David and Sue in Yesilkent - the beginning (2005 - 2006)

Our First Year in Turkey

Hi, and welcome to our blog. We will endeavour to keep you up to date with our activities here in Yeslikent which has been our home for the past year.

Where is Yesilkent?

It's on the Aegean coast of Turkey near Didim (Altinkum). The two biggest resorts above and below us are Kusadasi and Bodrum. (If you double click on any map or picture, you will see a larger version)

Well let's play catch up. A quick resumé of our last year. We arrived in Yesilkent on September 12 2005 having sold up everything we owned in UK. We had decided to make a complete break, with no ties and no escape route so that we could commit 100% to our new lives. Our property in UK was still awaiting completion of it's sale, so we just crossed our fingers and held our breath for nearly a month before the good news came. We needed that sale, as our income in our new life depended upon it.

When we arrived we had to get stuck in to getting the house winterised and ready for permanent living. It was still in it's holiday home guise. We had to have the roof insulated, the gutters put up, more kitchen units, and more furnishings all round really.

We had to get a residency permit before we could arrange to have a phone line and to be connected to the internet. We also needed it in order for our shipment of personal items to be allowed into Turkey. It wasn't easy, as the offices were in Aydin, the county town 2hours journey from here, the forms were in Turkish (as they should be) and the officials spoke no English, as expected. With the help of a neighbour who told us which buses to catch and the location of the offices, we managed it, using our very limited Turkish and a lot of sign language.

The garden had to be cleared of rubble and new topsoil delivered and then we had to get a few plants to start it off.

There was so much to do, we hardly had time to breathe, and amidst all this, our friend Brian had arranged to come and stay with us, so we had to find some time to entertain him as well.

At the end of November our long awaited shipment arrived at Izmir docks from the UK. This contained all those personal items we just couldn't bear to be parted from and pieces of vital equipment unavailable here at the time. After an exhausting day at the docks, and much negotiation leading to us being parted from several hundred pounds in bribes, we arranged for our 64 boxes and one canoe to be delivered two days later. Lucky Sue. The day of delivery was her birthday ... all those boxes to open. The day arrived with an absolute déluge. Our road turned into a river of mud. We waited hoping for a small lorry. A large lorry arrived and promptly sank in the mud. The men were brilliant, and got all our goods off with very little mess being transferred indoors. then we had the problem of getting the lorry out of the mud. Pushing, pulling, digging all to no avail. Eventually we had to hire a tractor ... note: WE had to hire a tractor to pull the lorry out. Still, we got our goods, unpacked them and stowed them away. So far so good; until that is, we got to the canoe. Some twit had stood on it and there was a large hole in the side. The fountain for the top terrace also had the top snapped off. That was the only damage and we postponed the repairs to a later date.

Shortly after this, on Dec 6th our friends Yo and Nigel arrived to start their new life in Turkey. They had decided to start totally afresh here and not have a shipment, and to be honest, we wish we had followed that line. The trauma, effort and cost of ours was just not worth it.

Christmas was fast approaching and we solved the presents for the UK problem, by ordering over the internet from Argos and having it delivered. The easiest Christmas shopping we've ever done. Cards however were another problem. As this is largely a muslim country, cards are not widely available, so once again we turned to the internet and sent e-cards.

posted by David and Sue @ 7:55 am