I had done a bit of research on what there is to see, it is not ladened with tourist sites but there were a few that I wanted to hit. We stopped at the Agora, an excavated area that had some ruins that were in various states of uncovering. It was a cold morning, we hailed a taxi and piled in. He wove through the streets of Izmir like a man who just robbed a bank and was on the lamb. He pulled off to the side of the road and he waved to us to go across the street. We exited his vehicle and crossed the street and wandered down a road to a fenced off area. The Agora sat in front of us...very underwhelming. We peered through the fence, took a couple of pictures, realized how cold we were and decided it was time to move on to the bazaar, to warm our cockles by doing some shopping.
We walked 20 minutes to the bazaar and immediately realized that this could entertain us for a few hours. We had a great time wandering, browsing and just taking in everything. We found several items that we liked and most of them were extremely inexpensive. McKay found soccer jerseys for about 5 Euro apiece. We found scarves that were dirt cheap. I bought some nice leather shoes for Sunday and trainers to wear during my travels. The kids found all sorts of clothes. Sharma even purchased a small nightstand. When we were in Istanbul they had really good cherry tea, so when I saw several guys carrying around trays with tea I thought I had found heaven once again. I asked one of the runners how much they were, he told me and indicated to follow him...which we did. He poured us five small glasses of tea...except it wasn't cherry. It looked red...cherry red, but it didn't have the same taste, in fact it didn't taste very good. We tried to drink as much as we could so we didn't appear rude and not appreciative. I drank most of mine and then realized that the kids had not hardly touched theirs. I went into 'dad' mode and decided it was time to take one for the team. I drank out of each of their cups to the point that they were almost gone. I know the glasses appeared small but when you don't like the fluid contained therein, the glasses suddenly seem like 64oz. Big Gulps. I choked it down and decided it was time to move on. We came upon a mosque in the middle of the bazaar, actually there a few but this seemed to be a little larger than the others. We peaked inside but did not go in, even though I was beckoned to come in by a guy coming out of the mosque. On our way out of the Bazaar we stopped at a pizza shop and enjoyed a quick sit down meal.
We walked to the Izmir clock tower. This is probably the most famous tourist spot in Izmir. It is located in Konak square, a large cemented area near the sea. In the middle is a tall structure with four fountains, completed in 1901. We took several pictures in and around this area. After walking over to look at the sea we caught a taxi back to the ship. We were ladened down with many bags of trinkets, clothes and furniture, I think we broke a record of how much we transported back to the ship on this trip. Now my concern is getting it packed away and off of the ship.
That evening we had dinner on the ship and since it was our traditional Thanksgiving, we were all in the mood for turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie. The turkey that was served and every other dish that was supposed to replicate a Thanksgiving meal were terrible at worst...especially the pumpkin pie...inedible. At least they tried, but this instance it would have been better that they didn't.
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