Moving to Turkey – Life and Work in a Village on the Mediterranean Coast

Hello / Merhaba! My name is Artem and I’m a network engineer from St. Petersburg, Russia.

While I lived in Moscow for a while, I always had the desire to move to a small town and be away from the noise and traffic of the big city.

My family and I moved to Tasucu six months ago. It is a village located near Silifke, Mersin Province, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. My current employer is actively working on building energy facilities and related infrastructure in Turkey. Since the Turkish economy is actively growing, immigrating to the Mediterranean coast has become more accessible, with new jobs becoming available in different sectors. Turkey offers plenty of opportunities for remote work and freelancing, as well as regular employment.

In this article, I will share everything that I know about moving, getting the paperwork done, finding housing, and the pros and cons of living in a small Turkish village with only one traffic light and hardly any tourists. The information in this post is relevant as of 2021.

Visa, Residence Permit, Kimlik and Ikamet – let’s sort it out!

A visa grants its holder permission to stay in the country (usually short-term, for a period of up to 3 months). There are several types of visas: tourist, student, work, etc.

A residence permit grants permission for a medium-term stay in the country (usually for a period of 6 months to 2 years). Grounds for obtaining a residence permit: work permit (work visa), ownership of the real estate in Turkey, long-term rental agreement in Turkey. When you get a residence permit, you’re also issued a corresponding identity card (Kimlik).

Kimlik is an internal identity document, and there are three types available:

• Kimlik for Turkish citizens (blue);
• Kimlik issued on the basis of employment (blue, with the name of the employer), issued by the employer for a period of 1-2 years;
• Kimlik is issued on the basis of ownership or rental of housing (pink), also sometimes called “Ikamet”, because its name contains the phrase “Ikamet”, and it is issued through the service https://e-ikamet.goc. gov.tr . This document is issued for a period from 6 months up to 2 years.

If you have an invitation from an employer, obtaining a work visa is a relatively simple process. The website of the consulate provides detailed information on obtaining a visa. In short, the process of getting a work visa can be split into the following steps:

• Fill out a form on the site and select a time slot to visit the consulate;
• Visit the consulate during the allotted time slot with the following set of documents:
  • printed form;
  • biometric photo;
  • a copy of your passport;
  • an invitation from your employer, an employment contract;
  • 80 USD for the residence permit fee;
  • power of attorney circular (if necessary, get it from your employer);
  • and of course, a negative PCR test for COVID-19, an essential in this day and age.
• After submitting your documents, you will be issued a reference number that you must provide to your employer, who will use it to submit the necessary documents to the Ministry of Labor within 10 days;
• The consulate will inform the employer when the work visa is ready;
• Another visit to the consulate to glue the visa into your passport (no appointment is necessary, during visa issuance hours).

You can also obtain a residence permit on the basis of the purchase of real estate or long-term rental . This makes Turkey an attractive country for remote workers. There is a lot of information on the Internet about obtaining a residence permit on the basis of housing (rent or ownership). You can get a pink kimlik (sometimes called “Ikamet”) once you’re already in Turkey with the status of a tourist, and the document will be sent by courier to your place of residence. I will tell you about delivery services in Turkey a little later.

Labor Law – Vacations and Holidays

According to Turkish law, the working week is 45 hours, that is, 9 hours a day. In fact, not all companies adhere to this rule, and many follow a 40-hour work week. On the other hand, some companies work up to 72 hours a week. You can only take a vacation after one year of work, and you are entitled to take 14 working days off, that is, almost 3 weeks. Salaries are paid once a month. There are quite a few long weekends and holidays, but if a holiday falls on a weekend, employees are still required to work during adjacent working days. Thus, in 2021, Turkish employees were entitled to 12 working days off due to holidays. There are also pre-holiday days when you are only required to work a half day – in 2021, there were 3 shortened working days.

People celebrate holidays on a grand scale in Turkey: flags are hung outside homes, cities are decorated with small flags, and musical columns of buses and cars drive through the city, bringing a festive atmosphere wherever they go.

