So because a revolution began in Egypt just two days before we were supposed to get on a flight to Luxor that trip got canceled. Guess I will have to do that some other time. So instead they planned our field trip to Turkey. We got on a plane two days after my last final, just enough time to do laundry and pack, although everyone had to do laundry at the same time so I had to strategically do laundry when no one else was or hope that everyone else was more prepared than myself. It worked out and on April 1 right after a week of tests we took off to Izmir, Turkey where we got on a bus and went to the port town of Kusadasi to spend the night. It was a long day of travel so thankfully they fed us then let us sleep, but not for long. It was a 7am wake up call every day. The first day we went to Ephesus where the apostle John lived and visited, but the weather gods were against us and 20 minutes into our tour it started pouring. Thankfully I had a raincoat on but others weren't as lucky as myself. Rain did not hurry our tour guides either. They just let us stand in the pouring rain as they continued on rants about a history lesson we really didn't want to hear as we were being doused in rain. Well after that they decided it should be an indoor kind of day, thankfully. We went to the rug factory first and we got to see some of the women at the looms, and my favorite, the silk that comes from the silk worms. We then got a show of probably every rug in the whole factory while we sipped apple tea. At the end of the show, they of course tried to get us to buy some but I don't understand who they thought they were selling to. A group of college students without houses of our own aren't the best demographic for selling rugs, especially the expensive ones. We then went to a museum and then had lunch, a buffet, which is what we had for almost every meal. After lunch they took us to St John's Basilica where you could overlook the place where the Temple of Hera used to be, which is now just a column with a stork's nest on top. So after visiting the Basilica, well ruins of a Basilica we actually went down to see the column closer. It was ridiculous. Yeah it used to be one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world but I don't think we really needed to see it from the ten different angles that we saw it. We finished off our stay in Ephesus with a visit to a leather factory/show room where they had a crazy leather fashion show of million different jackets, even more out of price range for college students than some of the Turkish rugs. That night we got on a plane to Istanbul where we stayed for the next three days.
Our first day in Istanbul we hit all the major tourist sites. We went to the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Hippodrome, and the cistern. They also threw in a trip to the ceramics factory as well just to see if they could squeeze some more Turkish Lira out of us. The next day we went on a ferry to Prince's Island where it was even colder than it had been in the rain in Ephesus and everything on the Island was closed or nonexistent. We then visited the Asian side of Istanbul which I now know is also the "nobody speaks English" area of Istanbul. This was the first day without an organized group lunch and so I went to a restaurant with my friends and nobody in the restaurant knew English and we were already late for the bus so I'm pretty sure they probably ripped me off for that "Turkish" pizza. The waiter said he normally knows English pretty well but he was tired today so he couldn't figure it out. What kind of excuse is that? Then we got to turn into our hotel rooms fairly early. Our last day was the most exciting for me. We started off at the Spice Market where we saw Ben Affleck. It was pretty cool he was just strolling through the Spice Market. We then went on a "cruise" down and around the Bosphorous. Then we made our way to the Grand Bazaar where it was haggle central. I wasn't great at it but one of my friends was so I took her around with me. Sadly I was unable to haggle for anything I bought but I did find some cool things. At the end of the day we caught a flight to London to go and pack up my room. :( It was time to say goodbye to all my friends because the next day they all got on a flight back to LA.
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| Oh no Rain! |
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| RUGS |
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| Bazaar! |
