9 - Çeşme

Çeşme is the best place to be in Turkey during July and August as southern Turkey gets too hot. Some can tolerate or even enjoy the scolding mixture of heat and humidity in Antalya and Göcek but not me ! Seawater temperature over 27 degrees is too much for me, I would rather enjoy a sauna session in winter then in summer !

I love Bodrum all year around except July and August. It is too hot and crowded ! So Çeşme is the place to be and given the new Çeşme marina opened at the town center with chic shops and restaurants, there is always an element of excitement. Bademli to Çeşme is 50 nm but you need to cross the Çandarlı bay where you can experience heavy seas. During our passage we had strong winds and 1.5-2 meter waves but our boat took no effort in piercing the waves with her twin powerful engines. In around 2 hours we were in Çeşme vicinity so we slowed down and started to enjoy the scenery. Çeşme is a bit barren but you can see some nice rock formations and the uninhabited Karaburun area has its own wild attraction. And I have many wonderful teenage memories here so any visit is worthwhile !

We spent one or two nights in Çeşme at Altınyunus marina and then took a flight to Istanbul. Our skipper transferred the boat to Bodrum and some days later we resumed our voyage from Bodrum towards south.

Çeşme had only one marina in the past and that was Setur Altınyunus. Now there are three !

Altınyunus Marina was a hot, hot place to be in the past. It is inside the Altınyunus Hotel. Now the very nicely located hotel lost its glamour and I am assuming that the Yaşar family whose owns this hotel as well as other corporations intends to sell or lease it to an international chain. If Çeşme had slightly longer seasons this hotel could be turned into a top notch international resort. Maybe it will...

The second marina was originally the harbor at central Çeşme. It then was turned into a municipality marina and then the ownership went to IC Holding whom in return rented it to Camper & Nicholsons. I though C&N were dead meat and the whole thing would crumble but they surprised me a lot. They made the marina so nice that in the evenings thousands of visitors of all income groups enjoy this great facility. I would like to thank C&N for seriously raising an already high level of marina design in Turkey !

Yes, there are many very very nice marinas in Turkey. I dislike Ataköy for my own reasons but it is a proper marina. Fenerbahçe has lots of restaurants etc. Bodrum marinas...they rock. Didim marina, the facilities are gorgeous.

To compare Turkish marinas with others would be silly. I spent some time in San Remo Marina and would consider a slight prison sentence than to keep my boat there again ! Mykonos Island in Greece has a "marina." I say so in italics because they use the word "marina" to describe it. France has nice looking marinas but the level of service in Turkey is far superior. Indeed this service factor makes Turkey unique.

You can have anything anytime in Turkey. Two weeks ago I was driving home from work and was on the (bluetooth) telephone all the way. My wife told me she had called me to ask to buy some fish. I said "why worry, let's just order fish from the restaurant." There is a basic restaurant nearby. The owners are fisherman by profession and to grow their business opened up several fish restaurants. We called them and ordered cooked sea bass with calamari. My wife then being pregnant, also asked for a specific type of cake. Chocolate cake with cacao type of filling, also with peanuts. She wanted this one, not anything else. So we called the pastry shop and they said they have it. Voila ! I went outside to play with the dog and within 30 minutes we received perfectly cooked fish & calamari. These guys cook so fresh and well that it does not make to cook fish at home. Just after that, we got the chocolate cake. My wife is happy, I am happy and our dog is happy !

If you think this is exceptional, you are making a mistake. We have a colic newborn at home as well as an attention seeking toddler who likes to wake up in the middle of the night and cry just for attention. Our babysitter looking after the girl was exhausted. So I called on Sunday to the boat to our deckhand.

He is a good cook who had some restaurant experience. When I asked him to come and help us in Istanbul for some time, his answer was "yes, of course, immediately." He got onto the bus, traveled during the night to Istanbul and in the morning arrived home. He even had his cook uniform and this night we ate very nice food :-)

Turkey is a very, very dynamic country. That is why our economy is doing so well. The real figures are better then the published ones since we have a big shadow economy. It is not unrealistic for Turkey go grow around 10% annually.

Okay, enough with praising Turkish practicality (but I will do more later) and back to Çeşme marinas.

The third marina is at Alaçatı, famous for its windsurfing. The town center is worth a visit for it's story is not unlike a teenage film plot where a tiny teen with an acne filled face turns into a hot guy and makes  girls run after him ! In the past Alaçatı was strictly a nobody ! We only went there to look for a repairman to fix things such as water pumps at summer houses. But there were some stone houses used by the Turkish Orthodox inhabitants before müdadele. They were cute houses so one day people come up with the idea of changing the theme of the town. And they did. Nowadays Alaçatı is filled with all kinds of people and the town has a very nice energy.

(Cesme photos coming on August)