Nihayet...İzmir (Finally...İzmir)

Final day in Turkey.  With an 7:50 pm flight out to Oslo, Norway, on Sun Express airlines, the day in İzmir is enjoyed at a local Wildlife Park. 

The Rick Steves tour bus dropped everyone off at the İzmir airport after about a 40-mile final bus ride.   There was still time for a full day of exploring on our own, so I caught a train (known as the İZBAN) at the Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport and took it to the Egekent rail station (shown below). From that station, it was about a 15-minute Uber ride to the park. One tip for those spending the day in İzmir, there are convenient lockers located right by the baggage carousels at the airport.  The lockers are huge and should hold 2-3 normal size suitcases.  BUT be sure to bring exact change for these lockers!  If you don't have exact change, get it somewhere at the airport before attempting to use the lockers. Not only do you need exact change, and the machine does not give change, it also does not return your bills or coins if you do overpay.  What this means is, if the charge is 4TL, and you put in 5TL, you will not get a locker and you won't get your 5TL back. In this example, you would have to put in 4TL exactly, which opens the locker for you.  Put in 3TL, it will time out and you won't get your money back.  Put in 5TL, you overpaid, locker won't open, and you won't get your 5TL back.  (Note: TL = Turkish lira).  Just be sure to bring exact change and you won't have any issues and the lockers are very convenient for heading out and enjoying the city.

On the way back to the airport, there were no Ubers or taxis available to pick up at the park, but as luck would have it, a local family (mom, dad, and child) were loading up in a taxi that was already at the park.  They were kind enough to allow complete strangers to ride along with them in their taxi to a more central location where they transferred to another taxi, and we headed on to the airport after making the drop-off (on the side of the highway, gulp).  This summed up the entire two weeks, just showing how friendly and helpful the Turkish people are even when helping completely unknown people from another country, who don't even speak the local language. It was a great way to wrap up the vacation.

If you are considering booking this tour, DO IT! Here is a link to the Rick Steves web page for more information on this tour.

Below are some great pictures from the Wildlife Park. As you can see from the pictures, if you ever have a chance to go the wildlife park in İzmir, do that as well!  It was awesome.