Turkey - From Istanbul to Izmir/Cesme/Ephesus

Istanbul

So I am going to try and do Turkey in one go; that way I will start to get a little caught up on my blog posts (my bad).

After leader I flew into Istanbul. I had never been to a Muslim country and, just as Russia was a new experience, Muslim countries are another world entirely. Everything from the sunrise prayer call to the [a little off topic but just as I was writing this sentence a guy I met in Athens who is serving in Afghanistan with the Canadian reserves just walked by my table out of the blue...small world] in-your-face style of street vending was a new experience. I met up with Jimmy (the one who I went to Russia with initially) and several other LEADER project instructors in Istanbul and most of us were staying at the same hostel. In fact, almost all of us were staying in the 30 person cave that the hostel calls a room.

We were staying right by the Blue Mosque and seeing this massive building lit up at night was incredible. All the pillars were lit up and seagulls were constantly circling the structure even into the wee hours of the morning. Other sights of note in Istanbul include Asia (this is one of the points where you can cross a bridge from Europe into Asia), the Grand Bazaar, and the Spice Bazaar.

Of particular interest to me was the Spice Bazaar. This market was incredible. There were all kinds of spices piled up high and many other raw ingredient's and fresh tea's. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the market yet because I still have to collect them from one of my friends. Stay tuned for them though.

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Cesme

Syed and I decided that we had exhausted all that Istanbul had to offer and we flew down to Izmir where we hopped onto a mini-bus for the hour long ride to the beach town of Cesme. Unfortunately I haven't gotten many photo's from Syed (my camera has been lost at this point since Moscow...did I forget to mention that?) but they are on the way. Anyways...the beach was amazing. Just out from this sandy paradise was a rocky outcropping which had naturally heated hot springs flowing into it. We sat among the rocks with local fisherman for a solid 45 minutes just enjoying the hot-tub like water.

After enjoying the beach for a day we decided to ditch the sun a little bit and absorb some culture instead. We headed to an old city called Ephesus.

Ephesus

This old city was Greek in origin (I believe) but has been controlled by Greece (obviously), Rome, Persia, and even fell under the rule of Cleopatra and Egypt at one point. There are many influences in the city but the highlights were definitely an old library and the wealthy's houses which were located on the hillside

Ancient homes at the Ephesus

Ephesus city library

Thankfully I was able to get to a decent electronics store in Izmir and these last two photos are the first couple I took with my new camera (a Samsung).