This year Kurban Bayrami started on a Monday (1/2 day) and ended on a Friday. Since it connected to the weekends it made a 9 day HOLIDAY! Bülent and I wanted to take advantage of this time and check out some places we haven’t been before. Based on the weather we decided to do a northern Aegean road trip. Our original plan was to leave right after work on Friday and drive straight through to Foça, a 9.5 hour drive. However, even if we never stopped to use the bathroom (Like that is possible with my bladder capacity! HA!) we wouldn’t get there until after 2 a.m. So Friday afternoon we changed the plan. We decided to hit the road, but stop in Uşak, a city on the way, about 400 kilometers from Ankara.
It is an inner Anatolian city, but part of the Aegean region of Turkey. Occasionally I find the smaller inner Anatolian cities pretty conservative. However, Uşak was a really nice city. Their central street was pedestrian access only with tons of bars and cafes. It was pretty lively with a wide range of people, even though we arrived at 11 pm. The next morning the streets were filled with families shopping and young people getting brunch and old men in their Aegean Style hats people watching.
The next day we hit the road to begin our Aegean tour. On the trip we stopped by Izmir, Foça, Ayvalık, Alibey Island, Assos, Bozcaada and Bursa. We had such an amazing time that I will be doing a blog post about each of our main stops. What was really special was that even though we were busy for the whole trip we got back and felt relaxed and rested.
