Thursday, March 24th:
The Aegean Sea in Çeşme (With Greek Islands in the Background):
Another wonderful (and confusing) adventure today! Jen and I caught our flight to Izmir early in the morning and arrived at the Park Hotel in Basmane around one. I should note that I finally got to try the Turkish breakfast/lunch food of Börek at the airport. This food is basically a flaky dough roll filled with cheese. The weather today in Izmir was significantly better than in Istanbul, as it was sunny and around 70 degrees (Fahrenheit… I feel I have to specify because they use Celsius here). We checked in and threw on our bathing suits to try to catch an hour long bus to Çeşme, a Turkish summer resort town on the Aegean Sea. After some more language difficulties discovering the final bus back to the city so we would not get stranded, we got our bus tickets and made our way to the small town. When we got there, the wind had picked up extraordinarily and the temperature had dropped to around 60 degrees. So much for swimming, as the water at the famous Ilica Beach was very cold too and getting wet in that wind would be frigid. We walked to the beach to discover that we were apparently way too early for beach season; the town and the beach were entirely empty. The beach was, however, a beautiful spot tucked between the sea and massive mountains rising all around.
Since it was cold, we decided to try to find the naturally occurring geothermal hot springs of Çeşme. We learned that they were part of the ocean, tucked into breakwaters in the town’s marina, and we got the help of the receptionists at the Sheraton hotel right on the beach on how to get there. We walked about three kilometers to the breakwater, and tried to find where the water was warm. This spot was super sketchy, as there are boats in the water and it is tough to find where the hot water is coming from, all while we were getting blasted by sea water from the wind-whipped waves slamming the breakwater next to us. We noticed that there were iron stairs descending into a small ocean pool at the very end of the breakwater, so we walked down there. The adventure really started when we discovered that we had to navigate across a very sketchy bridge made of wooden planks across the deep ocean water to reach this pool, all while trying to maintain balance in the high winds. I shimmed my way across with both my and Jen’s bags, and helped her across before we dipped into the small geothermic pool. The water in there was very strange, in that waves would sneak cold ocean water in every once in a while, but other than that it was quite pleasant and warm. I even almost burned the bottom of my feet on the rocks on the bottom!
The Geothermic Hot Springs of Çeşme:
We swam in these pools for about thirty minutes, before trying to dry off and stay warm between blasts of sea water and the wind still picking up. Two local fishermen aided us back across the bridge and we went to change in a bathroom on our walk back to the bus station. On the way we stopped at a local café called Tius where we were given hot tea to warm up by a very nice worker. We chatted with him and he explained how he learned English from talking to the resort and beachgoers every summer, and told us that his name was Erkan. We had a nice chat about the importance of the English language for Turkish citizens and all people around the world as the international language, and he explained that his name meant “Soldier Blood” in Turkish. He gave us a nice discount on our tea before sending us off on our way. We made our way back to the bus station and caught a nice nap on the way back to Izmir.
Ilica Beach in Çeşme:
Izmir is a very different city than Istanbul. It is more of a resort city, and much more Western than Istanbul. After hot showers to warm us up from still being wet and cold from Çeşme, Jen and I walked over to Atatürk Caddesi in Alsancak, the main café, restaurant, and bar area of the city. The street is very long and runs parallel to the sea and a large, cozy park. We walked all the way down to the end to find the restaurant we had wanted to go to, before discovering that they literally had zero fish or vegetarian dishes on the menu. Seeing as Jen is a vegetarian, we left that restaurant and walked back to a fish restaurant called Kordonboyu Balik Pişiricisi. It was very late, after 10:45pm at this point, so the fish selection was very slim, however I got to try one of the last remaining Angler Sole fish that they had left. Naturally, I thought this was awesome, as I have always loved the look of this fish but never gotten to taste it! The dish was prepared broiled in a plate filled with onions, tomatoes, peppers, and lemons, and was absolutely delicious and very filling! I had planned on eating dessert, but did not have any room left in my stomach for it. We left the restaurant and walked back to the hotel, stopping at a bar called the Menta Bar. In here we each had an Efes and laughed at the (legal) prostitutes walking around shaking each and every patron’s hands. They also had a concert in this bar of a keyboard player/DJ, violinist (or some similar instrument that I am unaware of the name), and a singer playing traditional Turkish/Arabic music. We were entertained by this for about a half hour before heading home to get some shut-eye before another long day of touring tomorrow.
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