I'm not big on birthdays.
When I was younger, and DJing for a living, I was usually working anyway so I counted that as my birthday celebration. In December 2021 it was my 59th trip around our Sun and to celebrate we went for a meal at the local restaurant just outside the marina gate.
One of our long term supporters, Steve Brunning, had sent us a gift and urged us to treat ourselves to something nice, so we did. A birthday celebration meal.
We asked Ant & Cid from SV Impavidus to join us and we had a fun night, great food and super conversation. We were so glad that Ant put the effort in because as you'll see from this week's video he was in great pain which was causing him a lot of difficulty walking. There is a problem with some of his lower vertebra compressing which is putting pressure on his spinal cord. He has an exercise routine that is slowly making things better. We're all hoping for a full recovery without the need for surgery.
A week after my birthday we joined many of the other marina liveaboards in the restaurant on the top floor of the Finike Marina Hotel for a specially organised Christmas lunch.
The Turks of course don't celebrate Christmas as they are Muslim, but they are always willing to wish us foreigners a merry Christmas as we pass them by or frequent their business.
At the hotel restaurant the drinks flowed, the meal was heartily consumed and the cake provided by Finike marina management topped it all off nicely. The cost was amazing too, just 100 TL (AU$10.40) per person. Drinks of course were paid for by each person as anything with alcohol in it is super expensive in Turkey due to very high taxes.
After lunch a bunch of us retired to the Red Lion pub in the marina complex to help support the Turkish tax system a little more. Actually it was a lot more as the conversations we were having with Ant and Cid and Phil and Cristina were flowing as easily as the beer and wine.
New Year's Eve was a cold and wet affair so we, like many others in the marina, decided to just huddle in the warm and dry saloons of our own boats. However a few brave and hardy souls did congregate at the marina BBQ area to celebrate the New Year.
2022
Cast your mind back to when we hired a car to make the run to the hospital in Kumluca for follow up checks after my health scare. We decided to extend our 2 day hire to 7 days and made our first trip of 2022 to the ancient site of Andriaki near to Demre. The nice lady in our satnav guided us there without fault.
It's called the Museum of Lycian Civilizations and Andriaki Ancient City and the cost to enter is just 10 TL (AU$1) or free if you have a museum card.
Andriaki used to be a major and prosperous port which was once part of the ancient city of Myra. Unfortunately the story of its demise is the same one that we've heard for many of the ancient port ruins that we've visited along the Turkish coast. The rivers the ports were situated on all eventually silted up and as the river became impassable trade became impossible.
Once you've paid your entry fee there are well kept paths that lead you past the ruins of churches, bathhouses, a synagogue, the agora and the port buildings themselves. After exploring all of those and weaving your way through lots of grazing goats you come to the huge Roman granary known as Hadrian's Granary. Reconstruction of the building was completed in 2016.
Inside the building there are eight separate sections which were dedicated to storing grain. The sheer size of each section boggles the mind at how much grain was being produced, stored and shipped.
These days each of the eight sections is dedicated to showcasing works belonging to the Lycian cities and civilization. There are more than 1000 historic artefacts which give an insight into the religious, social and economic systems that were part of the Lycian, Roman and Byzantine empires.
At the port agora (shopping/market area) there are two eye catching well-heads and off to one side a stone staircase beckons you below to explore the ancient water cistern that provided fresh water to the city.
I think you'll find our tour of the museum and some of the surrounding area fascinating and also watch out for the goat eating grass in a way that I've never seen before. Be aware that the museum is closed on Mondays. It's a great video.
Until next week stay safe and healthy.
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Follow the link to watch the video that accompanies this blog click here.