#armolia

Days 23 and 24

Çeşme, Alaçatı, and Chios

3 cities in 2 days has been exhausting, so I’m kind of behind.

I’m staying in Çeşme, which is on the coast right along the border with Greece. It reminds me a lot of Southern California, a lot of high end shops, tourists, beaches, fancy restaurants, etc... I haven’t done a whole lot in Çeşme itself other than walk around and eat, which honestly I think is all there is to do. But it’s very beautiful.

Yesterday afternoon I took the bus 10 minutes inland to the town of Alaçatı. It is a very gorgeous little town with white walls and flowers and grapes hanging everywhere and beautifully decorated buildings and cafes. The town used to be a sleepy fishing town but some hotel owners got together and decided to beautify the town and open up a bunch of picturesque cafes and hotels and now its a tourist spot. It was very expensive to even eat lunch in, but it was very pretty.

After that I went to Ilıca Beach. It was a gorgeous beach with beautiful water. I swam for a while but eventually it got so windy and choppy I had to leave.

Today on a whim I decided to spend the day visiting the Greek island of Chios, which is only 8km off the coast of Çeşme. I have always wanted to go to Greece, so I thought I may as well.

The ferry was very crowded with lots of pushing and shoving which was very overwhelming. One thing I’m still not used to in Turkey is the attitude towards lines. It seems like the general rule is whoever can force themselves to the front first goes first, it doesn’t matter what order you got there in or if there is a line formed, you just have to force yourself to the front, which I do not like at all. We all got off the ferry and were in line at passport control and there was a lot of pushing and elbowing but eventually a sort of line was formed. People kept trying to push their way around me but I elbowed them or blocked their way. There was a large man who managed to push his way so that he was right next to me. I don’t really know if he was originally ahead of me or behind me or what it was all so chaotic. He tried to force his way past me and a family in front of me, but the family yelled at him and told him to get back in line. He was upset and argued but did it. It helped that the family had a lot of people and they formed a sort of barrier to prevent him going forward. The man then for whatever reason got out of line, then came back 10 minutes later and pushed his way back again and tried to push his way in front of me, knowing he wouldn’t get past the family. I told him “excuse me sir I’m here”. He started arguing with me and I ignored him. Then he started loudly talking to everyone around him in English, saying “I don’t know what this lady’s problem is or why she won’t let me in spot, everyone here agrees and everyone can see that I was in front of her” and the family in front of me was like “yeah I don’t really know what her problem is” so I just went “look it doesn’t matter go in front of me”, which he did, and then continued to talk about me with the family in front of me. I got overwhelmed and everyone behind me was still pushing and shoving, and I just started crying which I’m not proud of. The man got upset when he saw this and went “oh come on, really? What is the big deal here? I don’t know why this lady is crying over nothing, she’s probably just ashamed of herself because she tried to get ahead of me” I didn’t say anything and was just looking at the floor.

Then I don’t know it almost made things worse because everyone in line realized what was happening and started getting worried about me and telling me not to worry and the family in front of me started apologizing for talking about me and asking if I was okay and I was like don’t worry Im fine. Finally a little old lady who was near the front of the line came over to me and started talking to me in Turkish and grabbed my hand and placed me at the front of the line. I was so embarrassed. I don’t know what came over me it was all just really stressful and overwhelming.

Anyway after that unnecessary drama was over, I went on a tour of the island of Chios. The only tour available was in Turkish. It ended being me and two people from Germany on the tour who didn’t speak Turkish either. The tour guide only spoke Greek and Turkish and he managed to find someone in the group that spoke a little English and had him stand with us and translate everything he said which was nice of them.

We visited four towns on the island of Chios. First we visited Mesta, which had a really beautiful church all decorated with chandeliers in it. Chios is famous for the mastic tree, which produces a sap that can be used to make lots of things, mostly for medical purposes. We tried lots of mastic foods though like ice cream, liquor, and candy. It’s also used for lotions, toothpaste, vitamins, and many other things. All over the island the buildings were built very close together with little bridges on the roofs of them connecting the buildings. Apparently pirates used to pillage Chios a lot, so the people developed a network of bridges and secret doors to go around town without being in the street, and they would dump hot oil from the roofs onto the pirates. The bridges also stabilize the buildings so they are very strong during earthquakes.

After Mesta we visited Pyrgi, which was called the “painted village” as all of the buildings had beautiful intricate black and white designs painted all over them.

Then we visited Emporios and got to enjoy the beautiful beach and have lunch, finally we visited Armolia where we visited a mastic orchard and saw some ceramics. Then we caught the last ferry of the day off the island and back to Turkey.

It was so beautiful there, it made me wish I could spend more time there and in the rest of Greece. Oh well, next time.

On the ferry back I was really nervous about the line again so I waited on the ferry until everyone got off and I was the last one. Then I got a snack at the teashop for probably 25 minutes, and I got in line which was considerably shorter, and finally it was my turn, and someone shoved me out of the way and went first. Then after they left I went to the counter and another person pushed me out of the way to go ahead of me.

There’s no winning. I can be polite and be pushed over or I can be rude and be yelled at.

Sigh.

I’ve only got one more city to go on this trip. I’m in Çeşme tomorrow morning, then I will go to the city of Izmir, the third largest in Turkey, and be there for two days then fly home that night.

There’s so much to do and see still here but I am very exhausted and honestly out of patience with people and crowds so I may just spend the morning hiding in my hotel as bad as that sounds. I just need to be left alone for a little before being in crowds of people again.