Izmir and Kusadasi, Turkey (& Ephesus, Too)

I have nothing against Izmir, Turkey. I really don't. 

View of Izmir from the top of the Asansor

No one robbed me. No one accosted me. I didn't see any homeless people, a remarkable feat for a city of its size. Almost everyone was helpful. I found many excellent small restaurants and diners (interestingly, the best ones had chefs from Konya and Syria, not Izmir). 

But Izmir, formerly called Smyrna, is just another city. It lacks the magnificent mosques of Istanbul or Iran. It doesn't have Delhi's palpable energy. Unlike nearby Malatya, it's so used to tourists, it doesn't feel the need to impress them. 

In case you want to visit, you only need one day. Almost all the popular tourist sites are within walking distance around the Konak Square metro stop. If you want a budget hotel, you can stay in Antikhan Otel, located near a small ruins area. 

Agora Park area

A typical tourist will visit Konak Meydani (aka Konak Square); Saat Kulesi (Clock Tower); Kemeralti Bazaar/Market; Kestanepazari Camii/Mosque; and Hisar Camii/Mosque. Farther from these sites and accessible by taxi or metro are the Asansor, an elevator with a nice view of the city, and the Izmir Museum of History and Art (not to be confused with the inferior, forgettable Izmir Museum of Art and Sculpture near Konak Square). 

Entrance to Asansor

Some tourist websites mention Kadifekale as a nice spot, but I didn't go there. Also, if you go to Asansor, you can see the Bet Israel Synagogue next to it (it was closed when I tried to go inside). 

Bet Israel Synagogue

For me, Izmir really only had two interesting attractions: the Museum of History and Art (mentioned above) and Kulturpark. 

Kulturpark 

Conveniently, the Museum is inside Kulturpark, a large, relaxing outdoor park that also hosts a convention center. Entrance to the three separate museum "houses" is only 5 Turkish lira, easily the best deal in town. 

Athena

After you spend a day and night in Izmir, take the train at Basmane Otopark (aka Basmane Gar Otobus Duragi) to the small town of Selcuk (about 10.50 TL), then walk to a the local bus station and catch a small shuttle bus to Kusadasi (about 6 TL), which is near Ephesus.

Kusadasi is unlike any other city in Turkey, a combo of Newport Beach and Santa Cruz, California. It had perfect sunny weather in late October. There's not much to do except walk along the beachfront, but part of the charm of visiting a small beach/hippie town is precisely that there's not much to do. 

View from my hotel balcony

To be fair, several tours exist, and the primary attractions are in or near the Biblical town of Ephesus, where several archaeological ruins and the House of the Virgin Mary (aka Meryemana) are located. 

Not the House of Virgin Mary.
This is Ephesus Archaeological Site aka Efes Orenyeri.

An Ephesus (aka Efes) tour, including roundtrip transportation, will cost you 40 euros in the low tourist season or 50 euros in the high season. Combining the Ephesus tour with other attractions, such as the Virgin Mary's house, will cost you extra (maybe another 10 or 20 euros). Definitely see Ephesus if you visit Kusadasi--it's only 20 minutes away by car, and it'll take you an hour or hour and half to walk the entire area. (The exit is located near the church ruins of the Virgin Mary, not to be confused with the house of Virgin Mary, which is in a totally different location.) 

Altogether, you only need one day for Izmir and two or three nights total for Kusadasi/Ephesus. I stayed at the Doubletree (by Hilton Hotel Kusadasi), about one mile from the main strip, where you can visit Mado Cafe for your sweet tooth, Mezgit Restaurant for seafood, and Erzincan Restaurant for Turkish food (get the beef/chicken claypot dish). For your SIM card or cellphone provider, Turkcell worked much better than Vodafone in Kusadasi but performance was even in Izmir. 

I'm not a beach or golf guy, but if you want to golf, try the Ramada Resort Kusdasi & Golf hotel. Kusadasi also has four beaches: Pamucak beach; Kustur beach, a narrow strip of beach with a beautiful view of the ocean; Ladies Beach, accommodating to both men and women, despite its name (25 years ago, it was only for women); and Long beach, which is probably exactly what it sounds like. I didn't visit any of them, but I passed Kustur beach, and it looked nice, almost like a private beach. 

Your eyes do not deceive you.
This is Kusadasi, Turkey, the bar district.

I'm sitting in Mado cafe now, enjoying yet another rice pudding and sunset. For some, Kusadasi is the place to get wild in Turkey, but me, I prefer pudding and sunsets.

Bonus: I just visited Sirince, a small village about 20 minutes from Kusadasi known for its wine and olive oil. I paid my driver 40 euros, and he dropped me off and waited while I walked around. The drive to Sirince was beautiful--lots of greenery and mountains--but the village itself was too small for me. Then again, I'm a coffee drinker, not a wine person, and lots of older ladies seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'll include some pictures below in case you want to visit. 

Sirince

Lots of small European-style pensions here.
This one looked nice from the outside. Gate was locked.

Personally, if you desire a small town atmosphere, I'd try Selcuk, though it lacks the full nature scenery of Sirince. 

Temple of Artemis in Selcuk

Chile's San Pedro de Atacama

Chile's San Pedro de Atacama is one of my favorite places on Earth. It has sand, ice, canyons, and flamingos. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. Travel photos below.

