Dalyan & Fethiye – 26th August

On the morning of Monday 26th August I was up and about before daylight and even got a photo of the sunrise at 6.05am. Captain Caveman was travelling to Dong Hoi to see Stu and was staying in the city. Jamie and I set off for Fethiye after a quick stop off at King Emlak. Jamie dropped me off near where I needed to be and went in to town on an errand while I walked to the Government office building. It was very busy, I went in to the office and told them I had a new passport, a man passed me the form and told me to complete it outside. I did, then went back in, pushing to the front of the queues. He got angry with me and said he needed copies of my old and new passports. I pointed out he was sat next to 2 scanner/copiers but he said no and that I had to go away, get my own copies and come back in the afternoon. I didn’t like this man, he evidently wasn’t keen on me and I left, hoping I wouldn’t get my appointment for renewal with him. Next, Jamie drove us to the Erasta shopping centre where Jamie could have a short shopping spree and I would find somewhere to get passport copies, nearby.
I was in 2 minds as to whether I should bother going back to update my new passport number. Something made me consider that I could face issues if/when I left the country next (Rhodes in just over 2 weeks) and that I should persevere with sticking to the rules. I went to LC Waikiki, a popular clothes shop, as I was desperate for some shorts that fitted me. The pair I did have fell down without unfastening the button and zip! I tried on 2 pairs which were in the sale and the Size 40 fitted me, I spent 659.98 lira (£15.35) on both pairs.
They weren’t cheaper than Primark but I’d been unable to get any there, on my last visit. I was happy and feeling in a better mood as I left the shopping centre in search of a printers. Luckily, I spotted Foto Deniz, a place where I could get my biometric photos done which I needed for my residency renewal application, anyway. It was 300 lira (£6.98) for 4 passport photos on a white background and he also took copies of my passports for free – mission completed.
By this time, it was lunch time and so there was no point going back to the Government office as they would be at lunch. Jamie and I decided to grab a drink and a sandwich at the nearest place, since he had quite a few bags!!! I have only ever seen someone with bags like that on a film, like Pretty Woman. Here’s what we had at the cafe, with the prices in lira;

Kahve Dunyasi, Erasta centre

1 bottle of water 25.00
1 Mint & lime smoothie 112.00
1 chicken caesar sandwich 140.00
1 mozzarella, tomato & pesto sandwich 145.00
Total spent 422.00 lira (£9.81)

The lunch was reasonably priced, the queue was massive and took ages. I couldn’t recommend the lime and mint smoothie which was definitely going to make me ill but the sandwiches were pretty good. It was also the place to go if you needed Ethiopian coffee beans, which seemed popular.
Back at the Government office, the nasty man I had seen that morning wasn’t working that afternoon and the lady at the next desk told me to come back tomorrow. That was not an option so I stood there until she did my change of passport number. It took seconds once she started it and I checked it was processed on the computer after hearing stories of others still finding it had the old number when doing their residency.
We drove back to Dalyan and I was very grateful that Jamie had been kind enough to invite me a long. I was back at my parents’ place by 4pm and it looked like most of the neighbours had gone home. A couple of cats sat on the step looking for food and wondering where everyone was. I had been at this apartment for 2 weeks now and still hadn’t had chance to go in the pool, I noted that I would this week while it was still really hot.
For dinner, I made myself a mushroom risotto which tasted fantastic, if I do say so myself! I was in bed by 10pm having had a busy and tiring, but productive, Monday.