6/3 – Cesme and Izmir – last port call in Turkey

On our way to Cesme, the sunrise is beautiful as is the panoramic view of the white washed houses lining the waterfront and rising up the slopes of the mountains here.

Docking in Cesme, the little town looks adorable (and Simon says it is a great place to wander and spend time) but it doesn’t strike us as full day adorable. So off we go to Izmir, the 3rd largest city in Turkey. I’m a little intimidated – I mean 3rd largest is still pretty darn huge – but we have a parking garage mapped out and a bunch of things we want to do and see in Izmir, so, adventure on!

We find the rental agent without an issue, hop in the car and take off for the hour long drive to Izmir. The roads are all good, mostly multi-lane highways. There is an electronic toll that is collected automatically, as our rental agent told us it would, but beyond that, it is an exceptionally easy drive into the city. Our route takes us along the seafront and into town where we promptly miss the first turn we need and then have to re-orient ourselves and the GPS to get us to the parking lot. It actually wasn’t all that tough, except for one extremely narrow road with cars parked on both sides. But other than that, we successfully made it to the garage and off into the city proper on foot.

We chose the garage located in the Kulturpark, so we could begin our meanderings in the park and get oriented to the city. Plus there is the History and Art Museum in the middle of the park which we thought was a good way to start our day. The park itself is large and beautiful, with lots of green space, cool statues and fountain.

We find the museum easily enough, buying our $1 USD tickets, we enter a large courtyard that isn’t well marked, forcing the ticket booth guy to come out and point our way into the museum. Once there we find our way through the maze of displays to the restroom (again not well marked but we made it!) and back out into some really interesting sculptures and statues from different time periods of Turkish history. The mosaics are beautiful, as are the funerary statues and the tombs. The details are just amazing.

Finishing up the history part of the tour, we wandered out into the courtyard looking for the art museum, but was told it was closed. Ok. Change of plans. We’ll just try to head over to the Agora of Smyrna, the administrative, judicial and commercial center of the ancient city. What looked like a long walk…was a long walk, but a pleasant one through the city with a stop for cappuccino on the way. The walk was well worth it. The agora is a vast archeological site with so many well preserved features – most importantly the entire Basilica with all its chambers and carvings. The basement of the Basilica is the most fascinated with its arches and chambers, mostly used for sales, marketing and storage.

We had the best time exploring down there! Next we climbed up the stairs to the yard area, where there are just tons and tons of artifacts piled all around, waiting for placement and reconstruction. You could spend hours here exploring. Yeah, we just can’t get enough (as is indicated by the photos below).

Finally, we have to pry ourselves away and head out in search of lunch. navigating through the busy market area – not as intimidating as Istanbul, thankfully – we find the restaurant Ed had scoped out earlier – Sardine Balik. It is at the back of this little courtyard and all decked out with white table clothes and plastic wrapped plate settings. Like the cleanliness! We are the first customers which is fine by us, we can sit and relax and not worry about people near us or being rushed. Looking at the menu, we are a little unsure that this is the same restaurant we saw online, but we’re here – and there is octopus, which of course is the requirement! So, one sizzling octopus (it really did sizzle!), a few plates of mezes (that we proudly picked out ourselves) and a beer and wine later (all for $18 USD), we are thoroughly happy with our meal and ready for our afternoon exploring.

Walking back to the seafront, we pass the iconic clock tower with the really cool, teeny octagonal domed Konak Cami mosque next to it.

Then it is a hike, and I mean a hike, down the seafront promenade, past the Konak pier and all the way up to the Ataturk Museum, the entrance of which is hidden in an unassuming building on the road fronting the promenade. So unassuming in fact, we walked right by it and had to double back before entering! But once inside, it was a wonderful reconstruction of Ataturk’s life and military history, including real life size mannequins around a meeting table, and all of Ataturk’s personal rooms – he actually lived in the house for a period and stayed there whenever he came to visit Izmir. Weirdly fascinating.

From the museum it is an easy walk over to the garage, fortunately along well shaded roads because it is getting a tad toasty out here. We found the garage easily enough, paid for the parking and were out and on our way in no time. Getting out of the city proved much easier than getting in, and, poof – onto the highway we went. All went smoothly until the toll booth where gendarmes were stopping everyone and checking papers. We thought, uh oh, here comes the shake down, but no, they were very nice and polite and when they found out we were American, they just waved us on. Phew! A little scary.

Got back to Cesme, found a space very near the rental agency, turned the car in, wandered the waterfront harbor, stopped for a quick drink to try to use up all our Lira – didn’t work – still have some left – then went back to the ship.

Dinner tonight up on deck at White night. We sat with Steven’s parents and had a wonderful evening getting stuffed on sushi and cheese pie and pomegranate seeds, watching the revelry and fun from our mid-ship seats.