Bonus, from National Geographic (2019): 

Malatya, Turkey: Well-Designed City Centre with UNESCO Site 2 Hours Away

If I were Turkish, I'd live in Malatya. It's clean; the perfect size, geographically and  population-wise; and enough to do but not so much you feel pressured to jump out of bed at 7:00AM each morning. 

Best of all, just 2 hours and 15 minutes away is a 2000+ years-old UNESCO site, Mount Nemrut (aka Nemrut Dağ), containing beautiful views reminiscent of one of my favorite places in the world, Chile's San Pedro de Atacama. 

On the way to Mt. Nemrut.

The city of Malatya itself also has a beautiful vibe, like a teenage girl prettier than everyone else at a party but not obviously so because she doesn't use make-up. When I took the bus, I didn't have the local bus card and didn't realize I couldn't pay cash. Someone, a young person, scanned his card twice, once for me, and once for him. When I tried to pay him, he refused to accept my money. Being Iranian and thinking I had to be persistent until my act of courtesy was accepted, I actually tried forcing the money into his hand, only to have him forcefully push my hand away. (Note to self: although the Turkish drink, ayran, is similar to doogh, Turks ain't Persian and don't know taarof/تعارف‎‎.) 

This situation repeated itself a few days later--I underestimated walking distance to a location and spontaneously hopped on a bus. After I literally waved a 10 TL bill around, a young woman ignored my money and scanned her card for me.

My tour guide for Mount Nemrut? He met me at my hotel the day before our trip so we could see each other in person and agree on the basics. 

My tour guide's info. I paid 250 TL.
Worth it.

Lest you think I'm discussing a farming village the modern city hasn't corrupted, here's a photo of Malatya's city center at night.  

All the roads are perfectly paved. All of them.

Interestingly, Malatya's economy does rely heavily on agriculture, more specifically apricots. The best are the black ones, and dried apricots are everywhere.

12 TL.

There's even a small shrine to the apricot in the middle of the city. (Tip: when choosing hotels, try to stay near the apricot statue, located near the Sire Bazaar and other convenient locations. Best hotel in town is the Doubletree Hilton. If you want non-corporate, try the Kircuval Hotel.) 

All hail the Great Apricot.

In addition to the apricot, Turkey's national food, doner/shawarma, is also popular. I didn't find the local speciality, kagit kebabi, though. Maybe you'll have better luck. 

Let's do a quick rundown of sites to see in Malatya:

1.  Nemrut Mountain and Sire Bazaar were mentioned above. 

Sire Bazaar

 2.  Waterfall Park aka Şelale Parkı and Kernek Meydani aka Kernek Square are next to each other. (Most people outside of upscale hotels do not speak English, so always have the Turkish name available). There's a restaurant with bland food at the top of the man-made waterfall's stairs, but it has beautiful views, especially at sunset. 

The bottom of Waterfall Park aka Selale Parki

Kernek Meydani aka Kernek Square.
No one I met knew the origin of the word, "kernek."

(By the way, there's a beautiful-looking natural waterfall about one and a half hours away from Malatya called Gunpinar Selalesi.) 

3.  Hurriyet Parki, a small but pleasant park. Ataturk Museum aka Ataturk House, a tiny museum, is nearby. 

4.  The best mosques to see are Ulu Camii aka Battalgazi Grand Mosque, Yeni Camii (New Mosque), and Aysehan Cami. You can skip all the other mosques. 

Aysehan Camii/Mosque

5.  Arslantepe Ruins aka Arsaltepe Mound aka Aslantepe. I haven't been there yet, but you can look up pictures online. See here, for example. 

From the Provincial Culture & Tourism Directorate

(Update: I visited Aslantepe. You can skip it--it's small, not well organized and nowhere near ready for primetime unless you are really, really into archaeology. Directly below is a photo of the only interesting part, which was covered until a worker interested in a tip showed it to me.) 

6.  The Provincial Culture & Tourism Directorate in Malatya publishes a very useful tour guide. You can see the guide at the local tourism office, but I'll publish a page of additional sites I didn't include here. 

From Malatya's Provincial Culture & Tourism Directorate

7. If you are into interesting architecture, there's a building next to Malatya Park Mall called Malatya Büyükşehir Belediyesi. 

Local government office. Spiffy.

 4 days is more than enough to see Malatya, but I'm staying for 7 nights, and I'm more relaxed than I've been in months. If want a simple travel experience with all the amenities of a modern city, try Malatya--a city-village that hasn't outgrown its country manners and, like Cinderella, in need of exposure and luck to show the world her charms. 

Bonus: a few suggestions for Malatya's tourism department: 

1) Hire more people who speak English and Farsi. Most of your tourists are from Iran, Russia, and Germany, but almost no one speaks any of their languages fluently in Malatya. Why not hire college students abroad during the summer or do a student exchange with an Iranian, German/Austrian, or Russian university? 

2) Why is Wikipedia blocked in Turkey? I can use a VPN on my phone to get around restrictions, but my connection slows down a lot. Strangely, my VyperVPN does not work at all when attempting to connect to any U.S. server. 

3) I still don't know where to buy a bus card. Hold on, I just asked one of the few fluent English speakers at the Doubletree Hilton hotel. Apparently, I can buy a local bus card at a shop near a specific bus stop. Why not make it easy for tourists and sell local bus cards inside hotels?

Double Bonus: a taxi from the airport to the city centre should cost about 80 TL, but you can take the Havasbus for 10 TL. Uber and Careem do not operate in Malatya as of October 2017.  

On a separate note, the hotel recommended seeing the city of Sanliurfa, located several hours away.