Sorry About Delay But We're Here

[Pompeyalbie]

No Internet so been storing it up & am now sat at Merkez using their wifi.
Episode 1 Return of the Pompies.
Everything went to plan, the flight was on time & queues at visa & baggage weren't too bad. Although someone was worried when her case was one of the last to come off when the baggage hall as nearly empty. Picked up the hire car and set off down the D400 following a similar car from Adda Tours who obviously knew we were following him as he tipped us off about a speed trap with a flash of his hazard lights just in time to slow down. He ducked in or a pitstop  just after the road goes right after Fethiye so we had a clear run up to Kalkan. Pulled up out side the complex around 4:15 which wasn't a bad time breaking speed limits. Found our villa which is a bit smaller than Rose which we'd stayed in on our first 2 visits. Good job we have a bath because the cold water pressure was non existent so a shower was impossible.
Right on to the interesting bit,dinner. We drove down to town & managed to park in my normal spot outside the butchers between the 2 roundabouts, I must say they are coming along nicely with the large building opposite, they were gutting it when we were here last now it looks wonderful. Our first stop was her favourite shop Missilver where we were met like old friends by Ozay, she had some earring they made her last time which need a repair so they are going to fix them for  her, luckily another customer came in so I managed to extradite her before she looked to much at there stock, although she has her eye on a 595tl necklace already :0(. We made our way round the loop & ended up at Alternatif where she'd decided was where we were eating tonight. Our last visit was Mustapha's birthday which was a great evening of fun, fireworks, booze & dancing. As usual he greeted us like old friends. Janet had a G&T which seemed a bit more like T&G with more gin than tonic, I had my first Efes of the year & that went down well. For starters I went for my favourite calamari while Janet went with a Turkish cheese borek which were huge.for our mains we both went chicken, me with an Alternatif, grilled with a cheese, tomato & chorizo topping while Janet has Chicken Hemmess(?) both were really nice. We washed these down with another Efes& a glass of Rosé which was followed up with a complimentary top up oh her wine. By this time she was near enough ( how can I put it delicately?) drunk  having not eaten since breakfast at 6 am at Gatwick. To finish off she had a pancake with fruit & honey ( because the was no alcohol in it) & I had a fruit salad with a touch of liqueur in it. The whole meal was fabulous & Alternatif is becoming one of our favourite places to eat, the background music is blues & soul which is great. Thoroughly recommend it as it doesn't seem to get much recognition on here. On the way back we stopped off at Adda Tours to book up Kelkova on Sunday which should be good. getting  her up the hill was funny in her state so I've tucked her up in bed with a glass of water to rehydrate her.
Wifi is a bit thin so may be blogging after we get back.

Episode 2 In Search of The Lost hours
Woke  up to glorious sunshine and that amazing blue sky. Water pressure was still pretty poor so SWMBO struggled in washing her hair with the shower head, oh dear. Going to head into town to pick up a few bits & pieces for the villa. Wandered into the opticians to get Janet's glasses repaired and have a look at his latest frames, I was taken by a nice set of Rayban frames but cannot make up my mind whether to buy another pair even though I had a 2 year eye test reminder a couple of days ago and his designs are a lot better than at home & cheaper. We moved on up to Merkez for a nice Jedi Juice and a people watch, not that there were many about. Next stop was the Small House to book a table for Monday night, I'm looking forward to that after the recommendations I've seen. Time for lunch so we stopped off at Fener for a toasted sandwich & a banana pancake. No visit to Fener is complete without a visit from Garfield who popped up on my lap for a bit of fussing. The local kids were enjoying the sunshine diving & bombing off the walkway into the clear sea, oh to be 50 years younger :0). On our way back we booked a day out on Yildiz on Wednesday, the week is starting to plan out. Came  back to the villa for a lazy afternoon in the sun by the pool, although it doesn't look clear enough to swim in yet. I was going to go to Atlantis for a Turkish bath but lost 2 hours having a siesta after yesterday's long day & a restless night on a hard bed.
Tonight we are off to Adam's on the hoof as we haven't booked, if he can't fit us in there are plenty of choices in town. I've got some more vegetable seeds & beans for his allotment.
I found a cold water feed tap in the garden so opened it fully and now the cold water is a lot better, I guess we are the first guests of the season so not everything is fine.
Just got back from Adam's apart from us the only other customers were a German couple  who are staying in Kas so a quiet night for them. I absolutely adore their place, so friendly, a wonderful view and delicious food to top it off. I had liver as a starter while Janet had a mushroom dish which she tells me was beautiful in the tastes & spices. I usually go for the Meze starter but that is enormous so went  for the liver with onions & cucumber sprinkled with cumin spice. For mains Janet went for the moussaka while I had my favourite dish out here their lamb shank which as always arrives ablaze,well worth the 4 hour flight & hour and a half drive . The whole business is now a family affair with his 2 eldest daughters helping out as front of house & in the kitchen when mum is busy in the home. She has taught them well as the starters were very nice. We rounded the evening with a complimentary Cointreau . I had a tour of his garden, he loves his flowers, fruit & veg he grows. I know I sound bias but I really love this place, it's not your cordon bleu portions you get in some places in town but real home cooked food . To any newbies coming to Kalkan for a first time I recommend you try & visit them you won't be disappointed.
Tomorrow sees us off on an organised trip to Kelkova which should be good.

