They talked about the combination of their expectations with the harsh Turkish reality in their blog in Yandex.Zen Russian tourists who left to spend the winter in the vicinity of the Side resort.
As it turned out, not so many of their expectations coincided with reality, which they decided to share with others. So:
- “Waiting: it will be warm, winter clothes are not needed. Reality: it gets pretty cold in the evening, so it even makes sense to wear thermal underwear sometimes. Every night we sleep with a heater,” bloggers said. Flying to Turkey in winter, they advised not to neglect warm and windproof clothing.
- “Expectation: cheap tasty food everywhere. Reality: not always and not everywhere. This applies even to fruits and vegetables – for example, with delicious tomatoes and cucumbers of complexity. “To everything else, there is a shortage of products familiar to us, but there are also delicious items, for example, strawberries. As for the price, it really comes out cheap, while the exchange rate of the lira to the ruble is 4 to 1,” the bloggers add.
- “Expectation: everyone knows at least English. Reality: they only know Turkish and German well (in our area), English with difficulty,” the authors explained. Sometimes it is difficult to explain yourself even in shops or cafes. Sometimes you have to turn on the mime.
- “Expectation: everywhere they will deceive and warm up for money. Reality: people are kind, helpful and even help for free. The attitude towards us is good,” the bloggers reassured.
- “Expectation: we can easily drive everywhere, order a taxi or get to the desired point by public transport. Reality: transport here is like a separate kind of pain and huge prices,” the blogger said. The road in 7 minutes from the shopping center to the house cost 100-150 lira (about 400-600 rubles). “Public transport is also a roulette,” he said.
- “Expectation: we will spend less money for living here from all the countries where we have been. Reality: we have invested a lot of money in housing, for obtaining a residence permit, insurance, plus recently payment for utilities has come, and we have not lived for another month. Remained almost at zero,” bloggers write. A lot of money is also taken away by expensive Internet and mobile communications.
- “Expectation: we can see all the nearby attractions. Reality: a matter of time and money. Renting a car is expensive – from $ 35 per day, while the country is large, all the sights are scattered in different corners, “the nearest desirable location to us is 3-4 hours drive from home.” Organized excursions are even more expensive – from $70 per person.
- “Expectation: we will work remotely from home with good internet. Reality: The Internet here is so terrible that it comes down to everyday frustration, ”the bloggers write. In addition, a stationary modem does not work when the power is turned off – but it is turned off periodically and for no reason. With mobile Internet is also not easy. “In no case should you insert a local SIM card into your phone, because there is a chance that the phone will turn into a brick due to the blocking of IMEI (identification number of the SIM slot) in Turkey after 120 days, well, or you can pay a tax on any phone at 23,000 rubles and continue using the phone. We bought a modem for distributing the Internet. Although this is also another “pleasure”, besides, it’s not cheap – 6000 rubles,” the access was explained.
- “Expectation: we will walk 10,000 thousand steps every day. Reality: we walk strangely, either very far from home from 20,000 steps, since all life is far away, or 10-15 minutes near the house. It seems that there is enough space, but there is nowhere to go, ”the bloggers write. They also complain that in fact there is one shopping center within walking distance and, in fact, “everything is somehow empty.”
- “Expectation: we will be able to watch Russian services, since we have a smart speaker Alice and a subscription with us in Kinopoisk. Reality: there are bans on some of the services we are used to, they work with restrictions or do not work at all. TikTok, for example, is blocked,” the bloggers said, adding that “after Georgia and Armenia, where everything works in full, it was a surprise.”
For those who care about a healthy lifestyle life, we recommend reading: “Scientists have established the influence of dishes of plant and animal origin on the feeling of satiety and mood.”