VAN LIFE TURKEY - Turkish Breakfast in Eğirdir & Mountain Drive
I feel like i'm on a set of Harry Potter! the thing i love about Turkish breakfast is there is so many little bits. Get off the beaten track and explore some new and wonderful places. We've done it again people! We've come off the main road .... Wow! Why is it so cold? We're Chris and Marianne, and we've been travelling full time for the past 3 years. We did it! We're currently attempting to drive Trudy our home on wheels, all the way around the World.
Before we start today's video, we want to say a massive massive thank you to each and every one of you who has subscribed to our channel! We hit a whopping 55,000 subscribers This week we also hit a massive goal of 7 million views! if you haven't already subscribed and you're new to our channel? Please consider clicking that subscribe button. Back to the show! So this morning we've woken up bright and early, because we're heading to the nearby town of Egirdir. Egirdir? I'm not sure how to pronounce it? But everybody said we should go! So we are going there! It's about 45 minutes drive west of where we are, and it's on a lake! Somehow we've managed to lose both of our coffee cup lids! How can you lose something in a van that's not even six meters long?! How do we do that? I don't know! So I have to drink it faster ..... or hold it the whole way! You can just see the lake in the distance and that is the little peninsula that we're heading to, sticking out in the lake, it looks very cool! In half a mile, the destination is on your left ! Hey guys we just turned off, and just going through the local market here, and we're heading out onto a little peninsula.
We think there's a car park there from looking online that we can we can stay in. But it's market day here in the town and everybody's selling their produce. Oh our little quiet park up that we found online ..... is not so quiet! There's loads of motorhomes here. Are they all Turkish? The destination is on your left! (Sat nav) Okay we have parked up! This is our view and it's very windy! Very windy! I love that it's so cool ... It's very cool, it's been so hot and sweaty on the beach, so this breeze is beautiful! Good morning! We've woken up here on lake Egirdir in Turkey, and today we're going to be heading slightly further East to Lake Beysehir, but before we do that, we're going to show you around this town.
So the main town is only about five minutes walk behind us, so we're going to leave Trudy and walk in. We had a really good night's sleep here because it's by the lake you could hear the waves, lapping on the shore up all night. And it's windy! It's really windy! It felt like you were being rocked to sleep ... it was lovely! So where we slept last night is right on the lake. That's where we slept, we're on this long peninsula here which goes down the road, just goes around and then comes back, with the lake either side, and town is that way! Where we parked they've actually got like a little shortcut for the boats, you can't take a big boat through, but you can take a little boat! And then it comes through on the other side, this lake is massive! In fact as we were coming down the hill towards it and we could see the little peninsula, it actually looked like the sea, it's so big! There are mountains there .....
but on the other side it just goes off into the distance ... So this car park where we slept last night it's got lots of vans, obviously a good spot for the locals to come and escape the heat and come down to the lake! Literally only been walking a couple of minutes and there's this lovely old traditional style building there, so we're just going to have a look, Marianne spotted that there is an opening between the building, and she's waving to me! What is it my sweetness? Is it a walk-through? Come ! This is one of the reasons I love being a Youtuber! You tell us to go and look for different things to show you! Wow i know! I feel like i'm on a set of Harry Potter! Look under the wooden beams here. Although looking at the building from this side, it's definitely seen better days .... There's a building project! Nice lake view ! Right town is this way .....
It gives us a little view of the harbour from up here. It's very pretty! House martins ! Where? Hundreds of them! Oh wow loads of them! I just googled .... "What is the collective noun for house martins?" And it's richness! There is a richness of house martins! Richness? is that what it's called? It is! There you go! A group of house martins is ..... "a richness of house martins" up there! Look at them! When you look at the spelling of this town, it looks like it should be pronounced Egirdir ... but actually the g with the little mark above it means the g is silent ... So i think it's Egirdir! The town has a population of 20,000 people, although in the summer because it's cooler up here, a lot of people come to this town to escape the heat of the southern coast. It's really lovely walking around, look there's a little hotel there.
