Turkey without Thanksgiving

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Well, we have all been on field trips sometime or another in our years of schooling. I remember riding yellow school buses to various locations growing up including: a cactus farm and a dairy processing plant, however, that was elementary school, now field trips have entered into a whole new league. Recalling my latest field trip, rather than riding the school bus for 20 minutes to an educational location, my classmates and I first boarded a charter bus at three in the morning with a four hour drive to Rome on the agenda. From Rome, we boarded an airplane for a three hour ride to Istanbul, Turkey. After seven hours of traveling (not including wait time) you'd think that we would be at our final destination, nope. Another plane was to be boarded and my class was off to Izmir, Turkey. Once we were in Izmir, another charter bus was waiting to take us to our hotel and finally at 9:00 in the evening we reached our launching point for our field trip. So now you can see, as a college student, I'm not playing around with cacti or bottles of milk anymore, I'm in Turkey.
Izmir was a city with an unexpected vibe to it. You see, when I think Turkey, I think tents and desert for some reason. However, Izmir was kind of like a San Diego type city. It was on the water and had a decent sized marina that jutted out from the bay. The boardwalk was lined with different bars and hookah places and as I walked the city at night, I could hear the sound of techno house music coming from some local discos. My original thoughts of Turkey were a bit off.
The first item of business that my classmates and I worked with on our first day of touring Turkey was the Temple of Artemis. For those of you who are unaware, the Temple of Artemis is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. "Whewee, this is going to be great!" I thought to myself as our bus pulled up to the dirt parking lot of the site. Everyone immediately piled out of the bus to see this elaborate "wonder" and we were all stopped in our tracks because there, right in front of us, as a large, tall, white pillar. A single pillar. I needed to figure this out. I walked around the pillar to see if the temple was hiding but no, it wasn't. You see, about sixteen hundred years ago or something the actual temple was burned down due to a case of arson and now, all that's left standing is a pillar. I may have been disappointed for a short time but then I found a herd of sheep grazing in a field right by the pillar and I spent a good deal of time chasing them trying to catch the little ones - travel rule #1: always bring rope. I suppose it was a good experience to see where the temple would have been and imagining what it would have looked like. I probably wouldn't go back to that location but nevertheless, it was a good experience.
Next in our day of exploring, we went to the biblical city of Ephesus. Now, this was a treat. We got to see the old theaters, libraries and brothels that the Ephesians once used. We got to walk on the same streets (and even use the same toilets - ancient toilets) as they did. It was pretty neat to go to this city and then open my Bible and read about it and have the visual pictures of the various locations in mind.
From Ephesus we went to an authentic Turkish lunch which consisted of Campbell's Cream of Tomato soup and some pieces of meat on toothpicks (shishkebabs). I don't think it was really Campbell's but it sure did taste like it.
After lunch we went to a museum. I can't explain much about the museum except that it had ancient artifacts in it. I apologize for my lack of elaboration.
Now, it was back to the airport of Izmir for a return flight to Istanbul. Our first official day of touring was almost through.
Once we got into Istanbul charter buses were waiting to take us to our hotel. As soon as I got on the bus I realized I'd forgotten my journal on the plane. "Shoot!" I said, incredibly frustrated at the my loss of all my written memories from the year. It didn't take much to tell that I was in a bad mood and all I wanted to do was get to the hotel. However, the bus driver had different plans. He wanted to show us the blue mosque which was on the way to the our hotel. Come on! It's 9:00 at night and we have been traveling all day let's just keep on goin, nope. I got off the bus and kept my head down and my arms crossed, in retrospect, I probably looked like a pouty six year old. Now is where the icing on the cake takes place. Apparently pouty looking six year olds are the perfect target for street vendors and sure enough a short little turkish man with a handful of hats came over to me and tried to give me his sales pitch. "I don't want a dang hat" I said still looking at the ground.
"Come on, it is a real turkish hat." The vendor said in his broken english.
"I don't want it."
"You can wear it for parties" He persisted.
"I don't go to parties."
"It is only fifteen Euro."
Now I was even more frustrated. "Why would I spend fifteen Euro on a little, dinky, purple hat that you only wear to parties when I don't even go to parties and purple isn't even my color!"
He pulled out a red hat.
"I don't want the hat."
"Ok, how much do you have" was the vendor's response to my rant.
I clinched my eyes tight and then looked at him rubbing the side of my head really just wanting to pick him up and throw him into oncoming traffic. "I have two Euro and sixty cents and a bag of tea (I had stolen that from the hotel in the morning)." I reluctantly stated.
"Give me five."
" I DON'T WANT THE STUPID HAT."
I just wanted to stand alone and sulk about my lost journal. This vendor could didn't understand so I turned and head for the bus. He stopped me as I was getting on. After ten minutes of yelling at this dumb excuse for a salesman, two Euro and some change, and a bag of tea, I was the not-so-proud, new owner of a purple Turkish party hat.

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More to come on this trip