The Porsuk River, Adalar Promenade and Riding a Venetian Gondola or Boat

Thirty years ago, the Porsuk River (Porsuk Çayı), a major tributary of the Sakarya River cutting straight from west to east through the heart of Eskişehir, was a polluted industrial ditch. Following one of the most celebrated urban river transformations in Europe led by former mayor Prof. Yılmaz Büyükerşen, the riverbed was dredged, water-treatment plants were built, seven decorative wrought-iron pedestrian and tram bridges modeled on Amsterdam and Paris were installed, and the banks were lined with weeping willows, bronze statues and flower boxes, turning the central stretch known as Adalar ("The Islands") into the social living room of the city.

1. How to Ride a Venetian Gondola vs the Public River Motor Launch (Esbot)

Right in the middle of town at the Köprübaşı Pier (where Hamamyolu Caddesi and İki Eylül Caddesi meet the river), two separate wooden docks sit on opposite sides of the bridge (operating daily from roughly in the late morning to in the early evening / late in the evening when weather is dry):

• The Venetian Gondolas (Up to 4 Passengers): authentic curved black-and-red gondolas steered by standing gondoliers in striped shirts. You pay a single flat price per gondola (for 1 to 4 people sharing) for a romantic 15-to-20-minute private loop gliding beneath the bridges along the Adalar café strip.
• The Enclosed/Open Motor Launches (Esbot, Budget Group Ride): departing from the pier right across the bridge, these larger white-and-red passenger boats carry 25 to 30 passengers on a 15-minute sightseeing cruise down the canal for a pocket-change per-person ticket.

2. Walking Adalar, Doktorlar Caddesi (İsmet İnönü) and Haller Youth Centre

Step off the boat onto the car-free riverside promenade of Adalar (Porsuk Bulvarı), where thousands of university students sit on wooden benches and grassy slopes drinking tea and listening to buskers. One block north runs pedestrianised Doktorlar Caddesi (İsmet İnönü-1 Caddesi), where the Estram tram glides down a car-free avenue of restaurants, bookshops and bronze street-life statues. Walk ten minutes further west along the river to the Haller Youth Centre (Haller Gençlik Merkezi), the city's 1930 historic wholesale fruit-and-vegetable market hall, restored with exposed cobblestone floors, wrought-iron lanterns and timber beams to house a theatre stage, souvenir shops, boza counters and lively cafés (right across the street from the Barlar Sokağı nightlife lane on Vural Sokak).