18.10.24

We had a lovely quiet night at Novada Outlet Centre, Söke. John decided to fill the van with water, but when it began to come out brown he abandoned that idea.

We popped into the shopping area, but the shops don’t open til 10am, apart from Migros.

John suggested we put our rocket in water overnight for it to recover. It had other ideas and stayed dead.

The kettle is almost dead too. Each day another component has fallen off.

There was one in a camping shop near Migros, but at almost 2000tl we decided not to wait 20 minutes for the shop to open.

We had egg and sausage half breads for breakfast, before heading towards Izmir. The gas ran out part way through cooking, so thats 3 things gone wrong today.

John was on research duty after brekkie and said we could go to a kanyon in Kemalpaşa and then to Ikea. Perfect.

We were heading towards Kemalpaşa and I happened to glance at the map and saw The Key museum. A museum of restored old cars. It was in Torbalı 7km away, so we doubled back.

It couldn’t have looked less like a place for a museum, situated on a large industrial estate, mostly ceramics factories and warehouses.

It was 200tl (£5) each to go in. We love old cars. It was excellent.

John had 2 favourites. A very understated purple one.

And.. The Batmobile

My favourites..

Every vehicle was immaculate. In fact not a speck of dust anywhere. Our only critisism was the dreadful choice of music, especially the jazz.

Out of the industrial estate and back on the dual carriageway until we reached Nazarkoy.

We parked in one of the many car parks. I gave the gentleman 80tl, he gave me 30tl back, I said but it’s 80 for a minibus, he laughed and said no problem 50 is good and stay as long as you like.

The extremely beautiful village had eateries advertising village breakfasts, and lots of souvenir shops.

There were no signs for a canyon. John read some of the reviews that said the location was wrong on Google and the locals will all try to get your custom for breakfast.

It didn’t matter about the lack of a canyon, it was such a pretty  place to be and the dogs loved a rural stroll with lots of lovely smells to investigate.

Next stop Ikea. The traffic to Bornova was awful, everyone bibbing and swerving across lanes. No way I could have negotiated Naz around in the madness. John stays remarkably calm with relatively few swear words.

It was all worth it to buy 3 little cactuses and have meatballs and divine chocolate cake.

Back on the road. By this time it was dark, all the more scary for me as someone who doesn’t drive in the dark.

It was absolute mayhem. My bum cheeks should be solid muscle by now with all the clenching and squeezing to get us through gaps.

It was lovely to reach the sanity of the outskirts of Manisa, we chose a big car park with caravans and a couple of motorhomes.

It’s 7km to where Johns half marathon starts on Sunday. We’ll work that bit out tomorrow.

It’s been a really lovely day. It’s amazing how one minute you’re in a quirky village, the next you’re in Ikea. Türkiye is like that, you never know what you’ll find.

That was going to be the end of todays blog. The relaxed reflection of a fab day was interrupted by Johns desire to move somewhere nearer to the race start line. It was 11pm.

I can’t begin to explain the sheer terror of manoeuvering around the central city.

Firstly, the town is huge. It’s probably the blingiest place I’ve ever seen. Everything is lit up. If we had continued getting lost any longer we’d have gold bling all over Naz.

Lots of roundabouts and tiny side streets, impossible to navigate with cars parked across corners. Many cars were triple parked, no lights on them and obviously not planning to leave any time soon. At one point I put my phone map down, folded my arms and told him to sort it himself as he’s not listening to me.

In return he got angry and called me Janet. His ex wife’s name.

There was no solution other than heading to the Forum shopping mall and park there as it’s ‘only’ 4km from the start. We parked there and just sat.

Traumatised.

Despite being called Janet I have to give credit where credit is due. John drives this van superbly. I wouldn’t last 5 minutes.

We slept well, and I’m looking forward to a stroll round the mall tomorrow while John is running his half marathon.