Dalyan & Fethiye -17th March

My Residency Renewal agent, Dale, had told me to be ready for pick up at 7am on Monday 17th March. The appointment was in Fethiye at 9am and he wanted to get there early to meet Gürkan, the translator, who had set up the appointment for me. I got a message at 6.50am that the pick up would be 7.30am and I think we even set off later than that. I had already let the dogs out at Jamie’s and fed them early so Edna knew something was going on. I’d allowed for the fact that we would probably spend time in Fethiye, after the appointment. Gürkan had already paid the application and card fees so we didn’t need to go to the separate office to do that, like last time, and no one had mentioned about the Council Tax needing paying. I still didn’t have the earthquake insurance document either but that was being prepared for later today.
I sat outside the GOC office to wait my turn. It was a lot quieter than when I was last there and even seemed to be a bit more organised. I met Gürkan and we handed my documents in. After waiting just a few minutes, I got called in to the office where the lady had already printed off my residency renewal confirmation paper and simply asked me to sign the application form. There were no questions and I was out in less than 30 seconds of sitting down to sign. I had been granted the 2 years residency and I was really pleased. I thanked Gürkan and Dale and we left. My new residency permit (ikamet) would be issued from Ankara in a month’s time when the existing one expired and would probably arrive in the first week of May.

Back at the car, I suggested we go to get a hot drink somewhere and we were thinking of MacDonald’s but it wasn’t open yet – we’d been so efficient. Dale suggested a place he’d been before which was a bit nicer and I was happy to try it.
Big Chefs seemed like an appropriate place to go for a bit of a treat to celebrate the successful renewal. Dale ordered a protein shake while I ordered sage tea and a cheese and sucuk toastie for my breakfast. The views were great and the place very clean and relaxing. Here’s the prices, in lira, for our fancy breakfast;

Big Chefs
Sage tea 173.00
Protein shake 235.00
Toastie 390.00
Total spent 798.00 (£16.84)

I gave a cash tip and we made our way back to Dalyan as Dale had to get back for another appointment. Upon return, Edna was super excited and tried to insist on opening some wine but I said no. It was far too early in the day for celebrations and I had work to catch up on, but I did invite a few friends out later to mark the occasion.

After sorting out the dogs and cracking on with some work, I let people know I had got my 2 year residency renewal. As per usual, I hadn’t spoken to Captain Caveman, he hadn’t wished me luck for it and he didn’t respond to my update that I was successful as he was probably busy at work. I had a cheese sandwich for lunch and overnight oats as a pudding. Aytaç, the insurance man, called and had my earthquake insurance documents ready for me. It had cost 1,501.14 lira (£31.67) for the year. I nipped out to collect the document and decided to ask him to quote for our contents insurance as he had done such a good job.
That evening, I arranged to meet friends at Ren Garden for a drink to celebrate Residency Renewal success and St Patrick’s Day. I had a good evening despite the rather eclectic mix of people. I managed to drink 3 cans of Guinness but then I was getting peckish and I needed dinner. We paid the bill at Ren Garden, my 3 drinks were 600 lira (£12.63) which I was more than happy to splash out on as a treat.
One of the friends and I decided to eat at Çağrı restaurant where she just had a lentil soup with bread. I had the soup and a mushroom pide and took half of it home. I paid the bill which came to a total of 530 lira (£11.16) including a tip. When I got home, Norman had already took himself off to bed and was snoring. I’d also got a photo from one of my friends who had bought a copy of my book and it had arrived today. I spent the rest of the evening on the sofa having cuddles with the dogs and feeling relieved about my 2 year residency.

Gratitude List
1. Getting my 2 year residency renewal.
2. Having a bit of a celebration for my renewal and for St Patrick’s Day
3. Soup and pide for dinner.