We were definitely exhausted after our travels to Istanbul and Bozcaada and enjoyed another lazy morning with Kelly. Izmir is pretty small when it comes to sight seeing, so we didn't feel rushed to get out the door and out and about. Instead, we enjoyed our pajamas and our wifi and soaked in the air conditioning.
Once we got ourselves together and ready to greet the day, we headed out to show Kelly around our new home. We started with the asansor, which is this elevator that connects one road on a hill to another. I think this is essential to showing people a true view of Izmir because it overlooks the whole city. There is a cafe at the top where we enjoyed some coffee and drinks.
Our next stop was the clock tower. It's iconic to Izmir and it's definitely a sight to see. While we were in the square with the clock tower, we were reminded of what country we were in, ya know, in case we forgot.
I wonder where we are....
After stopping by the clock tower and snapping a few pics, we headed to Kemeralti, which is the big market in Izmir. I love this market because it's a locals market. You can get practical things here, namely food. Kelly bought tea to bring back to London, being the Brit that she is. We've bought spices there, but this time we bought chicken. Lots of chicken. We're set for a good few weeks.
The only drawback to Kemeralti is the crowds. It is crowded. We were weaving in and out of strollers and families of Turks doing their shopping. It was a pickpocketer's dream. We spent probably 20-30 minutes trying to get out of the market. By the time we made it out on the street, Mike muttered the following
"People think Martin Luther King's speech was about civil rights, but they were wrong. It's actually about finally making it out of a Turkish market."
The crowds were massive and it is a labyrinth of a market. We were definitely glad to make it out and head back to our apartment.
We still had some time to kill, so we grabbed some ice cream and midye dolma (stuffed mussels) which are a Turkish gem. We grabbed some last minute souvenirs, one last cup of tea, and headed out to the airport to drop Kelly off at the airport.
We loved having Kelly as our first visitor. Even though our time in Bozcaada and Izmir was less than perfect, it was truly the Turkish experience. It was fun showing someone around our new home and having her experience a little taste of life in Turkey.
We weren't home for more than a few hours before we headed to the airport ourselves for our next trip to Germany!!
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