Sunshine, Sights, and Spring

It's my birthday weekend and I'm celebrating in Izmir. I didn't really have any plans but thanks to free wi-fi at lunch(another thing I can't find much of in Malatya) I was able to map some routes, explore movie times, find the metro, etc. I'm a fan of walking along water and climbing hills for views so I was able to make a route that included both. Here are some things that caught my attention:

* My first spring flowers.

* Men selling battery operated shavers and hair clippers on the sidewalk.

* Men buzzing each others heads in the park with those hair clippers. (The man bent over in the picture is buzzing the man on the grass.)

* Women and children selling bird seed for people to feed the pigeons and bird seed crunching under my feet because the birds are not hungry.

* Teenage boys climbing the ancient ruins above Izmir to fly their kites.

* Little boys finding trash bags and

bits of broken kite string to make and fly their own kites

* Play grounds, cell phone towers, picnickers, goats, and carpet weavers all located on and around the ruins of the Roman cisterns and castle at the top of the Izmir hill. (Just imagine inviting AT&T to build a cell tower, 2,000 friends to a picnic, and a bunch of middle school boys to a kite fighting competition at Mesa Verde National Park.)

* Couples talking together and enjoying each other's company...(I know I've been in Malatya too long when it seems strange to see this)

It's been therapeutic, to say the least, to be in a more "western culture."