The End of Ramadan

Our place in Cirali is quite close to the mosque which I was surprised that they even had one for a town that has around 200 people in it during the winter.  It turns out that even with my earplugs in, I got my morning wakeup call around 4:30 every morning with the call to prayer.  Now that Ramadan is over, I was

wondering if today I would wake up naturally, with the sounds of the birds, roosters and the super loud bugs in the trees that shriek when the sun comes up.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case but I do have to say this guy (“muezzin” I guess is what they’re called) was quite good.

The routine is very much ingrained now so Shan and I know that nothing is going to happen until the afternoon.  So after my third coffee, checking out the news or reading then thinking about brunch and finally waking up our “not so” morning girl we typically get out there for hottest part of the day.  It is pretty nice floating in the water but Alyssa got a bit too much sun yesterday so she’s sporting a t-shirt to swim in today.

The book is getting good.

The other thing I’ve discovered with Ramadan is when it’s over everyone gets a four day holiday.  Turns out we’re just far enough away from Antalya to not see the hordes of tourists but all the locals know about it.  Today you can definitely feel there are more people around and they’re all driving cars.  It’s a bit sporty on the narrow roads when riding our bikes to the market.  A pile of the locals have set up tents all over the place and just park where ever they can fit a vehicle.  The beach here is so long that although there were a pile more people, things don’t feel crowded at all especially down on the stretch of beach where we were. 

After soaking in some sun and having dinner we were planning to go to Chimera where flames come out of the rocks.... the eternal flame.   As I sat out on the deck enjoying my evening ritual, I noticed how many cars were flying by our pension on the way up to the flame.  We figured it would be better to put the trip off a day to avoid the crowds and the crazy drivers as we were heading up with biking and coming back in the dark.  Made for a nice relaxing evening, something we all enjoyed.  Tomorrow.... probably more of the same but that’s all good with me!!!

Jenna lost the toss and got stuck with dish duty!

Out for a pedal in the evening.  Don't fall off the road!