These little back streets have so much character, and feel like a real Turkish village life, I just love all the little houses. What a great view from up here too ! And there's another little bed and breakfast here. We were just talking to a lovely family up there, who spend the winter in Antalya where it's much warmer, but cold here. And they come here in the summer because it's much cooler.
Yeah to escape the heat! Definitely! We understand that ! We do! In fact today is the first time that i've put longer trousers on and two tops on! I don't know how what the temperature is today? but ... it's about 28c You must be Turkish love, if you think 28c is cold! We've just spotted what looks like a viewing platform up there .... and a path with people coming down, so we're going to go up and have a little look. So we've walked to the top, this is the citadel! A good aerial view of the town. There is a big car park there, and that is the town.
It's not very big. The small town is nestled in between the mountains, and this citadel would have been here to protect the whole area. You can still see some of the fortified walls, they are really thick, and they would have been there to protect the people and this land. When we arrived yesterday, this area was all covered in market stalls. so Thursday is when they have a weekly market right here! We've just walked down to the lake, and we've seen this wonderful looking restaurant that serves traditional Turkish breakfast! You know us and food ..... So what have we done? We were asked a very ridiculous question! Do you want a big breakfast or a little breakfast? What kind of question is that ?! For us it's always going to be a big breakfast ! So we haven't had a proper Turkish breakfast for quite a few months now, so we're going to spoil ourselves, look at this view! How much food?! The thing i love about Turkish breakfast is there is so many little bits! Look at this! I had almost forgotten how amazing Turkish breakfast was! Absolutely! Is this really for two? have we got other people joining us ?! Marianne's eating before the video starts! Sorry! So let's just show you what we got.
We've got a selection of cheeses, some meat, some tomato, aubergine some greens, four different types of olives, we got tahini, honey, rose jam. And more different jams, esme, cheese and we got sausage and eggs, some cucumber, and then look at this we've got a selection of different things here, we've got some toast, fries, bread a whole selection! I love the way they wrap the lemon in the net so you don't get the pips in your food! And then of course we got a nice big pot of Turkish tea! So this is a beautiful Turkish breakfast and probably we won't be eating for the rest of the day! There is no better breakfast than the Turkish Breakfast in the world! I challenge you to find us a better breakfast! We ended up stopping at Azava restaurant for breakfast here by the lake. Fantastic views, really good breakfast and it was 130 tl for both of us, with unlimited tea. One thing's for sure, i'm not eating for the rest of the day ! All the way along the lake there are little eateries where you can sit down with a nice view. and enjoy the cool wind and the blue water.
So just coming down to the centre of the town, look how wonderful that old mosque tower is, and the building here, always at the heart of the town. Lovely local bread shop. Just in the centre of town next to the mosque, we spotted this massive tree! Look how wide this tree is! Marianne looks dwarfed stood next to this tree.
It's okay? You can go in. So we've come into the building, just right next to the mosque, and it's the sign says it is an old islamic convent, and today one side of it is being used as an art gallery, a local artist is displaying some of his art. It's a lovely little courtyard here. I'm really enjoying walking around it's got a lovely feel about it, and everyone's so friendly, yeah it feels like a great Turkish local town, it really does, it's nice isn't it? yeah Back at the car park - Is that toilets there? And water? Good water? Not for drinking.
No don't drink it! There we go, back to little old Trudy! We've jumped back into Trudy, the plan now, we're going to head East about an 1.15 minutes to a nearby cave on the way to lake Beysehir. But we also thought we would do a quick drive around the little peninsula, that we're staying on, because we haven't been to the end, before we continue our journey. Oh it's really nice at the end, going around this little peninsula, there's little restaurants dotted around. And people swimming and fishing and just enjoying it. It's lovely! There's a little village right at the end of this little peninsula.
So there you go, it literally took us a couple of minutes to drive around the peninsula, but it was worth it, lovely! And that is one of the things we love about van life and having our own vehicle. It enables us to go to places away from the tourists, and off the beaten track that we wouldn't normally be able to go to, without having our own transport. So if you have the opportunity, I urge you hire a car or come in your van, your camper van or your caravan. And get off the beaten track and explore some new and wonderful places. Right onto the cave! We're in the beautiful Turkish countryside, but back home in the UK, i'm not sure the pink building would get planning permission with that colour. So we just stopped off in the mountains to top up with water.
