony and traditions, though I am sure if lived there I would be sick to death of it.  I had to laugh at the comparisons between this wedding and Charles and Diana’s – all of which suggested that the signs from this one were much better.  But I don’t remember anyone at the time suggesting that the future for Charles and Di was anything less than wonderful.  Then again, I didn’t pay much attention to that one either – I was fourteen at the time and thought she must be mad to be marrying someone SO old!

There are a lot of customs surrounding Turkish weddings.  Some of them are no longer in favour – understandable when you learn that weddings traditionally lasted forty days!  In villages they still often last three days, starting with the groom going with a group of his relatives to collect the bride from her home! 

In towns, the celebrations usually include a henna party the night before the wedding, when the bride celebrates her last night in her parental home with her female relatives.  The following evening the wedding ceremony takes place.  Both involve a lot of dancing, a very large cake (six or seven tiers is the norm) and a lot of noise from the ‘davul’ (drum) and ‘zurna’ – a flute-type instrument with sounds, to my ear at least, like a large and very angry mosquito.  Oh – and when they get really excited they tend to fire shots from guns, supposedly into the air though if there is raki involved too things occasionally end rather badly.

One of the truly amazing things about Turkish weddings, when compared to the UK, is that they are arranged and done in just a few weeks.  The wedding we went to last weekend, a very smart affair in Tuana Beach Club with a popular local singer and musicians, was arranged in three weeks! And you don’t have to spend ages thinking what to buy the happy couple because the tradition is to pin gold or money on them so they can go and buy what they need…much more sensible.

Our wedding at Montana Hotel

We had a wedding that was a mixture of English and Turkish – as were the guests.  We started with drinks around the pool at Montana Hotel (above Ölüdeniz) where we did the official signing of the register.  Tradition says that whoever treads first on the other’s foot at this point will be the ‘boss’ at home.  And that was me!  We then took over the hotel restaurant for a meal and – of course – a lot of dancing.  The belly dancer was a nice change for the English guests!

Fethiye is now a popular place for weddings, with the lagoon at Ölüdeniz and weddings aboard gulets being particularly favoured.  I recently investigated wedding options for a friend, including a hotel wedding in Çalış, a beach wedding at Ölüdeniz and a gulet wedding.  The prices varied a lot and some of the people involved seemed to me to be charging a bit more than necessary but it’s certainly still possible to have a lovely wedding here at a reasonable price.

We even held a wedding at Poppy a few years ago for our neighbour’s son.  A friend who does wedding organization did the decorations and we did the rest.  Now if we could just have a pool that converted to a dance floor….!  

Poppy decorated for a wedding