Hello to everyone and sorry for the delay in posting, the last post about the wedding took a long time because I needed help from my friends here to get all the traditions right. I promise it wont happen again! I promise!
Life here is getting better every day, probably because the weather is getting warmer which means summer is almost here! As many of you know, I am on a tourist visa here which allows me to stay for the stay of 90 days at a time. What does this mean? it means that I have to leave the country every 90 days and come back. I consider this to be a treat! I love turkey, but I also love traveling, and what better way to get away from it all for a day than to take a day trip to Greece! You would think that this might be a difficult thing to have to do every 90 days, but in fact, its quite nice! Staring out in Izmir, you hop on a bus from the station going to a city called Cesme. It is a very lovely coastal city of Turkey, where many Turks and Europeans come to spend a wonderful vacation, so i hear. From there, you walk a minute to the port and hop on one of the many many ferries that go across to Chios.
Castle in Cesme
The ferry cost approx. 40 euros round trip, which is not too bad. From the Turkish coast you can see very clearly and easily Chios. It looks like it is only five minutes away, but in fact it takes around one hour. When you get there you have to go through customs to get your passport stamped and all that, then you get to head out into the city. This was my second time in Chios, the first time was when my brother, Jonathan, and I took a ferry from Bari, Italy (where we were visiting Federica! one of my friends from Study abroad in Poland) to Chios, then Chios to Turkey, for our first visit to Turkey. Unfortunately when Jonathan and I went there it was super early in the morning and all we wanted to do was sleep. We only had an hour or two before we had to leave anyways. This time, I got to see more of the island than just some pizza place and the bus stop. 
I started out by going and getting a map to figure out where the stuff I wanted to see was. They told me a few places and how much the taxi would cost to each of them and I headed out. I started out in an area that was some sort of castle/fort from a while back, now its mostly the wall around it and houses are built inside, so it was an interesting place. Many small streets and old houses. From there I headed to the center where there was a big park and a shopping street. I was looking to find me some tasty Greek food! I walked around for a bit but there actually were not too many places to eat, or maybe I just didn't know where to look. I went in one that was right near the park that looked a bit like a fast food style gyros place. I went in and ordered a gyros, not sure what I would be getting. I sat down and started eating and it was AMAZING!!! It was a thick pita bread with lots of veggies, chicken, and a white cucumber yogurt sauce inside. Looking back on it i wish I had eaten 20 of them instead of just one. 
I had a few options of how to spend my day. I could visit an old village called Kambos, go to a Monastery (Nea Moni), or just hang out and eat and drink by the sea. I decided I would go visit Kambos. It was relatively close to the center of the city compared to the Monastery, and it sounded like it would have some interesting houses and such. I hopped into a taxi, a Mercedes Benz (yeah, that island is super rich) and headed off to Kambos. We got there and i was pretty much just in a very narrow street with old stone walls on each side. My driver said, go down this road and you can take pretty much any right to get to the main road to get a taxi from there. I should emphasize here that I was really in the middle of nowhere, or so I felt. I wondered, should I have really come here? Everywhere around me was small streets and fields. I decided to start walking, being that there was no one, no cars, or any other life in sight. I started down the street he pointed me in and soon realized why it is one of the top tourist attractions on the island. The houses were all very large stone houses, varying through 6 different architectural periods. Each house had a large citrus orchard where they grew and sold citrus fruit. The houses were all beautiful as were the gardens. Some were relatively simple, some were very decorated, quite tastefully of course. As I walked through the narrow streets I would stop to admire each house, and its garden/orchard. This old village fills the valley between two mountain ranges, creating a very open and beautiful surrounding. It is difficult to understand the size of the area because it is very flat, maybe if you climbed one of the mountains you would get a good view of it, maybe next time. 
After a bit more walking around and checking out the cool houses, I started back towards the center of the city. It was about 5 Kilometers but i though, what the heck, I have time, I will walk. I did not know exactly how to get there so I figured I would just walk towards the sea and then towards the port. I managed to go the correct direction, but a very long way of getting there. After two hours I was about half way there because of my extra long route, so I decided to snag a taxi for the rest of the way. From there we only drove about ten minutes and I was back by the sea. At this point I had two more things on my agenda, buy pork products! and drink a beer (a beer i cant get in turkey) by the sea. I went to the grocery store i had found earlier that day and loaded up with three thick packs of bacon to turn into breakfast and to put on my cheese burgers! I packed up my bag and headed down to the water to grab me a seat by the window at one of the bars. I found a nice place with Amstel and had me a sit. Funny thing; they were showing a Wake Forrest basketball game (for those of you who don't know that's a team in North Carolina where I am from!). From there I hoped to get some more tasty Greek food, but I had to get back to the ferry. I headed back through the customs, bought me some duty free Baileys (Turkey imposes a huge tax on alcohol) and got back to my home. I am happy to take a day trip anytime!!! On my way back I knew I would be anxiously awaiting the next trip! Sorry for the extreme delay on this.... this is back three months. I am leaving in two days for that next trip!
Last section, the big news folks, I WILL BE HERE FOR ONE MORE YEAR MINIMUM!!!! learn more next time.
All of the pictures after the gyros picture are from the small town I walked around in. Houses, streets, and the wheels, which I am not sure what they were used for.
