Vamos Ala Playa

After my tour in Izmir, my host family picked me up, and we drove to their beach house in Cesme. Cesme is a small coastal town that rests right on the Mediterranean, and is a very desirable location to have a summer retreat for most Turks. We got there rather late, so I wasn't able to see much driving in. After we pulled up to the house, we unpacked and drove back to the city to have dinner. The town square of Cesme is dominated by a massive, 500 year old castle that used to be the home of a sultan. Strings with hundreds of Turkish flags are hung overhead all around the area. Before sitting down to dinner, we take a short walk through the shops. I notice that all of the shops look ancient, but have a very modern interior. It was an interesting combination of classic and contemporary. Dinner was nice, as I've come to expect now from Turkish food, after finishing we returned back to the house.

The next morning I woke up to a breathtaking view. The beach house directly overlooks the deep blue ocean and in the distance you can see some islands. Once we had had breakfast, Alkin, my host mother, and I walked down to the beach. Immediately I jumped into the water, it wasn't as warm as I had been expecting, but it sure was warmer than the pacific. For as warm as it was outside, the ocean was the perfect temperature to just float on your back and relax in. Another thing that I found amazing was how clear the water was, because the Pacific, and most of the lakes I swim in back home are rather murky. Alkin and I swam over to a rock jutting out from the shore. When my feet could touch bottom I started walking, but Alkin yelled at me to keep swimming so I asked him why. He dove underwater, looked around for a bit and then pulled up a sea urchin, I didn't need to be told twice after that. Eventually we wore ourselves out and swam back to shore to unwind. I found that almost all of the rocks on the beach were flat, so of course I had to scoop some up and skip them. Alkin joined in, so eventually it turned into a competition of who could skip them the furthest. The rest of the day was spent taking short swims in the ocean, skipping rocks, or throwing a make-shift frisbee to each other.

As night began to fall we pulled ourselves out of the ocean and went back to the house to clean up and pack. My family took me to another historical district in Cesme. I guess the word "historical" isn't really a word I need to use here, since basically everything in Turkey is historical. Anyways, it was a district filled with narrow streets so that the only vehicle that could get through were mopeds, and even they had difficulty getting through. I thought it was a beautiful area. Small two-story shops with windows on the second floor that jutted out into the street, vines that had  been growing for years were now flowering, which made walls turn from a dull brown to a vibrant pink or red. The air was warm, with a slight breeze and it wasn't too crowded. It was a wonderful evening. For dinner we had some sandwiches that were authentic to Cesme. They reminded me of some basic street food you can find in the states. After a wonderful 2 days in Cesme, we got back in the car and headed back to Manisa. I am really looking forward to getting a chance to return to Cesme someday.

Goruscuruz
-Torvald