what's up beautiful people welcome to İzmir turkey we just arrived here a few
days ago and we are ready to go and explore this beautiful coastal city so let's go
today we are starting our day off here in the Alsancak neighborhood which
seems to be a very lively neighborhood so you have loads and loads of cafes
restaurants kind of bars where you can get little snacks and all of that a lot of shopping here in
the area as well and what i find really really stunning here is that you have a lot of old
houses where you can see what this neighborhood looked like sorry there was a scooter going by
you can see what this neighborhood might have looked like maybe like a hundred years ago or so
İzmir is an absolutely massive place so we're definitely going to be splitting these videos
up over multiple days as of today though we're going to be exploring very specific areas that
we picked out through wikivoyage.com not sponsored we're going to go and check them
out and show you guys all along the way we couldn't be more excited though to be here
in İzmir today it's a beautiful sunny day and it's summertime baby we're ready let's go and explore
how cool is this there's even a tram that goes incredibly slowly from what it seems all along
the walkways along the water i'd say there's incredible views on this tram actually
but yeah it seems to move pretty slow it's very interesting because
it looks like a tram like it's designed as a tram but it doesn't have any tracks so it does roll on
normal tires but it is designed as a tram which is really lovely i think it looks so beautiful
so right now we are on our way from the alsancak neighborhood to the main square which i believe
is called the konak and in order to get there you have to walk over this entire expansive promenade
which is absolutely stunning it's a beautiful day today so we don't mind walking a little bit
and it seems like this promenade area which i believe is called the kordon or kordon
has a lot of kind of cycling ways and areas for people to go for a run maybe if it's
not the middle of the day like right now check this out it looks beautiful
i just love the view from the pier here because you can see loads and loads of boats such as
container ships or local passenger ferries which a lot of the locals are actually taking to get
in between neighborhoods and save themselves from what we are doing right now which is
walking in the midday sun for an extensive amount of time
İzmir is turkey's third largest city with a population of roughly around
3.8 million people so that gives you a little bit of an idea of just the scale of İzmir it's also
the second largest port in turkey just after istanbul and it's a very solid transportation hub
for turkish people İzmir or as it once was known as the ancient city of smyrna which was actually
founded by the trojans believe it or not how cool is that also it dates back all the way to roughly
around 3000 bc so that gives you a little bit of an insight into the history behind
İzmir nowadays İzmir is hustle bustle it is highly developed there's plenty going
on and there's plenty of young people around this city students businesses it is a thriving
place of commerce all right we made our way to the area in İzmir called konak
which is apparently one of the main or mostly visited areas and just here behind me you can
find the konak pier shopping center which is basically a pier shopping center it's
self-explanatory but there's basically a bunch of shops coffee shops etc you can do a little bit of
shopping in here konak itself looks absolutely beautiful it's basically lined with palm trees
and it's facing out onto the water as well but we have a few different places that we
came to konak that we do want to tick off of our list and that's where we're headed to next there's
apparently a bazaar that we can check out and a couple of other things so let's go we made our
way to Kızlarağası Hanı or Kızlarağası inn what it would be called in english i know very explanatory
but it is an ottoman style building which is now hosting lots of hotels shops cafes and bars
and we want to check it out especially for its architecture so let's see what's going on inside
so the inside area of Kızlarağası Hanı
seems to be dedicated a little bit more to jewelry and some sort of souvenirs carpets as well
and then the outside area here of the bazaar you will find everything in between cafes restaurants
dress shops or suit shops it's a little bit like the grand bazaar i would say like that's the
only thing i can compare it to at the moment because obviously we have been in istanbul
not that long ago so this kind of seems to be the İzmir version of the grand bazaar
we are now in the konak meydani so the central square of izmir where you find this absolutely
epic clock tower that you can see here directly behind me which has a very very interesting
history to it so this clock tower was basically built from 1900 to 1901 and then it was destroyed
twice because of an earthquake and in 2016 somebody even stole the clock that you can see
at the top here during a protest but the entire tower underwent restoration in 2019 and it is in
this epic state that you can see right here check out the detail on this clock tower it is just
truly spectacular i cannot imagine the hours that went into constructing this gem
İzmir is a fascinating city for plenty of reasons and one of those reasons is you find a stark contrast
between certain areas in İzmir for example where we started today's video in alsancak
it's a very laid-back chill hipster type of a vibe lots of young people and then you come
here to konak and you'll find bustling thousands of people shopping tourists absolutely everywhere
and you have an unlimited choice and options for things to buy here just check this out
hello as luke already said i totally agree it seems like İzmir has something to offer for
every single person no matter what your needs are if you are a little bit more of a relaxed
type and you're into nature you will find it in İzmir if you're looking for some shopping
experience or the hustle and bustle of the larger markets you will also find it here
and everything is so nicely located at the ocean so it's really beautiful here
we came to the culture park kind of in the center of İzmir from what it looks like on
the map and it's absolutely beautiful here i genuinely cannot believe how many facilities
you hear the parrots i genuinely cannot believe how many facilities there are here in İzmir for
the citizens and tourists obviously free to use it's the same here in the park for example they
have the luna park which you can there's no entry obviously you have to pay for the rides
but the entire park here they have this stunning running track which you wouldn't necessarily
see anywhere else like i think this is the first time i see such a large park
with facilities for people to work out for free outside so what can be better than that
i love all of the cats so much look at him he's so cute oh my god what a purring machine
what are you doing
so cute i think this one is a keeper yeah for sure oh you want to go and explore
this is a mad explorer as well guys it's one of the family he doesn't want to go and explore i
think he wants to stay with us i think we should take him with us very clear keeper
turkey is a fascinating country it's a country that lies in both asia
and europe inhabiting around 85 million people the diversity of cultures religions cuisines etc it's
truly a spectacle to behold and we just every time we visit a new city or a new town in this country
we're blown away and İzmir has already done that for us we love this city and we definitely will
have plenty more videos coming from İzmir here as well i think it's fair to say we had a fantastic
day exploring around İzmir but we definitely missed out on a lot of things we have a lot more
of İzmir to see so many things to see you cannot imagine how long our list is yeah but guys
for now i hope you enjoyed the video my name is luke my name is naomi we are the two mad explorers
and this is your reminder to keep exploring see you guys in the next video thanks for watching