Housing – Many Options for Everyone

After leaving Russia, it was difficult to decide on housing, as there are more types of housing in Turkey, and it’s important to consider the local context. In general, you’ll find many large apartments in Turkey, with beautiful interiors, but all housing options have their pros and cons.

Here’s what you should consider when choosing a home:

• Does it have central heating? (winters can be cold without heating, and using an air conditioner for heating is expensive);
• Does it have a generator? (there are frequent electricity outages due to strong winds or accidents);
• Internet connection speed. In some locations, you can only access the Internet via ADSL, at a speed of 8 Mbps – it’s very slow and usually unstable;
• The Aidat (housekeeping fee). In private homes, the Aidat fee is minimal and can be 10 TRY per month. In large residential complexes, the Aidat fee can reach 300 TRY per month. The so-called “coal charges” for heating may also be included in the Aidat;
• The “coal charges”. In multi-family buildings with central heating, the heating fee can be charged separately from the Aidat, reaching up to $300 per year;
• Type of flooring. In Turkey, it’s common to find ceramic tiles throughout the entire area of ​​​​a house or apartment. Ceramic tiles aren’t the best in terms of sound insulation, and they aren’t as comfortable and cozy as laminate floors. Tiles aren’t the best choice for families with children.
• The window placement. In terms of comfort and savings on air conditioning, it’s better to have windows facing north, northeast, or east.

Below is a breakdown of properties in the Taşucu and Silifke areas, with approximate prices as of early 2021. Due to the increased demand for housing in the area, prices have increased significantly; any other region of Turkey would be more affordable today.

Floor plans:
1 + 1 – a kitchen/living room plus a bedroom, 1 bathroom;
2 + 1 – a kitchen/living room plus two bedrooms, 1-2 bathrooms;
3 + 1 – a kitchen/living room plus two bedrooms plus a large living room, 2-3 bathrooms.

Locals like to get together in large groups, and this requires a large living room. We have a large living room in our rented apartment: a huge table, lots of chairs and armchairs. But we only use it to dry and iron our clothes!

Housing Types and Price Ranges

Housing type and price range	Number of available options	Advantages	Disadvantages
Private house or duplex $400-500 1+1 $500-750 2+1 $650-900 3+1 The price very much depends on the condition of the house.	Many (10+)	Your own plot of land Usually in a quiet area Proximity to the sea Low utility payments (except for electricity) Water heating with solar battery	Taking many trips up and down the stairs can be inconvenient in duplexes Usually feature ceramic tiles on the floor Heating with air conditioner No generator High risk of mold from dampness (poor ventilation) High risk of slow Internet
Apartment / duplex in a new gated community $750-900	Zero (0)	Swimming pool(s) Quiet neighborhood Gated territory New furniture, appliances Generator Proximity to the sea Usually fast Internet Water heating with solar battery	Taking many trips up and down the stairs can be inconvenient in duplexes Heating with air conditioner
Apartment in a new building (no heating) $500 1+1 $650 2+1 $700 3+1	Many (10+)	New furniture, appliances Option of sea view Swimming pool option Option of water heating with solar battery	Poor sound insulation Most floors are usually tiled. Heating with air conditioner No generator Construction is often underway around new buildings. The building might not yet be connected to an Internet provider.
Apartment in an old building (no heating) $500 1+1 $500-600 2+1 $600-700 3+1	Average (5)	Swimming pool option Option of sea view Usually fast internet Well-developed area, with many places to see within walking distance Option of central heating Water heating with solar battery	Poor sound insulation In most cases, heating with air conditioner If the apartment is in a lower price range, it often features old renovation, furniture, appliances No generator
Apartment in a luxury-class building $700-900 3+1	Few options (3)	Central heating Generator Swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court, playgrounds Gated territory New furniture, appliances Option of sea view Usually fast internet Laminate floors	Poor sound insulation If the building has many stories, water is usually heated with electricity (expensive)

An Example of a Private 3+1 Duplex House on the 2nd Floor for $650

Pros: quiet area, proximity to the sea, own plot of land
Cons: no generator, slow internet

An Example of a Typical 3+1 Apartment in a New Building for $750

Pros: on-site manager (Kapıcı, pronounced “Kapaji”), own territory, playgrounds, swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court, parking, fast Internet, generator.

