Another missive from me. A nice and very pleasant day in Izmir today. I set off this morning to see the ‘other side’ of my virtual division of Izmir into 2. This side sort of suits me better, it contains the bazaar and a smattering of history.
After a coffee at a nearby patisserie ( and I won’t mention the little treat that went with the coffee), I set off a lovely ‘square’ with a lovely little mosque and a magnificent clock tower. It had a lovely feel, full of characters including gypsies selling feed for the masses of pigeons. So sat there for a while and watched the world go by.
Then I wandered off through the bazaar, to see the Agora. I was a bit unenthusiastic about this because I didn’t think it was that exciting…..wrong!!! It was really fantastic. You could just feel the bazaar of Roman times, it was amazing and beautiful ruins. I wandered around there for ages.
By then it was time to forage for food so back down to the bazaar. It is such a nice, friendly bazaar, without any hassle really. I struck gold here. When I was walking up I went through the fish area which looked fabulous. On the way back they were cooking!! So, for lunch beautiful little sardine kebabs. Literally sardines cooked freshly on skewers. You will remember how much I love a good sardine so I was very contented. They took delight in introducing me to a local drink Salgam something. Tasted like vinegar but I persisted to their delight!! I was joined at my table by some lovely Turkish women so it became quite a nice social little lunch break.
Couldn’t resist another visit to a Mosque, they are lovely!!
Then took my book out to the foreshore and just read for a while, that was nice and relaxing.
Off to Istanbul tomorrow, I’m really looking forward to getting back there, it is such a great city. Will arrange my transport to Sofia or Plovdiv as soon as I get there. Can’t believe that the Turkey sojourn is nearly over….what a truly wonderful country.