On Weds, I was still feeling a bit weak and we had a low key day. We visited the Archeological Museum. It had artifacts from the region, spanning back to 2500 BCE, along with timelines and history blurbs. Pretty fascinating stuff, especially to see artifacts next to blurbs about history and culture. It really helps to put it into perspective exactly how old everything is around here.
On Thursday, we flew to Izmir (Asian side of Turkey). The travel day was fairly easy, despite the lack of Bathrooms in the Istanbul airport. Odd, especially as the airport is from 2018.
We rented a car and headed south to our AirBNB in Gümüldür, on the coast. My stomach still was a bit off, so I was looking forward to making some food vs eating out. We decided to hit a market on the way, and we ended up at this roadside stand. Most of the goods we didn’t really recognize. There were nuts, dried fruits, cheeses and lots of jars on the walls. We were confused and grabbed some nuts and eggs and were about to leave, when a woman asked us if we needed help. And we did! She helped translate with the owners. The jars were filled with a syrup from various fruits, that they press. Ash sampled some and we got a jar, I think Grape. We also sampled the homemade Turkish delight (lovely but very sweet). They also gave us some fruit (plums, and nectarines). It was a vey charming experience! Of course, not food that we could make a meal with. So we hit a proper grocery and got other provisions.
Interacting with the people in the community you are visiting is such a wonderful and memorable part of traveling to other places. It sounds like you’re having fun and learning. A dream trip!