Yes dear friends, I finally got the long-anticipated vacation that I had been waiting so patiently for this year (the day trip to Şile doesn't count). During Ramadan Bayram, most of the country travels and takes some sort of holiday, so usually everything everywhere is booked up during this time. Naturally, because I hadn't put much thought into where I wanted to go for Bayram, I found myself having to plan a vacation for myself at the last minute. I had no clue where I wanted to go, but I had been itching to drive a car again, so I decided to rent a car and drive somewhere.
So, on my birthday I took the metro to the airport and drove away happily with a tiny little Renault, tiny but hungry - when you rent a car here they give it to you with the tank empty and you have to fill it up. Bought gas in Turkey lately? Let's just say I don't want to hear any complaining about petrol prices when I get back Stateside - we have it so disgustingly good (no complaints, though). So it was wonderful to get the wind in my hair on the highway and my cabbie tan (burn) back again, swear at other motorists and circle endlessly for a parking spot. To drive was good, but to be refreshed of the headaches of car ownership was even more delightful.
You can't drive directly south to the sunny shores of the Aegean from Istanbul, because there is a big sea there you have to drive around. You can go two ways, so on my way out I drove east to go around the Marmara before heading south through Yalova and Bursa. I drove and drove for hours, and late in the afternoon I arrived in Ayvalık, a sleepy little seaside town surrounded by olive groves overlooking the Greek island of Lesbos in the distance. I was lucky enough to find accommodation in an old, rustic pension that had a delightful terrace overlooking the sea in the old part of town, behind an old Greek church and a safe place to park the car ("Come, go, no problem!!").
Lovely way to wake up
Terrace door
Best place I've ever eaten breakfast.
There really isn't much to do in Ayvalık unless it involves swimming or sunbathing, but that didn't bother me much, because I didn't want to do much on this vacation. After I got there, I went to a "mediocre" beach to go swimming, which was nice after having been out of the water for so long.
The next day I drove out to the peninsula to a national park that seemed to be more of a massive olive grove than anything else. I drove for hours down the red dusty roads (good thing the guys at the airport didn't see I did a bit of off-roading in that poor car) in search of a sandy beach to lie on and swim. When I drove towards what I took to be the tip of the peninsula where there was sure to be a sandy beach, I came round the bend to see that I had set my course for an island, and the road ended abruptly at a rocky shore where there had once been a bridge. Okay, it wasn't sandy, but the turquoise water was enticingly clear and clean looking, so I began to venture in for a swim even if it were a bit rocky. However, once I got away from the shore I found the bottom to be littered with dark bristling sea urchins and, fearing for my unhardened soles, gave up. I turned back and found my sandy beach outside of the park, near a resort neighborhood of vacation houses.
End of the road
Sea urchin paradise
The last day I went to a small town not far from Ayvalık called Sarımsaklı ("Garlicky"). It was more lively than Ayvalık, but I wasn't in much of a mood to enjoy the liveliness of it as I was suffering from some sort of allergic rash which I attributed to the aromatic sunscreen I had used the entirety of my trip. Nonetheless, Sarımsaklı had the nicest beach of the entire trip: it was wide, sandy, and thronged with people. The water was impossibly clear - you could see down clearly 8 or 10 feet and even deeper - and there were even floating docks you could dive off of into the crystal deep. It was lovely. I finally got a decent dinner (read: good mezzes), and got eaten by mosquitos as I smoked nargile. A good way to round off a day of swimming and sunburn.
Of course, when I turned back to Istanbul by way of Çanakkale the next day (carelessly passing Troy, the ancient Greek city) I was unhappy to be leaving, but I was glad in a way to get out of the sun (itchy rash itch itch itch itch) and get moving again. The ride back was a beautiful tour along the Aegean coast and up steep, wild mountain passes overlooking the sea and islands, and near Çanakkale I stopped at a roadside overlook to take in the vast expanse of the Dardanelles and watch the great hulking ships passing through on their way to and from the Black Sea.
Further on at Çanakkale a ferryboat brought me back to Europe over the choppy straights. As I neared Istanbul, the sky darkened and the skies opened and began to rain. It was late by the time I got back home, and the cold rain made me long for the blazing sunshine of that morning. It was a short vacation - but, like at the end of any vacation no matter how long, it felt good to be back home again.
Shake the sand out of your towel, and put your sandals away for a while.
