I hadn't done any research on the city itself because we didn't plan on stopping here. Izmir is a big city of 3 million people, and we had just wanted to get past it all. But once we got to the park, it looked really nice.
Another really windy day, but fortunately the wind was for the most part heading in the same direction that we were.
Notice that the flag is flying nicely.
Flamingos!
Scenery along the way.
Going through the small city of Aliaga.
Aliaga has some large ship yards where old ships are dismantled and sold for scrap.
Anybody want to buy a lifeboat?
Once again, nice highways with not much traffic.
Although, we did encounter quite a lot of truck traffic as we approached Izmir.
The north shore of the city is all new apartment blocks.
The area where we parked is kind of odd. There are several free municipal parking lots that locals use to store travel trailers, motorhomes, and camper vans. There's no regulation, and nobody seems to care. So that's where we parked. We have read of others overnighting here with no issues at all.
There is Max, in front of the billboard.
The only downside is that we are parked right next to a fairly busy 4 lane road. But of course if you are going to park in the city, you can expect some noise. However, on the other side of that road, opposite us is a really nice stretch of waterfront park space with cycling and walking tracks.
Just to give you an idea of where we are parked, here is our driving map from Tuesday...
Yesterday's drive 60 km (36 miles).
So we're looking at all these RV's parked around us and we're both thinking the same thing. If this was in our hometown of Ottawa, Canada this would never be allowed. And even if it were allowed, they would be vandalized or broken into and being lived in by homeless people!
But it turns out that Izmir, Turkey is one of the safest cities in the world. It ranks right up there with Seoul, South Korea. And remember, it was only in the neighboring country of Greece that we were afraid of leaving Max alone for fear he would get broken into.
We were in need of some fresh air and exercise so we went for a walk.
More flamingos.
They sure are odd looking birds.
It turns out there are a lot of ferries across the bay.
One of the ferry terminals.
Just down the road from us is a passenger ferry that brings people right into downtown Izmir. So, we've changed our plans and are going to head into the city today.
There is also a car ferry across the bay, and motorhomes fit on it. However, when you get off the other side, you have no choice but to get on a toll road, and we don't have a toll pass. Yes, we could buy one and I'm tempted. It would avoid the traffic problem of getting through Izmir. However friends Katja and Yves drove the coastal route through the city yesterday and when they went through around 11am they said it's not bad and traffic flowed nicely. So we're leaning that way. I don't think the ferry is expensive, but it would be more expensive than driving.
Waterfront on the north shore.
People out enjoying the day.
Ferry crossing the bay.
Looking across at downtown Izmir.
We didn't see any fish being caught.
Statue.
Ruth saying hello to a friendly kitty.
Notice that we are wearing our winter clothing again. The sun is nice, but it was still windy and cold. Supposed to warm up by Friday. We noticed in the news that the southern coastal city of Antalya had snow for the first time in 29 years. Just the year that we decide to motorhome in Turkey in January, and global warming decides to take some time off!
We think this high rise is being demolished because of the Izmir earthquake of 2020.
Another ferry across the bay.
Another part of downtown.
Izmir.
Another spot we could have parked.
The motorhome on the left had Romania plates.
More RV's parked.
Statue on Izmir north shore.
So, today we head into the big city!
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And in Canada...
Had no idea that RVs are so popular in Europe. Haven't been there in a long time so this is very interesting. Love the posts.
ReplyDeleteMost of Türkiye (Turkey) is actually in Asia and until we visited last winter we didn't realise that RVing was so popular here in the country either. As for Europe itself there are some countries ;ole Germany where it is just about as popular there as it is back in Canada and the US.
DeleteWelcome to my hometown. From the map, it looks like you are/were overnighting in Atakent, which is in the Çiğli district. Back in my youth that area was nothing but swampland. In fact, neither that ferry terminal in Bostanlı nor any of the residential area between it and where you are existed. Enjoy your visit … which seems to have fallen during one of the unseasonable cold snaps. İzmir has grown in leaps and bounds and is no longer the smaller charming city it used to be, but not a bad place to visit for a day or two.
ReplyDeleteYou are totally correct with where we are overnighting. It has definitely changed a lot since you were there in your youth, there are apartment buildings and shops everywhere now. They have a beautiful waterfront park and a walking/cycling path that seems to go on forever which we enjoyed walking along.
DeleteIt is definitely not a small city anymore but we really did enjoy our couple of days here. We are now looking forward to getting back to some peace and quiet. :-)
Scrolling through the news on my phone yesterday and saw the headline,"Unusual snows strand motorists on highways in Greece and Turkey". Turns out some people were stuck for up to 12 hours in places. A bullet dodged indeed.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, it apparently was a bad storm with unusual amounts of snow that they just weren't equipped to move in a quick amount of time. We are still not quiet sure how we missed that storm because both Athens and Istanbul got hit, yet we were driving through the middle of the two cities. Mind you if we had been traveling during the storm we would just have pulled over somewhere before things got bad and just camped out for a day or two until the roads cleared up, that is one of the beautiful benefits of traveling with your home attached to your back. :-)
DeleteRead in today's newspaper that the airport in Istanbul was closed because of snow.
ReplyDeleteWe don't doubt it, they got a fair bit of snow, thankfully we missed it all. :-)
DeleteAny ideas on why Turkey has so much less crime such as theft and vandalism of vehicles?
ReplyDeleteNo, we are not absolutely sure but no doubt some has to do with their culture and respect for other people, it might also have to do with stiffer sentences when caught. I am sure that it also has to do with location too. Istanbul has more issues of petty crime because it is a bigger tourist city but İzmir certainly doesn't seem to have that same issue, judging but the condition of the RV's parked around us.
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