Visiting Çınarlı – the Village of Plane Trees and Springs

After another amazing breakfast at the Adasu Hotel, we hopped on the minibus but this time headed west of Marmara town to the village of Çınarlı .

The bus dropped us off in a square lined with huge plane trees. One particularly fine specimen, clearly the daddy of all the Çınarlı plane trees is vast, spreading its branches wide, shading a nearby cafe and part of the street. At its base sat a stone fountain (çeşme), providing fresh spring water. It must be much sought after, as there were several locals here filling plastic bottles. The name Çınarlı itself comes from the word ‘çınar’, meaning plane tree. (I’ll be fluent in Turkish before I know it!). Across the way is a cluster of smaller plane trees with picnic tables dotted around. You get the sense that this is the heart of the village and a place where the locals come to meet and socialise.

We allowed ourselves to be guided by our senses and that led us through the town down to a long promenade. The village was centred around the mosque, with a network of meandering streets. The architecture of the houses was simple, some with small gardens abundant with pomegranate and quince.

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We headed west along the promenade that backed the narrow sand beach. At the very end, we were surprised to see a kind of water slide into the sea. It seems Cinarli is quite geared up for tourists – summer tourists anyway. As we made our way back there were already signs of the season coming to an end as a group of young men began to gather in the bamboo parasols.

After stopping for a little borek and a glass of tea in a cafe on the promenade we started heading east. The promenade seemed to stretch for kilometres and such was the abundance of marble that was quarried on the island, huge slabs of it were used as a breakwater. At the end of the promenade was a small marina with a variety of fishing vessels from small caiques to big industrial boats.

We didn’t find any Greek connections here. No old wooden houses or the remnants of a church. But we enjoyed the visit and before we left, Peter fell into conversation with another person at the bus stop. Kaptan Oktay used to sail tourist boats in Istanbul. His family is from Cinarli and he told us that here people live well into old age. His father is over 100 years of age and puts it down to the climate, healthy food and stress-free life. Not just Ikaria then!

Later that evening, we dined at Pasa Zula Restaurant, looking towards the harbour. After the borek in Cinarli, we didn’t have much of an appetite, so we had something small. We had the yoghurt-based appetiser that we’d had several times so far but this time I made a note of its name. Semizotu Yoğurtlaması is a combination of strained yoghurt, garlic and purslane leaves. The waiter in Birol had shown me in Google Translate that it was bay leaves, but it definitely wasn’t. I thought they may have been caper leaves because of the rounded shape, but nope – purslane. One of the other appetisers was Pogaça, a kind of baked muffin filled with a feta-like cheese. This was washed down with more (expensive) Yeni Raki.

This was a nice, gentle day helping us to acclimatise to a slower pace of life. For now.