The house next door

This picture was taken looking through the window of the ruined house next door to my own house. All that's left are the walls and the facade.

In contrast, the house on the other side is a magnificent, beuatifully restored listed building belonging to one of Turkey's most famous rock stars, who comes here in the summer.

This juxtaposition of restoration and ruins is very common in Ayvalik. Although many houses have been restored, or are lived in unrestored, the town is still full of ghosts. Many of the ruined houses have not been lived in since the town's Orthodox Greek population was expelled in the 1920's, and replaced with a much smaller Muslim population expelled, likewise, from what is now Greece.