Better Late Than Never by Bob & Jayne

[Chris_S]

Back Problems?  Groin Strain?

Admit it - Bob's really a Premier League footballer, isn't he?

[kalkan4eva]

I'm so relieved you are relaxing today....your holiday schedule puts ours to shame but has given me lots of food for thought for next year's visit. Bob needs some fastgel from the lovely pharamacist - it should sort him out in no time.
You deserve the Queens Award for services to EK for getting up after a night where wine was consumed in rather large quantities - they do serve super large glasses in Asian Garry and it is very nice wine - to post on your blog.
I'm really going to miss these wonderful daily updates when you go home 
So no alcohol today eh?.....bet that's already gone by the wayside

[Lizilu20]

Another fantastic report Shirl and I'm very much looking forward to repeating it tonight 

[Skunk]

Great report again. Sorry to hear Bob's not too good, hope he's better today. I expect it was strain from the Saklikent trip and a day rushing up and down the steps on Yildiz 2. A bit of a chill now is a good idea before you get back to the usual grind. 

[Bob & Jayne]

Bob's feeling a lot better thank you all, 3 x Efes this afternoon and some anti inflammatories seem to have done the trick.  K4E, he was going to go to the Pharmacist, but he seemed to think that the 3rd Efes would be the better option!

Chris S, he's not into football, let alone play it.  , he's more of a cricket man!

[Bob & Jayne]

It's Saturday and our last day at the Dream as we will be leaving to go to our apartment tomorrow.  Looking forward to that very much, but will also be sad to leave this hotel as we have realy enjoyed it.

Friday - Breakfast (scrambled eggs), and Bob with his painful leg still isn't up to galivanting as he called it! so decides to go and get his 2nd haircut, he always insists on that at the end of our holiday.  Down to the shack he went, and we thought we would have a slow walk down to the beach afterwards. When I went down to meet him, he had only just been shown to his seat, so I went ahead and he would come down afterwards.  I slowly walked through the town, taking a sneaky peak in the bag shops, as one does! Arrived at the beach, and immediately heard my name being shouted, and there was Lizzie and her youngest in the sea, and Automan on his sunbed.   I went over to join them, and 2 sunbeds and 2 more parasols later, and I was sorted.  Bob appeared with his new very short haircut, and we had a relaxing morning with our friends, swimming, chatting and people watching! You've already heard about the Turtles, and the huge one that was swimming right by me!!!!!!! They really are beautiful though, and we spent a good couple of hours all watching them rear their heads out of the water. 

We left the beach and wandered up through town, slowly as Bob was still struggling, stopped off at Merkez for a drink.  One Efes and one frozen iced lemon was ordered, I have never tasted anything so lovely, if you go to Merkez, then I thoroughly recommend you try one of these. More people watching and another quick look in BSG and back to the pool we went. Four hours later and after a lovely relaxing afternoon mainly on our sunbeds and in the swimming pool, it was time to get ready for our meal at the Moonlight Pension.

We walked to the restaurant, and was stopped by an American chap! giving out flyers for the Blue Turtle Bar next to Chillies, we took his leaflets and after a quick chat, off we went to the Moonlight to meet the Gang, and our 2 friends who live in Kalkan. We had the front table with a fantastic view.  This is another must go restaurant if you haven't already been.  All homecooked traditional Turkish food, and run by a lovely family, and the mum does all the cooking.  Garlic bread was on the House, and both OH and I had stuffed peppers to start, I had Tava, which is a minced lamb layered with vegetables and topped with a lovely cheese and served with rice, it was delicious, OH had stuffed aubergine with mincemeat and served with the rice.  For dessert, I had strawberry icecream, and although I am not a fan, it was lovely, and OH the Baklava. For a 3 course set menu, it is 48TL, obviously plus alcohol! and the wine was certainly flowing by this time, and everyone was having a great time.  We did remember to watch for the Space Station at 9.13pm, Bob had set a reminder on his phone, so that was interesting, and the girls really enjoyed watching it. 

