Off to the cash point for Turkish lira. The info on the screen is in several languages including English so that’s all right. How much do I want? Well, enough that we don’t have to come back soon. This machine lets you fill in the amount - as opposed to providing suitable choices - so rashly enter 50,000 Turkish lira. Really more than we do want, but it’s not convenient to keep going back. And not as enormous an amount as it sounds as the lira is worth about a third what it was three years ago. Fifty thousand wouldn’t make you feel as crazy rich as you used to feel before revaluation in 2005. It’s worth 50 million in old money before they removed the three zeroes, when everyone was a multimillionaire. Much like the point in 1995 when four zeros were removed from the Polish zloty.
Expect to be told that’s far too much money to take out, and am - but not until the very end of the transaction, when the machine primly tells me that 12,000 lira is the maximum. OK, start over. Choose English, enter password, all fields filled in. Reach the end of the transaction and am informed not precisely that the 12,000 is impossible but that I can’t have it all at once. Can take 4000 out and then start over. OK, fingers slapped. No more greed. Not all at once! Pocket cash, begin again. Now up to 8,000 lira. Assuming good faith, should be able to go for another four. Though now J and S have come to see if I’ve suddenly gone blind or just witless. And apparently there’s another would be customer not best pleased. Take the money and call it quits. [8000 Turkish lira = $584 CAD, €396, £350]
Suitably enriched, the plan is to go for lunch. First choice is the lovely old Greek village of Karmi, well up the mountainside. Last visited about three weeks ago but that was on a Tuesday and the pub wasn’t open. Surely Friday will be better - maybe fish and chips? Well turns out it is open on Friday but not until five o’clock. So admire the stunning mountain and sea views, the little (and not so little) white houses with their flower pots, and the inevitable cats - and descend for plan B.
Plan B is Eziç, classy new style restaurant, all glass and rectangles and sunlight. But comfortable and cheerful and relaxed - well, maybe it helps to be fashionably very late so it isn’t crowded. Lots of choice - including both bulgur köftesi and şeftali sausages - neither of which I ever pass up. Nice vegetable patties as well. Evening meal not required.
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