JJ and Paul arrived to Turkey around lunchtime on Thursday, November 11. This gave us our first official visitors and we were very excited. I went to the airport to pick them up with one of the other English teachers from the school, since he has a car. When we arrived back to the school we did a little unpacking before we showed them around a bit. Thursday was pretty relaxing since they were extremely tired and we would be embarking on our trip the next morning.
After breakfast on Friday, JJ, Paul and I called a taxi to take us to the train station so we cou
ld go into Istanbul and start with some sightseeing while Katie was finishing her classes. After getting into town, we dropped our bags off at the hostel and started with Galata Tower. JJ and Paul went to the top while I waited at the bottom. Going to the top gives you incredible views of the city. After that, we walked for about 40 minutes to Sultanahmet to visit Blue Mosque, the
Underground Cistern and Hagia Sophia. We had lunch (a big plate of doner) on one of the main streets in Sultanahmet before heading back to the hostel to meet Katie. We sat around for a bit at the hostel since we had done so much walking, but after awhile we walked down Istiklal Street (lots of shopping and food) until it was time to go to dinner.
Saturday morning started with breakfast at the hostel and then a quick cab ride to Dolmabahce Palace. We wanted to get there earlier in the day to avoid the long lines. We still ended up waiting a while but when we finished our tour the lines were substantially longer, so I guess we did pretty well. After Dolmabahce Palace we took a cab to the Spice Market. We had lunch outside of the market first and then took a walk through the Spice Market. Next, we headed to the Grand Bazaar (one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world). Katie and I had never been so we were excited for this as well. You really could get lost in that place if you
don't keep track in your head which turns you make when you get in there. We still had time to spare before our flight to Athens that night, so we decided to walk around Istiklal Street again to pass the time before heading to the airport to catch our 9:50pm flight. I don't remember exactly, but I believe we arrived at our hostel around 1:00am (after a long train ride from the airport into the city) only to find they were so full that night that they had to put one of us in a room with three other people and the other three of us in a room with one other person. Paul volunteered to go by himself so Katie wouldn't have to.
We woke up on Sunday morning and had breakfast at the hostel befor
e we went to go sign up for the walking tour of Athens, but it didn't quite work out as we expected...sure, we were able to go on the walking tour, but since it was election day everything in the city was closed. There were still some shops and restaurants open but all of the main tourist attractions were closed down, except the Acropolis Museum (which we did after lunch). The walking tour in the morning was still good. We were able to see the Temple of Zeus, the original Olympic Stadium and the Acropolis, to name a few. There is a big rock outside of the Acropolis that you can go to the top of and it gives you great views of the city. This is where we watched the sunset before dinner and it was pretty cool. We went to a family-style greek restaurant for dinner where they brought you 10 different dishes to split and it was very good.
Monday morning we took off for the airport to catch a flight to Santorini. I thought we were going to miss our flight because when we got to the airport and went to check-in, they sa
id only my name was on the reservation so they only had a ticket for me. After a 30 minute phone call with Expedia, it turned out they reserved four seats but had only charged me for my tickets so they had to reissue the other three tickets. We ended up getting through security with about 30 minutes to spare so it ended up being fine, but it was definitely a close call.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Santorini. Monday we did a lot of walking around in the town of Thira (where we stayed) and Tuesday we took a trip to the volcano and the natural hot springs, which are on the other side of the volcano. It was really hot hiking to th
e top of the volcano. I can't imagine what it would be like in the middle of summer. The hot springs were freezing. Jumping into the water to swim to the springs was freezing. It was like getting in the shower expecting it to warm up, but instead it stays freezing cold the whole time. You could feel the heat in a few areas but it would never stay around you long enough to stay warm. On Wednesday we rented a car and drove around the entire island. Our final stop on our drive was at the northern most town of Oia where the sunset is supposed to be one of the best in the world, but I think we all were more impressed with the sunset from our own balcony. We caught a ferry that night at 12:45 am to head back to Athens. It was a five hour ride on a high speed ferry and we had a room with four beds so it wasn't as bad as it could've been. The rooms were actually very nice, similar to a cruise ship.
We had about four hours to kill in Athens before we had to go back to the ferry port to catch our next ferry to Chios. Immediately, we went back to the hostel we stayed at to drop off our bags and started walking around to find breakfast. It took a long time to find somewhere with inside seating, as it was still very early and a bit chilly. After breakfast we were able to do the few things we missed on Sunday. We were some of the first people into the Acropolis which was nice because it made for much better pictures. I think all of us agreed that the Acropolis was better from a distance, especially since they are rest
oring the Parthenon and there are cranes all over the place. After the Acropolis we headed to the Temple of Zeus to walk around before heading to one of the main shopping streets to make a stop at H&M. Then it was back to the ferry...Again we had a room with beds for the six hour ride. Katie managed to take a six hour nap and the rest of us had quite a bit of sleep as well.
