Izmir!

Two weekends ago I went on my school trip to Izmir with most of my classmates, and a lot of friends from other classes. It was a fun-filled weekend with very little sleep.

On Thursday May 12th, I boarded a bus from my school with 48 other AALers and 5 teachers, for a 16 hour bus ride through the night to Izmir. All week, while I was complaining about how the bus ride was going to be terrible after about 5 hours, my friends told me differently and said that the bus was going to be the best part! I can say that the first 5-7 hours were really fun, but after that we all got tired and had troubles sleeping. I sat with my friend who ended up being a great pillow, and from past experiences this year with busses, I slept pretty well compared to everyone else. We made lots of stops to go to the restroom, no worries there.

on the bus with some of my girls :)

In the morning we got out at a restaurant to have breakfast and then continued on to Izmir. We toured the city on the bus and took pictures out the windows. We stopped and had free time to go shopping a little and eat lunch. I know that most of you will be surprised, as I was, to hear that I ate at KFC for lunch. As there is no KFC in Samsun, my classmates wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity, and while I refuse to eat American fast food while in Turkey, I made an exception to stay with my friends.

in Izmir

KFC lunch :P

After lunch we got back on the bus and rode about an hour and a half to Kuşadası, a touristy town where we would be staying. We got some time to rest, take showers and relax before we walked to a castle down town. Dinner at the hotel followed and then free time around town. During free time of the trip I spent time mostly with 7 of my girl friends as we all liked to go shopping and walk around. Therefore that evening was spent with my girls walking around and singing karaoke. If you ask almost any student that went on the trip, the best part was back at the hotel after check-in when we hung out in the rooms with our friends. The teachers made no restrictions so girls and guys hung out in the same room until they went to bed.

walking around :)

The next morning we went to the House of Virgin Mary. We walked through, lit candles and prayed, drank holy water, and made wishes with paper :).

most of the group :)

After that we went to Efes (Ephesus) which was amazing! It is an area of old ruins. The only bad part was that it was really hot and I got a little sunburnt :/.

a library

my classmates who went on the trip... 11E <3 

After a great buffet lunch we went to Saint John’s Aniti and an old mosque. Then we drove back to Kuşadası, the town where our hotel was, and went on a boat ride around the Aegean Sea.

We went back to our hotel to have dinner and rest. Then we went our to tour the town again, sang more karaoke, and visited starbucks! After checking in that night I watched Eurovision with a large group of my friends.

The next morning, after checking out of the hotel and driving about an hour, we had almost 4 hours of shopping time at a very large shopping center. I got some new clothes and took advantage of the sales :). Around 3:30 we got back on the bus and started our drive to Samsun. That night I actually slept a good amount compared to a lot of other people. I got off the bus at 5:30am, walked home, fell asleep in the clothes I was wearing, and slept until TÖMER.

It was a fantastic weekend, and I had a blast spending time with my friends. It turns out that the 16 hour bus ride wasn’t as bad as I expected. I slept more than anyone else on the trip. How fortunate for me! I had never been on a school trip before and this was a great first one!