Day 4 - Accommodation, Aeroplanes and Atakoy Marina

Well, my day started at 6am when I woke up with my head buzzing. So it was off to the PC to do some research while Paul continued to inspect his eyelids for another 2 hours. My thoughts were along the lines of :

- Where can I get my pedicures done ??? (trivia - but important to know we are moving to the right type of community.) Woke my lovely husband  to discuss this. He'd already noticed a few places in Yesilkoy and logged the info for when I needed it ! What a lovely man :-). Thankfully he went back to sleep - I don't think its even registered that we had the discussion.
- Why am I complaining about 36 deg C when the UK is having the worst July in years ? Sorry folks, I guess our (too hot) weather issues are infinitely better than yours !
- Our friend Rob Wrightson is working out of China now. His new language issues are far more difficult than ours. At least our words are formed in the same alphabet. And his local people are far less friendly.

Well that put things into perspective, so it was off to start the day.

Our lovely Emlak (estate agent) Caglam (Chalam) - who stole us from another Emlak on Monday btw - but he had the edge as he's worked in London for 4 years and knows more than 10 words in English ! - he had only one property lined up. What if this one was no good ? Would he have others ? We had prepared ourselves for an Emlak tour of Yesilkoy in the searing heat - looking to see what was out there and prepared to have to lower our standards.

We needn't have worried - we met Caglan at 11am, and by 11:02 we were both grinning from ear to ear - and we had only just got in through the front door.

There it is - first floor - above a hairdressers and nail place - so that's that issue also sorted :-). Its 3 bedrooms (not 4 - Sorry Colesy), furnished (a minor problem), 1 bathroom (a compromise), no outside space (another compromise), and superbly decorated. Its also a 2 min walk from the town centre, 5 mins from the bus that takes you all the way into Istanbul, and 5 mins from the beach. So the benefits far outweigh the compromises.

Very well furnished - but what will we do with our 20ft container of "stuff" ??? Good old Caglan can arrange storage if we need it - or we might just keep what we need and sell off the living room and dining room furniture (except the wooden bottle stays, as does Dai the Dragon ! ). Decisions to be discussed on the weekend.

Oh - another positive (or negative ??) is that the owner will be living below us - but he seems like a really nice bloke, as does his mother who lives with him. And we have a deal that I will teach his 11 year old son English if they will help us improve our Turkish. Young Roy will be speaking Doric and Singlish with a Welsh accent in no time !

I'm not sure if this is coming through when you read this - but we are so very very very excited about all of this. My grin was of gigantic proportions for several hours and I kept jumping around the place. I'm sure Jan (owner) and Gul (mother) thought I was a nut case - at least they are getting the right vibes up front I guess. Thankfully Paul the Pilot maintained his sense of calm !

So it was off for a coffee with Caglan and then off to explore the area. We crossed over a disused railway line and saw, on the other side of the road, an Aviation Museum. I knew I would be bored, but I had lots to think about, so encouraged Paul to go in. It was amazing - yes OK I was impressed. A definite for visitors when they hang around Yesilkoy during their stay. Guess which one was the type that PTP did his first solo flight in btw ?

Then a celebratory lunch followed in a new restaurant - half the price by our old standards, and the wine was only 20 GBP. Only ONE bottle though - don't forget we are on a semi-detox now.

So over lunch, in-between FB posts and Whatsapps, we did grab a short conversation and decided to get away for a few days - well its been a hard few days hasn't it? So - decision made - we are off to visit Gallipoli and Troy on Thu and Friday. TROY !!!! Classical studies was my all time favourite course in school (even though it was my only CSE) and I perversely enjoyed my Latin A-level too. Homer's Oddessy here we come. (Guess I should gen up on Gallipoli too.). We have to rent a car first though - should have some tales to tell from that one.

But the day didn't end there. After just salads for lunch, and a lot of walking on a false mission to find non-existent car rental companies, we were hungry. So in the interests of Visitor Reconnaissance we strolled to Atakoy Marina to see a sunset and have a small bite. Must point out that we only had ONE beer each - we are so well behaved just now !! Atakoy Marina is only 10 minutes by bus from Yesilkoy btw - so we think this will be well visited from now on.

Signing off here as this is a huge post - but then its been a huge day. No post on Thursday as we'll be sleeping inside a Trojan Horse - but will be back with more tales on Friday.

(PS - think we've started making local friends already !!! We're up and running)