IZMIR

First off let me apologize for not writing yesterday like i said, the internet seems to only be working in the morning. I am currently back in Istanbul. Today I am planning to visit the archaeological museum and perhaps another site, maybe Topkipa palace.

Let me tell you about my trip to Izmir. First of all, i should mention that Izmir is not a very touristic place, there are about 2 things to see there, so we were not expecting much when we got there. The first place we went to was the Izmir clocktower and the marketplace. There were very few tourists there, it was more of a local market. We stopped for some turkish dolma (which is their version of shwarma), which was good. The second site that we went to was called 'elevator'. Izmir was built upon hills so this elevator was built to help people get up the hill. It was so steep! From the top of the elevator there was an incredible view of the city.

Afterwards we decided that we should find a hotel. My guidebook listed three so we drove around trying to find them. It turned out that these hotels were in one of the sketchy areas of town. It was very poor and everyone was starring at us in our car. It looked like images they show on TV of the middle east. It was a side of turkey that I had not seen before. So, we didn't stay in any of those hotels...and they weren't even that cheap ($60 a night)! We were actually a bit worried about getting out of the car.

Rather we drove to Konak Quay. This place was so beautiful. It is basically a street along the water which is filled with restaurants, stores and bars. We stayed in a hotel near there and it was really nice, and only a bit more expensive than the "cheap" ones. So we ended our evening sitting by the sea having a few drinks with our friend who lived there =)

That was my trip to Izmir.


Other interesting things about Turkey...

Call to Prayer
Every day, 5 times a day, 365 days a year there is the Muslim call to prayer. It lasts about 5 minutes and can be heard all over Turkey. No matter where you are you can hear it. The call is a prayer to Muhammad and tells Muslims that it is now the time for prayer. The times are rougly 5am, 10am, sometime around noon, 5pm and 7:30pm.

Street Dogs and Cats
There are an incredible amount of street dogs and cats which are all over the cities in Turkey. I have never seen anything like it before. Yesterday there were 7 cats just hanging around this one area. They are very skiny too. I thought i would mention it because we don't have anything quite like it in Canada.

Public Toilets
Here is a picture of us at Efes. We are sitting at the 2000 year old public washroom. It was actually very comfy! lol