Moving Day - Selcuk to Ilica Beach (Çeşme)

We’re on the road again today, heading to a new place in Turkey. We weren’t really sure where to spend time after Selçuk. The typical “go-to” places are too far south or east for the days we have available. We decided we weren’t keen on doing big 10-hour train journeys just to tick them off. They can wait for a return visit some other time.

As it is, we needed to take a dolmuş and then at least one or two other buses to get to our chosen destination — Ilıca Beach. It’s out on the Çeşme Peninsula, which requires a transit and bus change in the big city of İzmir.

We did consider spending a few days in İzmir, as it has plenty of things to see. But we don’t really enjoy big cities unless they’re iconic ones like Budapest or London. So, we hunted for a smaller place and came up with Ilıca Beach near the town of Alaçatı. Fingers crossed it turns out okay.

The plan was to take a dolmuş minibus to İzmir at 11:30 a.m. and then find a bus to Çeşme. The theory was that they run quite often, but info was a bit scarce. When I got up at 7 a.m. I checked Google yet again, and it suggested the bus from İzmir to Çeşme might take four hours — to go just 80 km! What? My previous research suggested 1.5 hours. Perhaps we should leave earlier just in case.

So at 7:30 a.m. I woke Sarah and suggested a new leaving time. Up she got and, surprisingly, she wasn’t too grumpy about the earlier start. The dolmuş schedule from Selçuk to İzmir was at least known, as we had checked it in person. We went to the bus stop near the apartment at 9:05 a.m. to make sure we got a seat on the 9:30 departure. Sure enough, by the time it left, the bus was full. We even stopped a little further down the road to let six more people on — they had to stand for over an hour!

The most noticeable things about the Selçuk to İzmir trip were:

1. The quality of the roads – very good, much better than in NZ. Two lanes the whole way and all newly sealed.

2. Lots of fruit trees – we’re guessing stone fruit like peaches, nectarines, etc., based on size and shape.

3. A lot of smoke – both on the horizon and closer. Most likely from farmers doing burn-offs? We checked Google and there were no recent wildfires.

We pulled into İzmir bus station a little after 11 a.m. We fully expected some hassle finding the right onward bus and then waiting around. But we pulled in right next to three or four big buses that all had “Çeşme” written across them. The one right next to us looked like it was about to leave. A quick double-check with the driver and attendant confirmed it was the right bus. Could it really be that easy? We even mentioned Ilıca Beach and they nodded: “Yes.” That was about the only English they spoke.

Off we went, hoping for the best and keeping an eye on the map to make sure we weren’t heading to Timbuktu. Sure enough, we were going the right way. Just after 12:30 p.m. we pulled into the town of Ilıca Beach and got off at a bus stop. According to the map we were just a 550 m walk from the apartment we had booked. It really was that easy. Good luck?

I reminded Sarah of a sports saying last night: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” I think we’ve had plenty of practice now and are making our own luck!

We were too early for the 2 p.m. check-in and the apartment wasn’t ready yet. We hadn’t had lunch either, so we walked along to find a café. The first stop was a coffee shop but it only served drinks, no food. The next option was a pizza place that looked a bit like Domino’s. That would do. A good-sized freshly made pizza with fresh toppings, far superior to anything from Domino’s, was just $10 NZD. We sat, enjoyed it, and read our books until 2 p.m.

The apartment is in a three-storey block of holiday-style units with a pool. Oh — I forgot to mention it’s raining today. Or at least it was during part of the bus trip, and now it’s threatening again. So far, we’ve stayed dry. It’s also cooler, just 22°C, so the pool doesn’t look that inviting. Hopefully things warm up again in the next few days. Our apartment is just one flight up.

The manager was a bit useless and not overly friendly. He didn’t introduce himself and we had to ask his name. He opened the door and then just left — no instructions on anything at all. Maybe that’s the language barrier, or maybe he’s just a bit useless. 😂

The apartment itself is nice and big, but a bit dark with poor lighting. It has two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a lounge area with a sofa, two chairs, and a dining table. On one side is a vacant lot where some buildings were recently knocked down, but fortunately our balcony faces the pool and some nice residential houses. As accommodation goes, it looks fine.

We unpacked and I headed out to grab milk and water from the shop we passed on the way in — just 100 m away. By now it was drizzling, and I actually got wet. We might even need our jackets! That would be a novelty; they’ve been in our bags since London with only a brief thought of using them in Kraków.

By 4 p.m. the drizzle had stopped, so we headed to the supermarket for groceries. We decided if it rained, we’d just get wet. Luckily, it didn’t.

Dinner was a simple moving-day option: spaghetti bolognese with a lettuce salad.

Tomorrow we’ll go for a proper walk and figure out where the heck we are. Right now we really have no idea what’s here other than a beach.