After a 2 day crossing from Egypt to Turkey across the Mediterranean Sea we arrived at the small town of Kas, Turkey. It was somehow refreshing to go back to a modern society after spending over six months in underdeveloped countries. Of course, developed means expensive but also the easy availability of goods and Turkey, with double digit inflation in the past decade, really caught up with Europe in terms of prices. But still we felt immediately at ease in this charming town where we did our clearance in the country. We spent only a couple of days in Kas before moving west but as we were there they had a family holiday of some sort and they were presenting the traditional making of a kind of large crepe stuffed with a plant tasting very close to spinach and with some local cheese. I don’t remember what the name of that crepe was but I know it was pretty good. Seeing the ladies rolling the dough with a long narrow stick was quite impressive.
Last time we hauled out Chocobo for refit was in Curacao a year and half ago. Since then we crossed the Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. So when we arrived at the city of Marmaris, in the south-west corner of Turkey, she was long overdue for some care. Besides, we had a long list of breakups that we managed to patch as we were going through a long string of countries where asking for a specific boat part was like asking for a part to fix our space shuttle! So for nine days we worked like little bees and at the end Chocobo had regained all her shiny look of before. Once done we quickly put her back in the water to get her prepared for the month to come during which we would be away as we had our plane tickets booked many months ago to go spend a couple of weeks in Canada then to visit Athens and Istanbul.
