Izmir

December 30: It's about 10:00 PM and I'm writing what will be the final posting for this blog. It's about my experience in Izmir and Selcuk.

December 25th: We left pretty early this morning to catch a Ulusoy bus taking us west to Izmir. The trip went fairly quickly, and and the buses are very comfortable. I rode in a lounge-like chair and I slept all the way there. When we got there, we rented a car from a local company and drove down to Selcuk. We heard about Selcuk for it's camel-wrestling, but we didn't expect there to be any the day that we went. It's not supposed to happen until mid-January, but they must get started early because that was practically all that we heard about in Selcuk that day. We chatted with a few friendly locals, and they said that there are many other festivals similar to this one year-round, and it's a pity that we wouldn't get to stay for longer. For example, there is the oiled wrestling festival in early June in Sarayici (near Edirne), and there is the Watermelon Festival in September in Diyarbakir. Somehow, I'm not so sad that I missed the oiled wrestling festival. We drove back to our hotel in Izmir at the end of the day and got a good night's sleep.

December 26th-28th: We spent these last two days relaxing in the pleasant atmosphere of Izmir. We had a conversation with a hotel staff member in his twenties, and he said that he still lived with his parents, which surprised Allison and I. He said that men often live with their parents until they are financially independent. Apparently, the parents also buy their son a house as inheritance when this happens.

December 29th: The trip back was fairly easy. I was so tired from the trip, that I slept the entire way!


Overall, this was a fantastic trip. I learned a lot about Turkey's culture and my wife and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. The temperature was great over the trip. It rarely became above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The accommodations were great. We stayed in the Presidential suite in Istanbul, and we stayed in suites in Ankara and Izmir. I'm glad that our expenses were all paid for. The total cost for travel and living space was 14,969 American dollars, and that broke up into:

Transportation: $9,000 for plane from Austin to Istanbul (first class)
$430 for plane from Istanbul to Ankara
$20 for bus from Ankara to Izmir
$1,870 for plane from Izmir to Austin
TOTAL: $11,340
Living Accommodations: $1,265 for Best Western the President Hotel
$980 for Best Western 2000 Ornek Hotel
$1,384 for Hilton Izmir
TOTAL: $3,629

Thanks for reading the blog!
Jack Van Norman