I landed at Dalaman airport at 12.30am on Sunday 18th January and waited quite a while for my suit case, in fact I was one of the last out of the airport. I hadn’t managed to drink the prosecco on the plane so I had some to bring home, I didn’t bother with anything at Duty Free as I was going to try to cut down on alcohol. Unfortunately, while going through the nothing to declare exit, I got stopped. The staff member there opened my suitcase and, because of the last minute cramming in of produce, it was in a bit of disarray with food all over the place. The man asked me what it was and pointed at the food. I replied it was food as I was cooking dinner for my family and friends tonight. He smiled, said ok and let me go! I was so relieved because I really hadn’t want it to be confiscated.
My usual taxi man, Sonuç was on his way to the UK with his family so he had sent Engin. He took my case and we travelled back fairly quickly to Dalyan where he dropped me at the gate to the apartment complex and the fare was £30. The taxi rank at the airport is only £25 but I prefer to have a driver I know when arriving in the night/early hours and they don’t always drop you at your home when coming from Dalaman. I went in, put the electric back on and decided to unpack so that I could get the food in the fridge and freezer. Despite having to leave some back in the UK, I still had loads of lovely stuff which is either expensive or unavailable in Turkey.
I went to bed and although it was quite cold in Dalyan, it was still a bit warmer than London. I didn’t set an alarm as I didn’t have to be anywhere until later in the day. I didn’t have the internet with it being a Sunday so it was a nice quiet day. I did manage a bit of a walk round the town and to the bank. I got an update from 2 of my customers who were on a sleeper train, heading to Dong Hoi and were going to be staying in Phong Nha, Vietnam. They seemed to be enjoying themselves so far and I was looking forward to finding out how they would like Phong Nha.
At 5.30pm I popped my new Christmas and birthday clothes on and I met Jamie at Ela’s Kitchen for a Sunday dinner. I’d been a bit reluctant when he asked to book it in as I thought I’d have had enough English food but I decided to go for the Sunday dinner. It was a relatively new thing at Ela’s, with soup for starter, beef for main and cake for afters. They offer choice of chicken or nut roast at 850 lira (£15), beef at 950 lira (£17) or lamb at 1,100 lira (£19) which included the 3 courses. The food was really good and I was super stuffed, I also had a glass of red wine to wash it down with. When we went to get the bill, Jamie insisted on paying for it as a birthday treat, which was really lovely.
Gratitude List
1. Getting back to Dalyan with a suitcase full of treats
2. Having a good sleep
3. Sunday dinner birthday celebrations with Jamie.
Discover more from joloyolo
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
joloyolo 