TRAVEL | TURKEY | IZMIR | ANTALYA

Izmir To Antalya — Turkey Is Beautiful

My Weeks In Photos — Week 39— December 8–December 14, 2022

After our debacle with the ATMs upon arriving back in Turkey, it took a few days to finally feel like we were actually back in Turkey again. Until this trip, Turkey for us had always equated with Istanbul and it took us a bit to realize that the rest of the country is just as cool as its largest city.

Last week's update had us arriving in Izmir. Izmir is located in the southwest of the country and is a large sprawling city of over 4 million people. We didn’t really have a plan when we arrived there as it was just a stopping point between Edirne and Antalya, where we had decided to head to.

Despite the fact that we had initially planned to head to an olive plantation behind Bodrum to do some volunteering, those plans fell through, and we got in touch with a family living behind Antalya that had contacted us through HelpX when we were back in Bulgaria, asking if we wanted to volunteer for them. Their listing looked great, so we shifted gears and decided to head that way instead.

We initially thought that one night in Izmir would be enough, but quickly realized that there was a lot to see and do and we should spend at least three nights. Of course, I now realize that three nights is nowhere near enough, especially after reading Vanessa Brown’s post about Izmir and how she spent a whole month there and still didn’t do all she wanted to.

But, like all places, Izmir isn’t going anywhere and we can go back on our way back up to Bulgaria in the New Year as we will probably retrace our steps back up to the border.

On our first night in Izmir, we only walked a short distance from our hostel to find some food, but we could see already that Izmir had quaint small alleyways much like Istanbul, and we were excited to get out and explore more of the city the following day.

We also stumbled upon an incredible fruit and vegetable stand and were reminded of how much time and effort the Turks put into their displays.

They are truly a feast for the eyes!

The following day we lounged around in the hostel enjoying visiting with other travelers before we finally headed out for the afternoon to do some exploring. We had no particular destination in mind, we simply just wanted to see the water, so we headed in that direction.

We first wound our way through more adorable alleyways. Coffee shops and stores lined the way and we marveled at all the goods on display. From high-end jewellery shops and gem shops, to antique stores, rug shops, and clothing stores, if one of these shops didn't have what you wanted, then it must not exist.

Finally, we came to a road that wound its way along the waterfront and we spotted a pedestrian walkway that went over the top of it and lead us to the shoreline.

Like most cities in Turkey, the waterfront is open for all to enjoy.

We made our way as far as we dared to walk before we turned back to the hostel to go make our meal for the evening. Again, we took great joy in visiting with fellow travelers and making new friends.

The following day it was raining, so we didn’t do too much other than hang around the hostel working on our online projects, and we went to buy our bus tickets for Antalya. So yeah, we certainly need to go back to see more of what Izmir has to offer.

We left the following morning on the 10:00 bus bound for Antalya. We were told that it was a 7 hour trip and most of the landscape was not super exciting to look at, which made watching movies ideal.

Yep, you read that right, we had movies on the bus!

Again, we also had wifi on this bus. I’m telling you, these Turkish buses are super fancy and the seats were so wide that we were able to put my purse on the seat between us. It was so nice!

After rolling through pretty flat agricultural lands, we made our way into the mountains and then descended down the other side into Antalya. The sun was just setting and it made the city glow below us as we crested over the top of the peaks.

We were shocked to see a bit of snow on some of the distant mountain peaks. Not something we anticipated down here, but the mountains are really high!

We arrived to the main bus terminal then followed our hosts instructions to make our way by city bus to their house. By now it was dark and the instructions were to have the bus driver drop us off at a certain intersection, then to walk down the road into the woods.

They sent us the house location on Googlemaps so we knew where they were, but as we started walking down the road, the road became very rough and we quickly realized that our big suitcase has pretty crappy wheels and we were worried that they would break on the rough terrain.

Since we had cell phone data, I messaged them to let them know that we were close and that we may need a pick up because of our situation. They told us to wait and we stood on the very dark road and waited patiently for somebody to retrieve us.

