Day 1 (cont'd) - Efes, Shopping and Eating Out

And the roller coaster continues into the evening.  But first back to shopping for food this afternoon. We didn't have a clue what we were buying, and only came out with milk, biscuits and toiletries. Most were ok - apart from the milk which Paul put in his tea - turned out to be runny yogurt ! Made for a messy cup of tea. Also bought our first 2 Efes - not a bad drop. (Just as well as the restaurant we ate at later was dry !)

Oh - and when I mentioned us having difficulty with the language earlier - just look at the texts we are getting through from our new phones ! Where do we start ???

Lovely temperature when we went out for the evening- 33 deg at 6:30pm. But far less humidity than what we are used to. So we chose to walk 2.5km to the nearest metro station to get some travel cards and suss the travelling out. Also - taken the decision to leave the bikes in their bags until Paul's training is over at the end of August. Too many unknowns in terms of routes, traffic, safety, workload, etc. And no public gyms around - that we can see. So Shank's Pony is our method  of exercise for the next few weeks.

So we walked through some very dirty and very busy streets, the unstable pavements precarious under foot. (Singapore - you spoiled us  !). Got to the Metro "station" to find that its little more than a tram stop. Once again Turkish hospitality prevailed - when a very kind passer-by helped us buy our tickets. So tomorrow we learn how to use them and where they will take us !

Walked back the 2.5km, had some Turkish food at a restaurant next door (a dry restaurant ! ) and its home to get some sleep. Paul is currently counting the TV channels - over 1000 - and not one in English !

Sorry if this blog is a bit depressing - the enormity of our decision is hitting us today ! But tomorrow we meet with a Turksihair colleague for lunch. Never met him, but someone gave us his name, and he is coming armed with lots of info on what we need to do to live here comfortably. Its a whole new ball-game visiting a place when you will be a resident rather than a tourist ! We've promised ourselves a day in the big city on Tue or Wed - looking forward to that !

To end on a more lovely note - the really nice guy who welcomed us with coffee this morning has just knocked on the door with extra towels and sheets, and also a fan for the bedroom. And we never even asked for them.

I think the kindness of the people here is going to be (once again) at the heart of our lives in our new home environment.