Serdar Ali Çelikler settled in Bodrum with his wife, journalist Gülin Yıldırımkaya Çelikler and two kids; “we came to Bodrum in February and rented a house. We moved to Bodrum in March” he tells. Çelikler, spending 3 days a week in Istanbul, talked about their new life to Strategy Magazine.

Of course, it didn’t happen all at once

My wife, already exhausted of being intermingled with metropolis-agenda-presence trio in an industry such as media, putting down roots where she’s present and feeling overly satisfied where she puts down roots, has been already asking for this change. She was inwardly worried of missing the ‘growth’ of our little daughter. We were thinking and discussing.

One day, when we were driving on 15th July Martyrs Bridge to our home, we suddenly noticed that Beles Tepe (For Free Hill), as it’s named since years, was turned into Martyrs Hill. And a few days ago, we were already driving by the Martyr Judge Mehmet Selim Kiraz Courthouse. On that day, we said “is this really the city familiar to us?” In those days, we were entering to the top 3-4 shopping malls through the security of special forces. The famous shopping mall situated just behind the park where my 1,5 year old daughter was used to go every day, is also one of them. So, we made a decision; our daughter should not have to grow in this ‘not have been’, ‘couldn’t have been’ and ‘ will not have been’ city. A life network of better quality was possible.

Well, where?

This question has actually several right answers. Some say Datça, some say Izmir and some prefer abroad. Since we were not one of those kind of families like ‘let’s live in the nature, let’s have ships in our garden, let’s collect our eggs from the coop of our chickens’, we decided to choose a place both close to the urban life but at the same time, staying away from the headaches of the city, provided with the necessary transportation means against isolation and modern building and infrastructure standards; thus we decided on’Bodrum’.

WE REALIZED THAT IT WAS NOT A VERY RADICAL DECISION

In early February, we went and found the house and we moved in 58 KÖŞE / Colunmn STRATEGY March. You are able to find informations in various fields about the winter life in Bodrum. In Yalıkavak, there is a small winter life community. Similarly, Turgut Reis too is a big center by itself and has a winter life. However, I think it’s better to settle close to the downtown if you want to enjoy Bodrum living its heydays between July and September. So, considering this fact, we rented a house in a modern building complex 1 km away from Bodrum Milta Marina. There, we were surprised to see that there were several families like us. Yes, just nine families had closed their houses in Istanbul and they had come here. One family from Antalya and another Turkish family from Luxembourg too had decided to live in Bodrum. All of them had moved here with similar reasons. At the complex with 24 apartments, 12 families migrated from other towns and 10 of them are from Istanbul.

We presumed this picture was unique to our building complex but we noticed that the lovely couple owning the café we are frequenting and their friends too had similar stories. We were more persuaded that our decision was not radical as we saw the number of families and neighbors of our fellows encouraging us to come to Bodrum.

PEOPLE WORKING IN MUNICH AND LIVING IN BODRUM

I travel to Istanbul 3 days a week and come back. I spend 10 months in a year like that. Between June and August, traveling 2-3 times to Istanbul is enough. I wouldn’t exaggerate if I say that almost all people having jobs allowing such opportunities, are living in Bodrum. You can work in Istanbul and live in Bodrum since there are 11 flights weekly, one to Ankara and ten to Istanbul every day in winter and the ticket prices are very affordable until May 19. We were very surprised and thought our case was not unusual at all when one of our acquaintances told us that he worked in Munich and lived in Bodrum during four years.

Today, the population of Bodrum is 160 thousand according to the figure marked on the entrance sign to the town but the real number in winter is around 250 thousands. The anticipated number of population is 750 thousand in 2023. Therefore, both infrastructure and superstructure works are going on. There are 6 big private schools. Besides 2 big private hospitals, there is also a public hospital offering a good service. There are 3 shopping malls with 2 of them very active and each of the 3 marinas has its own shopping center. The technological problems are almost non-existing. Except of 45 days in summer, the traffic jam is out of question. More importantly, you enjoy the freedom/beauty to see the sky, stars, moon and trees without raising your head. But mostly, we should talk about the quality of people in Bodrum. After renting the house on February 6, when dining at the restaurant on Neyzen Tevfik Street just across the marina, we noticed the girls/ women riding comfortably on their scooters at night and we concluded once again that we made a right decision.

Finally, I can tell the following to those asking ‘what kind of job can we do there?’: Here are three fundamental job categories which are construction, tourism and boat construction.

When talking about boat and yacht construction, I’m referring to the reparation, docking etc… The tour business is a part of the tourism. On the other hand, I can say that there is a boom in the jobs like fitness trainer, pilates trainer or breathing therapist. There is also a good number of people who can command their business in Izmir or Istanbul from Bodrum. If you think to come here and to open a café/bar, this category is already saturated.

We are only one among hundreds of families leaving Istanbul, which we think is very tiring now, to settle in Bodrum. We hope this journey will have positive consequences for us and more importantly, for our kid.