Summer Holiday Adrasan – Catch Up

With the coming of the summer school holidays once again the Musa family packed their bags and headed for Adrasan on the Turkish Coast. I am embarrassed to write this as it must seem our family must lack initiative or gumption by continuing to go to the same place each summer. Perhaps the truth is that just as I am a lazy gardener, I am also a lazy traveller. It is just too easy to go back to the place where you know it will be warm; the natives are friendly and have got to know you; there are no ‘resort hotels’; the scenery is magnificent and once there, it is relatively inexpensive. The youngest Musa also demands to go back there as she has made many chums there which she keeps in touch with throughout the year on the interweb.
For all this I still feel that this once intrepid backpacker and hitch-hiker has settled too easily for the quiet life. I am comforted though by the fact that my good friend Dave the Puma has been taking his holidays in the same place on Crete for much longer than we’ve been going to Adrasan. (Perhaps I should say that as I write this (March 10) that yesterday I booked flights to Antalya and rooms at the Arikanda River Garden for a week over Easter! And . . . . . I have already booked flights for the summer!)
I mentioned that Adrasan was reasonably inexpensive, unfortunately this is not true of the air fares to Adrasan particularly during school holidays. We flew with British Airways and, in truth, they gave the best deal but they did succeed in losing our luggage. It is an intense feeling of dismay that one gets when one has landed in a foreign country to discover that one’s entire collection of underpants has flown off in a different direction and could be anywhere in the world! We survived quite well for the 2 days it took for my underpants and the rest of our luggage to find us. We bought basic supplies including a new pair of swimming shorts from the local shops. I learnt to say in Turkish “I have new swimming shorts” which goes something like: “Ben yeni mayo var”. I was very proud of my linguistic achievement and took every opportunity to use my new phrase of Turkish whenever I could. On reflection now I can understand the worried look of sometimes complete strangers who I practised this phrase upon.
We stayed at the Mithat Hotel which was very good thanks to Oner, his family and staff. We frequented the Chill House restaurant most lunchtimes (and had a few bottles of Efes) and as always got a warm welcome from Musti, Mustafa and Hussein. We had some great evenings and great food at The Arikanda River Garden where, as usual, Vahit, Felamos, Akif and Mehmet were excellent hosts. We enjoyed some boat trips aboard Captain Ali’s boat Dazler in the company of Ali, his son Mert and Sulyman.
Photos:

Efes at The Arikanda River Garden

 

Mithat Hotel at breakfast time

Efes, flowers and Panama hat – lunch Chill House

Captain Ali’s boat Dazler (taken in 2007 and photoshoped)

Ramasan’s Bar in the village, (Ramasan standing centre). Lazy Sunday! The best thing to do on Sunday is to take a Dolmus to the village market and then move on to Ramasan’s bar in the village for a few late morning Efes. Then take a dolmus to the Arikanda River Garden to relax in the shade with your feet in the cool river and have lunch. Afterwards return to the beach for a late afternoon swim.