Episode 3 Revenge of the Garlic
Sunday morning and we wake up to no cold water again but then it was back just before we left to be collected by ADDA Tours to take us to Kas for our trip to Kelkova . As we drove along the coast road you could see that the sea was a calm as a millpond which was good news as Janet doesn't like the sea at all, she doesn't get seasick is just scared of it because she cannot swim. I won't bore you with a swim by snorkel account of each stop but unfortunately the lunch stop caused a disaster, the chicken shish was marinated in garlic and she is not exactly allergic to it but it gives her very, very bad tummy problems even though she only had one bite of a piece of the chicken. Once again I will pass over the gory details, needless to say once we got back it was a bath, some medicine & off to an early night for her with plenty of water. Dinner for me was crisp & a cold Efes on the balcony watching stuff on my media player.
I actually managed to get an Internet connection tonight but 1 bar  is insufficient to load Enjoy Kalkan to upload this tales. Who knows what tomorrow will bring,  we've nothing planned but may still end up at Saklikent or the trout farm for lunch.

Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=10962.0

[HolmfirthNicky]

Excellent report Pompey!! So glad the reports are starting to come in, it'll keep me going till we go in Sep!
We also love Alternatif we discovered it last year and it's now one of our favourites. Hope Janet is feeling better after the garlic incident, look forward to more reports.

[Pompeyalbie]

Thanks Nicky, she's a bit frail this morning so just had a cold drink in Merkez before wandering back to the car at the bottom of the hill, so will give the webcam a wave in about 5 minutes. Popped in to the opticians to order some new glasses & a pair of prescription sunglasses for Janet. Off to Saklikent for a light lunch.

[Kalkankiwi]

Love your report Pompeyalbie. Look forward to reading the updates each day first thing. This year seems to be flying and can't wait until we are out again in the summer. Couldn't agree more with your choice of restaurants. We have been coming to Kalkan for over 5 years now and have seen many restaurants come and go but Alternatif and Adams remain our favourites. Fabulous food and wonderful hosts in both restaurants. They have never let us down.

KK

[Skunk]

Oh poor Janet with the garlic chicken! Apart from that I hope you enjoyed the day as it is beautiful at Kekova and the trip is one of our favourites.  Never been to Adems but it is on the list for this year when we go in August.

[Lizilu20]

Fantastic report. I'm really enjoying reading about your time in Kalkan. Hope Janet is feeling better now too. I'm looking forward to the next episode. 

[kalkan4eva]

Oh I'm hooked.....next installment please. Parc Kalkan has good wifi for the price of an efes or three. 4 weeks today for us, so your posts are keeping me going

[suzyq1]

Great reports Pompeyalbie! I  will be visiting Kalkan for my first time in August and reading these new reports is getting me more excited than ever! Hope Janet has fully recovered. There's nothing worse than feeling ill and being at sea. Am hoping to do a trip to Kekova and so have been using the search facility to find out as much as I can regarding best way to go about it. With Adda Tours did you have your lunch on board or on land? Also did you get to go ashore where the castle is? I have tried looking on various tour companies web sites but they don't go into much detail.

We don't  want a big boat crammed full of people which I'm scared may happen in high season, so if anyone out there can recommend a company that will keep the numbers low to ensure the comfort of it's guests I would love to hear about them.

Have a great day out on Wednesday. I will  look forward to hearing all about it especially as the weather is due to take a turn for the worse over here so will be in need of some sunny tales from Kalkan!

