Turkey

On April 8th we left for Turkey. When we arrived in Istanbul we took another plane to Izmir. After a long ride to our hotel we got settled in and then we visited the ruins of the church of St. John (Not the one that visited Malta.) It was really big.

Then we went to a small town nearby. The owner in one of the shops was really nice, mostly because she knew one of our guides and students from this program had visited her shop before. She gave us discounts on everything! Annika bought a very pretty lantern and I bought a journal which was surprisingly more expensive than Annika's lantern. She also gave each of us a really pretty pouch, and since Annika is collecting coins, one Lyra for free! Mostly because, like most people over here, the lady who owns the store is really fond of Annika. She was Queen in Egypt and now her nickname is princess. Next thing you know she'll be sitting on a throne! And no, I'm not jealous.

We also tried Turkish tea which is actually really good.

The next day we went to see the last standing pillar of the temple of Artemis.

Then we saw the Ephesus museum. Then we went back to the store that we went to the day before. We bought some bracelets for our friends and then we had lunch. We found out that Turkish pizza is really good.

Then we visited some Greek and roman ruins including two theaters and a library. They were really neat.

Then we visited another town which was on the top of one of the mountain/hills (The drive was not fun).We didn't stay long though because we had to fly back to Istanbul.

It was very late when we got there so after the long drive to the hotel we went straight to bed.

On April 10th we went to the spice market. It was really cool! We also found out that we like Turkish delight!

After looking around for a bit we went to the Grand Bazaar. Wow it was huge! Not only that, but it was a maze down there. There were shops everywhere. We spent forever down there. I bought a beautiful (Not to mention expensive) traditional Turkish dress and Annika bought a whole bunch of stuff with the evil eye on it.

The next day we went to the Blue Mosque. My it was grand. We also visited the Aya Sofia. It was cool, but not nearly as grand as the Blue Mosque.

For our last event we visited the Tokapi palace. It wasn't really what most people would envision as a palace, but I still liked it. We saw where the Sultan slept and his mother's quarters. We saw much of the treasury too.

On April 12 we returned to Malta.