Merchants, Mosques & Masks: 3 Days In Izmir

Mexico, Thailand and Turkey. Of all the countries we’ve visited so far, those are our top three on the international cuisine league table, and our first night in Izmir posts a huge reminder of why Turkey is up there.

But first the day starts with a 2am alarm, a small hours taxi pick up and a red eye flight out of a very quiet Gatwick. Once in Izmir, it’s a train and a metro to Basmane station and a trudge with our backpacks to our next bed in the heart of the old town. We chose Hotel L’Agora for its unique location: a riad style building right in the middle of the ancient bazaar, and the reality is as good as the marketing: it’s a perfect location amidst buzz and activity and dwarfed by the minarets of surrounding mosques.

The bazaar – actually two enormous adjoining bazaars, Kemeralti and Kizlaragasi Hani – is a fabulous maze of soukh type shops, so intense and labyrinthine that it’s seriously hard to find the same shop or cafe twice. It feels fantastic to be right in the beating heart of this ancient city – though it’s a slightly different story coming home at night when these bustling lively passages are transformed into dark silent alley ways populated by sleeping dogs, scavenging cats and the occasional dodgy human.

This place has housed hawkers and traders since its first inception as a  stop on the caravanserai trail, centuries ago, and the traditions live on with spices, coffee, fabrics, leather goods, jewellery, and just about everything else, being traded here in a cacophony of sound. Just walking through here, only hours after leaving the UK, has transported us to a different world.

We stop for a while at a traditional tea house and sit on the hard wooden benches adorned with heavy woven colourful cushions. We are in the heart of the bazaar, the sights and sounds are stimulating, the call to prayer from the numerous mosques echoing around the narrow streets. The aroma of spice stalls, hookah and grilled meat fill the air, we order a kebab from the kiosk across the street, it’s delicious and our first taster of what lies ahead.

Later on, our evening stroll leads us towards the iconic clock tower, the sound of live music draws us in to a bustling kerbside restaurant, we take a seat amongst these excitable locals. The vegetable dishes, particularly the sumptuous patlican (aubergine) are amazing, the chargrilled meat is delicious, the  local draught beer is good too. The music is atmospheric, an acoustic guitar and violin accompanying a vocalist, one minute the music is lively and upbeat, the crowd singing along, clapping of hands, arms waving in the air, young and old alike enjoying this folk music; then a change of mood, the singing becomes soulful and haunting. There is a brief pause whilst the call to mosque takes over, then the music resumes and we are once again swept up in the atmosphere along with these locals; this is one of our best ever “first night in a new town” experiences.

Izmir began life and spent most of its history as the ancient city of Smyrna, only adopting the name Izmir in the 20th century, and is one of the very few ancient cities of Anatolia to continue to thrive through to modern times, which is probably due to its geographical location. The city curves around the huge, sweeping bay which shares its name, affording multiple sites for sheltered harbours, while the city’s land side is protected by mountains. Little wonder that trade thrived here throughout centuries of history.

Modern day Izmir is a stirring mix of traditional and contemporary. The bazaars, earthy and industrious, are still the beating heart of the city, and, unlike Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, show very limited nods towards tourism and continue instead to thrive as a genuine market for the city’s people. Look carefully and you spy traces of the ancient bazaar walls and structures, barged into inconspicuous corners by the more pressing need to sell wares.

From the ports around the bay to the trading post on the caravanserai routes, from the time honoured bazaars to the contemporary equivalents – pedestrianised streets – Izmir’s whole story is one of trading, a story which has demonstrably stood the test of time.

Indeed, its oldest relic is the Agora, where columns, capitals and platforms of the Roman era are beautifully preserved, and even here, trading is core: a Roman agora is, after all, a citadel built around a market. 

These days the iconic centre of Izmir is Konak Square with its unmissable clock tower and mini mosque, where daytime activity is brisk: children feed the pigeons, groups gather to chat, buskers play yet more haunting folk songs. Just south of Konak is the Asansor, a brick tower elevator built by a Jewish philanthropist to carry the less able from sea level up to the homes in the Jewish quarter, but is nowadays an attraction affording glorious views back across the bay.

North of Konak Square in the Kordon, a waterfront stretch of wall to wall bars and restaurants leading you to the trendy and affluent district of Alsancak, a district which so effortlessly brings Izmir into the modern day: full of life, full of indulgence, happy in its hip vibe. 

But then Izmir does have a history of clashing cultures, historically both Muslim and Christian powers have held sway, as have the Ottomans, Romans and Greeks; Christian crusades brought bloodshed here, Jewish influences helped to forge the city’s principles, and when in more recent times Ataturk raised the Turkish flag in Konak Square, modern day Turkey had made its mark on the world. Yet none of these have dislodged the power of trade here: Izmir owes its existence to its position as a trading post, and probably will, for evermore. The city’s rich and colourful character is inextricably entwined with the need to trade, and is all the more stimulating for it.

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One further note about contemporary Izmir. These days, the numerous images of the national hero Ataturk are far outnumbered by those of Erdogan. Enough said, maybe.

We soak in all of this, as well as taking a ferry across the bay to the bustling, assertive suburb of Karsiyaka, and enjoy two more amazing evenings of delicious food consumed amid scenes of music, dancing and revelry. There is a night time atmosphere in Izmir which is impossible to ignore: it really is a traveller’s dream to be whipped up in its verve. The food, the music and the language are all exclusively and undeniably Turkish. When your culture is this rich, there is no need to dilute it with influences from outside.

It feels extremely stimulating to have experienced a city which has been only lightly touched by globalisation and retains the strength of its true culture and identity. Izmir is a city with a modern side, but it is fiercely, undeniably, proudly Turkish.

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