Snapshot of Retirement

My second summer in Dalyan was a dream come true. As my sister Fawn put it, I had a sort of “mini-retirement.” With hindsight I can say it did have that feel to it. After surviving two plus years of COVID impacts, this summer came well overdue for all of us educators. The 2021-22 school year was especially tiring for us, between juggling hybrid classes with students out with COVID, and constant substitute coverage of faculty members out for COVID, not to mention dealing with students who returned to campus with apathetic and lazy habits, it was all-in-all one of the most trying years for educators. When summer break arrived on June 24th, we all breathed a large, collective sigh of relief and disappeared to our respective summer places.

For me that has become Dalyan. You can read previous posts about my first encounter with the village, as well as about last summer’s holiday by clicking the links for Dalyan from my Series Menu page.

But this summer was different. Before I packed up Ziggy and my stuff to relocate to Dalyan for seven weeks, I spent a few weeks packing up my apartment of four years in Izmir, knowing that I would be moving to a different one upon my return to the big city. Perhaps that is why I can say that I felt like I truly LIVED in Dalyan this summer. Most of my life was boxed and stored in Izmir. And the remainder of it was with me in the village. I also had a more leisurely pace of things this summer because I was single and there was no boat captain to get to the harbor each morning 😆.

I hosted 14 friends over my weeks, but also enjoyed a week or some days, here and there, all to myself (plus Ziggy). She was a much more settled-in cat this summer. None of that roaming the stairwell and howling-into-the-abyss which she did frequently last summer. It was a known place and she made herself right at home. This summer I took her on twice-a-day walks, one in the morning with my coffee, and another in the evening after the sun had set and the sweltering heat began to break. She loved eating grass, walking around and smelling things, and even had a stare-down with a chicken.

Most of my visitors this summer came from within Turkey and many visited for 2-5 nights. But every one of them had the pleasure of a boat trip to the sea on my friend Erdem’s Blue Bead Boat. It was absolutely “required programming” and I am eternally grateful to Erdem for accommodating each and every one of my guests. 

This summer, as in previous, I met up with local friends in Dalyan and in Ortaca, and even had the chance to reconnect with repeat visitors from the UK and Holland (whom I had met in previous visits to Dalyan). And as always, I met and made new friends as well. Hope to see you all same time and place next summer!

A new element added to this summer was that I actually had time and opportunity to use a bicycle to tootle into town. This was perfect for the early morning runs to the bakery for simit, borek, and what not. I also used the bicycle when I was on my own and joined boat trips. It was a faster way to the harbor and a great way to get home after a day spent in the sun, salt, and sand. 

To wrap up this first post about the summer, I want to share a picture of one of my favorite things to do: walk down to the riverside in the morning with a cup of coffee to sit and watch the light change on the water, to listen to the roosters and donkeys, smell the clean air, and feel the pulse of this magical place. A place where I will hope to settle down and grow old.