Bozubuku, Turkey to Lisbon, Portugal
Olah all. Yes you may have cottoned onto a bit of different lingo, we have moved onto Portugal, Lisbon to be precise. It was most difficult to remember to stumble out with Abriagarda instead of Teshakula, when expressing thanks to the lovely Portuguese people, but as is mostly the case, they took my stumbling in very good humor, and always at hand with help to put us on the right track.
But Wrighteau Rant 5 actually starts back in Turkey, of course, which already seems an age ago, and only 2 days ago. What a difference is 4.5 hours flight. We had made our way to Bozburun Yacht club, where we only stayed one night. Et-han and his mother were delightful people, and father/wife was a pioneer in sailing in Turkey, this so called yacht club was their holiday house which they have transformed into a thriving restaurant and pension business, which we discovered was much about making money and more about land lubbers and big spending launches than yachting folk. So next day we progressed to anchoring up in the Bozburun basin, where we had a little Kiwi/Aussie corner going on. We enjoyed the hospitality of Ruth and Alex French on Lucky Lady Lucy, they are the poor sufferers of the Vliho tornedo, and also joining us was Maria and Sandy Jones, who we had met about 3 years ago in the beautiful bay of Lakko at the top of Paxos in the Ionian, and would you believe an Aussie infiltrating Craig and his Scottish wife Leslie. After wiling a couple of hours in easy and comfortable chat and banter we sloped off to get a few things from market and have some lunch, and a bit of a wander around Bozburun. We were anchored fairly well out, so it was a bit like being on the A1, in the morning 3 of us headed off in the same direction, sailing was pretty good, a bit tight, and the Aussie/Scots, Ruth and Alex and we all rounded the point at the same time, and ended up in Bozubuku together. Another acquaintance of theirs seemed to arrive, (a whole other story, that one!?!?) so we made quite a table up that night in the little restaurant. We took up a great opportunity of exercise, making our way to the remains of the castle at the top of the little hill, before heading out to not much wind, and to Chiftlik. Last year this was a highlight, but I guess it has changed hands, and the result is most disappointing. The company, however, was very nice, Ruth and Alex came our way, and we dined together on the waterfront.
Closing in on the end, we left just after LLL and realizing they could successfully sail with their genniker up, we also hoisted our genniker, it turned out to be a lovely run, and a splendid way to spend our last day on the seas. Last night at anchor, we anchored out from Marmaris yacht marine. It is still packed to the hilt, but fortunately we were able to get a birth to prepare Wrighteau for bed. It is a very sad time, fairly final really, and the heat was still so overpowering, still up around the late 30s. On the second morning we set about taking down the sails, not a huge task really, but we left it until about 9.30 – 10 am when the temps had already soared to about 33 which had us expiring. Nothing for it but a trip to the pool.
This will go down as ‘The Year of the Toe, Annabel’s Toe actually” Unfortunately a poor design of Wrighteau is in the way the companionway hatch whips back without a cover, so if there is an unsuspecting toe in the way, there is no escape and the prognosis is no good. Joe was on the receiving end as we were preparing her for sail, but made a narrow escape from real injury. But my second toe to succumb was this time struck by said companionway hatch, and my eyes nearly boggled when I saw the nail completely at a funny angle, sort of right out down one side. Still looking very odd now, fortunately it has not hindered my planned Portugal walking. I expect one day it will fall off, but it isn’t throbbing so that is very good news.
So we finally concluded the biggest tasks of preparing Wrighteau for the winter, mousing all the halyards and washing them, and covering them up to protect them from the winter elements, washing and taking down bimini and dodger etc etc, and on the Saturday afternoon we were taken out of the water. After our solar panel upset last winter, they kept to their word and put us in a most desirable position, (though when I tell you it was right beside the macerator and ablution block you may have a different view) but we are tucked in between two boats, with boats in the water beside, and sitting on concrete, not dusty out the back Siberia. So on Sunday all nearly done we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at Pineapple restaurant in Marmaris Netsel Marina, and Monday was a fairly early start on the taxi to get to Dalaman airport. The taxi is pretty good value, for $90 NZ we are taken 1.5 hours drive so not bad really.
