izmit in january: coffee, chaos, and a whole lotta rain
i landed in izmit at 6am, half asleep, clutching a lukewarm simit from the ferry. the weather app said 7.52°c but it felt more like 3am in my bones. someone told me the humidity was 65% and i believed them, because my hair was already doing that weird fluffy thing it does in damp air.
"you'll want a scarf, even if it's not that cold,"
said the old lady at the kiosk, handing me a tea in a thin plastic cup. she was right.
izmit doesn't scream for attention like istanbul, but that's its charm. the streets near the clock tower are full of people rushing to work, dodging puddles from last night's drizzle. i ducked into a tiny coffee shop called köpüklü kahve because the guy out front was roasting beans on an old pan over a flame. smelled like heaven.
the barista, a dude with a beanie and a tattoo of a coffee plant on his forearm, told me they source from the black sea region. "best in winter," he said, sliding me a cup with a little foam art that looked like a sad cloud. it tasted like chocolate and rain.
i wandered toward the marina, where the sea was the color of wet asphalt and the boats bobbed like sleepy animals. someone had spray-painted a mural of a whale wearing headphones on a wall near the water. i stood there for ten minutes trying to figure out if it was a statement about isolation or just someone's weird sense of humor.
"don't trust the seafood place by the docks,"
a fisherman muttered as i walked by. "they reheat the calamari from yesterday." good to know.
instead, i followed a tip from a girl at the hostel and ended up at balıkçı lokantası, a family-run spot where the owner's mom makes the best lentil soup i've ever had. it came with a side of bread so hot it burned my fingers. worth it.
later, i checked the map and realized i was only an hour from istanbul and a short hop from sapanca. if you get bored, those are just a short drive away. but honestly, izmit doesn't need to be a pit stop. it's got enough character to be the main event.
the weather held steady at 7.52°c, which felt like the universe's way of saying, "stay inside with a book or go get lost in the rain, your call." i chose the latter.
You might also be interested in:
- https://votoris.com/post/kyotos-static-rain-ramen-and-really-weird-vibes
- https://votoris.com/post/shopping-in-kampala-threadbare-markets-gold-teeth-malls-that-breathe-ac
- https://votoris.com/post/almatys-frozen-heart-where-coffee-snobs-cry-and-digital-nomads-thrive
- https://votoris.com/post/frozen-frames-a-film-scouts-zlatoust-adventure
- https://votoris.com/post/shooting-through-the-haze-a-kahramanmara-photo-diary