Cons: poor soundproofing between apartments, water heating with a direct-flow electric heater (expensive), high Aidat fee, high “coal fee”

Gas, coal and electricity

Electricity is very expensive in Turkey, so all houses and apartments are equipped with gas stoves. You’ll often see cars delivering gas cylinders along with drinking water. This service is well developed: deliveries are carried out quickly, and companies take orders via WhatsApp.

Usually, Turkish apartment buildings don’t have a central heating system that serves several buildings at once. If a building has central heating, that usually means it’s equipped with a boiler room that heats all the apartments in the building. These buildings are heated with coal.

Private houses can also have their own stove, and they are heated with coal. In winter, coal is sold in small bags everywhere: from supermarkets to small shops.

Some new apartments are built already equipped with batteries, with pipes leading to the balcony for a gas boiler, in case the building will be equipped with a centralized gas supply in the future.

Electricity prices.

On a three-tariff meter:

• From 06:00 to 17:00 – 0.76 TRY per 1 kWh;
• From 17:00 to 22:00 – 1.14 TRY per 1 kWh;
• From 22:00 to 06:00 – 0.46 TRY per 1 kWh.

The single-tariff electricity price is 0.75 TRY.

Gas prices: One 26-liter cylinder with home delivery costs 145 TRY.

The cost of central water supply: 1 m3 of water costs 5.34 TRY.

Bottled water prices:

One 19-liter bottle with home delivery costs 14 TRY.

The bazaar

The bazaar comes to the village twice a week. The assortment changes over time, depending on the seasonality of certain fruits or vegetables. Prices for food products are fixed, with no bargaining allowed. In addition to the bazaar, you can also shop at vegetable stalls.

Public services and everyday life: all you need is your kimlik

Public services are incredibly well-developed in Turkey! You can access almost any service (get a SIM-card, open a bank account, visit a doctor, rent an apartment, sign a water and electricity contract, connect to the Internet) using your kimlik. All of your requests are linked to your kimlik number, which is often used as a login to the appropriate service.

To get access to public services (via turkiye.gov.tr), you need to get a password at any post office.

I would also like to mention the service enabiz.gov.tr. This is a public medical service, where visits to all doctors, including private clinics, are recorded. It also displays the results of all tests, X-rays, and doctors’ appointments. In addition, on your personal account page, you’ll find your vaccination calendar. If you test positive for COVID-19, the page will display information about your antibodies and exemption from vaccination against coronavirus that is valid for 6 months.

Here is a basic list of applications that are useful in everyday life:

• Public services (e-devlet)
• State health insurance (e-nabiz)
• Voluntary health insurance (for example, Sencard)
• Banking services (for example, DenizBank)
• Cell operator (for example, Dijital Operator)
• Internet provider (for example, TurkTelecom)
• Car dealership services (for example, Fiat Yol Arkadasim)
• Electricity supplier for your apartment (Enerjisa Mobil)
• Ministry of Health for COVID-19 (Hayat Home Fits)
• Ministry of Taxes (GIB)
• Lighting and Traffic Light Monitoring Application (TEDAŞ)
• State Post Office (Ptt)

… and many other services, such as supermarkets, gas stations, shops. Some services may offer promotions for discounts or gifts. For example, the mobile operator TurkTelecom offers a weekly raffle with prizes including GB of Internet, phone minutes, and more.

My Experience Visiting a Doctor

When I caught a cold, I didn’t want to bother with medical services or any certificates, but I went to the clinic anyway. At the clinic, they only wanted to see my kimlik at the reception desk – they didn’t ask for my health insurance policy card or anything else. Then I was immediately directed to a doctor. There are no office numbers, all the offices are labeled with the doctor’s name. And so I went to Mahmet’s office. There was an option to call an interpreter, but we found a common language (English). The doctor asked several questions and performed some medical diagnostics. Then I was asked to wait in the hallway. I didn’t even get a chance to start scrolling through my phone when a woman came over and handed me a prescription and a doctor’s note. Then I went to the reception, where my contract was ready and I only had to sign it. So, I didn’t waste any time, the contract was being prepared while I was still at the doctor’s office. Then I went out of the clinic and there was a pharmacy nearby, where I was given medication for free based on my prescription (and kimlik) – from my health insurance. Moreover, the pharmacist indicated the dosage and frequency for each medication. That’s it, and no need to come in a second time just to close the sick leave. And there’s also a text message notification at every step of the health care process. Amazing!