It was nice returning to Istanbul, Sultanahmet, always a favorite, and this time in the lovely Blue House Hotel, just steps from the Market, and just steps further to the Blue Mosque and all the old area, the hotel even looks out on the Blue Mosque. We stayed in the lovely boutique and friendly little hotel 10 years ago, so it was quite nostalgic. It is always lovely just meandering around this area.
So now onto Portugal, and first impressions are outstanding. Clean, friendly, efficient. Not being big city people, or any kind of city people necessarily, we are quite taken with Lisbon. Taxis seem pretty cheap to us, and eating out has been great value for money. Hotels seem ridiculously cheap, we are paying about $115 for a lovely 4 star hotel, Mundial, which is so centrally and conveniently located it is just perfect. It is the brightest possible room with a panoramic view of the castle up on the hill. We set out for a walk, initially just down into the hub a little, and ended up walking along the promenade all the way to Dockas, under the 25 de Abril Bridge bridge, looking over to the Cristo Rei, (Christ the King) monument which stands at around 82 meters high and stands out from anywhere, and under the bridge we were entertained watching 4 little courts playing a game which is in between squash and tennis, upon googling it I see it is called qianball. Then we stopped at 5 Oceanis, a wonderfully friendly and economic fish restaurant on the shores of the Targus River, looking over a little marina, under the bridge and looking to the Cristo Rei. It was a fairly long jaunt to get there and dark by now, so we cheated and caught a taxi home to a very good sleep, if not in a slightly hard bed, but quiet and calm. Breakfast included, we made our way to the breakfast terrace to the Europen breakfast of hard boiled eggs, salami, cheese, cucumber, yoghurt, prunes, all sorts of healthy morsels.
We do like to acclimatize ourselves with a city with the double decker bus, it gives the most wonderful overview, and this one certainly did not disappoint, though a challenge somewhat to get onto it in the first place. It gave us a great opportunity to sit in one of the many squares in the city, this one Rosso, with the obligatory bronze horse standing staunch with front leg up, (which would suggest not standing staunch I guess, in action maybe) and watching the people go by, dodging the many pigeons who take flight in a direct line to the possibility of crumbs landing just beyond. Actually I have that a bit wrong, the horse was in the Figuera Square, beside Rosso, but then it would either be a horse of a famous discover wouldn’t it? The bus took us along the waterway we had walked previous night, then up the hill to the highest point in the city, and past all the important monuments and focal points, we exited at number 3 on the red line, and wandered through to the lunch street, or ally, and found what seemed to be the locals favorite, we had a beautiful little lunch ridiculously cheap, chicken on the spit, and creamed spinach, beside a lovely group originally from Angola. We learnt that this nice gentleman had his sister from Angola staying, and had not seen her for 20 years, he came from a family of 4 boys and 4 girls, don’t know how long since he has seen any of the others, but he had moist eyes telling us about it all. There were people standing lining up waiting for a table, so we picked the right one for sure.
Then yesterday, another day of sightseeing and meandering through the little cobbled streets. We took the little single carriage tram up the windy tiny streets to the castle. Up here we got a wonderful view of the city and all the monuments and on walking over the drawbridge into the castle we found there really wasn’t much to it, but we wandered around the wall, and imagined all the goings on all those years ago. Back onto the tram down the hill, we did a bit of a trip around the outside of the city, but that wasn’t so exciting. We just wandered around soaking in the history of the inner city before finally settling at a happening little place, people watching, and listening to the buskers who come and go with their entertainment. When we had used up all our spare coins, thrown into the hats, coke bottles or whatever other catchment system they had, we retired for the day.
