Friday, 20 June
Alsancak — İzmİr, Turkey
In recent years, boutique museums have been popping up around İzmir. They are small entities under the umbrella of the Municipality of Konak. When the first of these museums opened, there was an entrance fee of 5TL (~ $2.30 at today’s exchange rate); now they are all free.
I visited some of these museums on previous trips to İzmir and posted about them in this blog — Mask Museum, Museum of Games and Toys, Museum of Mirth & Caricature. Today, Aylin and I took advantage of the cool morning hours and set out to visit two more. After the 90-93F (32-34C) temps of the past days, today’s breezy 81F (27C) felt downright spring-like, and getting out for a nice walk felt great.
Cutting through Kültürpark [Culture Park], we head to Basmane to visit two boutique museums.
The neighborhoods around Basmane, some of the oldest in İzmir, are a maze of narrow streets. I was a child the last time I ventured into this area of the city with my family to visit relatives who lived not far from the museums that were our destination today. I didn’t find the area much changed, except that many of the old buildings lining the streets have been converted into boutique hotels, and there are quite a few shops selling cell phones and other amenities that weren’t available during my childhood.
We had addresses for the museums, but once we crossed the street at the corner of the Basmane Train Terminal, signage pointed the way, making it easy to find our way. Both museums are housed in buildings described as İzmir Evleri [Houses of İzmir]. Constructed using a combination of European and traditional Turkish architecture styles, the houses feature a cumba [bay window; usually on the upper floors of a three-story building] … a lovely little room where one can sit and watch what’s going on outside. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good angle from which to photograph the exterior of the museums, so let’s go inside.
Our first stop was at the İzmir Kadın Müzesi [Museum of Women; website in Turkish]. Just four-months old, it’s the newest addition to the boutique museums of the city. Its purpose is to promote “the forgotten past and power of the Anatolian women to the world, reveal the creativity of Anatolian women, boost their self-confidence and to create a special venue for women.”
The various rooms of the three-story building feature different concepts — one has temporary exhibits; another has displays on women from past to present; and yet another is about women and their role and power in protests … to name a few. We missed the basement rooms — either the guard didn’t mention them, or we didn’t hear him tell us to go down to those rooms. Signage — in Turkish and English — provides information about matriarchal societies, women in mythology, the goddesses of ancient religions, the women of Anatolia in antiquity, the Amazons … and more.
[Why the Amazons? According to the writings of Strabo, a Greek geographer, philosopher and historian who lived in 64/63 BC – AD 24, İzmir — known then as Smyrna — was founded by a queen of this nation of all-female warriors.]
From the Amazons to the women of Antiquity.
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Left: Statue representing women protesting against a bread tax increase in 1828.
The three-day protest led to the tax being revoked.
Right: Cybele may have evolved from an Anatolian Mother Goddess of a type found at
Çatalhöyük, dated to the 6th century BC. This corpulent, fertile Mother Goddess
appears to be giving birth on her throne, which has two feline-headed hand rests.
An exhibit of embroidered Handicrafts and women’s clothing …
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… including a letter accompanying the 108 year old engagement outfit (left)
worn by the writer’s mother. The letter includes a dessert recipe at the bottom.
Bottom Left: Wall of "Turkish Women” Firsts.
Top Left: Nacİye Hanim, the first Turkish female photographer.
Right: Sabİha Gökçen, a Turkish woman, was the world’s first female military pilot.
Our second stop was at the Radyo ve Demokrasi Müzesi [Museum of Radio and Democracy; website in Turkish]. Opened to the public in December 2013, it is Turkey’s first — and thus far, only — such museum. Signage on the walls — in Turkish and English — provides snippets of information about the history of the radio around the world, and in Turkey; its popularity and fast-paced growth as the world changed from an agricultural society to an industrial society; and its close relationship to democracy — especially as a means for spreading it around the world.
A cartoon published in 1958 … the newspaper the man’s holding headlines
the invention of the audio newspaper at the same time the radio
announces, “You are listening to the radio newspaper.”
That’s all fine and dandy, but I think what most visitors to the museum find interesting — especially the MP3 and tablet generation — is the collection of radios donated from around Turkey. A few of the radios were set up so that visitors could listen to memorable broadcasts of yore. Turning on one of these radios, we were quickly reminded of how long it took for the tubes to warm up before the audio could be heard.
Aylin “listens” to the radio!
The museum is a nostalgic reminder of days past when our ears rather than our eyes were the primary means of entertainment. I fondly remember the Arkası Yarın [The Rest is Tomorrow] series, which featured theatrical readings of popular novels by famous writers — Turkish and foreign. It was a not-to-be-missed part of my day. I also remember when the regular Voice of America broadcast was interrupted to announce the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I was just 5 years old at the time. I recall I was sitting on the floor and playing with my doll, mom was crying. It was definitely one of those “do you remember what you were doing when …” moments.
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Do you remember the days when you tuned the radio to a city instead of a frequency? I do!
[click the image on the right for a legible version that shows the cities we tuned into in Europe.]
Talk about nostalgia!
Would today’s generation even know how to operate one of these radios?
Finishing up at the museum, we called mom to join us for lunch at Ayşa, a small eatery that features Bosnian recipes … all home-style cooking. Aylin and mom went the healthy route and ordered an eggplant dish. I decided to have something that is difficult to find back home — Boşnak mantısı. I’ve mentioned before that mantı is a dish made with mini-dumplings, boiled in water, scooped out and topped with yogurt. The Bosnian version consists of rolls of dough baked in the oven, cut into chunks, and topped with yogurt. I found it to be a lot of dough and very little filling; I think I prefer Turkish style mantı.
After lunch, we wandered around the shops for a while … stopping along the way first for some ice cream at Cremaria Milano, and then for afternoon tea at Léone. Since we each had a single scoop of ice cream, we didn’t feel guilty getting a tasty little tidbit to go with our tea ;-)
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Ice Cream from Cremaria Milano; tea and goodies from Léone … nice way to wrap up my museum day.
We’re now in countdown mode for the Turkey portion of our 2014 summer travels … two more days; then Mui and I will fly off to Finland, to begin the next — and much cooler — portion of our trip.
Speaking of Mui … the renovations at his mom’s house in Ankara are complete; he’s very pleased with the work the contractor did. With that project completed, he and his mom arrived in İzmir today. He’s going to help her settle in at the beach house before joining me on Sunday at mom’s apartment. Fear not, though, we’ll have a chance to get together before then.
