One of our first tasks once we arrived in Finike Setur marina, Turkey, was to check out the weekly farmer’s markets held in town on Saturdays. We’d heard that the shed they were held in was large and Baz was curious to see if this shed was as good as an Aussie shed.
Well it was. It was huge, well-built and more like an indoor sports stadium than a shed.
We’d been given instructions on how to get there as it’s a little way from the marina and we still hadn’t got to grips with the road system round town.
Unintended jewellery purchase
On the way we spied a space shuttle sitting in a car park and made jokes about it being a NASA giveaway, and “eat your heart out Jeff Bezos!” While we were filming the fairground ride a friendly Turkish fellow approached us and began to talk about movies – moving on to Aussie movies once he found out we were from Australia.
He introduced himself as Muammer and said he had a jewellery shop. Then he offered to take us back to his shop for a cup of Turkish Çay (tea). I had a feeling we’d feel obliged to buy something from him, but given the economy in the country at the moment, I willingly said yes and Baz followed along with Sony camera in hand.
We had a nice cup of herbal tea and a tasty piece of cake that Muammer’s wife had made. Then Muammer asked if I’d like to buy a piece of the jewellery that he’d made. Telling him that I don’t wear much jewellery and also make my own didn’t fell on apparently deaf ears, as he was quite motivated for a sale. I had a look at his very large and well-made stock and chose a couple of items. Then we had a little bartering moment and I came away with a nice bracelet made of dark blue spherical glass beads, and also a little necklace made from dark blue painted wooden beads. Both went nicely with the navy and white striped tee shirt I was wearing. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with the price, I paid about the same as I would for costume jewellery in Australia, so I was happy and I think that would have been very fair to Muammer.
Massive market
We went on to the market, following his new instructions, because we’d had a bit of a detour to get to his shop near the PTT (post office).
After a nice walk in the warm October sunshine along the river ‘canal’ we arrived at the market.
And boy was it huge! I’ve never seen so many fruit and veggie stalls under one roof! Along every side were shops containing butchers, fishmongers and little cafés which made fresh gözleme. At the front of the building were quite a few older couples who looked to be selling a small amount of produce from their gardens. Their offerings were as fresh as the commercial growers and so where possible I bought what I could from these people first. It felt good to be able to support them.
We also purchased a kilo of lamb mince and half a kilo of lamb cutlets from a butcher at the market. The meat looked very fresh and would last us a few days.
On the way back to A B Sea, we stopped at a local fishmonger and bought a couple of good sized sea bream to cook on the marina barbecue the following evening.
The costs for these items (and you can see how much we purchased in the video) were:
Meat – a total of 195 TL (which at the October 2021 exchange rate of 6.87 TL to the AU$) came to AU$ 28.36
Fish – 50 TL for two large sea bream or AU$ 7.27
Vegetables – a total of 80 TL or AU$ 11.63. I figured you probably couldn’t buy the strawberries in Australia for that amount.
As I write this at the end of January 2022, today’s current exchange rate is 9.78 TL to the AU$.
Renewing our Turkish Residency – getting new Ikamets
Samet Gölgeci from Finike Yachting Agency at the marina kindly arranged our insurance and lodged our details to renew our 12 month Turkish residencies.
Tarık from Tarık Turizm in the marina then got our paperwork together and also drove us to the Residency Office in Kemer in a deluxe 8 passenger Mercedes van.
He waited for us and then brought us home. The van itself was wonderful, almost to the point of having a bar and swimming pool. Well, it didn’t have those, but the interior was super comfy with cushions. And even the floor was padded! I felt very special!
In this week’s video Barry also breaks down the costs involved, if you’re interested.
While we were waiting for our initial paperwork to be processed, we found a little restaurant opposite the Kemer council building, and had a very tasty and again, very reasonable breakfast. Check out what we each had in the video!
After a four hour round trip (including the meal), Tarık was letting us out of the van back at the marina. And we were armed with an official piece of paper each which we could use until we received our Ikamets which would be mailed to the marina in a few weeks. Mine came through after a couple of weeks, and Barry’s arrive about two weeks after that.
All in all, it was a very simple and easy process. Thank you Samet and Tarık.
If you’d like to see what I’ve just written about, then check out this week’s video here.
Until next week, I wish you health, wealth, courage and a healthy dose of wisdom, as you take the actions to bring your dreams to life.
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