Suzyq1

[Pompeyalbie]

Episode 4  - Lost in Tlos
After a light breakfast of tea& toast for me we headed down the town to sort out some new glasses, I'd had a reminder a few days ago but as I'd had them tested at Gos, I thought I may as well go with his prescription and get some nice designer ones as opposed the Specsavers. Janet also wanted some prescription sunglasses for driving so we managed to negotiated a bulk purchase deal. I had the foresight to take my IPad with us so stopped off at Merkez for a juice & a tap into their wifi to post the gibberish at the top.
From there we set off for Saklikent by just using road signs :0). When we turned off the D400 just after Kinik we suddenly came across all sorts of informal picnics along the road in the woods. I don't know if it is some sort of holiday but at one point where the river winds along there were a large number if groups of families all with their fires etc having a meal. We got to Saklikent but never actually went into the gorge as we'd done it before but crossed over the bridge to get a drink. There must have been coaches in as food was being dished out via a voucher system. We decided to move on the the trout farm but after following advert signs they suddenly stopped so I guess we missed the turning. Next thought was ok let's go to Tlos, so kept following the "main" road through towns & villages and ended up on the road where the D400 joins. Oh well, we just drove back to town & had a snack at Feners before coming back to the villa for a dip in the now cleared pool.
Tonight saw  our first visit to Small House and if Sundancers comments are anything to go by it should be a nice meal. On the way down I stopped of for a shave & massage at the little shack and boy what a great 10TL that was, I was a bit tight after the driving this afternoon by by the time he was finished I was nearly asleep I was so relaxed. I have to say Sundancers recommendation was spot on, with only room for 16 people "John's' service was very attentive & informative . Janet wasn't up to a starter yet so couldn't get the Meze but a couple on the balcony had it & it was huge. We both fancied fish tonight so I went for a simple cheese borek as my starter, the first time I 've had them in all the years we've been coming and they are delicious. For mains I went for Fish Stew which came in a fish shaped dish with some chips, Janet went for Seabass which they filleted for her which was more like a whale not the tiny fillets you get at home. Both were beautiful in flavours & cooked to perfection. Not a large menu but for such a tiny place you can't expect one. I'll endorse Sundancer's recommendation and say go there if you can find it. It is a hidden gem. To drink we had the house wine which was really nice.
Episode 5 - This Piggy Went to Market
Being Tuesday it wouldn't be right without going into Fethiye for the market. We set off in bright sunshine again and did our normal for trips to Fethiye and drove on passed the turn off to Calis Beach. Here we park up and get the water taxi across harbour to Fethiye. They've done a hell of a lot of work on the area by the harbour and it looks really nice. It was turning into a scorcher of a day heat wise so I grabbed a 1TL bottle of water to keep me going. I was quite disappointed with the market this year, they don't seem to have the variety of previous visits. Janet likes to pick up some nice sandals but the shoes were mainly plimsolls. I do like to visit the food section, the smell of the spices & the colours of the fruit & vegetables are wonderful. I picket up some black tea and some pomegranate tea along with a strip of different spices to take home and that was it. We made our way back over to the town centre for a pit stop of a beer & toasted cheese sandwich before wandering through the lanes where we managed to find some ceramic coasters we were looking for which we couldn't find in Kalkan. We are on a mission to find 2 small  ceramic cats which our real one decided she didn't like and knocked over & broke but can't find them anywhere. After a window shop in the jewellers we've spent a fortune in over the years we made our way back to pick up the water taxi to Calis Beach. There we picked up a couple of pastries from the lady by the bridge and set off home. All was going well until just before Kinik and lots of drivers were flashing me so I slowed down thinking it was about the roadworks on one of the bends but lo & behold there was a place traffic stop who seemed to be stopping ever car.  Naughty me never had his licence on him but they accepted my passport after a bit of deliberating in the boot of the police car. Good job I'm not on the FBI or Interpol most wanted list. Back at the villa we had time for a dip in the pool before making our way down to dinner.
Tonight's choice of restaurant came from Ozay, one of the owners of MissSilver next to Sade, we've become friends over the year through them having some unusual pieces & me having a loose credit card. We always come out just before our wedding anniversary and again before Janet's birthday so I fall in the same trap every time, still he gives us some nice discount now. Anyway I digress, Ozay suggested Agora which is one we never tried before so after a quick look at the menu we were escorted to the terrace where there were just one other couple eating. Was this a good sign? Within 30 minutes the pace was full & they were moving tables to make more room, poor Zula next door was empty apart from 2 people. We got chatting to an elderly lady who was on her own and had been coming to Kalkan for the last 9 years and seen the place grow. Right down to food now, Janet was still not 100% so bypassed a starter and decided on Chicken a la Creme , but the choice on the menus was too much for me so I won't for Sardine starter which I expected to be tiny fish like white bait, wrong!! Out came 2 decent sized fillets grilled on a bed of salad and it was really tasty. For a main I won't for Elmi(sp?) Kofte meatballs with onion, peppers, mushrooms & tomatoes which had everyone looking as it arrived ablaze which unless a lot of other customers were having the same is a trait of their chef. The main was really nice full of flavours and nicely cooked. For desert I went for a Fresh Fruit platter which was sliced apple, kiwi, banana & oranges, Janet went for a light Creme Caramel. The dessert menu was like looking at one you'd find at home including Apricot Pie & Apple Crumble. With a couple of beers, a fruit juice & a glass of wine the bill came to 126TL which was well worth the money. That makes 2 new places we've tried this visit and both are worth a recommendation. We are out on Yildiz today so will be fed like Sultans all day by either of the captains wives so doubt we will be dining out tonight so that just leaves 1 night to choose for & we haven't been to Mussaka  yet either.
After leaving Agora she spotted the ladies clothes shop opposite and found a dress she liked for when we go to Ladies Day at Royal Ascot later in the year, unfortunately the one they had was a size too small so the owner rang around and is getting the next size up delivered in time and it is a good price so I'm told. Good job I paid for an extra 5kg on her luggage going back.

