Izmir

Maunder

\MON-duhr\

To wander aimlessly.

Okay, so I'm jetting back in time a bit to talk about traveling to Izmir which happened...about 3 weeks ago or so. Oops.

Izmir was actually a little tricky to get to from Foca. I took a bus, then a really long metro, then another metro. Even though it only takes about 45 minutes by car it took me almost 2 hours. Because you know, there's a lot of waiting time involved in public transit. But I had my ipod (which I've know lost!, I'm so sad) so the trip was peaceful.

After wandering around looking for a map and trying to find 2 tourist informations (which turned out to actually be complete fabrications, the only tourist info center is eons away at the airport), I decided just to wander around the coast, which was beautiful.

Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey and is a coastal city.

Today it's most well known for its clock tower, which has become the symbol of the city. It is in Konak Square (the main city square) and was built in 1901 as a gift from Sultan Abdulhamid.

Having no map, and no real sense where anything was, I just wandered around, enjoying the ocean air and keeping cool with some delicious vanilla/chocolate/strawberry ice cream. I found Kemer Alta, which is a big shopping district, with everything from street vendors selling cheap knock offs, to high end stores with legitimate name brand stuff. I didn't need to buy anything, so I just window shopped, but the whole vibe there was really great. It was super bustling and lively, with all sorts of people.

Other than walking a lot in the city center, I didn't do much else. I found a cute restaurant and ate outside by the water and did some reading. I had this very good albeit a little strange "mushroom crepe" which was more like a inverted fluffy pizza or something. But still, delish.

A skeleton-like hull of a ship? It was pretty cool looking though.

Right by the clock tower in Konak Square.

Apparently a ship sank and I think they were dealing with some oil clean-up issues because of it.