As we were about to disembark from our yacht, we decided it would be a good time to pick a destination for the evening and call ahead to reserve a room.  Success on the first try so we were off to Yildirim’s Guest House in Fethiye.  Finding the bus station was easy enough with Dan’s guidance except for the part where Google Maps told us to walk straight through the military base. J

We checked into our spotless air-conditioned and Spartan room, dropped our bags and headed out. We wandered about the town, and it didn’t really have much draw for either of us. There heat and humidity were climbing and there were ominous black clouds. A big wind blew up, and before long big, fat raindrops were splatting on the sidewalks. Luckily we were just about at our lunch stop – a pide shop that Mark found in the guide book. Pide is kind of like a canoe shaped pizza, and we have seen lots of it everywhere. It’s very tasty! Also,a very common drink is Ayran, which is kind of like an Indian salt lassi – salty yogurt drink. Tastes much better than it sounds, I promise.

We hung out until the rain went away, slowly moseyed back to the guest house, and had a nap. In the evening we visited the Lycian tombs in the cliffs above the town around sunset The pink light hitting the cliffs was gorgeous.

We were heading back to the room, when we walked past a shop with an older woman rolling some bread type dough impossibly thin on a low wooden table. She would then add some greens, feta cheese, fold it over, pinch it closed, and lay it on a convex hot pan, kind of like an inverted wok. Once it browned on one side, it was expertly flipped, and done on the other side. 5 minutes total. I was fascinated so we went in. Definitely a locals place – not a lot of English was spoken and it took some gesturing, but we very much enjoyed our first spinach and feta guzleme! Very yummy. I’m not sure about the turnip juice that Mark had to drink with it (tastes like pickle juice) but along with an ayran, it made for a delicious dinner. It’s my new favorite food, and I will look for it everywhere. I fear it’s not something easily duplicated at home, so will have to eat my fill here. 

On the walk home we went past the fish market where you pick your fish in the center of the market and it gets taken to one of the surrounding restaurants on the edge of the market for cooking. It was a very happening place, but unfortunately we were both full so headed off to bed. 

The next morning we spoke to Omer, the local who owned the guest house, to get the low down on the bus options to Antalya. Turns out that for a few years he used to live in Dundarave and write for the North Shore News. It really is a small world.