Lisbon has been great, so if this is Portugal we are going to get along just fine. Today we collect our hired car and set off to Porto. We will be in our element up there.
Not long now, just one more blog, before we return home,
So Adius all
But Wrighteau Rant 5 actually starts back in Turkey, of course, which already seems an age ago, and only 2 days ago. What a difference is 4.5 hours flight. We had made our way to Bozburun Yacht club, where we only stayed one night. Et-han and his mother were delightful people, and father/wife was a pioneer in sailing in Turkey, this so called yacht club was their holiday house which they have transformed into a thriving restaurant and pension business, which we discovered was much about making money and more about land lubbers and big spending launches than yachting folk. So next day we progressed to anchoring up in the Bozburun basin, where we had a little Kiwi/Aussie corner going on. We enjoyed the hospitality of Ruth and Alex French on Lucky Lady Lucy, they are the poor sufferers of the Vliho tornedo, and also joining us was Maria and Sandy Jones, who we had met about 3 years ago in the beautiful bay of Lakko at the top of Paxos in the Ionian, and would you believe an Aussie infiltrating Craig and his Scottish wife Leslie. After wiling a couple of hours in easy and comfortable chat and banter we sloped off to get a few things from market and have some lunch, and a bit of a wander around Bozburun. We were anchored fairly well out, so it was a bit like being on the A1, in the morning 3 of us headed off in the same direction, sailing was pretty good, a bit tight, and the Aussie/Scots, Ruth and Alex and we all rounded the point at the same time, and ended up in Bozubuku together. Another acquaintance of theirs seemed to arrive, (a whole other story, that one!?!?) so we made quite a table up that night in the little restaurant. We took up a great opportunity of exercise, making our way to the remains of the castle at the top of the little hill, before heading out to not much wind, and to Chiftlik. Last year this was a highlight, but I guess it has changed hands, and the result is most disappointing. The company, however, was very nice, Ruth and Alex came our way, and we dined together on the waterfront.
Closing in on the end, we left just after LLL and realizing they could successfully sail with their genniker up, we also hoisted our genniker, it turned out to be a lovely run, and a splendid way to spend our last day on the seas. Last night at anchor, we anchored out from Marmaris yacht marine. It is still packed to the hilt, but fortunately we were able to get a birth to prepare Wrighteau for bed. It is a very sad time, fairly final really, and the heat was still so overpowering, still up around the late 30s. On the second morning we set about taking down the sails, not a huge task really, but we left it until about 9.30 – 10 am when the temps had already soared to about 33 which had us expiring. Nothing for it but a trip to the pool.
This will go down as ‘The Year of the Toe, Annabel’s Toe actually” Unfortunately a poor design of Wrighteau is in the way the companionway hatch whips back without a cover, so if there is an unsuspecting toe in the way, there is no escape and the prognosis is no good. Joe was on the receiving end as we were preparing her for sail, but made a narrow escape from real injury. But my second toe to succumb was this time struck by said companionway hatch, and my eyes nearly boggled when I saw the nail completely at a funny angle, sort of right out down one side. Still looking very odd now, fortunately it has not hindered my planned Portugal walking. I expect one day it will fall off, but it isn’t throbbing so that is very good news.
So we finally concluded the biggest tasks of preparing Wrighteau for the winter, mousing all the halyards and washing them, and covering them up to protect them from the winter elements, washing and taking down bimini and dodger etc etc, and on the Saturday afternoon we were taken out of the water. After our solar panel upset last winter, they kept to their word and put us in a most desirable position, (though when I tell you it was right beside the macerator and ablution block you may have a different view) but we are tucked in between two boats, with boats in the water beside, and sitting on concrete, not dusty out the back Siberia. So on Sunday all nearly done we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at Pineapple restaurant in Marmaris Netsel Marina, and Monday was a fairly early start on the taxi to get to Dalaman airport. The taxi is pretty good value, for $90 NZ we are taken 1.5 hours drive so not bad really.