Another Russian volunteer came to get us in the family truck after just a few minutes. We were only a couple hundred meters away from where we needed to go, but we were relieved that we didn’t have to navigate our suitcase, plus finding the place may have proven difficult with little light.

He lead us to our room, we met the family and had a nice dinner that night. We went to bed early and looked forward to seeing the property in the morning with the help of the sun.

It turned out to be a beautiful property inside the gates to the home compound. The family was a bunch of musicians and they were all very creative in many ways. For the first couple nights we sat around in the evening and exchanged our creativity. Their son showed us digital art projects that he is working on, and we shared some of our projects and murals with him that we had painted.

The family was housing rescued dogs that needed walking a couple times per day. So the volunteers that had been there for a while asked us if we would take over one of the shifts. We were happy to do so and enjoyed our jaunts in the woods. One of the pitbulls, Pablo, was a solid mass of muscle and he really gave Chris a run for his money.

I’m not sure who was walking who!

When we arrived back to the driveway, Pablo decided that he didn’t want to go back to being tied up, so he simply laid down on the rocks and rolled over on his back. We would learn that this is one of his usual tricks as there was simply no way to move him when he did this. It was pretty cute for the first 5 minutes, but after 10 minutes of this we started to wonder if we would ever get him tied up again.

Eventually he relented, thankfully!

Despite it being a beautiful property, and we loved our time in the woods, we could see some potential problems with our arrangement at this place right at the beginning. However, not wanting to make any rash decisions, we decided to stay for a few days to feel things out. I don’t want to get into the details of why, but after 4 nights, we decided to leave.

Mostly, there was a lot going on there, and a lot of disorganization, and other than walking the dogs, they couldn’t seem to settle on one project for us to work on. So before we started something significant, we decided to move on. The family had a lot going on and we felt like we were more in the way and a burden than a help to them. Like I said, I don’t want to get into the details.

But we still wanted to do some volunteering of some sort so I started contacting hostels and hotels in Antalya about painting murals, and one got back to us right away that was interested. It is a newly renovated hotel/hostel that is nearing the end of the renovations. It seems that our arriving time is perfect, and we will be painting art in the hallways outside the elevator, and in the common gathering area for the hostel part of the building.

They have put us up in a spacious room with a nice bathroom, there is a kitchen we can cook in, and the wifi is amazing. We really feel much better here and look forward to transforming the place and leaving more of our art in this part of Turkey.

Antalya has a population of about 2 million people. While it is a very crowded tourist destination in the summer, these days it is quite quiet and we have been enjoying walking around and exploring a bit.

Even though it is just half of Izmir’s size, it feels much quieter and more laid back than a city of this size would normally.

The temperatures down here are quite a bit warmer than the property back in the forest and the mountains, so we have been enjoying walking around without jackets a little bit and letting the sun shine on us.

Yesterday we met up with our friend Yarik whom we met in Varna and lived with at the hostel for about a month. He comes down to Antalya quite often so he showed us around the old part of the city. We were stunned with the beauty.

But the piece de resistance was the waterfront! We were thrilled to witness the Mediterranean Sea for the first time and the color of the water and the beautiful cliffs spilling into it did not disappoint.

There are also large mountains in the distance that were covered by the clouds on this day.

We wandered around for a bit taking in the spectacular scenery then Yarik took us to one of his favorite lunch spots where we had half a grilled chicken and some rice for just $2.50! Despite the fact that prices are rising in Turkey, we still find it very affordable, thanks mostly to our stronger currency.

We can certainly see that Antalya has lots for us to enjoy, and we are happy that after a bumpy start in Turkey this time around, we seem to have finally found a place that we can settle into. Plus it has been a very full week, so we are happy to rest and relax a little bit.

Of course, with Christmas and New Years coming, we are also happy to have found a comfortable temporary home for the holidays.

I look forward to updating you on our mural project and hope to share some progress shots next week of what we are up to.

I hope that everyone has a great week!

xo Jill

To read my articles that were published in the last week: 
Everyday Has the Potential To Be a Beginning Or An Ending
Canadians Climbed Mount Everest For the First Time 40 Years Ago

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