Greencaviar Travel

Turkey:  A 2000-Mile Road Trip, Part 3 Lost in Smyrna “Izmir or Smyrna is very much like San Francisco, California,” our guide announced as we approached Izmir. Still reeling from a long ride and talk about politics, I thought that he was making a comparison in the context of politics, that being of a liberal city. The obvious similarity in topography did not register immediately until we arrived in the city where I saw homes and buildings on the hillsides, ships and an expanse of sea. Izmir is hilly and bounded by shoreline (forty miles of shoreline, according to our guide). I was excited when our guide mentioned that the boardwalk and pathways are within easy access from our hotel. I wanted to go for a long walk after sitting on the bus for hours. After settling into my hotel, I headed down for a long walk. Two blocks later, I passed an elegant and charming café called Mado. Seduced by the display of ice cream, macaroons and pastries, I went inside and ordered ice cream...

Turkey:  A 2000-Mile Road Trip, Part 2 The Road to Pergamum As we drove into Izmir, the talk about religion, politics, history and the Greek connection continued. The concept of intermixing religion, history and mythology early in the morning was hard to wrap in my mind: History was my least favorite subject in school; Reading the Bible put me to sleep; I read the poetry of Rumi in passing; I read the “Iliad” and “The Odyssey” in my sophomore years because I had to. So the road to Pergamum was long, so to speak. However, the retelling of history was important to our guide in order to introduce the next highlight of the trip. We were driving on a stretch of farmlands, the color of olive green. There hardly was a sign of commerce (shop for tourists) found on the road. Part of the day’s schedule was to stop at a local village for lunch. The landscape felt so secluded and quiet as we neared the village. Our group was broken into a group of four to join a local family for l...