It was around 11pm, and Lizzie said she really must go and buy the towels in town, so we all said goodbye and we all left the restaurant, with Lizzie and Automan going on ahead.  By the time we wandered along to the roundabout, they were looking in the gift shop with their girls.  We stopped for a chat, and before we know it, not sure how, but the towel shopping had been abandoned, and we were all off to the Blue Turtle Bar for a nightcap, and goodness me we are so glad we did.  It was a fantastic atmosphere in there, live music, another chap and his wife walked by, he came in and sang a few songs, then another lady with an amazing voice got up and sang, such a fabulous atmosphere.  The drinks were flowing by this time (as Lizzie will no doubt tell you later), we so wanted to dance........

All I can say about last night is that we had such a fun fun time, and Lizzie and I EXCELLED!!!!   

Saturday - Today we skipping breakfast, as we are off to Fener for brunch, and my favourite of all things tonight is the Moonlight Cruise on Pina X, a sort of finale to our holiday! We can't wait. I have taken a peep outside this morning and the sea looks very calm indeed!!

Until tomorrow ........................

Shirl xxxx

[Haybo]

So sad that your stay is nearly over,, but lovely that you go back to your apartment for a few days - to get the washing done! Do you have your next trip in the diary already?

[Haybo]

Well we finally managed to capture bob and jayne on the town webcam! The image was a bit grainy, but we saw them heading down to their evening boat trip.  Looking forward to hearing all about it!

[Chris_S]

Glad to hear Bob's not into football - that makes four of us.

And I thought we were the only two ...

[Bob & Jayne]

Sorry folks I am late in delivering my blog this morning, been a busy morning packing, as we are leaving for the apartment this morning, but we have just realised we can't gain access until 6pm!! Never mind, the sun is still shining, in actual fact the temperature reached 47 degrees yesterday, it was boiling, the hottest day they have had yet this summer!

Saturday - A lovely day on the beach with the Gang, and brunch at Fener.  We watched the turtles swimming in and out of the bay, it was fab.  Wandered back mid afternoon to get ready for our moonlight cruise at 6pm.  On the way back down to the harbour we went to find the webcam, as Haybo and her family were at home waiting for us to appear! When we reached the roundabout, we weren't quite sure which camera it was as there were several on various different buildings.  The scene was basically Bob and I waving furiously at every camera we could see, we must have looked such idiots, but we were laughing at each other.  The good thing is that Haybo saw us, me dressed in pink and Bob in blue!!  After making fools of ourselves, we went back down to Fener to meet everyone for a pre moonlight cruise, it was so so hot, as we walked down, it felt like someone had a blow torch on the back of my legs.

We boarded Pina X at 6.15pm, and off we went.  The sea was failry choppy so we motored over to Frank bay and the anchor was lowered.  What an amazing night we had, we saw the space station go over, there were so many stars it was incredible.  We swam, laughed, ate, drank ...... talked and generally had the most wonderful evening.  We were all so chilled and relaxed, and would definitely recommend a moonlight cruise at the end of a holiday in the future.  When it was time to return to Kalkan, none of us really wanted to, but all good things have to come to an end, so just before midnight, Captain Abdi started the engine and we motored back to the harbour.   

Another wonderful day in Paradise ................

Shirley x

[Skunk]

wish you'd told me, I would have looked out for you! Glad you had a good time on the cruise. Keep cool if you can!

[Haybo]

I find looking at the stars very emotional! We had already decided to do a trip on our last day or night next year. 

Hope my dorset piccies are helping you prepare yourself!

[Babs]

Have just been catching up with your blog Shirl after a few days away in deepest darkest Devon where I couldn't get any sort of signal......fair to say you haven't held back! Is there anything you haven't done this holiday? You've had an amazing time! 

[kalkan4eva]

Another great post, Shirley. I don't know what I'm going to do when you go home

[Bob & Jayne]

Happy Bank Holiday to you all! Our day has finally arrived, packing up to go home, oh I know that you can't be on holiday forever, but so wish we were staying another week or 2!!

