Izmir i felt you

''So where are we supposed to go now? '' i asked Imran and he was as surprised as was i, ''I think anywhere but cannot stay here longer! '' he gazed around the airport exit and both of us noted that we were being watched by a lot of people mostly taxi drivers to become a first client!

The journey has a background, mine was simple, getting an admission in a university in Izmir, turkey, which I am always and will be thankful of, for letting me see the most amazing city I could.

Me and my friend met each other at the connecting flight to Izmir, which I almost missed because of my actives, (trying to be sarcastic) and became friends since we were going to same university.

I landed there without knowing much, was waiting for university pickup which couldn’t happen actually so as had no choice asked a taxi guy to take us to our university where we were supposed to live in the dorm of the same university for a while until we find an accommodation of our own since dorm charges were almost more than the university fee itself!

So we happened to see the city from the taxi windows, a beautiful naturally beautiful and some modern architecture awaited for us in the way awaited us, I wanted to talk to the taxi driver but he knew only one English sentence, ‘’I don’t speak English’’ with a big smile that showed me all his teeth and some part of his throat as well.

Here we landed at the university dorm and took some rest, then after settling down, a lot went through in between, we explored the city!

Izmir is one of the oldest cities in the world, it has the routes from 3000BC, has seen a lot of kingdoms go and come, have been awarded to Greeks after WW1., and been owned by almost people from every religion, I won’t discuss much about history because I wasn’t born at that time so don’t know much, all I will do is try and show how the city looks like from my eyes!

So after I settled down with my friend, and started normal university life I decided now the time has come to see this place in detail.

Izmir has a beautiful sea, a busy sea port second biggest in turkey and it contains approximately 4 million people who are loving, calm and beautiful. The sea they have is being used very intelligently by the government, it the hub of all the cafes, restaurants, clubs and bars, has amazing night life with cafes and bars remaining open all night where you can just take a small cup of amazing typical Turkish tea and sit for hours and feel the breeze go through you!

Izmir has some places that I explored and I hope the readers would also like to. Courtesy my university I was on the city tour and saw some places really early, one centre of gravity that Izmir has is the famous Clock Tower that is the official symbol of the city as well.

When I looked at the picture I thought it’s just a tower not so big with a clock but when I witnessed it, I realized that when I went closer that it has a mystic charm that attracts it to you towards since 1901 when it was made in the memory of a king by a French architecture, it and looks beautiful with the lights and amazing view of the market makes it unique.

So let’s start roaming around then from the Tower!

Across the tower which is the central point of the city as well, there are many shops, for almost everything, mostly overshadowed by clothes. One thing I liked was if you want you can buy as expensive as you want and if you want you can explore some down markets as well which is similar to Lahore(Pakistan) where I belong. You just have to go in the narrow streets and you will find almost the same or similar with a considerable low price! I shared a secret don’t tell anyone I pretend to wear brands only!

Izmir has also 800 years old market named as kemeralti, the place where you can buy from traditional Turkish Lamps to modern day electronics as well, I entered inside and was amazed to see people speaking fluent English with decent accents! shopkeepers will read foreigner written on your face even if you try your chance with a little tuekish that I did, and take you to the shop any how avoiding sales pitch in the start and then slowly from brotherhood to business a silky pitch will make you buy something! as I was told buy a shopkeeper while I was living, ‘’Time is important, some business is better than no business’’ I wonder why don’t they write some quotation books as well.

I had the pleasure to visit the historical lift, The Tarahi Asansor which they call it in local language a place beautifully surrounded by mountains and cafes inside, gives you all the view of the city from the top. But also there are some set of binoculars as well on the top, I had high expectations from them I wanted to find my stolen watch from it by zooming in the city but unfortunately my mobile camera zooms more, may be it wasn’t working well that day.

A little outside the city they have a place called pamukkale, a natural salt and mineral rich water that makes beautiful stairs as if they are handmade and crafted, a perfect picturesque.

Traveling down the roads I always came across with people selling the Turkish flags and pictures of their Beloved leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern day turkey. I have visited many places but never have I seen so strong connection and devotion of people towards their leader. He passed away in 1938, but still they keep him alive, his name is included in songs, I have seen young boys getting into tears while discussing him and people of all ages in Izmir still follow him as a leader, and you will see his saying and statues in almost everywhere you go, which is commendable.

The advantage of having a seaside is that there is just one road which is connecting all the city, so you don’t have to worry about going somewhere almost everything in the city happens here, the main activity area is called Alsancak (Alsanjack) c is pronounced J in Turkish, so you can wander around the same road so see amazing nights and full of life days as well, so you don’t fear of getting lost as I had in the first days. I used to live 15 minutes from my university but it would take me 3 hours by walk and 1 after that by taxi(after giving up) to travel to the university. I wish someday googles come up with a better maps and direction services following the maps I many times hit the walls, buildings and other things I cannot mention here. Me and my friend Imran would walk every day with a same mission to reach university without help but ending up in a taxi after 3 hours of struggle, we would see same buildings we started from same place we had been but still couldn’t make it. One day accidently came home and realized ah it was just 15 minutes!

Taking about the Food, I would say that food in Izmir is one of the healthiest in the world. The symbol of Izmir is cheese and a famous snack(was about to write snake) pretty much bread like but its really addictive, the cuisine is amazing which makes you surprisingly more active! Turkish tea which people drink I think more than a billion times a day was also a different experience for me, having a Pakistani Background we drink tea with milk so without milk it was like a hot juice for me, but still after some time I got used to it and I gave it the same love and respect.

Football is like religion in Turkey people love their fav leagues which sometimes get things intense as well! also i had the pleasure to participate in one of the biggest league`s birthday and i was amazed to see the kind of passion people have for that.

The whole city is a amazing combination of Muslim architecture, east and west. It offers you both lifestyles, traditional and contemporary and people accept each other the way they are. It offers you freedom to make choices and the diversity of the culture makes you blend with it pretty easily and fast.

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