Transportation and Pedestrian Infrastructure

Smaller towns generally have more reckless drivers when it comes to driving into pedestrians at crosswalks. It’s better to let the car pass, as pedestrians usually aren’t given the right of way here. But as a driver, let pedestrians pass and keep an eye on the rearview mirror.

There is a wide variation in the quality of infrastructure from large cities to villages. In Gazipasha, the city center is a barrier-free environment with an abundance of convenient crosswalks and bicycle lanes, while in Tashuju, crosswalks are often blocked by dividing strips and curbstones.

Driver’s License

You can use your country’s driver’s license for 6 months after entering Turkey, but if you stay any longer than 6 months, your driver’s license becomes worthless.

There is a procedure for replacing your driver’s license with a Turkish one, it costs about 1100 TRY.

Electronics, home appliances, and the incredible Arçelik and Karaca

Imported electronics and household appliances tend to be more expensive than in Russia. I haven’t found a clear pattern, as with cars, but on the whole, everything in Turkey is more expensive. There is one exception: high-quality and affordable household appliances from Arçelik.

Arçelik is a local manufacturer of home appliances and electronics. The company was founded in 1955. Today, up to 100% of the appliances in modern apartments are from this very brand, and I have no complaints about the quality of their products. Simple, modern, affordable, and of the highest quality. Some of Arçelik’s products are sold in Russia under the Beko brand (a home appliance factory in the Vladimir region).

Karaca Home is a Turkish brand of home products. The Karaca Home collection is developed by designers from studios in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and England, interpreted and colored by designers from Istanbul. The brand offers a European standard of quality with a distinctive Eastern flair.

Moving with children – what you need to know

The cost of kindergarten is made up of three components:

• the kindergarten itself, ranging from 1200-1600 TRY/month;
• Home-kindergarten shuttle service, if needed, 200-400 TRY/month;
• Additional evening hours, from 17:00 to 19:00, about 350 TRY/month;
• Meals may not be included and paid separately, about 35 TRY/day, which is about 700 TRY/month.

Children aren’t forced to sleep in kindergarten. Some Turkish kindergartens don’t have any beds at all, or sometimes there are half as many beds as there are children: not every child likes to sleep during the day.

In Turkey, the attitude towards children is astonishingly reverent. Children are often given free pastries in bakeries, or fruits and berries at the bazaar. One time at the bazaar, our child wanted to get a melon, but we refused to buy it. I don’t remember why, we were probably on our way to the car and we didn’t want to do a “second round” of shopping. But the seller caught up with us and gave a small melon to our child. Passersby often strike up conversations with children, expressing genuine admiration. On the other hand, people are also very tactile, and strangers will sometimes touch your children. Not all children (and their parents) like to be touched by a stranger, but there is no way to avoid it.

In our relatively small village, there are many playgrounds and other amusements for children (various trampolines and rides).

Shopping and delivery

You can buy most things on aggregators with home delivery. There are local e-commerce platforms (similar to Amazon), such as hepsiburada.com, n11.com, a101.com.tr. Apartment deliveries are well-developed in Turkey, and there are no pickup points or postal terminals. Due to the national mentality, theft is very uncommon. If nobody is at home, orders are often left outside the door. Expensive orders are sometimes left with the manager of the apartment complex (kapıcı).

Tea as a religion

It’s impossible to imagine Turkey without tea. Tea is everywhere, all the time. Roadside cafes heat water in samovars above a wood fire, many cafes bring tea every 30 minutes (often for free), and in offices fresh tea is brewed every 2-3 hours in a large samovar tea pot. This is usually finely chopped tea, for extended steaming in the kettle. A typical kettle in Turkey contains a teapot brewer on top of the kettle and features a water heating mode so that the hot water heats the kettle brewer for an extended period of time.

