Alsancak, Izmir, Turkey

Izmir's Signature Clock Tower

I have been here now for one month, and have an all-round positive first impression of life in Izmir. Things are cheap, I live close to everything (the gym, the groceries, the bars, the shops, the park) people are incredibly friendly - in spite of (or because of?) my pathetic lack of Turkish words,  AND the Arkas trainers let me hang around the club all the time ('helping' out with the younger teams) and they teach me all kinds of interesting things. Here are a few other observations I've made over the last four weeks:

1. All the food for Izmir is grown/produced in the immediate vicinity so it a) is very fresh and b) does not keep well, so I go grocery shopping at LEAST every other day. The grocery store, however, is only 2 buildings down from our apartment, and the fruit and veggie man is across the street. It’s not exactly lowering a basket from my balcony like I read about in the books, but it’s pretty darn close. 

2. Turkish is a very front-of-the-mouth language. Lacking letters or sounds like 'x' 'ng' or 'nk', and the german/hebrew 'ch' sound (as in Lacheim!) most of the words can be spoken almost in front of the teeth, allowing you to say everything with a bit of a pout, which some girls seem to. Consider: Görüşürüz - (see ya later) - goo-roo-shoo-rooz, where the dots on the u's make them even more U sounding than usual u's. so pouty.

post-thunderstorm rainbow from our balcony

3. It has been sunny almost all the time until it thunderstormed for 2 days, flooding the streets and thundering on the car alarms all down the block.

4. I don't go out on the town often, but when we do, I go to Boombox. This bar features club hits downstairs and Izmir's hottest cover band upstairs. This band spans genres AND languages, has killer stage presence, and takes requests. Conveniently, all the bars are in a pedestrian area 10 mins from home, and vendors line the walk with tasty late-night snacks like roasted chestnuts, oysters, hotdogs and Kokoreç - which is lamb intestines served on a bun. You can also buy all manner of stuff from men who spread their wares all over the floor, and our apartment walls are graced with some of these rash purchases: posters depicting fight club, into the wild, bob marley, marilyn monroe, and lunch atop a skyscraper...

 6. A few typical turkish things that I've come to enjoy on a regular basis are: fresh fruit (pomegranates and mandarins all day) tea (at least a pot a day - I have this real cute red teapot) tavla (backgammon. 'enjoy' is applied loosely here, as more often than not I end up pretty pissed at losing AGAIN) boots (everybody wears nice ones, so I bought some too) and buns (there are little bakeries all over that sell sweets and savouries and this stuff is delicious. It only costs pennies, so it's hard to resist).

 5. For your listening and viewing pleasure here is a very popular (and my favorite) song:
Gustavo Lima - Tche Tche Re Re
 It's not actually turkish, so here is a turkish one meeting both those criteria too:
Mustafa Sandal - Isaynkar