It was nice returning to Istanbul, Sultanahmet, always a favorite, and this time in the lovely Blue House Hotel, just steps from the Market, and just steps further to the Blue Mosque and all the old area, the hotel even looks out on the Blue Mosque. We stayed in the lovely boutique and friendly little hotel 10 years ago, so it was quite nostalgic. It is always lovely just meandering around this area.
So now onto Portugal, and first impressions are outstanding. Clean, friendly, efficient. Not being big city people, or any kind of city people necessarily, we are quite taken with Lisbon. Taxis seem pretty cheap to us, and eating out has been great value for money. Hotels seem ridiculously cheap, we are paying about $115 for a lovely 4 star hotel, Mundial, which is so centrally and conveniently located it is just perfect. It is the brightest possible room with a panoramic view of the castle up on the hill. We set out for a walk, initially just down into the hub a little, and ended up walking along the promenade all the way to Dockas, under the 25 de Abril Bridge bridge, looking over to the Cristo Rei, (Christ the King) monument which stands at around 82 meters high and stands out from anywhere, and under the bridge we were entertained watching 4 little courts playing a game which is in between squash and tennis, upon googling it I see it is called qianball. Then we stopped at 5 Oceanis, a wonderfully friendly and economic fish restaurant on the shores of the Targus River, looking over a little marina, under the bridge and looking to the Cristo Rei. It was a fairly long jaunt to get there and dark by now, so we cheated and caught a taxi home to a very good sleep, if not in a slightly hard bed, but quiet and calm. Breakfast included, we made our way to the breakfast terrace to the Europen breakfast of hard boiled eggs, salami, cheese, cucumber, yoghurt, prunes, all sorts of healthy morsels.
We do like to acclimatize ourselves with a city with the double decker bus, it gives the most wonderful overview, and this one certainly did not disappoint, though a challenge somewhat to get onto it in the first place. It gave us a great opportunity to sit in one of the many squares in the city, this one Rosso, with the obligatory bronze horse standing staunch with front leg up, (which would suggest not standing staunch I guess, in action maybe) and watching the people go by, dodging the many pigeons who take flight in a direct line to the possibility of crumbs landing just beyond. Actually I have that a bit wrong, the horse was in the Figuera Square, beside Rosso, but then it would either be a horse of a famous discover wouldn’t it? The bus took us along the waterway we had walked previous night, then up the hill to the highest point in the city, and past all the important monuments and focal points, we exited at number 3 on the red line, and wandered through to the lunch street, or ally, and found what seemed to be the locals favorite, we had a beautiful little lunch ridiculously cheap, chicken on the spit, and creamed spinach, beside a lovely group originally from Angola. We learnt that this nice gentleman had his sister from Angola staying, and had not seen her for 20 years, he came from a family of 4 boys and 4 girls, don’t know how long since he has seen any of the others, but he had moist eyes telling us about it all. There were people standing lining up waiting for a table, so we picked the right one for sure.
Then yesterday, another day of sightseeing and meandering through the little cobbled streets. We took the little single carriage tram up the windy tiny streets to the castle. Up here we got a wonderful view of the city and all the monuments and on walking over the drawbridge into the castle we found there really wasn’t much to it, but we wandered around the wall, and imagined all the goings on all those years ago. Back onto the tram down the hill, we did a bit of a trip around the outside of the city, but that wasn’t so exciting. We just wandered around soaking in the history of the inner city before finally settling at a happening little place, people watching, and listening to the buskers who come and go with their entertainment. When we had used up all our spare coins, thrown into the hats, coke bottles or whatever other catchment system they had, we retired for the day.
Lisbon has been great, so if this is Portugal we are going to get along just fine. Today we collect our hired car and set off to Porto. We will be in our element up there.
Not long now, just one more blog, before we return home,
So Adius all
