The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
The Winding Road to Izmir

The Route It was another long day of travel. As tired as we were, neither of us managed to even sleep past 4am, so we had plenty of time to shower, re-pack, wander across the street and into town to the bakery. One of my favorite French rituals is the daily morning run to the boulangerie for freshly baked croissants and pastries, many of them still warm from the oven.

Eventually we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport and killed a few hours in the Air France lounge waiting for our plane to Istanbul.It was also a chance to get some currency changed and re-load a new European cash card. Let me explain:

Pretty much all the countries in the world (except the US) have a smart chip on their credit cards. Usually US credit cards will still work over here, although the absence of the chip occasionally creates problems for US cardholders at some ATM machines and most after-hours purchases of things like gasoline on the weekends when the stations are unmanned. Having learned that lesson the hard way several years ago, I adopted the habit of parking some cash on a euro card to get avoid these potential emergencies.

Travelex, the guys with the currency exchange booths in most major airports, used to offer a "chip and pin" cash card in the US called a Cash Passport. When I went to top off mine in the Minneapolis airport, I learned they had discontinued it. A replacement card was in the works but was not available yet ... and since mine was no longer supported, there was no way to add cash to it. Even my cash card from AAA was not going to work in Turkish ATM machines.

When I got to Paris, though, I learned I could get a new euro card in France ... so I did! Another bullet dodged. It just goes to show you that there is always a way if you stay calm and pay attention. I feel more comfortable carrying my cash on an accessible card than having a pocket full of loose bills.

They fed us well on the 3.5 hour Air France flight to Istanbul (gotta love business class!) so we weren't really hungry when we got to Istanbul, but we did have to schlep the bags from the international terminal to the domestic terminal for a three-hour wait before our next flight to Izmir. The domestic terminal is small and rather dated, but the food court area was a refreshing break from the more common array of uninspired fast food eateries. A cold beer what just what the doctor ordered ... and exactly what this doctor needed about then!

We arrived in Izmir around 9pm and it took another hour to get everything sorted out with the rental car. Driving at night in a strange country is never my idea of a good time, but we still had about an hour's drive south to where we would be staying for the next three nights. For some reason my GPS would not pick up a signal, so we just followed my direction bump and disappeared into the night.

But the travel gods were with us. We found our way to Natureland Efes Pension on the outskirts of Selcuk (Ephesus on the map) and gratefully fell into bed. We have two full days here and we'll make a plan for what to do (or not do) with the time ... tomorrow!


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