TURKEY ADVENTURES DAY 6: SLEEPING, AIZONOI AND IZNIK

I thought waking up at 6am was too early...but today we had to wake up at 5am...to get ready for a 12-hour coach journey to Istanbul. A nearly non-stop 12-hour coach journey...it was not fun, and we didn't do much, we were all too tired to do anything so a lot of us slept for most of the journey. When we did stop, it was either for a toilet break or to see more ruins. 

We went to a little place high up in the mountains called Aizonoi to see the Temple of Zeus there. But everyone had dressed according to the coach journey, and we didn't realise we were going outside so we all only wore comfy clothes such as jogging bottoms and a T-shirt. In the freezing outdoors though, that was definitely not enough and we basically froze to death. I ended up having to share a fleece jacket with my friend, so we had half of it each...it was very awkward trying to climb up the temple steps at the same time! 

Aizonoi was also our toilet stop, which was good because everyone (38 students plus a few teachers) desperately needed to go. When we got there though, we found that it was in a shack and there were only one male and one female toilet. It would have been alright if we were a mixed school, but unfortunately, I go to a girl's school, so all 38 students needed to go to the female toilet, plus 2 female teachers. There were no tissues and the door didn't even have a lock. I ended up using my strawberry scented tissues, so now I have a strawberry scented bottom. And how unfair is this: there are only 3 men in total in our group...so unfair. They could just go and leave, but we had girls waiting there for about 30 minutes in the queue. 

After more long coach journeying, in which I slept a bit (mostly on my friend's shoulder), we arrived at Iznik. There was an old mosque there which had been turned into a museum, then turned back into a mosque in 2011. It was cool, I couldn't take any photos though. After that we went to a pottery/tile/jewellery shop where we got to watch someone take a piece of clay and literally transform it into different pots in under ten seconds. Then we were allowed to explore his shop and buy anything, which was mainly jewellery. They were really pretty and were hand-painted.

Late on, on the ferry we had to take to get across the bay/lake/sea thingy, we all went to the toilet...on the squat toilet. Now it isn't my first time on one of those, but I really didn't want to go through that experience ever again... Sadly, today was the day I squatted above a hole on a ferry, and it wasn't nice :/

And finally here, I will leave you something kinda cute:

'Seni sevi orum' --- 'I love you' in Turkish (I think...) :P

TURKEY ADVENTURES DAY 5: APHRODISIAS AND HIERAPOLIS

Hello people!!! Today I'm really tired, so it's gonna be a really quick post with lots of random pictures. First, we went to Aphrodisias, a little ancient city famous for being one of the best preserved and also for its marble. There was a museum there which we went to briefly which had tons of marble statues of nude men in it, and they're labelled 'man without toga with bare chest'...so much imagination (note the sarcasm).

And then on the coach we learnt French pick-up lines from our Latin teacher...awkward much... And funny at the same time! We also 'stargazed' with the flies which were dotted around on our windows...pretending that they were star constellations and trying to name them...we are weird. 

Next we went to Hierapolis which is the 'sacred city', and frankly, it wasn't as exciting. We did get to see the entrance to the underworld, or the 'Plutonium', which was kinda cool I guess. Well, it was all fun, just some parts were more interesting than others. There are also thermal baths there which look totally amazing, that sounds weird, but it really was amazing. We were allowed to put our feet inside one of the shallow baths and we all linked hands because it's slippery. It was so fun, I loved it so much!!!

At the new hotel we arrived in today, which is a really nice 4-star, we had the most awesome dinner (buffet, like all the other dinners and lunches we've had so far, except for lunch today). We were all so stuffed after the mountain of food we all got, then the massive pudding volcano we ate/wasted-because-it-was-too-sickly. To wash that down, we ate 10 oranges in total. Between the 6 of us. According to my friends who got the oranges, everyone else was giving them REALLY weird looks... XD

This picture is of the clocks in the hotel reception this morning before we were leaving...just think, if that's the time we were leaving (Kusadasi clock), imagine when we had to wake up... Well, I'll tell you, we had to wake up at 6am!!!! Way too early!!!

TURKEY ADVENTURES DAY 4: EPHESUS AND THE BEACH

Hellooooo everybody!!!!! Today has been so fun!!! OMG the best day ever!!!! Today, we first went to Ephesus, an ancient city (now just ruins) which is nicknamed 'The Gateway To Asia'. And it was fun-ish, it was a bit boring because there were just rocks and columns everywhere, but it was still fun. Though it was way too hot and sunny, so I was literally burning...

At lunch, which was at a really nice hotel restaurant and was very very yummy, we also got a chance to buy some touristy stuff. I bought two bracelets and I just absolutely LOVE the neon colours!!

Next, we went to the Temple of Artemis...it's basically just one column. At least, that's what it is now. Before, it would have been an amazingly huge temple with hundreds of columns. And it's one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, which is kinda cool.

But that's not what got me all hyped up - it's the fact that we got to go to the beach!!! It was AWESOME!!! My friends and I built a sphinx out of the sand, which was really cool but the head looked kinda odd. Still, it was quite big and looked cute! At first, we were going to make all the 7 wonders of the ancient world e.g. the great pyramids of Giza. But then we gave up. It was so fun though!

TURKEY ADVENTURES DAY 3: RUINS AND GETTING LOST

Hey guys!!!! I haven't got much time today, I'm in the hotel in my friends' larger room and we're just talking and playing and stuff so I'm kinda being antisocial by sitting here blogging. And anyways today we haven't really done anything interesting, just looked at various ruins which all look the same, and are basically huge slabs of rock scattered around everywhere... Anyways, we're in Kusadasi, and all the places we went to today are all nearby, sooo... Also, we got lost so much, the places we went to were new places for the tour guide and our teachers, so we were literally walking through random places, and having to go all the way around a random lake or something. Anyways, here are some pics of today!!