[Babs]

Sounds like you are having a great time, really getting about! Janet must be feeling a lot better if she is dress shopping!
It's great having lots of restaurant recommendations but......when we go in October (so far away  ) we have 8 nights to eat, 4 'must do' places and we always revisit our favourite on our last night......so that leaves 3 nights for new restaurants and I've already got a list of about 6! 

[Bob & Jayne]

Brilliant report Pompeyalbie, thank you.  Your holiday report has really brightened up my boring day in the office!  Getting the Taxi from Calis Beach to Fethiye sounds fun too! 

Jayne

[kalkan4eva]

great reports, Pompeyalbie.....feels like we are there with you
I hate that time during the trip where you know you are running out time and the "restaurant list" is longer than the days you have left Means you have to come back though.....

[Skunk]

Great report Pompeyalbie and it sounds like you are having a great time. ALMOST makes me want to hire a car but not quite! I hate driving on the right!!  Your account of SmallHouse sounds brilliant, B and J went last year but we haven't tried it yet. We went to Sade last year and had a very good meal. As K4E says, there are just so many restaurants to try it's always hard deciding.  And the list gets longer every year!.  Enjoy your last few days and keep up the good work with the reports. As Jyne says, they brighten up the day!!

[hobbo]

I hate driving on the right!! 

Skunk that shouldn't stop you, many of the locals also seem to hate driving on the right..

[HolmfirthNicky]

Another fab report Pompey!! We also love getting the water taxi from Calis to Fethiye, love walking round the Old town and as you say the harbour looks amazing now doesn't it with all the work they've done. Look forward to next instalment!!


Suzyq; I have sent you a pm regarding your earlier questions about Kekova.

[antler]

Oh Pompeyalbie, what lovely reports! You have had me in tears of joy. Are you sure that 5kgs of extra luggage will be enough?!
Hope you have a fabulous last few days and just remember, a lot of of people are enjoying this,  maybe even more than you realise!
Thanks for taking the time to share your enjoyment with us.
Steve

[Bob & Jayne]

Our sentiments exactly!

[Pompeyalbie]

Sneaky devils changed the password, got it now.
Episode 6 - Carry on Sailing
After a fruit juice at Merkez & a blast on their wifi to post the previous updates it was off to the harbour to join the crew of the good ship Yildiz . On the way down there was lots of movie type activity by Fener with a film crew on a diving boat moored up. We were on Yildiz 3 with Adam again which is the same as our first trip last May. The sky was a bit overcast first thing and the sea a little bit choppy at times. I managed to go snorkelling at every stop as the sea wasn't too cold considering the time of year. As usual the food cooked up by Ilkay was delicious, a lovely lunch & fruit and cake later on. A far better experience than on Sunday's Kekova trip.I don't know if there was an international incident in the east but 4 fighter jets flew over and back again while we were at sea in the morning.
We decided against eating tonight as we weren't hungry but still went down into town to pick up my new glasses and Janet's latest attack on my credit card via MissSilver. She had hoped her dress had arrived but it's been delayed , only tomorrow left for it to arrive.
Will do episode 7 when we get home tonight.

[Lizilu20]

I feel like I'm there with you Pompeyalbie  really enjoying your reports. Hope Janet's dress arrives before you depart and have a safe journey home. 

[michelle from newcastle]

Been fab loved reading this. Thanks so much x