It is hard to believe that it in November already. I have only updated once about my trip to Bodrum. The beginning of the school year was really hectic. A brand new elementary school campus opened, and it unfortunately wasn't ready at the beginning of the year. By October, everyone was more settled in at the new building with their schedules. But October ended up being an incredibly busy month. It started off great with a weekend in Izmir, the second largest city in Turkey on the west coast. A group of foreign teachers flew to Izmir on a Friday night. Anissa and I decided not to go to Ephesus or Pamukkale and stayed in Izmir to explore the city. That Saturday turned out to be an epic day of walking! Our first stop was the ruins from the ancient Roman agora, back when Izmir was part of the Roman empire and known as Smyrna. The agora was the central marketplace in the city. This open air museum was only a few lira to enter, and turned out to be a pretty awesome spot to walk around and take some photos.
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| Archaeologists really had to dig to uncover these ruins |
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| Photos from down inside the agora |
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| Each section of the marketplace was reserved for selling different goods |
After walking around the ancient agora, Anissa and I strolled through the Izmir bazaar. We saw people selling fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices, then onto clothes and shoes....it went on and on and on.
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| I thought this fish was some kind of shark at first |
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| Many nuts and dried fruits for sale at the market |
We walked through the windy streets of the bazaar, stopping to buy some scarves and other knick knacks. Eventually we found our way out down by the water and walked along the promenade.
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| The Izmir clocktower, a symbol of the city |
The waterside is filled with many restaurants, bars, and tons of shops. We found our way to Alsancak and enjoyed a fabulous dinner there. This meal is one of the best seafood dinners I have had in Turkey. Skewered, seasoned sea bass with lots of peppers and tomatoes...delicious.
The next day, we continued our walk through the city, this time past the seaside and up the hill to a few of the museums. The Archaeology museum in Izmir was small, but had some great pieces to it. There were many Roman statues and marble engravings from excavations in the area, as well as pottery and sarcophogi.
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| These stone carvings were just hanging out outside the museum |
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| Painted sarcophogi, a rare find |
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| Very elaborate marble sarcophogus |
I continued walking up the hill and was rewarded with some pretty awesome panoramic views of Izmir.
I caught up with Anissa again at this shiny blue mosque up on top of the hill.
Finally we walked back down to the seaside again and enjoyed one last meal before heading back. Izmir was a really fun city to visit, so very different from Tarsus or Istanbul. It had more of a cosmopolitan feel to it than Mersin and was a really nice city to walk around and take in all of the sights.
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| Down by the seaside walkway |
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| One last photo...a shot of Ataturk carved into the rock, as taken from a moving taxi |
