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Ayvalik
May 8
We arrived in Ayvalik at lunch time today. We were greeted by a few members of the Ayvalik Club, and they helped us get our baggage settled at the local Avis Car Rental Office – courtesy of Alp – so that we could go eat lunch and explore the town center unencumbered! Right off one of the main city streets, we found a beautiful seafood lunch waiting for us – it tasted all the better because the Mediterranean Sea was practically under our table! After an amazing lunch surrounded by Sea, Sun and Mountains, we explored the city market, and a few of us bought some trinkets to take home.
Afterwards, we piled into a couple of cars and crossed the bridge onto the Island of Cunda, where we visited an old windmill turned church then library, a restored home now used as a beautiful little inn, and a beautiful Hellenistic style church that was in the middle of being renovated (we all want to come back when it’s finished!) As an added bonus, we got to see a backyard artichoke garden… It was very interesting!
When we had explored most of historic Cunda, we headed for a beautiful little bakery where we ate Mastic cookies while we waited to meet our host families. When all had arrived, we headed off to different homes to rest and get ready for our group dinner.
Our restaurant for this evening, Deniz Lokantasi (Ocean Restaurant), was another that sat right on the Med. After the Meze course – a tradition that we’re all very much enjoying – we ate some of the freshest fish available! Some of us were more daring than others – proved by the realization that bones and eyeballs are, infact, edible and, in some cases, rather tasty.
As is also traditional, our celebratory dinner didn’t end until almost midnight. We all went home feeling stuffed and happy to have met such beautiful people!
May 9
The next morning provided our first opportunity of the trip to sleep in a little! After we were all well rested, Carole, Ted and Cindy were brought together by their host families for breakfast, and Nikki and Laura’s families ate together as well! After we were, once again, well fed we headed out for our day of adventures!
We started with a trip up “Heaven’s Hill.” The view was, well, heavenly! We got some great pictures, and had some fun watching some local children fly kites that they had made the previous weekend during the Ayvalik Kite Festival!
From there, we went to an olive oil factory. It wasn’t the production season, but we saw the oil making process. We had a wonderful lunch at the factory, and we all bought souveniers, but they graciously sent us home with a free bottle of olive oil, too!
From there, we had another trip up a mountain (Ayvalik is surrounded by them!) to see “The Devil’s Footprint.” Legend says that the devil was jumping from mountain to mountain and this giant footprint was where his foot touched this particular mountain. From this vantage, you could see the Greek island of Lesbos, and the lower part of Geeece just beyond it. It was incredible!! None of us could believe how close we really were!
From there, we attended the opening of an interior design gallery, where, after schmoozing a bit, our host families met us and took us home to prepare for the evenings presentation. With the help of another excellent interpreter – we gave a very quick version of our presentation… After all, there was a football game to watch!! We moved from the hotel where the club meeting was to the restaurant next door and the whole club had a delicious dinner! The food was wonderful, and so were the conversations! We all split up and finished up the evening enjoying the company of our host families!
May 10
After sleeping in yet again, we had another amazing breakfast. Today it was a little slower, though… I think our Ayvalik families wanted to keep us as much as we wanted to stay! But, alas, we finally made our way to the city center to meet the van. We loaded up our things, and said our goodbyes. As the bus pulled away, we were all looking forward to a time when we might return for a longer visit, and to our next adventures – this time in Kuşadasi (Pron. Ku-sha-dasi)!
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