They gave us evil eyes but we didn't mind

On Friday we arrived in Izmir passing through the Greek island of Chios and the frontier town of Çeşme. It was real! We really were in Turkey!
As someone who barely had the chance to travel much and barely set a foot outside her city borders, you can imagine my excitement as the officer at the frontier put a stamp on my passport:

Once we got off our minibus we felt a bit disoriented as the streets are not organised like anywhere else! It took us a while to find our hostel and figure out where were we exactly :)

The history of Izmir is really engaging: born as a small village, in the 8th century BC starts founding colonies in Syria, Lebanon, Greece and the Black Sea.
In short, this city has met plenty of invasions from every possible intruder, it has been destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times, it was Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Genoan, from the 15th century Ottoman, before passing to Greece for a few years and then became Turkish after the revolution lead by Atatürk.
This constant change of identity let Izmir mature up one of its own, it became a city where no one was a stranger. It was a model in the Ottoman Empire for being a multicultural, multiconfessional and polyglot city.
This let a new category of inhabitants grow, a mix of Italian, French and Mediterranean blood, called levantines.
Before the Great Fire in 1922, it was possible to notice the striking difference between Turkish and Levantine quarters, especially in the house architecture.

A place you should absolutely visit is the Ethnography Museum, the entry is free of charge and offers lots of inspiration material regarding Turkish costumes and habits.
They explain how evil eye charms, carpets and felt are made, and they have reproductions of n old Ottoman house and some workshops, as everything is disappearing due to industrialization.
There is also a rich section about camel wrestling (!!!), very popular among Nomads of the Aegean region.

Evil eyes and an old chemist laboratory

Camel wrestlers (yes sir) (we obviously dissociate from this kind of animal exploitment)

Carpet loom and crafts

And just next to it there is the Archeology museum, entry is 10 Liras (about 3,60 euros), where you can find a rich detailed history of Izmir and nearby cities (Ephesus, the twelve cities and islands of the Ionian League, and towns as Gryneion and Myrina, founded by the Amazons), with a great section about jewels and ancient money (we were not allowed to take photos there - but I hope you can get there and see them yourself!).

Hygeia (Greek goddess of health)

Bronze bust of Demeter

 You can find them both in the Konak area, not far from the famous Clock Tower and the Kemeralti bazaar.

So, I hope I gave you an idea of what you can find here, and maybe for the next Mediterranean holiday you might pop down here sometimes and see by yourself the richness of this town :)
Next time I will tell you about Istanbul! Hoşçakal!