Rain! and a great night out in Çaliş, Fethiye and Üzümlü

Oh joy! Oh bliss! It's raining and I can have my first night off from having to water the garden in 4 months 2 weeks and 2 days. We can have an early dinner and a slobby evening in front of the TV and reading our books. I didn't think I would ever hear the day when I would be pleased to see rain, and certainly I would prefer it to be a one off, rather than frequent, but tonight it will do nicely - thank you!

We are forecast thunder storms through the night and certainly the sky looks full of promise for that to be a reality. I love watching the storms they can be so spectacular up here in the mountains. In England the storms seem way above you, whereas here they seem to be around you. It will be interesting to see what the pups make of it, in their short lives (just over 5 months) they haven't even seen rain before never mind thunder and lightning.

The change in temperature today has meant the dogs are a lot more active, they have been chasing around the garden all day. We had a rather abrupt wake up call this morning when Big Red managed at last to work out the downstairs door handle, and being the adventurous, intrepid puppy she is, she couldn't resist exploring the stairs and beyond for the first time. Eventually she found us and leapt on the bed with great excitement. She may only be 5 months old, but she is already around Labrador size and solid with it, so to have her jumping on you in delight first thing in the morning is not really the best way to wake up. She was so very pleased with herself!

On Saturday night we went out for our gratis meal at Çaliş and had a brilliant evening. It was such a long time since we have done anything like that, it was quite an adventure. We set off at 4.30 in the afternoon to walk down to the village to catch the 5 pm dolmuş to Günlükbaşı, where we changed to the Çaliş dolmuş. We stopped to pass the time of day with the Estate Agents who found us our house, and then settled down at the Restaurant with an Efes to watch the beautiful sunset.

The Çaliş sunsets never disappoint

We had never been to Vojo's before so were very pleased to discover that they did Indian food which we love, so we settled for sharing Chicken Madras and Chicken Tikka Masala with mushroom rice and chips.



It made a change to have an Indian meal

After our meal we caught the water taxi back to Fethiye. We love that trip across the bay seeing the lights of Fethiye in the distance. It's something we never tire of doing. 5tl well spent in our opinion for a lovely view, day or night.

The lights of Fethiye ahead of the water taxi crossing the bay from Çaliş

We enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the harbour front, before walking to the dolmuş station via the new gardens along the harbour. It was the first time we have walked through them in the evening, when the fountains are working and lit, so we watched them for a while before getting the dolmuş back to the village.

The first time we've been to Fethiye in the evening to see the fountains going

We had managed to do all this and catch the 8.45 pm  dolmuş back to the village so as the night was still young we decided to finish a lovely evening out by having a nightcap at the Winehouse in Uzumlu.

A few months ago the Winehouse started having live musicians on a Saturday evening, but as we have not been out lately we had never been to check it out. We had a most enjoyable hour sitting quietly on the front terrace listening to the music going on upstairs, until eventually we were drawn upstairs to enjoy it all the more. There were three Turkish lads playing electro acoustic and bass guitars and drums, and performing a variety of rock classics. Just our kind of music and we eventually went home after 1.00 am! Well out of practise at nights out, it took us all day Sunday to recover!