Sunday - Well we got our wires crossed yesterday and thought we could get in the apartment in the morning, but in actual fact couldn't get in until 6pm, but our transfer company, Define Tours kindly loaned us a very nice Dacia Duster for a couple of hours, and after saying goodbye to everyone at the Dream, including that beautiful puppy Pasha, who insisted on sitting on our cases and wouldn't budge! we drove up to the apartment and dropped our stuff off, and then drove up to Kalamar Bay.  We don't often go up that way, but it is so beautiful, we called in at the House Cafe and Bar, and ordered pizza, coffee and coke, the owner Ali was a lovely man, we sat eating our lunch looking out at the bay, it was lovely.  We left the restaurant, and he came back with a lovely shopping bag personalised with the House Cafe logo.  We drove back to Kalkan, picked up a few bits, and then down to the beach.  The beach was full today, so we went to the other end by the Pinar Cafe, the beach man whose name I have now established as Ahmed, he found us an ambrella and 2 sunbeds with cushions and we were sorted! It was so hot again today, but we had a lovely few swims, took in the view, thinking this is the last beach visit for us until next year, but we had had so much fun on the beach this year, it didn't matter.

Around 5.30pm we packed up our things, and headed off towards the taxi rank.  10Tl later, we were back at the apartment.  We rebooked the taxi for 7.25pm, as we were heading into town to meet up for our farewell dinner with the Gang at Akin with a sundowner first at the Fountain Bar. After a quick swim, in just under an hour and a half, we had unpacked our things, showered, and were ready for the off! Taxi arrived and back down to town we went.  The Fountain Bar is lovely, lovely view from the terrace too.  We ordered our drinks, and sat talking to our lovely friends about the wonderful holiday that we had all had.

8.30pm table was ready for us at Akin, we all ordered our meals, we had liver to start, it was delicious and OH an aubergine dish, Cleopatra steak for OH and shrimp casserole for me, all very delicious.  After dinner, suddenly fireworks appeared and the owner said come on girls, dancing time, well to be honest when we booked the table we had asked for dancing, as that is what we did there last year.  All of a sudden all the ladies got up and there were Lizzie and I dancing in the street! I think it now has to be a tradition on our last evening to do that!

It was getting late, we were all tired, we had really enjoyed our evening, but OH and I were now realising that our holiday was coming to an end.  We said our goodbyes, big hugs all round, and off we went to get our taxis.  Back at the apartment, we couldn't even manage a nightcap, tired, happy and full!

Monday - Awoke 8am, first lot of washing in, going to spend the morning sorting out of things, only hand luggage going home so will be good. Our flight isn't until 5.30am Tuesday morning, but we get to spend the  whole day and evening here, so not too bad, the final decision is where will we eat tonight?

My next and final blog of this holiday will be when we are home, but thank you all for your lovely comments, I have really enjoyed keeping you all up to date with our wonderful holiday adventures.  We are already planning next year's holidays already, 2 weeks at Easter, and 4 weeks in the summer, fingers crossed!! 


Shirley xxx

[Haybo]

Jayne, what a wonderful time you have had.  Kalkan is a very special place. Oh, the choice for your last night......asian Garry wont be the same without the Gang, i think a terrace is in order so you can gaze at the view. Feeling teary just thinking about it.

Enough emotional guff ....its chucking it down here.  Happy bank holiday indeed!

Catch you on the other side! Xxx

[Blue Lizard]

Thank you for taking time to share your hols with those of us back in Blighty!! have a safe journey home and wear something  waterproof!!

[Babs]

Thanks for the blog Shirl......feel free to carry on at home!   

[Christina]

I have loved reading your holiday reports Jayne - thanks for taking the time to update us all on your adventures. They have been a joy to read, and I feel I have been with you every step of the way. I am sure you have inspired many Kalkan-lovers to do different things on their next trip, as well as providing an excellent incentive for would-be visitors. I loved spending time with you both in July - even during our ill-fated trip on Pina X on that choppy day, when we both held on the mast for dear life as the boat listed to 45 degrees - first one way, then the other! How we laughed!! 

Have a safe journey home, and I'm already looking forward to having fun in the sun again next Easter.

[Bob & Jayne]

Thank you all so much, well since early this morning, we have packed and done the washing much quicker than anticipated. Lizzie and Automan popped round, felt so sad to see them go, but we will look forward to repeating our fun again next year. So we're now back down at the beach! What a bonus as thought we wouldn't be back here until next April!