Ayvalik

Ayvalik

The name of the game today would be to chill and we would be doing that in Ayvalik. After a quick breakfast in our Selcuk hotel, we got back on our bus for the drive to Ayvalik.

It was an uneventful drive and after a few hours we entered Ayvalik. Our bus dropped us off a few blocks from where we would stay for the evening. Because of the way the streets are structured, it would have been impossible for the bus to go any further.

Taksiyarhis Pension

With our bags in hand we made the short hike up the hill until we reached the Taksiyarhis Pension where we would be staying the evening. Its a 140 year old home with multiple rooms, a kitchen area and two beautiful patios.

With the view from the patio, we knew this would be a great place to relax for the evening with our group.

Kepce Lokantasi

After settling in for a little bit, Ibo took us to a small buffet in the center of town called Kepce Lokantasi.  They had quite a few offerings and in a moment of weakness I may have ordered a little too much. Everything looked so good and I was pretty hungry. So while I really enjoyed all the food I selected, there was a bit of regret after we started eating.

Ayvalik Markets

From lunch we were all given free time to explore the city, head to a nearby beach about 3 kilometers away, or jump on a small boat to explore the waterways around Ayvalik. Gimpy, another tour mate of ours and I decided to simply explore the city.

According to Ibo, there is a weekly market that sets up in the city. Its a pretty big event as people set up shops that sell all manner of things. On top of this there is a huge farmers market that sells fruits, veggies and other food stuffs. The three of us spent a good amount of town walking through the narrow streets, and vendors simply browsing through all their wares.

Exploring Ayvalik

After a while, we’d walked through a majority of the market and started to explore the waterfront. For the most part its pretty commercial and touristy, with lots of docked boats vying for your business to take you out on the water. But some of the views were quite nice to see and we enjoyed it.

I also got to try a stuffed muscle for the first time. I’d heard about them when we first arrived in Istanbul, saw them in Antalya and had added it to my list of things to try. Its considered one of the best street food offerings in Turkey. What it is, is a mussel that is stuffed with spiced rice and baked. They’re quite cheap and extremely flavorful. So after seeing a booth for them, I bought one to try.  If I hadn’t eaten so much at lunch, I’m sure I could have finished half a dozen of these suckers. But for “research” I only had one. They did not disappoint and this wouldn’t be the last time I’d have one.

From the waterfront, we wanted find a super market to pick up some supplies. Gimpy and I had started to get cravings for Asian food. So our goal was to buy ingredients to make a noodle soup back at the pension, and to pick up a few bottles of wine to contribute to the relaxing evening the group had planned. When we got to the super market we were surprised to find a distinct lack of anything like instant noodles or ramen. So with a little improvisation, Gimpy picked up a packet of chicken bullion and macaroni to cook in the evening. I picked up two bottles of wine.

Relaxing Afternoon

We made our way back to our place where we spent the evening out on the patio simply relaxing, enjoying the view and conversing with our group. We popped open some beverages, someone had cut up some fruit and we had a very chill afternoon.

Eventually dinner time rolled around and I tried to help gimpy make the macaroni and soup. The group had decided on ordering pizza and I wanted a bit of that too! So after helping Gimpy with the macaroni and having a little, I rejoined the group for pizza. Its always awesome when you can have the best of both worlds!

We continued to chat and hang out with our group well into the night. It was a really welcome change of pace to simply “hang out” and I really enjoyed it.

But all good things must come to an end, and we all eventually retired back to our rooms for the evening.

Troy

The next morning, after some breakfast, we made the trek back to our bus and back on the road again. We had one major stop today and that was to visit the city of Troy. After a two hour drive we arrived at the Archaeological site for the city of Troy.

What makes this site interesting is that it has been built and rebuilt several times over the years. So what you actually see is multiple renditions of Troy built on top of each other. From what I understand, because of the strategic significance of the city location, it made sense at times to rebuild the city on the same site. There are parts of the site that you can see the multiple layers representing the different versions of the city over time. And you can see that the different styles and technology as the years go by.

Obviously, you can’t really mention Troy, without making reference to the movies and myths that surround the city. For what its worth, our guide says its rather implausible that the full story of the Trojan horse to be true. I believe the myth is that the horse was left while the attacking Greeks got in their ships and hid behind a nearby island. However the nearest island is apparently still a 45 minute ferry ride away (a modern ferry). So he did say that if the movie (or myth about the boats) is to be believed, the soldiers within the horse would have had to hold off the soldiers of troy for quite some time waiting for their reinforcements to arrive. Truth or not, it was an interesting observation by Ibo.

To play on our “tourist” heart, there was a huge replica horse at the front of the archaeological site, so obviously our group had to take some photos with it. However it has no historical significance whatsoever.

Yali Balik Kumpir in Çanakkale

From Troy, it was a short drive to Çanakkale where we would spend the night. We got dropped off in the center of town near a lunch spot Ibo had suggested called Yali Balik Kumpir. Instead of your regular Turkish fare, we’d be having stuffed baked potatoes. While it sounds very North American, it was kind of interesting because they were these HUGE potatoes that were filled with a bunch of Turkish ingredients like olives, sausages and corn. It was pretty good as far as baked potatoes go at least.

As an accompaniment to the potato, I also continued my “research” into the stuffed mussels by ordering a “few” more.

Çanakkale

From lunch we took orientation walk where Ibo showed  us around and also how to get back to the hotel. After checking in, Gimpy and took a short nap before heading out to explore the waterfront of Çanakkale.

We got there just in time too because as we arrived the sun started to set making for a beautiful walk along the water. The one nice thing about Çanakkale is that the waterfront is quite well developed and not crowded with tourist boats. So one can really enjoy the walk and views without much obstruction.

On the waterfront is also the replica Trojan horse that they used in the movie Troy starring Brad Pitt. Its kind of funny that such a thing resides in this city, but its unique nonetheless.

There was also a cool little children’s slide on the waterfront. If you remember our trip to Egypt. I’d lost a rock paper scissors match with Gimpy, which resulted in having to brave the heat to take a few photos that neither of us really wanted to do at the time. Well, this time I won, so I’m just going to leave this here:

We continued to walk around until we ducked into a McDonalds for a quick snack. We wanted to see if things tasted different here vs at home ordered some nuggets and onion rings. To be honest, aside from the price difference (being MUCH cheaper) it wasn’t all that different. Go figure.

Sea side Restaurant

We met up with the rest of our group for dinner at a small spot by the water called Sea side Restaurant. I’d like to say this was an enjoyable meal, but sadly it wasn’t very memorable. I ordered the basil chicken which was ok, but it felt a little lacking given it was just chicken and fries with nothing else. I know a few of my other tour mates felt similar with their dishes. All in all, it was a fun evening spent with friends, however the venue and the food could probably have been better. Quite possibly our first culinary disappointment in Turkey thus far.

A few of the group was planning to head out and enjoy the evening. However, Gimpy and I made the decision to return to our room early in order to get some rest. If you have been following along, we were dealt a huge disappointment when we weren’t able to fly on a hot air balloon in Cappadocia. Well over the past few days we had made arrangements after our tour with G Adventures to fly back out and give it one last shot. This required us to fly over night, arrive in the early morning and hope for the best. We would be doing this tomorrow so we wanted to get as much rest as possible. More on this later.

So, knowing we had a full and long day tomorrow we hit the sack early in anticipation of our last tour day, and possibly checking off a big bucket list item tomorrow (and the next day)