(Turkey on Rice)^-1: Vacation to Izmir

I've been on holiday for the past week. It's Kurban Bayram in Turkey. My Turkish friends described it as basically the Muslim equivalent of Christmas. I'm not up on all the details but I know it is about sacrifice and ties back into Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.

If you recall, I spent the previous Bayram (at the end of August) in Istanbul. I spent a lot of it holed up in my apartment because of a bad ankle injury. I made for a proper trip this time and spent five days south of Istanbul in Izmir. It was only an hour flight south and I was soon into warmer climates and the bustle of holidays.

Keep reading after the jump for pics and stories.

Allow me to take a moment to plug my hotel for the week, Guzel Izmir Oteli. The hotel was great. They're centrally located in Izmir just around the corner from the train station, bus stop and about a block from the metro. The staff had impeccable English (difficult to find in Turkey) and were extremely helpful. Orhan especially made his best efforts to help me get everywhere I wanted to go to and made suggestions for along the way. The room was rather cramped with barely enough room for the bed but it was fine. They were also very cheap. Maybe not the place to go if you want luxury but if you are going to visit and are on a budget it's perfect.

Anywho, on to the good stuff. My first full day in the city I actually left. I went down to the city of Selcuk where I did a lot of hiking around. My first stop was to the Temple of Artemis, my first of the seven wonders of the world. Like five of the remaining six the temple no longer exists. The only thing that stands to remind one of what was once there is a single, huge column. On top was a stork's nest. Admittedly, it wasn't as cool as one imagines it to be but at the same time, to think that this was once the spot where a huge temple stood, known throughout the ancient world, is pretty cool.

After I got my pictures there I continued my walk towards Ephesus (Efes), the most complete ancient Greco-Roman city. I made another detour off to see the Seven Sleepers' Grotto. Supposedly what happened was that seven Christians were pursued by Roman troops and hid inside the cave. The Romans found them and proceeded to seal off the cave. The seven awoke again 200 years later and all the miracle stuff happened. It was later converted into a crypt where the seven were laid to rest. It too was a bit of a let down. You read about things like this and get a very clear picture in your mind of what you'll see. I pictured walking into a dark cave with holes dug out of the walls where skeletons were resting and the like. The actual site was fenced off for the most part and there was much more masonry and a lot less natural cave.

OK, ok. I make the trip sound like a mistake but trust me it only got better. I turned around and hiked the rest of the way to Efes. After a quick lunch I paid and started wandering. The best I can describe it is like a big playground for adults who always wanted to be archaeologists a la Indiana Jones. You can go just about anywhere. There are a few places gated off (probably for safety) but there are a lot of things that are intact and you can wander through, around, over, into, etc. I didn't get one of the audio tours but there were signs posted for a lot of things. I'll try to explain as much as I can below in the pictures.

After I went through Efes I was going to stop by the House of Mary where the Virgin Mary supposedly spent her final days but I took a wrong turn (there were no signs). I made my way back to Selcuk and hiked up to St John's Basilica. As I walked in I was approached by a man who was surprised I spoke English. Turns out that he's a teacher too in Istanbul and works with the wife of one of my colleagues. We chatted a bit about teaching abroad and Istanbul in general before I took a picture for him posing in front of the entrance to the basilica. I wandered around a bit, saw the tomb of St John and looked at the sunset from up there. It was a good, tiring day. I must have hiked upwards of 7-8miles that day. It was good.

The remainder of my time was spent in Izmir going to some lackluster museums and castles. I took part of a day to find THE FAT MAN. One of my friends used to work in Izmir and demanded I go find this guy and have his tavuk sis (chicken kebab). I boarded the bus and went to his area of town and followed my directions to the letter. I knew his shop was past one cafe and just before a pharmacist. I came armed with a photo from facebook of my friend just so I could ask, "Do you know this guy? He told me to find you." Well, I went into a few and no one knew what I was talking about. I was starting to think this fat man was a myth. I went into one more restaurant and as I was pulling up the picture it turned into a big "?" Luckily the guy said he had wifi and after making a few phone calls he got me on and I pulled up the picture of my friend and he too didn't recognise him. Resigned to the fact that my friend likes to send me on ridiculous goose chases I gave up, ordered an adana kebap and pulled up facebook to scold my friend for lying to me. I knew he told me there was photos of him and some others in the restaurant taken last year so I looked for them and when I found the photo (minus the fat man) I looked at the curtains in the picture, then the curtains next to me and I was sitting in his shop the whole time! I showed him the picture and he finally recognised my friend. I happily ate my kebap and went on my way. I even ended up with a free bus ride because when I went to pay the driver (they're supposed to give you a card you can use three times) he just shrugged me off and said to forget about it. I'm not going to complain.

I made my way through markets selling everything at reduced costs, cafes offering chay (tea) and everything else. The only other noteworthy thing I did was to finally go see a movie. I saw Tintin in 3D. It was good and faithful to the books. I recommend it.

Anywho, let's get to the pictures. That's all you really wanted anyway. Get ready, there's 110 of 'em.

Marina at Izmir.

Izmir's clocktower. It's a landmark.

Chasing pigeons.

All that remains of the Temple of Artemis. Wonder of the World #1 -- CHECK

Just to get a sense of scale, that's a full grown man sitting at the bottom of the column. Now, imagine something like 36 of these. That's a big temple.

Seven Sleepers' Grotto

Sarcophagi in Efes

An old temple turned into a church.

One of the main streets.

The theatre.

A fountain outside the theatre.

He just walked into the shot. I think it works.

First view of the library.

The Library of Celsus.

Houses.

One of the gates.

Back at the Library.

Mosaics

Your most dashing tour guide.

I love it.

Cotton fields just outside of Efes.

St John's Basilica.

A Byzantine castle I really would've liked to go to but it won't be open for a few more years (according to an old man who claims to work there after trying to sell me real, old coins).