Life Is All About Adventure: Ismir Turkey June 12th

Well we are in another part of Turkey. Once again the boat docked in a shipping yard full of containers. We had to ride a bus out of the pier but once we were dropped off at the entrance to the docks we were on our way. It was another day that we decided just to wander the city. There were protests taking place here as well but we were warned of the areas to steer clear of and that was all we needed to know. We walked along the shore line and found an amazing park but by the time we arrived at it LL was already asleep so we skipped it. We walked down a pedestrian street. found a cafe with Free WiFi and checked in with the family and rest of the world. It has been nice being away from things for 12 days so far! We then continued on our walk. We found the Love Street. The street is lined with Palm Trees, a small souk, and in the pavement are stars. Similar to the Hollywood stars, these have Turkish actor and actress names on them. We continued past the Love Street and found the Bazaar. Yep more shopping!!! I should mention that while we were at the cafe we looked up the exchange rate and we very happy with all the deals from the day before and more prepared to deal today. The souk here is much smaller than the one in Istanbul but it was nice to walk in and did have some similar items. We found the one thing I just loved and had to have. A giant copper dish. S had his doubts about it fitting in the suitcase and I was certain it would (yeah...I was wrong...but too late we already bought it and were on board. It's mine now! Haha) We tried to haggle with the guys but they were pretty firm on their price. We didn't have enough Turkish Lira so we had to leave. We walked a bit then remembered we still had some US cash and some Euro. S went back to barter again. They were still firm but they were willing to take the US and Euro so I got the dish. S carried it the rest of the day because it was too big to even fit in the stroller. We then decided to find the Clock tower which is the thing to see. We followed the signs through the city and found it. It was less than impressive. We have seen larger and more inspiring ones on college campuses and definitely after being in Italy. We took our pictures proving we were there and near the small mosque. Then decided to walk along the shoreline again and grab some lunch. We walked. then the Sky started to turn black and the waves began crashing against the shore. we quickened our pace. We made it back to the pedestrian street and had Arby's for lunch!!! Yes. I know what you are thinking. Arby's really? Yep!! We do not have it in Jordan. We missed it and we can get all the shwarma and kebabs you want at home so why eat it on vacation! It was delicious. Even if it wasn't exactly the same. We didn't have one but they sold Kiwi sundays. Do they do this at Arby's in the US? We are so out of touch. lol While we were eating the lunch we could hear the thunder start rolling. We weren't sure how long the storm would last but spending it holed up in Arby's was not what we wanted to do. Besides the boat was only in port for a few more hours so we decided to race the storm to the boat. It rained on us a little bit. Not much. We made it most of the way back when we ran into a guy selling Fez's (I don't know if I spelled that right) S had wanted one in Istanbul but never got it so we decided to get it from him. We made our purchase and hurried back to the boat. We made it just in time. Not long after we returned to our room. The skies opened and it poured. The lightening was great. Due to the storm we took LL to the guppy room and she had plenty of fun playing with all the toys and enjoying other kids. It was a great day in a great place. The one thing that surprised us most about Izmir was that it did not feel Arab/ Turkish at all. It was very very western. There were sidewalks, people obeyed traffic laws, women were dressed however they liked, people were PDAing and no one gave them a second glance. It was a really nice place. I would go back if we were to go to Turkey again.