Izmir, Turkey

Hey cool people,  

I made it to Turkey!!  

Day 63 Monday, July 20th - This morning we woke up in Athens, said some last goodbyes to some new amazing friends and hoped on a plane to Izmir, Turkey. The flight went pretty quick; me and Lydia slept the entire way. When we got to Izmir, we got some Turkish Lira, which is incredibley cheap and grabbed a taxi to our hostel. The Lira is about $1 to 2.70 TL. Anyway, we got to our hostel around 3, checked-in and took a giant nap. We were all recovering from the craziness of Greece!!!!!! Oh how I miss Greece already! Anyway, that night we walked around a little bit, saw the sea side and went to go grab some food. It was a bit of a culture shot because there was very little english, which made communicating very hard. Also, there was a demonstration on the street, which freeked us out a little. We later found out that there was a bombing in the East of Turkey, near Syria, and the demonstration was protesting against ISIS. So, it was actually nothing to worry about, but when you don't know what is going on or what people are saying ... It was a little scary in the moment. Well, we eneded up being those American tourist that went to Carabou Coffee and Burger King because we were able to order a Whopper!! 

Day 64 Tuesday, July 21st - Today we slept in. I wa a bit angsty because I still woke up around 8:30 - 9 am, but just layed in bed watching YouTube videos. When we all eventually got up, we walked around and grabbed something to eat for breakfast/lunch. It was hot today and Jess wasn't feeling well so we weren't outside long!!!!! After we got food we went back to the hostel to eat and then decided to join the walking tour of the city. The tour took us to a few interesting places. We were able to stop and check out the bazzar for a little bit and get some amazing views of the city!!! After the walking tour, Lydia and Jess decided to go grab some Pizza and stay in for the night. I went and did my own thing, I went out for a few beers with a local I had met, Can pronounced John. He took me to a bar where all his friends hang out. It was actually pretty cool, they were even playing the Capital One Bowl Game with Wisconsin vs. South Carolina! A little later, we went to the sea side and it was pretty cool to see all the locals just hanging out, picnicing on the grass, just having a good time. I am really glad I decided to go out because I was able to see a whole other side of Izmir that I probably wouldn't have been able to. I will be honsest, when I first think of Turkey, I have my judgements, but it is an actually a pretty progressive country socially for where it is. Anyway, this was probably my favorite night out in Izmir because I was able to lok beyond the surface of the city!

Day 65 Wednesday, July 22nd - Today again started a little later. When everyone got up, we walked to a local bakery and got some food. Again, it was extremely hot at 104 degrees. We didn't get outside much today either. We were orginally going to go to Cesme to go to the beach, I don't know why, but we didn't. When the sun started to go down a little and cool off, we decided to have a sea side picnic for dinner. We grabbed a bag of Turkish Muscles, a couple snacks and drinks and plopped out butts on the grass and ate like the locals. I was happy just to get out of the hostel. After, we went back to the hostel, played a few card games and went to bed. 

Day 66 Thursday, July 23rd  - This morning, I woke up earlyish like I had been and went out to get some breakfast by myself. I could keep laying in bed till 1 pm anymore!!! Went to the local bakery and then ate at the hostel and talked to a few people there. After breakfast I did go back up to the room; Lydia and Jess were waking up and starting to get ready at this point. Today we were actually going to go to the beach. Lydia and Jess left to go get some breakfast and I stayed back and got ready for the beach. A guy at our hostel was very nice in giving us directions, he even walked us to our bus stop. To get to Cesme we had to take the City Bus to the Bus station and then take another bus about 45-60 min south to Cesme. At the city bus stop, we hooked up with 3 turkish people from Istanbul who were also staying at our hostel and going to the beach as well. They spoke English and were nice enough to guide us to the beach. 

We agreed to meet back up at 7 pm to catch the bus back to Izmir together. We walked around a little bit, I tried some goat milk Ice Cream. I was actually pretty good. Anyway, I noticed that the Turks are very laid back for the most part. Lydia was very angsty about getting to the bus stop. Me, I was very relaxed, we would get back to the hostel eventually. We ended up catching the bus at 9:05 pm and getting back to our hostel in Izmir at around 10:30 pm. When we got back, I stopped to talk to a few people in the common area, they were so nice that they made me a plate of food. It was like a turkish ... raviloli almost, but really small. Whatever it was, it was super delicous. After I ate, I walked back up to the room where Jess and Lydia were just chillaxing in bed. I showered, watched some YouTube, messaged some friends back home and went to bed. 

Sea side picnic enjoying some muscles and Turkish beer 

A bag of 50 muscles was about $2 

At the beach in Cesme