Pergamon

While we were in Izmir we also went to another ancient city. This one was called Pergamon, it was not as big or fancy as Ephesus but it was still awesome. We got on a bus early in the morning. It was a small bus and all that me and Seamus could do was look at our book. Then we got off at a small, poor part of town. I was not feeling so great about it at first, but when we got in a taxi and started heading up the mountain, it was better. 

One of my favorite parts of this day trip was that the city was built on the mountain. The moment we got to the top, we saw the gondola and instantly regretted taking the taxi to the top. The inside of the city was awesome, it was full of old pillars and towers and crumbled buildings. We walked around a bit and saw old broken down houses built of quartz. 

On the way in we saw a huge stadium. It was bigger than any big stadiums I had seen yet. It was also very steep, it was almost vertical. We had to go to it. We started making our way to the path, not even realizing the short cut tunnel. The moment we got in, I started climbing to the top. By the time I got to the top, I was sweating. Seamus was not far behind me. Then I wanted to go down. I started heading down the incredibly steep stadium, I had to be really careful. 

I took a very boring panorama of the stadium, it turned out to be completely flat. Then I looked down at the rest of the city. I realized that the little poor part of town that we got off the bus at must have been very different from the rest of the city down below. Eventually we started heading out of the stadium and back to the entrance/exit. This time, we wouldn't make the taxi mistake, we were taking the gondola. Our family managed to get our own little cable car. It was kind of scary but also really fun. It was pretty fast, and it got us where we needed to go. We didn't see anything very interesting while we were going down. From there we walked to the bus stop and got our bus home, we didn't realize our bus had wifi till the very end of the ride. I think we had a great time in Pergamon and I hope to see more ancient cities this trip.

Ephesus

Throughout the week we spent in Izmir we had more exciting day trips filled with stuff like, big elevators, 

huge stadiums,

ancient libraries, 

and more. Personally I think the best one was Ephesus. Ephesus was an ancient roman/Greek city. It is one of the main tourist attractions of Turkey. One of my favorite parts of Ephesus was the stray cats, their favorite resting spots were the top of the columns. They would just lay down there and rest. In total we saw three cats on columns. My second favorite part of Ephesus was that you could climb all over the ruins. Believe me, if stuff this old was in America it would be against the law to climb on ruins. 

I also liked the theater, Ephesus has a very big theater. No, I am not talking about a movie theater, I'm talking about a semi circle play/music theater they used to have in 200 AD. We could walk around on it and go through the tunnels next to it, but there was a lot of it that was restricted. I guess there was land slide danger or something. 

We also saw a big ancient library, it was kind of falling apart. It still had two floors visible rom the front and it almost had an inside. It is also one of the major major tourist attractions. We started gradually getting back to the taxi. Over all I think that Ephesus was really cool and really fun and I had a great time there.

Catching Up

I am really really sorry, I have not written a blog post ages. I have had a lot going on and not enough time. To start of I'll talk about a mountain trip we went on. Behind Alanya there is a mountain range called the Taurus mountains. We took a trip into the mountains one day. The mountains are full of trees and animals.  Once, Seamus encountered a snake. While we were there, we took a few hikes through the old town and up the mountains.

We stayed near a town called Akseki.  It was about a 30 minute drive from our hotel, which by the way was really nice. Akseki was the only place we could get food. We did find a really good restaurant eventually, but it took quite a bit of walking. The mountains had large stretches of rock, some of the rock had strange imprints in it, like somebody rubbed their fingers on the rock so much that in made little dents.  In the mountains we found quite a few small spots to rest and have snacks. Over all I think that our mountain trip was great, I wish I could say more but I have a lot to talk about.

About a week after I got back I we went on another trip, nothing exciting happened in between these two trips. This time, we were going to the third biggest city in Turkey. We already have done many great things in Izmir but I'll just talk about one of my stories. Personally my favorite part was walking down the boardwalk on the first day. The moment we got on to the boardwalk we found a big messed up boat frame.  It was obviously made for kids to climb on, and we did. We climbed up to the top and all over the side. 

We had a great time until eventually we got tired of it and decided to keep heading down the boardwalk. We saw some boats and a lot of seagulls. Eventually we stopped at the strangest pier I have ever seen. It was hardly even a pier; it was more of a mall. Inside there were shops and cafés. We stopped at one and had a drink with Grams while we waited for our dad to come.

We also got a book at one of the shops. On our way back we went on a crazy overhead walkway to get across a street. There are many more adventures in Izmir that I have had but I'll save those for later blog posts. I think I'm finally catching up on my blog now :)

Pirate Boat

A few days ago I went on a pirate boat. That may sound completely silly and fake, and it's true, I did not go on a real pirate boat. I went on a pirate-themed boat that went around the peninsula jutting out of Alanya. In the summer/tourist season there were more party boats. We woke up and had breakfast, our mom got to sleep in because she wasn't coming. We headed out to the harbor where all the boats were docked.

There were so many boats, they took up the whole harbor, and the harbor is huge. We searched around for one that looked nice and whose staff didn't yell out at us trying to make business. After we finally found one we waited on it for at least 45 minutes, but it was worth it. Our first swimming stop was about ten minutes after we started.

 I think it was the best stop, we went down to the lower level of the boat and jumped in the water. It wasn't cold though it wasn't warm. We swam around a little then we asked if we could jump off the boarding ramp/gangplank. They said no but told us that we could jump off the side of the boat. Of course we did, it was really fun.

 When the horn sounded it was time to get back on the boat. We continued around the promontory and saw some really amazing cliffs, castle, and climbers. The cliffs were like giant rock walls going as high as a building. The castles were ancient structures on the edge of the cliff with churches and battlements.

Finaly, the climber: in one of the cliffs was a cave that people dive into the water from. It was about 40 feet above sea level. The climber was not going to dive from the cave, he was going to climb up the side of the cliff. Once he was about 45 feet high on the cliff, he dove. Unfortunately he did not do a quadruple flip, he just did a normal dive. It was still amazing.

We kept on moving towards the next swimming stop. We did the same thing as we did the first time except we didn't stay in the water as long. After it we had ice cream. Out next stop was lunch, and that is where we got off. Our lunch was pretty normal, french fries, spaghetti and chicken wings. After that we got off and went to the beach, I won't talk much about that though. Anyway, that was our first pirate boat experience in Turkey.