A new place has opened in Izmir and obviously everyone and his cousin had to go to see what all the fuss was about. The newest place in question is the Izmir wildlife park or Izmir Doğal Yaşam Parkı in Turkish. Good job we went early because when we were leaving there was possibly about a two hour wait of traffic on the way in. This was because it was busy but also because of disorganisation. The buses were blocking the roundabout so people couldn't get in to the car park area and instead everybody was blocking the main thoroughfare out. It was hell for those waiting I bet.
1) At the entrance to the wildlife park.
The wildlife park itself for me was a joy but after seeing the bird paradise and how it was welcomed I feel that come two months down the line this could go the same way unless the management get their act together. On entering the park below I noticed as well as everyone else that there were not really many animals and some parts didn't look completed. This an obvious turn-off for Izmirians since I believe unless they are impressed in the first few seconds then they will un-tick it off there list of places to return to.
2) The whole of Izmir coming to visit.
I enjoyed my trip there, but with the lack of animals I must admit, it made it feel like you were walking through a muddy building site. The animals that were there looked very lonely and looked like they had claustrophobic zoo disease (if there is such a thing) because they were just roaming backwards and forwards to and fro and didn't seem to be exploring the landscape at all. This could be due to the fact that most of the animals came from the very claustrophobic Izmir Fair's zoo where they had a couple of feet in either direction to use as a toilet, a bed, playground and mating ground. The animals are probably just not aware of their new boundaries yet. Hopefully in a couple of months time they will discover these new boundaries to there full extent and then the visitors will see more than just a wooden shed with a small face in the distance of the king of the African plains.
3) The CHP Political rally hits town.
I do hope it will be a great success but time will tell. If traffic numbers and problems are anything to go by at least half of those who came today will not go again in the near future. This should ease on traffic and congestion. For the nature lovers go and see it, there are some very long walks, too long I think for the Izmir Elite who would rather be in the local Bonjour cafe than trudging through muddy fields. On the whole you have to see it and make you own minds up. To help you see the pictures below:
4) Izmir wildlife balloon tries to get it up.
5) CHP Leader's picture at the gates of the park.
(Denis Baykal)
6) The city council's leader's banner (Aziz Kocaoğlu)
7) The big disorganised push at the entrance.
8) The ones that tried and tried to get in the park.
9) The releasing of the celebratory balloons
10) Same balloons being released just more of them.
11) One of two lonely elephants.
12) Nice green open space.
13) A lonely giraffe.
14) Well signposted.
15) Nice map - you are here - but where is here?
16) The restaurant area.
17) The front entrance from inside facing outwards.
18) Bikers on a day out to the park.
Where you at the park on the opening day?
What did you think?
Was it good? Bad? Pitiful?
Do you think people will still go in droves like the first day?
Please comment by clicking on comments below:
Izmir-2-Blogger
1 comments:
I was surprised to hear that place has been opened. I didn't expect them to open that place so soon. I've already added this one to my "places to be visited in Izmir list". After winter.
Post a Comment