Busy Izmir

From Denizli, we took a train to Izmir, which turned out to be our only train ride in Turkey. Bypassed by most foreign tourists (27 years ago we transferred buses here), Izmir is an ancient city, founded by Greeks as Smyrna in 10th century BCE, today is still the 3rd largest city in Turkey after Istanbul and Ankara. The only remains from antiquity are the Smyrna Agora and a Roman Theatre, not too interesting looking. We enjoyed watching locals and visitors enjoying the weekend, bustling bazaars, popular coastal walks, energetic marathons.... There was a huge navy ship in the port. The line for touring the ship was very formidable. This was seven days before the big election.

President Erdogan is not particularly favored by the West - he acts too much on his own, e.g. booking.com is blocked in Turkey. I now suspect it's because the competing Turkish site otel.com wants some nurturing. One could be accused of all sorts of evil doing if the business interest of the West is interfered with. Warped by all that negative press, I was shocked to see how developed Turkey is, let alone being able to discern that Turkey is supposed to be in the middle of an economic crisis. Turkey may only be slightly behind Spain in terms of infrastructure, e.g. Izmir has trams, suburban trains, pedestrian streets, plenty of housing... Almost all of the buildings are functional and practical looking, minimal showy, glitzy, futuristic architecture or fancy arenas. On top of that, the Turkish Lira is low against the dollar, Turkey seems such a land of plenty to us. Since Turkey produces lots of food and manufactured goods, the rest of the world will just want to gobble up their goods and flock within their borders for vacations.

A few shots from the train. Nice to see a female station master in Turkey (2nd below).






The Agora (1st below) and Hellenistic Theatre (2nd).




Konak Square clock tower, and tram stop.




There were literally hundreds of fishermen trying their luck skill along the Izmir waterfront promenade.






Bustling bazaars.










Surprise! Another marathon. ;-)


Just north of Konak Square there is an elevator that serves area residents, and provides a fantastic view for tourists.






Along the promenade.








We stopped into the Arkas Center to see their exhibition: "WINDOW in the Arkas Collection". Outstanding!








The queue to visit the Navy ship.


Our last morning we walked up to the Kadifekale (The Velvet Castle) for some fine views of Izmir.