Turkey Trip 2025
- Jessica Jaye
- Oct 10
- 6 min read
On my way back to Thailand, I had an idea to stop in Turkey. Neil had the same thought so we decided to make it a date and go together. Last year, I was 6 weeks in Turkey, but this time, it’d be a measly 8 days. Here’s a recap of our experience:
Welcome to Turkey!
After a 3.5 hour flight from Paris, Neil and I landed in Izmir, a progressive coastal city along the Aegean Sea. After waiting a little while, we got picked up by the rental car agency and driven to their off sight location. What we thought would be an “easy way to rent” according to the line under their logo turned out to be quite an unfortunately long experience. We couldn’t pay.
Turns out the company uses some online payment system that Visa didn’t like because none of our cards would go through. It wasn’t even the bank’s fault! That was the confusing part. It was Visa denying the transaction. Two hours later, after multiple calls, Neil was finally able to approve it through email and voila! We could drive ourselves out of the airport.
Welcome to Turkey!
Izmir
Last year, I spent a month in Izmir before going to Thailand. It was nice to be somewhere familiar, but having lived here, I wasn’t very motivated to explore. Instead, I spent most of my time working. Neil worked, too, but managed to squeeze an adventure to a local market in. “This is what we came for!” He exclaimed coming back with bags filled with fresh nuts, fresh dates, and a variety of other dried fruits and treats. That plus going out to eat and walking along the sea sums up our experience of Izmir.
Vegan Food
Turkey is notorious for having awesome and delicious food. This is true even for vegans except for the fact that there is, essentially, only one option: mezze. A mezze is an assortment of small dishes served with bread. Maybe it’s meant to be an appetizer or a light meal, but finding vegan options in a mezze is easy and delicious. Dishes range from hummus, olives, fresh, and a variety of vegetables to cheeses, nuts, and meats. One of my personal favorites was eggplant shakshuka made with eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices. I also grew to like fava over hummus which is a dip made out of dried fava beans instead of chickpeas. Though the mezzes themselves are delicious and filled with flavor, unfortunately, it gets old fast.
The vegan snack game in Turkey, I must say, is exceptional. The amount of fresh nuts and dried fruits is amazing. It is paradise! The olives as well. There was so much variety. Sarma is another delicacy that we loved, but couldn’t always find. The vegan variety is a dish made of rice, spices, and perhaps some shredded veg stuffed in grape leaves. Mmm!
Kuşadası
A few of my students recommended Kuşadası to me, so this was the place we ventured to next. A few hours south of Izmir, we enjoyed a mostly calm road with great views of the landscape. Kuşadası is a beach resort town where we meandered around the marina, watched the sunset, and went on a cute date to a restaurant near the sea. Something we didn’t expect was how touristy the place was. One lady selling fruit juice charged us €3 for a cup one day and €5 for a cup the next. Our accommodation here was our favorite. We had an impeccable view of the city that inspired morning yoga and meditation. We cooked a nice soup to help our stomachs digest the excessive amount of olives, dates, and nuts we’d been eating. All in all, it was chill.
Ephesus Archaeological Site (Aka: Efe)
This was an expensive adventure. The general entry ticket was €40. There are add-ons for other sites, the museum, and a headset. Prompted by Neil’s curiosity, we went for a few of the add-ons. Having visited numerous archaeological sites in the Americas, I wasn’t convinced that the price would be worth it. Neil had only visited one other site in Athens before and it underwhelmed him. As far as ancient sites go, this one was pretty cool. The thing about Turkey is that Mesopotamia, the world’s earliest civilization, emerged there. Their sites are the first of their kind and dated the oldest in the world.
Meandering around the ruins was cool. We walked through old churches, the grand and small amphitheater, and up a marble path. It was interesting to notice the different details and designs. We translated texts with GPT and made hypotheses about the function and purpose of different structures.
Add on: The Terrace Houses
We were the only ones in here… scanning our ticket through another gate, we entered a new zone that was covered and protected from the elements. The terrace houses gave us access to another part of life in Efe: the private sector. Here, we could see the inside of people’s houses (probably the rich people) and smaller places of worship. It was interesting to see their style and design. To see the combination of patterns and colors used as well as the use of symmetry and the occasional disregard for symmetry. It was a quiet endeavor that left me feeling satisfied.
Add on: Ephesus Experience Museum
This one was unexpected. When I saw “museum” I thought, “artifacts and plaques,” but what I missed was the addition of the word, “experience.” After the terrace houses, we were feeling tired and nearly ready to go. At the last minute, we decided to wander into the museum assuming that the coolest things were in there and we could go in and out real quick. Instead, we were given headsets and ushered into a dark room with a series of screens and projectors. The immersive museum attempts to tell us the story of Ephesus in a narrative based form. The visuals were cool, but one of the rooms made me dizzy. It was a little difficult for me to follow and buy into the story. Neil even gave up on the headphones and decided to watch and listen to the music instead of the story. The cool thing was that the visuals gave me the chance to imagine how the city might have looked while it was vibrant and alive.
General Impression
Turkey is okay... It’s an enormous country rich in history and flavors. I’ve barely had the chance to explore, but in the time that I have, it hasn’t fully captured my heart. I’d be happy to get lost in nature and maybe learn more from the archaeological sites, but the limited options for food and aggressive politeness kind of pushes me away. What is aggressive politeness? Well, it’s like, some people want to be helpful, but the way they go about it is with such force. I’m not sure if it’s the language barrier or something else, but it just puts me off.
Aggressive Politeness Example
In Kuşadası, Neil and I wanted to go to the castle at sunset, but were met by a security guard claiming that it was closed. We turned around to leave when a man spoke to the security guard in Turkish.
“You want to take a picture right?” he said, pointing a finger at us.
“Uh.. sure,” we shrugged.
“Of course you want to take a picture. You should take a picture. Look at this!” he gestured around him, “You must take a picture.”
Then, he spoke to the guard again. The guard shrugged and opened the gate for us.
In the man’s defense… The photos we took were absolutely breathtaking. I’m super glad that he intervened AND receiving this type of direct persistence about something I don’t want can be extremely uncomfortable. So it’s a toss up. Well intended people, but the approach can be tough.
In general, Turkey has much to offer and is definitely worth experiencing. Still, I think I’ll be happiest sticking to extended layovers over a longer term adventure, but who knows what the future holds.
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