How much more ?

How much more can we spend ?
How many more experiences can we have ?
How many more people can we meet ?
How much more can you lot read (or want to read) ?

This was supposed to be a quiet day. We were just going into Yesilkoy to meet Tanja and her husband (Gregor). I "met" Tanja on a FB group and her husband is from THY. So we caught up with them and their 3 year old son - Paul was bowled over with all the info he got. I was bowled over with how helpful and friendly they are - and they will be neighbours of ours. They then walked us up to the weekly bazaar, where we left them as there were hundreds of people milling around and we had shopping to do, and needed to concentrate.

And boy did we shop. Towels, glasses (for water, beer and wine), big tea mugs (as the hotel ones are so small), a teapot thing you put on the hob (very common over here), plates, cutlery (lovely cutlery), and some local pancake type food filled with feta cheese and spinach - gozlemeci - God knows how you pronounce it !

Also played around with Google Translate. Look what it does to this sign when you take a photo. Its pretty unbelievable really. Going to be a very useful tool on the iphone 4 (even if it does translate "gozlemeci" to "observatory" instead of "pancake").

Then it was on to the new apartment to drop the stuff off. We had planned to visit the supermarket next door to get some teabags, milk, biscuits and beer and sit in our new kitchen and lap up our new surroundings, But Caglan had other ideas . We were going shopping !

Side note - the balcony at the apartment has had a dove nesting on the ledge. Apparently if we leave it alone it will have its babies, then come back every year to the same place. How cute is that ? We need to find a name for it now. And, despite being a lovely apartment last week when the old tenants were in it, it's gotten dirty pretty quickly !!! The place needs a complete clean. Caglan was impressed when I said I would do it myself as Turkish ladies wouldn't do that. But when he told me the price - 150 TL - I caved in ! So I'll go to supervise the cleaning lady one day next week :-).

So off we trotted in a taxi to a warehouse somewhere - we won't be able to find it again without Caglan. This place is full of furniture shops, lighting, white goods, kitchenware, etc, etc. So, several thousand lira poorer, we are now the proud owners of 3 wardrobes, bedside cabinets, electric oven, light fittings and bulbs for the whole apartment, and an iron and ironing board, and of course a clothes airer (which you know from week 1 is very important to me).

The best thing - which took some persuading to Paul who was feeling hot, bothered, shopped out and skint at this point - was a Turkish lamp, with beautiful hand made glass shades. The picture doesn't do it justice. The shades are blue, red and pink. You'll just have to come and see it.

Got back to the hotel, ready to go and do our daily session in the gym, or so I thought, when Paul saw the bar. So that was the end of that ! Only one beer for me though. I had shopping to cart up to the room, with help from the lovely barman, Tanju, who left his post to come to the 10th floor with my newly purchased goods. Its ok though as Paul minded the bar for him !!!Hmmmm !!! Shouldn't complain though - he has spent a lot of money today. And he did cave in on the lamp.

But Paul felt he had to do some networking. He is the proud organiser of the "THY Backscratchers and Beer" Whatsapp group. A space for the new recruits to share info they have gleaned during the day. Seems to be working well. 17 members and counting so far.

We finished off the day with our first proper Turkish meal - only 3 mins walk down the road from the hotel. Went with Ruben (a former Tigerair pilot) and his lovely Korean wife, Gina. Thats another friend made :-). Amazing meal too. Just 20 TL per person (a cool £5).

Tomorrow should be a quiet day. Paul has promised he will go to the gym in the morning. Lets see shall we ?