Street art Izmir Turkey

[Old Crank]

A few things I saw while wandering around in Izmir.

[Karadeniz]

1. Turkiye has changed since i lived there !!!

[2naSalit]

2. Interesting city...

Very old, I understand. I have never been to that part of the world but I have a weird connection to it through some odds "events".

My very best friend of several decades was from eastern Europe and traveled quite a bit. She held degrees in Anthropology. She was always giving me things, some I needed, some only held sentimental value between us. This was the case with a decorative plate, salad plate size, that had a very pretty pattern in the glaze. I still have it but never really looked into its origins, I just liked the colors and the ornate design and that my friend thought I should have it. I don't remember when she gave it to me.

A few years ago she passed on, it was sad and I was a few hundred miles away, couldn't be there. But a short time before that happened, something seemingly unrelated took place which brought me to the moments of her passing that were connected with that plate she gave me:

I was in the favorite thrift store in town and I purchased a jacket I liked, the price tag was an old post card with a weird picture on it. It was in some language I sort of recognized but what caught my attention was that the picture was rather unimpressive. The image was of a block of a remnant of a brick building next to a small street and an empty lot with dwarf palm trees scattered about. The remnant of a building had some pipes hap-haphazardly mounted near the top supporting power lines. Izmir! splashed over the upper left corner of the card. Made little sense, I set it aside to add to my post card collection.

The day before my friend's passing I was bored and somehow came across that weird post card. I decided to look it up online. I was taken by the beautiful tiles and pottery that was made there for millennia. I immediately thought of the plate, I got it off the shelf where I had it displayed. I looked at the back, it was made in Izmir! What? It brought me around to realizing my friend was going to pass and I should pay attention. When she did go, she let me know in a dream while I was napping. It was a pleasant scene that I have discussed with her family. We all agree she wanted to say goodbye and the Izmir plate and post card were the connection.

I have never been there but my friend and her husband have, it was such an unusual connection. I guess I should visit some day, when I feel safe to travel. The history of the kilns there is interesting, I haven't looked into to it very deeply, the ceramics from there are widely known.. and incredibly beautiful.