Simits and other baked goods

Roughly speaking, I would highlight 4 main types of baked goods.

Simit is a delicious bagel with sesame seeds. It has been baked in Istanbul since 1525. It’s usually served with tea for breakfast. You need to act fast, because locals snap them up quickly at the bakery in the morning!

Pastane simit is like a regular simit, but with a French twist – softer, thicker, and not as crispy. Wherever you find a simit, there’s usually plenty of tea around.

Poğaça (pronounced “po-oh-cha”) are traditional Turkish breakfast cakes with cheese, sausage, olives and tomatoes. The name originates from the Latin panis focacius, meaning bread from the oven. This treat first came from Italy around 1600, before becoming widespread across the Mediterranean.

Pide is a “Turkish pizza” shaped like a boat, with various toppings, usually cheese/meat. The toppings are often very spicy. It is baked in an oven until crispy. Pide was first mentioned in 1850, when bakers in Bafra started stuffing bread before baking it.

Kurabiye – these cookies originated in 7th century Persia, just after the advent of sugar. Kurabiye appeared in the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, and their name originates from the Persian word gulābiya.

3 types of cafes, 3 types of food, and the wonderful Kahvaltı

In a nutshell, you’ll find 3 main types of cafes in Turkey:

• Cafes that serve meat (no fish or sweets here);
• Cafes that serve fish (no meat or sweets);
• Cafes that serve baklava and coffee (you’ve guessed it – only sweets here).

In major Turkish cities, you can order fish, meat, pide, and baklava in one cafe, but there is a strict division in the villages.

But there is also a separate branch of gastronomy called Kahvaltı. Kahvaltı is a famous Turkish breakfast with lots and lots of everything, literally translated as “before coffee”. It was first introduced during the Ottoman empire. Traditionally, each morning, the sultan was offered a cup of fragrant coffee together with many delicacies. In those days, coffee was just beginning to gain popularity and was not available to everyone.

The story of one visit to a cafe, or getting lost in translation

One bright Saturday morning we went to meet our colleagues for Kahvaltı breakfast at a cafe in the mountains. We arrived early and started looking for that particular cafe. On the way there, we passed by several similar cafes, with staff shouting “buyurun, buyurun” (come in) outside, but we had our eyes on our goal. So we finally found that cafe, but we’d barely made it to the parking lot when an old woman ran out of nowhere, started shouting at us and gesturing to show us that we should leave. I thought we were confused about something, or that there was a mistake in Google maps and this local resident was already tired of waving off annoying visitors who had confused her house with the cafe. While I was thinking this, the woman called the gendarmes over, shouted something to them and pointed her hand at us. At this point, I thought we should definitely get out of there, so I could park somewhere else and study the map better. I switched on the turn signal and slowly started driving, to let the gendarmes know that I am leaving, but that I am driving slowly and that if I have done something wrong, I have no intention of running away. But no one stopped me and we drove farther away to decide on our next move.

Google maps had a picture of the place, and the photo of the cafe matched the one where we’d tried to park. Very strange, so I called my colleagues and told them that we had been kicked out of the cafe with the involvement of the gendarmes. My colleagues were shocked, but 10 minutes later we figured it out. This old woman, who was also the owner of the cafe, saw that tourists wanted to come to her, but since she didn’t speak any English and the cafe next door had English-speaking staff, she decided to send us to another cafe. She asked the gendarmes to translate her words into English. And since the woman was hard of hearing, she said it all very, very loudly. We laughed and reminisced about it for a long time, and that morning we were all treated to a wonderful Kahvaltı!

Lunch in the corporate canteen

Typical lunch in the corporate canteen costs 20 TRY and consists of chickpeas with meat, Turkish ezogelin soup, salad, water, and ayran. Ezogelin çorbası translates to “Ezo Bride Soup,” a thick, hearty, spicy red lentil soup. There’s a story behind the name. In 1936, a young girl moved from Turkey to Syria, where she started to miss her village and had trouble communicating with her mother-in-law Ezo. Legend has it that Ezo created this soup to make the girl feel less homesick. This soup is now served to brides to support them. According to other sources, in some regions of Turkey, every bride has to prepare Ezo soup before her wedding.

