DAY 21 - IZMIR

21) MONDAY, 18 JULY 1977 : 372KMS. - IZMIR

From M. KEMALPASA we headed for BALIKESIN then to EDREMIT.  The road (about 20 kms.) is in worse condition and under reconstruction.  I felt like we were on a horse or camel back and gallopping  as my  head shook in any directions and it was very dusty all the way.  Besides, we had to be careful of small pebbles  bouncing off  the road up against the windshield.  The road was also narrow and we had to drive rather  slow and very cautiously.

Ancient ruins, Bergama - Photo : Bing images search

Passing through EDREMIT, we headed to AYVALIK  to the south coast city BERGAMA (PERGAMON) , where we visited the ancient city ruins of ancient  Greek empire. I bought a nice marble vase ( 145.- TL) , then moved down to the south along the  coastal road passing  ALIAGA, MENEMEN to IZMIR.

Temple of Trajan, Bergama - Photo : Bing images search

IZMIR is the third large sea port of Turkey . From a distance, the city looks beautiful at night because there are houses situated on mountains , glittering with dazzling lights, illuminating modern buildings. There are people sitting in cafes sipping tea and having seafood  in restaurants. There were mussels cooked mixed with rice (rice mixed with spices  and stuffed into  shells) inviting to taste for each 50 .- Kurus .  We tried it, the  flavor was not bad at all.

 

Izmir - Photo : wowturkey.com / Bing images search

Izmir - Photo : wikipedia.org / Bing images search

Some people were sitting together smoking Turkish pipe (with water filter).  It is called a Hookah, widely popular in the Middle East and Arab countries. They put  tobacco onto the bottle nose of  the bottle that filled with water, and on top of the tobacco there are red coals.   

Hookah Shisha smoking - Photo: Bing images search

The bottle has hose pipes  connected to, with a smoking mouthpiece at the one end of the tube. By this smoking apparatus, it would be smoking tobacco through water-filled  bottle for nicotine . Some bottle pipes are big and equipped with  5-6 hose pipes  so that many people can join smoking at the same time. 

Hookhas - Photo : Bing images search

I walked around in IZMIR alone till rather  late at night  and unexpectedly was disturbed by a Turk . I almost had to punch it up as he was drunk and came toward my path with attention to stop me. He  caught my  wrist tightly and I almost tried to use safe-defense Thai  boxing to kick him in between his legs !  

Izmir clock tower - Photo : Oez Mayamili / Bing images search

Fortunately , Tilo just came out and came across at the right time.   So I broke out at once as I did not want to get into trouble with the local people.  When the Turk saw that I had a friend with me and he was alone, he then walked away without hesitation.

 

Izmir - Photo : izmirlife.com / Bing images search

To reflect on it , realizing that the more we travel far from Europe, the  more we should be careful. In Turkey, though  people  seem to be very friendly  but  they are more emotional  and could be very bad too.  One must be careful  not to walk in the dark places alone (in fact , I was walking on the street in the city, but it was deserted) because we may not know  if someone crossing our paths or following  us really good or bad.  When I think back, I did not get it but  also surprised and confused.