Finike's first ever Portakali festival (orange festival)

March 26, 2016

On Saturday morning, the winds calmed down from Friday's blow making Finike, Turkey's inaugural annual orange festival a huge success.

The girls and I headed to the market for our usual produce restock, on our way we walked along the beach front and took photos of the "orange" structures before the parade and throngs of people. We also caught a glimpse of the "orange" floats that were being readied at the stadium for the parade later in the day.

We arrived back to the boat when Sude (our Turkish friend) approached us to see if we are going to the festival. She and her friend invited us to attend the festivities with them. Off we went again speaking in broken Turkish and English. We ended up on the main street near the market (along with a ton of other people). 

One of the marina dogs "Little" followed us and was a bit traumatised with the throngs of people and the loud noises so Paige was a little pre-occupied. The parade started 40 minutes late which worked out perfectly for us as we got great seats along the route. There were marching bands, farm equipment, dancers, silk scarfs being handed out and fresh oranges being tossed. Paige accidentally got hit in the head by the oranges but the flavour and juiciness made up for it as these were some of the best tasting oranges we have eaten. 

Sude introduced us to several of her teachers along the way. We also ran into one of Paige's volleyball teammates Isinsu. She tagged along with us for the rest of the day. After the parade passed us we followed along behind it to the waterfront. It was chaotic to say the least. Once we had our fill we said goodbye to Sude and her friend and headed back to the marina for some quiet time.

We had good intentions of returning for the evening festivities but were so tired that we didn't go back. 

"orange" structures near the beach

Turkish flag made out of oranges

Finike's logo

pre-parade float shots

we found out later in the day that our friend Isinsu's school decorated this heart

arriving to the beach as the parade was entering

from left to right: Isinsu, Sude, Jordan, Paige and Sude's friend

up close and personal with the "orange" structure

Ataturk painting

Little crossing to find Paige

the floats stopped along the waterfront

the girlish on the float

friends

waterfront shot

Snow White taking a selfie (she was in the parade)

so many people

Little safe in Paige's arms

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