Stray dogs

There are a lot of stray dogs on the streets (at least, according to my personal stray dog meter). These are mostly big dogs. You’ll find them sleeping on the mat by entrances to stores and hotels, pacing outside the butcher store, and sometimes you even have to step over them to get inside. Sometimes, 2-3 dogs have followed us on our walks for some time. The Young Party sets up public street kennels for these dogs, and locals feed them with leftovers. As a rule, these dogs only bark and show aggression at cars, but walking among potential danger isn’t the most pleasant experience, even if they’re sleeping in the sun. As I understand it, the municipality is trying to combat this by spaying the dogs, almost all of them are marked with special ear tags, but apparently, this hasn’t been enough so far.

For the record, running over a dog is considered a traffic accident, which means the driver must call the police, draw up documents and pay a fine.

Some urban studies

On a hill near Taşucu, you’ll find the TOKi neighborhood, which is built according to the canons of contemporary urban studies:

• a mix of high-rise buildings and two-story duplexes;
• unified design;
• a lot of greenery;
• yards without cars;
• an abundance of benches and picnic tables;
• transparent glass entrance doors;
• no fences;
• tiles instead of asphalt;
• street lamps with low lighting (cozy in the evenings).

TOKi is a state-owned company that builds houses, including social housing for low- and middle-income families, transforming the urban environment to a new level. In Turkey, state-owned means quality.

The special charm of village life

Living in the village is especially beautiful and cozy when you can see chickens and roosters strolling peacefully through the streets, and shepherds driving their sheep and goats in the mornings and evenings. You’ll even see chickens in the center of small towns. Mornings are surprisingly consistent in the village. When I go out for a morning jog, at the same time and in the same places I meet people I already know, each doing their own thing: near the gas station the driver washes his bus, a stray dog watches the driver, then I meet an old man walking with a cane, then I run past a shepherd with his rams, sometimes I meet an old man doing agricultural work in the field, then I cross paths with the same dog owners, then I meet a colleague on a bicycle, the same red dog sleeping on the mat by the hotel entrance, and finally I run past workers waiting for their ride on the corner. And so it is every morning: the same faces, at the same time.

Finances

In terms of mandatory monthly expenses, excluding rent, here is the approximate breakdown:

• Kindergarten costs about 2100-2400 TRY – daycare, transfers, food;
• Utilities cost up to 1000 TRY – electricity, water, heating, internet, 3+1 apartment;
• Groceries cost about 2000 TRY – with weekly purchases of 500 TRY.

Total: 5100-5400 TRY.

The minimum budget for a family of three is 7000 TRY, excluding rent and car maintenance.

The remaining expenses will vary depending on specific needs.

According to numbeo.com, life in the province of Mersin in Turkey is 30% cheaper than in my home city, St. Petersburg, but I found that our family was spending the same amount. The low cost of vegetables, fruits, and some services is outweighed by expensive electronics, high electricity, and heating costs, and very expensive cars and gasoline.

What to see within a 100 km radius

In Turkey, even if you’re far from the main tourist attractions, there are many interesting places to see, which opens up great opportunities for travel. Below is a short list of attractions near Taşucu.

