Weeks 5 & 6: 4am Wake Up Calls

8. Drink Turkish coffee

22. See the Valens Aqueduct

42. Ruins of Ephesus (including the Library of Celsus)

62. Temple of Artemis

68. Izmir Clock Tower

69. Taksim Square

The past two weeks had been pretty uneventful until this weekend. Last weekend, we took a trip to Taksim Square which ended up being more of a shopping trip than anything else (can't say I'm complaining).

Last Friday, we finally had the infamous residence permit appointments. Thankfully, everything went very smoothly and I'm officially a temporary resident of Turkey! We took the rest of the day to explore the Galata, Şişhane, Taksim, and Şişli areas. We even drove through the Valens Aqueduct which was very cool. 

On Saturday, we woke up at a ridiculous hour to catch our 4am taxi to the Sabiha Gökçen airport for our flight to Izmir. After a Turkisg breakfast with the rest of our group by the seaside, we hopped on a train to the town of Selcuk. From the train station we walked to the Temple of Artemis--one of the last standing Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Though there wasn't exactly much left standing. 

We continued onto Ephesus (Efes)--an ancient Greek city built in the 10th century B.C. The city includes the famed Library of Celsus and Basilica of St. John. It was all pretty incredible, including the view from the top of the amphitheater. We lucked out on the weather and it was absolutely beautiful and sunny all day. 

We got back to the train station and made it onto the 6pm back to Izmir. On our way back to the hostel from Basmane Square, we stopped for dinner and dessert. We made it back to the hostel around 10pm and pretty much passed out after our 19 hour day. 

We had an amazing night's sleep and woke up without alarms to the dreary late morning weather--drizzling and grey skies. We had breakfast and walked around until we made it to Konak Pier and Konak Square--where the Izmir Clock Tower is. We spent some time getting lost in the maze of the merkezi and then made it to the Archelogy Museum and also the Ethnography Museum. Today, I also tried Turkish coffee for the first time. It is definitely a very strong and distinct taste, and adding sugar to it makes it very literally bittersweet.

We then tried to rent bikes to ride along the pier, but there weren't enough. Instead we went to %100 (located on the very end of Konak Pier) for a fancy dinner that did not disappoint. Walking along the Gulf of Izmir (part of the Aegean Sea) as the sun set was the perfect and most tranquil end to the day and the whirlwind of the weekend. Monday morning brought another 4am wake up call to take a taxi, plane, shuttle, and bus back to campus to make it to class in time.