“But few tourists stay here, preferring to move on to where they really want to be.” — Tom Brosnahan (Turkey Travel Planner).

With that glowing endorsement, our expectations coming to Bandirma were quite low. When we arrived on the fast ferry (groovy mode of transport, btw), we learned that we could have caught the afternoon train out of here. People in Instanbul encouraged us not to come this way. The guide books barely mentioned the place, and, well, you see the glowing endorsement above. Bandirma’s claim to fame, according to the Internet, is that it is the place where the last shot of WWI was fired (inadvertently). These same sources also indicated that there was a monument dedicated to this incident, but I couldn’t find it. (Most of the action in WWI, it seems, was a ways from here — Gallipoli. For more on that sad blood bath, read here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_gallipoli.shtml.)

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like tour books. Bandirma is Exhibit A for what I really don’t like about them. Tour guides set our gazes and expectations in certain directions, point us to certain places, teach us to expect certain things. It’s not that they are altogether unhelpful, but they so often present the world through a rosy, palatable, tourist lens (even the “alt” tourists texts). And they so often cause us to miss interesting people, places and cultures as we rush to the next site in the guide book to check off our tourist list. (This was the shorter, kinder version of my tourist guide rant. Heather can give you my longer version, if you like. 🙂 ).

To be honest, we had fallen into the tour book trap. We didn’t expect much from Bandirma. We couldn’t wait to get to the next place. Bandirma was a waypoint, a travel stop destination that got us to where we really wanted to go.

So, I’m glad we screwed up our travel plans and got stuck in Bandirma.

It’s a seaside town of 80,000 people.

Beautiful, no?

It appears also to be a working class town that is struggling to find its way into the global tourist economy.

It’s a town that appears to have seen some better days (lots of shuttered windows and dilapidated buildings), but it also is a town that seems to be experiencing a growing prosperity. Lots of buildings are getting face-lifts. Some are getting gutted and completely restored. I live in a town like this myself (minus the seashore), and it also is often presented as a waypoint on the way to somewhere else. Lesson learned (again): Guidebooks are limited and designed to feed/perpetuate certain consumerist, tourist expectations. So, take them with a grain of salt, I say, with maybe a side of sardines (see below).

Heather was ill today (she is recovering nicely), so after a 3 hour nap (it is vacation, after all), I headed out in search of this monument to WWI. What I found instead is a bustling town with lots of people, food … and, of course, trash and graffiti. And I ran into these kids —

They were thrilled to see an American. “I love America,” the one with the ball said in English that was so, so much better than my Turkish. Then, when I was a hundred yards down the hill, he and his friends started yelling, “F$#% you, America(n)” over and over. Contradictions. Ruptures. I dig it. Let’s be honest, I sometimes have the same love/hate relationship with America, my home country. And, frankly, if I’d heard only a little bit about what English tour books said about my town, I’d be cussing too.

Honestly, I think they were just working on their English, so I got a big kick out of this intercultural exchange.

So, there you have it. Bandirma — the city we almost ignored. There is so much we can’t see in Turkey, but I’m glad we made this brief stop.

Tomorrow, yet another bus — this time to Izmir where we will grab our car and head to Yenni-Foca on the coast. Tomorrow is also the beginning of Ramadan, so our trek may take some interesting turns in the coming days.