N	Attraction	Name	Coordinates	Distance, km	Score (1 to 5) and description
1	Waterfall	Yerköprü şelalesi	36.55781, 33.23387	96	5 – beautiful scenery
2	Old Castle	Mavga Kale	36.75718, 33.50678	97	2 – the castle is on a mountain, you can’t get close
3	Canyon	Sason kanyon	36.69566, 33.69656	85	5 – beautiful scenery, make sure to wear running shoes
4	Beach	Tisan Plaji	36.16089, 33.68791	34	5 – gorgeous beach and scenic route
5	Beach	Akdere Plajı	36.20095, 33.73575	30	4 – great scenery, the beach is shaded by a pine forest
6	Castle	Tokmar Kalesi	36.26061, 33.77245	18	3 – gorgeous views from a castle’s ruins
7	Beach	Boğsak Halk Plajı	36.27539, 33.81508	11	1 – the sea is calm in the bay, but the beach is crowded
8	Castle	Silifke Kalesi	36.37624, 33.91682	9	4 – a castle with a beautiful view of the city of Silifke
9	Underground Temple	Ayatekla Örenyeri	36.36625, 33.93097	8	3 – an underground Orthodox temple
10	Bridge over a river, descent to river	Göksu Köprüsü	36.40518, 33.81694	22	2 – it’s hard to access the river, the water is pleasantly cool in the summer
11	Cafe with river view	Ali-Göksu Manzaralı Kahvaltı Salonu	36.43496, 33.73820	32	3 – cafe with scenic river view
12	Picnic area on the mountain in a pine forest	Uzuncaburç Piknik Alanı	36.55181, 33.94195	35	3 – beautiful views along the road and the scent of the pine forest, you have to pay for a picnic spot, in the summer it’s not as hot as by the sea
13	Ruins	Uzuncaburç	36.58195, 33.92489	40	3 – stunning views
14	Ruins	Olba Antik Kenti	36.58610, 33.96371	42	1 – not much to see here
15	Ruins	Римский акведук	36.58716, 33.96918	42	5 – you can walk around the canyon, make sure to wear running shoes
16	Ruins	Cambazlı Kilisesi	36.57754, 34.03339	39	1 – not much to see here
17	Cafe on the mountain river between the peaks	Doktorun Yeri kayacı vadisi	36.60769, 34.19523	59	3 – a nice cafe by the mountain river, shaded by the trees
18	Cafe on the mountain river between the peaks	Lemas Piknik Canlı Balık	36.58386, 34.23200	51	5 – an excellent cafe by the mountain river, the perfect place for a Turkish breakfast
19	Ancient inscriptions on the cliff	Adamkayalar	36.48549, 34.12103	50	4 – beautiful scenery, you need running shoes to take the steps down to the canyon
20	Heaven and Hell Caves	Heaven and Hell Caves	36.45224 34.10652	32	5 – a deep cave with many things to explore within, there’s an elevator to take you back up and plenty of parking
21	Cafe with Turkish breakfast	Hanımeli Kahvaltı	36.45139, 34.10337	33	5 – an excellent cafe that serves the best Turkish breakfast in the region (this is the one where we thought we got kicked out!)
22	Beach with castle view	Kızkalesi Halk Plajı	36.45926, 34.14420	34	3 – great beach, but too crowded, paid parking
23	Ruins	Pasli	36.46980, 34.00622	37	2 – not much to see here, nice scenery
24	Mausoleum	Mezgitkale	36.46882, 34.02743	38	5 – a well-preserved Roman mausoleum
25	Village	Yenibahçe	36.47637, 34.00076	39	4 – an abandoned village, it’s nice to stroll down the only street in the village
26	Sinkhole	Aşağı Dünya Obruğu	36.44918, 34.01014	38	4 – a natural wonder surrounded by ruins

For your convenience, all locations are marked on the map:

Some final thoughts

Turkey is open to both tourists and those wishing to move for a longer period of time: even a long-term rental agreement is sufficient for a residence permit. Living in Turkey is comfortable, with access to lots of delicious fruits and vegetables, and a temperate climate that allows for outdoor sports all year round.

To summarize, here are the main pros and cons of living in Turkey.

Cons:

• the high cost of cars, electronics, and home Internet;
• many stray dogs (although they don’t bother you, they can be annoying);
• cars don’t let pedestrians pass;
• hot weather in the summer;
• no Russian sausage, cheeses and other products (everyone has a product they miss, but it’s mostly sausage);
• the language barrier. You can rarely get by with only English, and you’ll usually need a translator in your smartphone;
• expensive cabs and no aggregators (like Uber or YandexTaxi);
• a lot of garbage in the streets.

Pros:

• you can rent a house with a pool and a tennis court for the cost of a 1-bedroom apartment in a European city (or even cheaper);
• the sea, the sun, the good weather;
• no need for winter and off-season clothes;
• convenient and well-developed delivery service;
• access to delicious fresh fruits and vegetables;
• developed government electronic services;
• hardly any theft, which makes you feel safer overall.

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This article is a translation. You can read the original here: https://habr.com/ru/company/timeweb/blog/574374/