İzmir

I mean, bigger than storms that we had in the major oceans was actually in the Mediterranean Sea.

It was the one time that we thought the ship was gone and we ended up getting up into Izmir in Turkey, but really only just.

And I have clear memories of the waves.

I can remember sitting on the bow of the ship and just the

So, yeah, my hometown, for instance, there's a lot of Greek influence.

And Izmir, on the west coast of Turkey, is known to be the most liberal city, actually.

And people living in Izmir would like to take pride in their city, telling that we are not, you know, those Anatolians we are.

Izmir people, which means we are Westerners, we are liberal, progressive, and sort of Mediterranean craze going on, and so on.

So even this perception of my hometown is embraced by the government.

They call Izmir half-infidel, referring to its Greek-influenced past.

So yeah, Izmir has such a reputation, and it has a reputation with women being more liberal comparing to the other parts of the world.

No headscarves, laughing out loud.

And of course, the Greek islands, Rhodes, Lesvos, Chios, these islands prospered as great cosmopolitan trading cities with other cities like Alexandria with Beirut.

Smyrna, of course, was the great one, modern-day Izmir.

So, in the book, I try to reorient kind of where Greeks fit in this.

And as I say, right, up until really the last days of the Ottoman Empire, the Greeks themselves were growing, the merchant class, the bankers, were growing fabulously wealthy from the Ottoman Empire.

I haven't even posted Ashton's videos from her show.

I have a load of videos left to post from Turkey, torn around Izmir, the ones that I thought I would have put up first.

So guys, I have more content coming for that in the hair clinic.

Obviously, get my checkup.

I was horrible at it, but I did.

But the teams that we played, there were two other teams in Turkey, one in Ankara and then one in Izmir.

And then there was one in Bahrain, and then there was one in Rota, Spain, and then there was one in Lodges Azores.

So literally, when you have games here, we would have our meets.