Beautiful Izmir

We traveled by the efficient and inexpensive Anadolu Jet (the cheaper branch of Turkish Airlines) from Ankara to Izmir on May 12, a Sunday.  The objective was to visit Yasar University where old friends and colleagues Fatih Tasgetiren and Yucel and Omer Ozturkoglu work on the faculty.  We also wanted to see this city, the third largest in Turkey, in more detail.  We had briefly passed through it in 2006.  It is situated on the middle of the Aegean coast and has many historic Greek ties.

Fatih, Omer and Yucel arranged an outstanding visit starting with our hotel, the Izmir Palas.  This older hotel claims a prime spot of real estate right in the middle of the city directly on the sea front.  Our room was on the top floor with glorious views and a huge balcony.

Our hotel, the Izmir Palas.  Our room was at the top floor towards the left

Our balcony was huge with direct sea view

View to the left (south)

View directly ahead - notice big ships in the bay

View to the right - this day there was a large cruise ship in port with many European and some American tourists

Omer and Yucel and their adorable five year old daughter, Duru (born in Auburn), picked us up from the Izmir airport and we traveled to Foca, a resort port about one hour to the northwest of the city.  Foca is historic and quaint.  It was quite crowded during this Sunday afternoon with Turkish tourists, probably nearly all from Izmir.  We strolled along the sea front and into the historic small downtown including visiting a small farmer's market.  The cherries are now in season in Turkey and they are delicious.  We also had some ice cream from Omer's favorite spot.

Randy, Yucel and Duru at Foca

Alice and Duru with statue at Foca

The popular ice cream place on the sea front of Foca

Alice and Randy at the Aegean at Foca near Izmir

The historic windmills on a hill overlooking Foca

The best part, though, was a dinner of fresh and local fish on the sea front with views of both the tremendous sunset over the water and the small city's lights coming on.  It was so relaxing and fun to be together in this very special setting.  That night was a big soccer game between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray (two of the major teams in Turkey) so everyone was glued to the big screen TV at the restaurant.  We paid a brief visit to the Ozturkoglu's new and very large apartment.  This has great views of the Bay of Izmir and the city lights.  We waited a little while for traffic to die down from the end of the game (even though it took place in Istanbul everyone, everywhere was watching the game on TV).  Headed back to our hotel for a good night of sleep.

Our dining location at Foca on Sunday evening

Our meal - freshly caught locally

Meze before the fish including the best seaweed type stuff (the green things in upper left)

Omer was happy at dinner but not so happy that Galatasaray failed to beat Fenerbahce that night

Yucel is so pretty and sweet

Randy and Alice enjoy the company, view and view

Adorable five year old Duru

The main course - our delicious Aegean fish

During the night a thunderstorm occurred but the day's weather was sunny and fresh.  Alice took a taxi to Yasar University where she visited Omer's class and spoke briefly to the students about studying in the U.S.  She then met with some faculty members and administrators including the very progressive and friendly Rector.  The campus is small but so impressive.  The buildings are redone paint factory ones and they have been transformed in an outstanding manner.  Each is different but modern and pleasing to look at.  The central walkway is pedestrian only and is filled with trees and plantings.  The faculty were friendly and relaxed.  After lunch in the school cafeteria and a relaxing Turkish coffee at an outside cafe, Alice gave her seminar to a small but interested group.  The day of work concluded with wine and beer at the Yasar University faculty gathering spot atop their highest building.  Have libations at a university is now supposedly illegal in Turkey with its Islamic leaning government but Yasar has an independent spirit (it is a private, or foundation, university) as does all of Izmir.  Randy had cabbed from the city after a day of walking around downtown to join us for the festivities.

An excellent private university in Izmir and home to several faculty with Auburn roots

The business building where Yucel works and where Ozgur will work

The engineering building, home to Omer and Fatih

The pretty landscaped walkable campus with plenty of palm trees

The campus is a reclaimed paint factory and this building was a look out station to manage operations.  Now it is home to a student center

Yucel at her office with Auburn diploma on the wall

Colleagues Onder and Omer of industrial engineering

Alice and Fatih celebrate a productive working day of meetings and a seminar

The nice roof top lounge for faculty and graduate students

Yucel relaxes after the Monday working day

Fatih and his colleagues Murat and Onder took us to a fish restaurant in a section of the city on the north bay.  It was kind of a hole in the wall but the fish was amazing and we were treated excellently.  It is Fatih's favorite restaurant and it is easy to see why.  We paid a brief stop to Fatih's impressive bachelor pad high up a new apartment building.  His driver took us back to the hotel.

Our meyhane dinner spot for Monday night - meyhane means there are lots of meze and sometimes music and always drinking

Onder, Randy and Murat shared a full bottle of raki while Alice and Fatih stuck to white wine

The gang at dinner with musicians in the background (another meyhane tradition)

Murat wonders how that raki bottle got emptied so fast!

The morning was free and we walked down the sea front to see the sights of Izmir.  There was some rain but it did not deter us much.  We saw the famous clock tower and shopped a bit in the (mostly) covered bazaar.  Yucel and Omer met us for lunch which (after two dinners of fish) was doner kebab and quite delicious in the covered bazaar area.  They returned to work while we walked back to the hotel where the driver collected us for the ride to the airport.

Randy at the iconic Izmir clock tower in the light rain on Tuesday morning

Alice in front of the cute tiny mosque near the clock tower

The bazaar which was mostly covered but in a very ad hoc manner

Good lucking couple Yucel and Omer at lunch in the bazaar area

We all enjoyed our kebabs

All in all, we were impressed with the city, the university and the surrounding countryside.  But, best of all was seeing our good friends combing such a great professional personal life at Izmir and Yasar University.  As Alice's senior Ph.D. student Ozgur Kabadurmus and his intended bride Fatma will both be joining Yasar as faculty members in the fall, we have even more reasons to return to beautiful Izmir!

Dinner at Foca with sea and sunset

The best of Izmir - sun, sea and relaxation