Changes in Longitudes - Changes in Attitudes - BIG NEWS! - June 16, 2022

The title is a poor rhyme, but apologies nevertheless to Jimmy Buffet. I mentioned in the sidebar last year that BIG changes were coming, and they have come.  I am a few months late in this update - bottom line: LIFE IS GOOD!  In 2019 we decided to shut down our retirement business and actually retire.  We had been exploring all over North America and even some in South America, and we finally found a place that really spoke to us and seemed pleasant and affordable.  We took some initial steps to shut down the business and many steps towards getting my parents' house (inherited by my brother and me) ready to sell.

Then Covid.

After 18 months of limping the biz along and sitting indolently at home and gaining way too much weight, we decided enough was enough.  The country we had selected in 2019 was still covid-crazy and completely locked down.  It was the nicest place we had ever visited together.  BUT... the nicest place I had ever been on my own was open and inviting.  So we decided to go for a visit.  On paper, it was equal or better than the other place, but the culture would be VERY much more alien to us.  I figured I could handle it, but my wife had never experienced the place, the people, the food, or the culture.  

So last July we drove from the house in Oklahoma to Chicago in order to catch a non-stop flight.  Why?  Because of absolutely insane covid rules in the hubs used by American-based airlines in Amsterdam, Paris, and Frankfurt - just to pass thru and change planes.  They each had their own unique tests, most of which you could not do in advance, and they would then imprison you at your own expense if you failed their on-the-spot favorite weird tests. Fuck that.

Anyhow, we had no issue boarding a nonstop flight for Istanbul, Türkiye in Chicago and had a reasonably pleasant trip in the very back rows of a 777.  Upon arriving in Istanbul we found the city oddly deserted - a big Eid holiday was on, and everyone had fled to the beaches and countryside.  Had a couple of issues with credit cards and ATMs (easily corrected with the help of friendly Turks in subsequent days), and we were able to board an express bus from the airport to the uber-cool Kadiköy Moda district on the Asian side of the Bosphorus-divided city.  Very strict 2 hour-limited naps in the hotel and we were fresh and ready to go explore Moda and try the food, language, etc. It was super-awesome. And so we continued for several more days, seeing the sites and the city at its uncrowded best.

By the end of the second day, my wife had fallen in love with the country. So at the end of the week we grabbed a cheap and easy domestic flight to the area reputed to have the VERY best weather in the country - the Bodrum peninsula, which is home to the very eclectic and well-served city of Bodrum plus a seafront periphery of old Turkish villages now chockablock with gorgeous sea-view and mountain-view flats and villa developments.  With the help of an English-speaking fixer, we explored the city, the peninsula, and beyond, searching for that perfect combo of sea view, spaciousness, modernity, convenience, and weather.  Many realtors told us it was impossible.  They were incorrect. On August 11th we bought a gorgeous 2-bedroom villa with stunning views, taking possession fully on August 31.  It needed a bit of expansion and renovation, so we took a 2 week driving vacation around the country while that happened. We visited Kuşadasi, Ephesus, Pamukkale (Laodicia),  Isparta, Konya (Iconium), Cappadocia, Antalya, Kas, Fethiye (Patara), and Mügla. Epic and shockingly affordable.

We stayed thru early November getting the house furnished and in a semblance of cleanliness and order, then returned to the US for the winter to gather our things, close out our affairs, sell our many vehicles, and leave our homeland behind us. It was hard, but we got it done, and ended up boarding our snow-delayed flight to Türkiye with 20 pieces of luggage, arriving back home in Türkiye on January 31, where we have been since and will be for the foreseeable future.

Why are we here? Same reason anybody retires where they do. Great weather, great food, decent wine, good people, outstanding health care, fun activities all around, tremendous travel opportunities, and most important of all it gives us a MUCH better lifestyle than we had for less than 40% of what it cost us to live in the remote, rural US. The culture and language are a challenge for us, but the welcoming and helpful attitude of the locals makes life easy and gets problems solved. We came here because we love it. We are NOT running away from anything or any place. And check out the view from my office - how much would THAT cost in the USA?!?!

Most ironic thing, we are at essentially the same latitude as the Oklahoma place, and also the same as Gilroy, California where we lived for 15+ years. So only longitude has changed - hence the post title. Weather here is much more like California, though!

Most odd thing I have noted consistently is that hard things are easy and easy things are hard. It's a difference in cultural bureaucracy. For instance, want to add a room to your house?  No problem, it can start on Monday and be done in 10 days.  Want to pay tax on your US cell phone so it can be used in the country? Spend an entire day standing in different lines being sent to different places and then finally pay a guy at a shady cell store to pay the tax for you and connect your IMEIs in the government online system, only to have one phone's payment method (that worked fine for the other phone) consistently rejected, so come back to the cell place every hour to see if they figured it out, which they finally did through some crazy roundabout way, and then pay them the tax plus their very reasonable fees.  And we find out in about 10 days if it worked or if one or both IMEIs get blocked from the network. Crazy!

We are taking the hard easy things as adventures, as puzzles to be solved, and seizing the joy when we finally conquer the byzantine ottoman bureaucracy. Like with cancer, Attitude is EVERYTHING. And God is Good, ALL the time!