This morning was spent wandering around Selcuk with the American guy I met in the hotel yesterday. He was in the USAF, based near Yalova. We took a bus to Izmir and arrived there around midday after an hour’s journey.
We had a long hard climb to the hilltop castle (Kadifekale – literally “the velvet castle”) which was built in the 3rd century BC on the slopes of Mount Pagos. The views of the city below and across the Gulf of Izmir were spectacular, and probably worth the climb moreso than the crumbling walls of the castle.
We sat around for about ninety minutes before heading back down to the city, navigating the narrow backstreets. Our next stop was the Agora of Smyrna, the Roman-built market place. The original building was destroyed by an earthquake around AD 178 and rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. I imagine he was quite stoical about it.
The final activity of the day was trying to find a reasonably priced hotel, no easy task. We found somewhere that was a bit smelly and where the water was turned off before I could have a shower. I ended up having a wash in a tin can.
There is no mystery about my destination tomorrow – I’m staying in Smyrna (this was the old name of the city before 1930)
Psychologist on the Move 