As we’re doing a workaway in Kaş, most of our days look pretty much the same. While this may sound mundane, in the reality of long-term travel, I often long for some sense of routine or normalcy. When you can’t achieve normalcy by making your favorite home-cooked meal (the supermarkets here don’t sell half of the ingredients I would need), then you need to find it in other ways. Volunteering gives us the chance to settle into a community and lifestyle for a few weeks or a month at a time. While we did have one bad experience, all of our other workaway placements have been great, and truly the only reason we’ve been able to travel as long as we have.

Since we’ve done a few workaway experiences now, I want to highlight what a day at each one looks like. On our two days off each week, we usually embark on an adventure to a nearby town or on a long hike we wouldn’t be able to do in an afternoon. These days end up being long days of exploration, and usually wear us out. On our workdays, though, it’s usually pretty slow and relaxed. We work for a few hours in the morning, then embark on smaller activities – going to the grocery store if we need anything for dinner, lounging at the beach for a few hours, or getting caught up on some work or reading. Here’s an example of one of my days this week:

Mornings are usually pretty slow. I wake up around 8:30am and move through the morning routine – brush our teeth, put in contacts, then sit in the sun for a few minutes before heading to breakfast. I walk downstairs to the staff area and greet my Turkish coworkers by saying “günaydin”, or ‘good morning’ in English. I grab a cup of coffee and make myself a bowl of yogurt with muesli and bananas. Yogurt can be found in huge abundance here – I buy a 3kg container approximately the size of my head for less than $4. Now, I’ll sit in the sun and enjoy my breakfast and coffee, usually while checking social media or reading the NYTimes.

By 10:30am, our boss has usually shown up and it’s time to start the day. Today we’ll be working on painting the floor of the restaurant yellow. Most of the work we’ve been doing here has been either painting or staining wood. I like these tasks because they allow me to work outside and I can see the visible progress of my work. I also get a small sense of creativity, even if I’m just painting a wall. Before painting the floor, we’ll first need to sweep and power wash the floors to get rid of any dirt. This is the most time-consuming part of our task and takes a few hours to complete.

While waiting for the floor to dry, it’s time to eat some lunch. Lunch is always provided by the workaway and is usually a nice Turkish meal like fasule or casserole. Today, though, the chefs are preparing for the restaurant’s opening in a few days and making a ton of custom pizzas. I ask for a pizza with chicken and peppers, and go to eat it in the sun, overlooking the ocean. After lunch, Liam and I start painting the floors. This goes pretty quickly with rollers, but we’ll need to come back tomorrow and patch up around the edges. After about 3 hours total of working, we’re done for the day!

After work, Liam and I decide to walk to town to grab a few things from the grocery store. There’s a closer grocery store in the marina, but it’s a nice day and we think we might want to stop at a coffee shop while in town. We go to Linckia Café, just outside of town and sit outside to drink a flat white for me, and a latte for Liam. We like this café because it has a really nice vibe, a good view of the sea, and most importantly, the best coffee we’ve had in Kas. We sit for an hour, both reading our books, then walk back home, stopping at the grocery store on the way. At this point, I need to prepare for an English lesson I have tonight. I set up my “office” in the corner of our bungalow and set aside a few minutes to figure out what I’ll discuss with my student for this lesson.

My lesson lasts an hour, and then it’s time to prepare and eat dinner. Tonight, we’re making some orzo with pesto and peas! After dinner, we clean up and sit by the fire for a little bit with our coworkers. Eventually, Liam and I decide to head to bed, but both read for a while before falling asleep. Around midnight, we shut off the lights, turn on the fan, and fall asleep looking forward to another beautiful day in Kaş.