Venice in Turkey?

Our time with our host, Yasin, in Izmir was coming to a close. We had one more day together, albeit a rainy one, and spent most of it hanging out with him and his friend, Eren from Istanbul. We prepared and collected the necessities for a "picnic" and headed out to the waterfront of Izmir using an "under the table" Uber service to arrive at a pier with hundreds of small fishing boats tied up. Scruffy Turkish men of considerable age occasionally appeared as we sauntered along the pier as the biting wind and the drizzle fell from a gray, overcast sky. As we passed, they seem undisturbed and never looked up as they mended fishing nets or spliced rope while sitting on makeshift chairs derived from various objects related to the fishing trade they were part of.

Fishing boats dating the pier in Izmir

Fisherman men's his net

At the end of the pier, about a 5 minute walk from where we had been dropped off, a structure appeared. Some tables were lined outside and a few hearty souls made use of them, bundled up in nearly winter garb, but most were inside the glass walls of this space. We stepped in and were greeted with the chatter of conversation, tables laid out with tablecloths that folks had brought from home, and layers and layers of foods that each person had brought and spread out to fill every conceivable space.

Attending to the "picnicers" was an older man shuffling trays of tiny coffee cups and glasses filled with a deep amber colored "Turkish" tea. The idea at this establishment was that you were expected to purchase either tea or coffee in order to use the space. We had no problem taking up on that offer on this dreary morning looking out over the turbulent black waters of Izmir bay.

OMG, what a spread of breads and veggies, jams and fruits

Yasin (window) and Erin, Gary and I enjoying breakfast and a view

Bring your own food but be sure to purchase the tea or coffee

Wonderful enclosed space for a picnic

The next morning, bright and early, we comported ourselves, and donned our "less than light" backpacks that contained our world of possessions, said our goodbyes to our host and whirled our way down the four flights of stairs and onto the early Monday morning streets of Izmir. Walking about one kilometer, we found ourselves at the appointed location for a shuttle bus to the main long distance bus terminal. We were headed inland and much higher in elevation, to the city of Eskihisir, Turkey. The shuttle arrived about 20 minutes late (and even the locals started asking us if we were waiting for the same shuttle or if they had missed it).

The shuttle, a minivan, was driven by an old Turkish man who looked as if he had been alive during the fall of the Ottoman Empire a hundred years ago. Nevertheless, the shuttle driver seemed to have no problem, given that he must have been at least a century old, in navigating the minibus through congested Monday morning traffic on the freeway as he juggled a cell phone in his right hand and probably making Turkish coffee with his left. With Allah even being amazed, we somehow arrived at the bus terminal, the "Ottogar", alive and with 15 minutes to spare to catch our bus.

Long distance bus from Izmir to Eskişehir

The bus driver herded our belongings into the hold below and directed us onto the bus where we took our assigned seats. In no time, we were on our way and the traffic of the city started to fall away to intermittent large industry and distribution centers on the fringes, intermingled with agriculture and vineyards.

The sun still shone amidst an array of clouds as we wound our way through an ever narrowing valley. Mountains on either side of the valley were donning a cap of fresh snow as we left the last of the palm trees behind and began to climb up and into the higher and more arid steppe of the interior.

Approaching the end of the Mediterranean valley. Its about to get colder

It seemed like less than an hour later that the bus was still continuing its upward grade. The driver downshifted in lower gear to handle the steep highway and within a few more minutes, those large mountains we had seen earlier were merely snowy hills now. A moment later and we were suddenly passing the snow line. Amounts of snow on the ground immediately went from zero to 40 centimeters. Snowplows and traffic enforcement vehicles started showing up.

We have climbed to about 1,300 meters above sea level

Over the mountain we continued and then, below us, in a high valley, clear of snow, was the city of Eskehisir. Semi-arid lands dotted with occasional pines morphed first into industrial parks and then into apartment blocks and the hint of the many university campuses that this city is known for. We arrived at the bus terminal, gathered our belongings from the bus's hold, and made our way through the terminal. All of the signs, being in Turkish, and with no English subtext, made trying to navigate to the trolley that would take us very near to our Air BnB, a real challenge.

Individuals seemed very curious of strangers carrying backpacks and several approached us with the hope to help. Ultimately we found where we could purchase a rechargeable tram card, the tram itself and our route we needed to take. We ultimately turned the key to our apartment, laid out our stuff, and scurried off the local farmers market and supermarket to obtain what we needed for a well earned dinner.

Modern trams get you around the city

Eskihesir is a beautiful city. The city feels like somebody crossed a university town, a canal city, and an Ottoman postcard in a laboratory beaker and produced something not seen on planet Earth before. Neat, well layed out, filled with multiple universities, throngs of students, filled with buskers making music on the streets and young lovers and ponderers of the universe hanging out on grassy banks along the river. And the river! Life revolves along the river. Streets along it are cordoned off to pedestrians only with shops, restaurants, markets.

Although the city is filled with parks, EVERYWHERE, there is one large park on the outskirts of the city that beckoned us to discover its secrets. Besides an onsite aquarium and science museum, there is, tucked into a back corner of the park, what appears to be a miniature Disney World Castle complete with a moat and a fiberglass alligator (or crocodile) with mouth wide agape, threatening to consume anyone who may fall off the drawbridge or perhaps who have not paid the modest fee to enter through the turnstiles.

Inside this castle is an homage to fairytales across the world. Dioramas and displays, as well as access up a circular stone staircase to a parapet on the roof of the main building add to the immersive illusion. From this upper vantage point, looking out and over the park and down to the aforementioned crocodile in the moat, one can crane one's head upward to enjoy the most satisfying view of minarets one has ever seen. These fairy tale towers beckon the imagination to guess which one may hold Rapunzel. We never did find out.