Day 107 – We’re smoking about 10 a day

Çanakkale to Izmir – Hotel Bayla

The Agora, Izmir

After an easy pick up by our shuttle bus we bordered the bus for the five hourjourney to Izmir (Turkey’s third largest city).

Bus tripping in Turkey is such a breeze after Africa. In Africa we doubt the buses had ever been cleaned inside or out, here there’s a waiter who spends the whole trip serving you and keeping the bus clean, there are tv’s in the back of every seat, and every couple of hours when they stop for a break the outside of the bus is washed as well! On arrival in Izmir we were transferred to another free shuttle bus and dropped off only one block from our hotel – the service given by the bus companies is truly extraordinary.

In the late afternoon we checked out the ruins of the old Agora, then the bazaar (nothing special, just another typical bazaar), as well as the clock tower (every town in Turkey seems to have a clock tower), before walking along the very busy waterfront and having a lovely meal as the sun was setting.

The only gripe we have with Turkey is the passive smoking, it’s impossible to escape it, apparently we are lucky that it has recently been outlawed on buses – but not anywhere else it seems!