The water that we filled the van up with before wasn't that good, it didn't taste or smell that good, and although we've got a lifesaver jerrycan to sanitise the water, we always like to put the best water in we can. So we're just going to dump the water we have now and put some fresher water in. There's a little dump valve in the bottom of the water tank .... there you go i can hear it coming out .... Trudy's is having a fresh water pee! (this is clean water - not waste water). This might take a while because the flow's not that strong ....
the water in the trough here, is taking the weight of the bag. We might be here a while love! All topped up .... and 50 minutes until we get there. It's a lovely drive through the hills here in rural Turkey and it was so nice to go through these little traditional villages, and just enjoy the scenery. And a man on a donkey! That's amazing! This road is taking a little bit longer than planned! We're about 13 - 1400 meters high and it's very windy! But it's very beautiful! There you go we're nearly 1600 meters high! Mountain traffic jam! More cows on the road! We've done it again people! We've come off the main road, following google maps to go to this cave! Wow! but seriously people .... I don't think this is a road for Trudy?! Wow ...... i just don't! Marianne !! there's a lot of warning signs! i'm not sure this was a good idea?! I think you are am sort of torn between adventure and fear ....
and i quite like to just go for it ... and see what happens! We've got about five miles down this road. There's a person! Who obviously thinks we're insane You see he nodded.
He didn't wave and say "don't do it, you're going to die!" Oh hold on, we've come off the track now. We're not even on a road! Yeah round that way i think ... look how beautiful that is! it's very beautiful and a windy road goes on. We're nearly there, we've got about a mile to go. Okay we've arrived and i think the cave is up there somewhere according to google maps. There are little picnic areas with a barbecue station down there, the family having a barbecue that's lovely! Next to the river, look how lovely is that? ....
A little bridge there with more seating areas, having picnics. It's funny walking along you can literally just feel the temperature drop, and it's quite chilly! It's lovely it's like walking into an aircon room! Wow so we're just walking along, look how pretty this is, with the river going down there, a little bridge and then that, that is the cave! If i let go of the grass, you can see how strong the air coming out of the cave is! it is literally, no word of a lie, feels like you're standing in front of an air conditioning unit on full blast! Wow! Why is it so cold? I don't know. What is that? What is .... oh the water's freezing! Yeah i've got wet feet! Oh is it closed? What is that metal thing there ? We drove to see this .... but there is a door here and it's locked .... Oh you can't go any further, the cave here is lovely ! It's a shame that you can't you can't go further ....
But we've had a nice drive in the hills, And Trudy is actually a 4x2! Trudy is a 4x2 ...... she's a two-wheel drive ...... who wants to be a four-wheel drive So she's okay on these roads! I genuinely can't believe how cold that is! I did not think i would be saying i want to get warm again! If you are looking for a very cool barbecue spot? A place to come and chill out? And it's much cooler up here. Then this is definitely a lovely place to come, and just escape it all! And there's no internet! There is zero internet signal! YAY We've jumped back into Trudy and we're now heading through the park, through the mountains, and we're going to try and find our way to lake Beysehir. Yay we're back to a tarmac road! So we've just pulled over because there's no internet signal here whatsoever, even google maps offline doesn't know where we are! We've got a little device called bad elf that we plug into the iPad, the ipad's in the back.
So we're just going to open the back, but what is really funny is look how much dust is on the back of Trudy! Oh my god! Look! Looks like they're building a massive dam! We are going through another little village ... These buildings are amazing! You don't get much more traditional than this! That is lake Beysehir So this is where we're going to park up for the night. We've got lovely views over the lake. I think there's going to be a glorious sunset tonight over here, and we're just going to sit back, relax and just admire the birds, the nature and the wonderful views. I'm just going to close the window so that ....
there we go .... look at that! Oh i messed my hair up!
2021-07-24 11:19
