We arrived to start our new life exactly one year ago on this coming Friday (March 1st) As expected, Manchester airport hammered us for to the tune of £275 for excess luggage, in fact the luggage cost more than the my flight ticket. We stood at check in, both of us wearing 3 coats with every pocket jam packed full of ‘stuff’
With some trepidation we arrived in Istanbul, Turkish airlines had arranged to send our luggage straight through to Dalaman, to be honest, I never expected to see it again but to my surprise it all worked out fine. Our plane arrived late into a really cold and snowy Istanbul, we ran through the airport following a porter who we had paid to show us the quickest way to our domestic connection, God, if we miss this flight then we may never see our luggage containing all of our worldly possessions. As we arrived breathless at the gate, we were told that weather had delayed the flight by over an hour !
Our transfer was there to meet us at Dalaman airport even though it was now approaching midnight, it was probably the first occasion I had to really contemplate what we were doing, our decision to come here and give it a go for a year was taken quite suddenly, Chris had become fed up by being messed about by Liverpool City Council who were (are still) wrestling with the prospect of making hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts and in my job, the company had appointed a new MD who was my boss and he was a total incompetent, After getting pension projections, Chris was told that hers was locked away until she was 65, some 14 years away but mine was available and even with a reduction for retiring 8 years early, we worked out that this was ,doable’ Even though, the thought of never again receiving those monthly pay cheques became quite a daunting one as we travelled through the darkness.
We had arranged for a builder to carry out major renovations on the house prior to our arrival, at the start of this project and while I was sending him money each week, the progress pictures came thick and fast, unfortunately, once the money was paid, the pictures stopped coming and the excuses started, again, my fears became heightened at what we might find.
We arrived just before midnight, the house was absolutely freezing and although the builder had cleaned up, it was still filthy by Chris’s standards, most of the work had been done but there were a lot of things wrong, incomplete or missing. The builder knocked on our door with a beaming smile as if to say “haven’t I done well” I almost had to restrain Chris and he left very soon after arriving with a ‘flea’ in his ear. We went to bed, it felt damp, we have never had so many blankets on the bed and we were still cold, we both lay there thinking, What the hell have we done?
I don’t know if you remember the Alan Sherman song? But next morning was bright sunshine and I can’t remember the circumstances, but we had arranged to meet Andy (Tinkerman) at Guven’s at 09.00 for a coffee, when we arrived there was no sign of Carol or Guven, or Andy for that matter, we ordered two coffees and when they arrived, I asked the waiter how long he had worked there, Oh, I don’t work here he said, I’m the butcher! We sat looking out over that magnificent view, not for one minute did we think that the people making the next James Bond film also agreed that this is a world class location, slowly as the sun warmed our bones, our confidence grew and we knew we had made the right decision.
Our first year has flown, Chris has made herself busy putting the house in order, we picked the fights with the builder that we thought we could win, we have had to relent on some things, it does annoy me that I have in effect had to pay twice to get someone else in to either complete work I had paid for or to replace items stolen over the previous winter but to be honest, I wasn’t prepared to spend the first year of my retirement arguing the toss.
Almost straight away, we both got involved with the Children’s charity, to be honest, I had always planned to lend a hand and Chris was going to try and help Animal Aid, as it turned out, I had never for one minute imagined just how hard these people work, in both cases there are people who do more than a full time job and we thought that if we committed to both causes we may never see each other. We have had some great laughs while raising money and met some lovely people at the same time.
Between April and October we became professional tour guides, you never realise how many friends and family you have until you come to live in the sun, the guys on the gate of Saklikent got to know me by my first name and stopped charging me an entry fee thinking I was an official tour guide. I have to say that although we enjoyed seeing everybody, it nearly killed us, we went out for so many meals, drank far too much and spent nearly every day out, in the end we said enough was enough and we took ourselves off for a relaxing holiday visiting Faralia, Dalyan and Kas. I think we learned a valuable lesson last summer and in the future we have to be far more disciplined by realising that it’s our visitors who are on holiday and not ourselves!
In November we made a trip back to the UK lasting 5 weeks, once again we made a mistake by agreeing with loads of people to visit them, in fact lots of them had spent their summer holidays with us, once again, even though it was lovely to see people, living out of a suitcase for 5 weeks is hard going, To be perfectly honest, I was worried about the trip, would we realise what we had left behind? for the second time could we leave friends and family behind? would we miss our house in the UK?
The answer to all of these questions came about in week three of our visit as I found myself looking at flight sites for an early return, it was at that point that I realised just how much I was missing my new life in Turkey and how good life had become.
