Ayvalik

Three days of R&R in Ayvalik, a busy town on the North Aegean coast. Lazing, browsing the shops, one of us that is, and walking the narrow streets with their old Greek stone houses. Ramadan has started with a cannon at night announcing the end of the day’s fast though the cafes and restaurants just appear as busy as they were earlier in the week.

I’ll post a couple of photos though the camera has been in the bag for a couple of days while I have been giving the sketchbook a run.

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The town was populated by Greeks until the exchange took place in the 1920s, so many houses are in their style. The streets up these hills are lined with cobbles below and meshed with wires above.

 

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I was sitting on an ant infested pile of concrete sketching the street and at one stage had to rip my shirt off and beat myself with it to encourage them to eat something else. I heard these boys calling out to sell their bread beforeI saw them. They asked me if I wanted to buy but I didn’t need bread. I swapped the tube of chips one is holding for this photograph. That done, the taller, more determined boy then tried his luck again for a sale.
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These boys passed the shot then spying me came back and pointed to their chests and posed. They laughed, skipped a little then walked off when it was done. The moment was better than the shot is. That what makes photographs personal rather than public.
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It’s pretty hot here and some of the market streets are covered with tarps which creates some interesting light after a late afternoon (7:30pm) walk down the hill.
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A row of stalls on the waterfront sells produce, olive oil, cheese, spices and the biggest loaves of bread on earth. Most only buy a quarter of the loaf. We needed these for when the kids were growing. Poor Tom would have saved his legs peddling to the shop for another loaf ten minutes after he had been for the first one.
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Thursday was market day and as fast as this baker shovelled his loaves, biscuits and rolls from the oven, he was feeding more in as they disappeared from the shop.
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Many buildings in town are quite substantial having been olive oil factories and warehouses in a former life. Our hotel is a restored factory and this cafe was probably one and the same.
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We took a bus to Cunda Island over the causeway then caught a boat back. We had lunch in a Grecian style cafe like this one – gozleme and Turkish coffee.

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