Turkish View: Taking the Escalator to School

I live a 25-minute walk from my school. If I walk the other direction, I can be in the hills in about the same amount of time.

I plan to take a photo from my walk to work to post here every few days or so. From experience, I know that things get normalized quite easily in a new place, so I want to capture scenes that are new to readers, if not to me.

About five minutes from school, I have to cross the highway. It's a busy highway that connects Izmir with the airport. Fortunately there is a crossing bridge.

But look at this bridge! It has escalators on either side (there is an elevator in the brick tower at the back). It's nice to have a relaxing ride to the top of the bridge after 20 minutes of walking.

I don't think I've seen outdoor escalators as often as I've seen them here. One warning, though. The handrails are very dirty. If I grab one, i get a nasty black mark. Otherwise, it's a nice addition to my daily walk to and from school.

Here's the view going down the other side. You can see the highway. To the left are a few of Gaziemir's numerous cookie-cutter, six story apartment blocks. And you can see the exit for Sarniç, the train station I use.

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Sunday at the İzmir Archeological Museum

After church today, I resolved to beat the heat and go to a museum. My target: the İzmir Archeological Museum , just south of the bazaar in the Konak district. My friend, Jen, had told me about a slogan she had seen: "Turkey, it's the world's largest museum." It's true. At any given place where I might stand, especially at an important harbor like Izmir, I may have seven millenia of history at my feet! I quickly learned, upon entering the gallery that ancient history is a pretty broad topic to examine. When we think of Ancient Rome, we think of a specific civilization that endured for 500 years. Ancient Greece casts our minds to Socrates and Alexander. But Ancient Turkey? There is really no one thing. I don't want to go into much detail here. I have years of living in and exploring this fascinating country ahead of me. So I have plenty of time to figure it out for myself. I'll just write that before the Greek civilizations, known as Ionians and Aeolians, ...

Turkish Lesson: Köpek

I passed this place on my way home from the train station today. I pass it every day. It's quite common to see owners here playing with a Köpek. It's not the only place I see a Köpek or two. Most are strays I see lying languidly throughout the day. In the evening they clean up the streets and make their rounds of alleyways. My landlord says they keep him up at night, but I haven't heard any barking...yet. Köpek . Your newest Turkish word! Postscript: i spotted this sign on my hike Saturday. I took several shortcuts, but never when I saw this sign. Var means "have or has" in English.

Dürüm: the Turkish burrito

When Americans and western Europeans think of Turkish food, the first word that comes to mind is Döner, that fast-food delicacy of shaved pieces of roasted lamb or chicken, stuffed into a pita with salad and hot sauce. As they say in Deutschland, " Döner ist schöner ," and the truth is that there are few snacks more beautiful or more delicious. But since I've been in Turkey, I have yet to eat Döner as I know it from England and Germany. İnstead, I have found dürüm, which looks like a chicken burrito 🌯 and tastes delicious. Like the burrito, the dürüm is wrapped in a tortilla. İ have seen tortillas for sale in the bread aisle, too. The meat for the dürüm is cut from the same, rotating spit of roasting meat that goes into a Döner. Unlike the burrito, the meat is really yummy. As you can see from the photo, it was served with red sauce that wasn't "peppery hot" as one would find in a Mexican restaurant, but was savory hot. There were small peppers...

Aegean Pearls: My Life in Izmir

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