As you would expect, we’ve had a few ups and downs, happily for us, there has been many more ups than downs. Our application for residency was straightforward however Chris washing my residency book in my shorts was another story! Chris had a bit of a health scare but we were both bowled over by the quality and standard of the service we received at the Esnaf Hospital, I was worried about healthcare before I came here but can honestly say that what I witnessed was first class, there has been a lot of talk on here about the SGK insurance, all I can say is roll on next week when we can apply, I think it’s the best value for money I have ever seen. I’m undergoing a big dental procedure at the moment having implants fitted and a bridge replaced, over the years I have had more than my fair share of dentistry and I can say with confidence that the service here leaves the UK standing. When I left the UK I was suffering high blood pressure and cholesterol, one year in and both of these problems have long gone (as well as the stress that goes with every sales job during a recession)
There is no doubt that prices have increased here, as Brits we often measure this by the price of a beer, not many years ago a large Efes was 2 lira, now its 6 or 7 or 13 if you’re in Istanbul (another story) but all in all, we still think it’s great value for money living here, our council tax last year was about £42, our gas bill for a year has been 72 lira (25.70), our electric meter stopped showing a display soon after we came and despite telling the electric company on several occasions, they fixed it in January and said they would estimate my bill for the summer, which they did at 400 lira (£143) admittedly, some things are expensive here, red meat, imported alcohol, in fact most imported goods as you would expect. Petrol is about the same as the UK and friends who own a car tell me that tax has gone up quite a bit this year. We decided that we wouldn’t buy another car while living here, I would be a rich man if I had the money spent on cars over the years, to be honest, we haven’t missed owning a vehicle one bit, in fact I was visiting friends who were on holiday in Olu Deniz during the summer, he was asking me about the car situation and couldn’t understand how I could get by without one. If I need a car, I pick up the phone and a brand new one, fully insured and immaculately clean turns up at my door for £17 per day, I don’t have to wash it let alone worry about servicing, Insurance, MOT etc. etc. The Dolmus goes everywhere, is regular and cheap and we’ve invested in two really nice bikes which we love riding around on, not least on our Tuesday bike ride where we are joined by about 16 others and we have a great day out culminating in a lovely lunch somewhere.
People told us that we would have to quickly realise that just because the sun shines most days, we would have to understand that we are not here on holiday and although I follow that logic, we still awake each morning and feel that lovely feeling when you wake up on holiday, we can eat out every night of the week if we wish, as an example, one of our favourite restaurants, serves a cracking starter of salad, fresh bread, esme (spicy tomato paste) garlic butter, then a choice of several different starters and main courses, the cost of this is 10 lira (£3.60) each. We don’t eat out every night but we do eat well, I’m not sure if you can buy processed food here, if you can, we certainly don’t eat any.
They are working hard to improve the infrastructure but in typical Turkish fashion, everything seems to be done arse about face, our road has been dug up about six times last year, Gunlukbasi looks like it’s been bombed, as a consequence we have had quite a few power and water cuts and the internet service is a law unto itself. On the positive side, they are laying good drainage so those lakes we see on many roads in the winter should become a thing of the past, they are taking down all of the overhead power cables which will improve the look of the place significantly and they are laying fibre optic cables, so any time soon……. (Fingers crossed)
The plan was always to stay for a year and then make a decision whether to make this our permanent place of residence or return to our home in the UK and make Turkey a long term holiday destination. We have now made that decision and Calis wins hands down. I have learned in life, never say never, but for now, this life suits us perfectly, we often reflect on what we would do day to day being retired in the UK and we can’t for one minute imagine that we would have the same variety and I have to say, the healthy lifestyle we have here. It’s not all about the Sun but of course that helps.
I remember reading with some awe reports on the forum from people who had moved out here and wishing so much to be able to have the same opportunities, the fact that I needed to work and pay a mortgage were my biggest problem. On Saturday, I was invited to watch Gunlukbasi FC for who we had provided the football shirts, I felt honoured to be there. Last year, Nichola invited us to the opening day at Mozaic Bache, again I felt it was a privilege to be there and on Friday I hope to help Animal Aid raise some money, my job is just to play some Motown and Soul music which will be my absolute pleasure.
Just before I asked Keith for some advice, he said, keep you circle of friends small and close, that was a seriously good piece of advice, and I would add, Don’t take the place for granted.
If you’re thinking about making the move then I hope the above helps and wish you the best of luck.
It’s an old cliché but fair to say that it’s the best thing we have ever done. We are so lucky to be able to appreciate just how lucky we are.
