Hanging Around Fethiye

My mom came to visit Turkey for two and a half weeks in October and November. Prior to her visit, my mom thought Turkey was all about scarved people riding camels across deserts. I think it's safe to say that my mom's visit provided her initial thoughts to be rather inaccurate.

The original plan was to take a road trip with my mom around Eastern Turkey, a place that neither Ferit nor I had yet visited. Alas, about a week before my mom's arrival, we started receiving emails from the US Embassy advising US citizens to use extreme caution when traveling to the east; there had been demonstrations related to the fighting in Syria, and some of the demonstrations had resulted in casualties.

Given that we'd be traveling in an automobile with German plates, it'd be quite obvious that we were foreigners. And given that the automobile was a BMW, it'd look as though we were rich foreigners. We decided it best to take our road trip in central Turkey instead.

But before we could leave for our trip, Ferit had some work to do. He had been designing a new family home to be built in the village of Alaattin, and he needed to get to a certain point in the design process before he could slip away for the road trip.

For about a week, Ferit plugged away on his home designs while my mom and I kept ourselves busy in Fethiye, the coastal town where Ferit's mom lives. Fortunately, Ferit was able to peel himself away from his work in the evenings to serve as our tour guide.

Ferit, hard at work designing his family's home in the village.

Mom and I took a number of walks along the waterfront in Fethiye.
Here, Mom sat on a bench shaded by bougainvillea
as she looked out over the turquoise-colored Aegean Sea.

Mom and I picked olives from the trees in Ferit's mom's yard.
After picking the olives, we sliced the olives to assist in the curing process.
This, of course, made us better appreciate the olives we buy in a jar back home.

One afternoon we all headed to the outdoor market,
where we enjoyed watching Ferit's mom negotiate with the vendors.
Fruits and vegetables are ridiculously inexpensive in Turkey...
particularly when purchased at the markets...by Ferit's mom.
From left to right: Mom, me, and Ferit's mom.

One night we heard some loud music a few blocks away -- it was a wedding!
We invited ourselves over to watch the festivities.
Weddings typically last for a few days in Turkey.
This was the first day of this couple's wedding.

And we went to the Fethiye Yörük Çadırları (Fethiye Nomad Tents),
where we were entertained by live Turkish folk music as we sipped on tea.

Mom and I spent an afternoon walking around downtown Fethiye.
We walked up to a rock outcropping that overlooked the city.

And we enjoyed watching all the feral kitties,
such as this one who sat in a doorway...

...and this one, who lounged discreetly in a plant pot.

We explored Kipa, the nearby grocery store,
where we picked up some ingredients for making a few dishes.
We got a kick out of this cow, who grazed in the field in front of the store.

And we shopped the large market looking for the perfect scarf for Mom.
We thought this booth at the market, called "Jimmy Jew's Shop" was a riot.
The signs indicated that they had "Rambo sizes" and that shopping
at Jimmy's was "cheaper than shoplifting."

One evening we drove up to the
ancient Lycian Rock tombs that overlook Fethiye. 

From the tombs, we had the perfect vantage point
for watching the sun set over Fethiye.