We arrived in Chios at 6:30 pm on Thursday and immediately walked to our hotel to drop off our bags. Chios was a very nice port city, although we didn't do anything more than eat dinner and walk around before heading back to the hotel. Our ferry was set to leave at 8:30 am Friday morning to head back to Turkey. We took the ferry to the port city of Cesme (Turkey), which you can see from Chios (Greece). From Chios we walked to the bus station and took a bus to Izmir. We then switched buses and finished our ride to Selcuk.
Friday evening was quite the experience. First, we went to the Church of St. John before the sun went down. After that, we all experienced our first Hamam (traditional Turkish Bath). This was a coed Hamam so we were able to go together. Katie was very nervous on the walk there, but in the end she was fine. You start out by laying on a huge marble slab, which is heated, before being called to another marble slab where you are scrubbed down. After that guy is finished with you, you go to another slab where you are massaged (or in Katie's case, really beat up). Things were cracking on my body that I didn't know could crack so easily. It is quite the forceful massage. After that experience was over we headed back to the hotel where they were preparing a
traditional Turkish dinner. The food was incredible.
Saturday started with a trip to the Ephesus Museum. After the museum we walked to the Temple of Artemis (one of the ancient seven wonders of the world) and then continued on to the ancient city of Ephesus, which was about a 3km walk in total from our hotel. Ephesus was my favorite part of the trip. I could talk all day about it but I'll save a lot of time if you read about it yourself. It's incredible how many ruins are still standing 2,000 years later and the history that goes along with them. After walking through Ephesus we took a cab to the top of the mountain right next to the ancient city to visit the house of the Virgin Mary. This is the house where Mary lived after Jesus' death. After all of this, we still had a few hours before we needed to head to the airport in Izmir so we took a bus from Selcuk to a small town named Sirince on the top of a mountain 8km away. They make fruit wine in this town so we were able to try a lot of different kinds before we all bought a bottle or two to take home. There are shops all over in this town so we walked around for an hour and a half before going back to Selcuk to catch our b
us to the airport.
Going to the airport was an experience. The bus drops you off on the side of the highway outside of the airport complex and you have to catch a cab to finish the last leg of the journey. I was the one who ran across the highway to catch a cab to tell them to go back and pick up Katie, Paul, and JJ where they were waiting on the side of the road with our bags. When I got in the cab I told the driver "three friends" in Turkish and pointed back to where they were. He proceeded to drive me to the airport while I keep saying and pointing "three more friends, three more friends" in Turkish, but he continues to drive me to the airport. We got to the security gate outside of the airport and I was finally thinking I would be able to talk to a police officer and they can tell the cab driver my three friends are still on the side of the road. Instead, none of the police officers speak English and they take me up into the police tower where they call the information desk at the airport and the person on the phone translates for me. Finally, they relay back to the driver that my three friends have been left on the side of the road wher
e he picked me up. We go back and sure enough they are all still standing on the side of the highway with our bags, so we grab them and head back to the airport. We flew from Izmir back to Istanbul, which is only about a 40 minute flight, and headed back to the school. The next morning JJ and Paul got in a cab and went back to the airport to head back to KC. Just like that they were out our lives but it was an awesome week. Hopefully they'll want to come back, even though Katie kept saying she wished Kelly was here the whole vacation. I hope others will see how much fun we had from reading this and want to come and visit too!
Next up...Brian and Steph on December 21!
Wednesday I head back to drop my bags off at the hostel again and as I'm walking to catch the bus to the airport I receive a call from Brian telling me their flight has been canceled. I get my back, jump on the subway and head back north to stay with Ben and Courtney again. Thursday is a little better since they are actually set to arrive in the early evening (4:30). The only problem is the flight is delayed an hour or so and our flight to Cappadocia is leaving from the other airport at 7:40. We wouldn't have a chance with Istanbul rush hour so I began calling a couple hours before they were set to arrive to change our flight to the next morning. After two hours of calling with declined credit cards (Ben even let me use his to try) and calling Capital One to find out that there is no problem, Pegasus Airlines finally tells me the international credit card system is down and that's why it isn't working. They give me a travel agents phone number to call so I have a guy I met on the bus call for me and the travel agent says Pegasus has to change the flight. I gave up. No Cappadocia for Christmas.
