Turkey and Troy

Our last day in Thessaloniki we traveled to Phillippe, a town established by Phillip the 2nd the same year that his son, Alexander the Great was born. It was still under escavations but the part we saw still had the arches and things preserved which was pretty cool. After Phillippe we went to a museum in Amphipolis, but it started to storm so we cut the day short and headed back to Thessaloniki for one more night. After the rain stopped we walked to to old Roman Agora and saw the bzantine church of St. Demitris. After going to a famous bakery in Thessaloniki (this town was just filled with good food) we went to bed to get ready for the 6 am wake up call the next day.

Sunday was the longest day of my life. At 6:30 am, we got on the bus and headed toward Turkey, a 5 hour drive. Since it was sunday, absolutly nothing was open so we had to wait until 10:30 to use the restroom, not a very good thing when we are alway reminded to drink lots of water because of the heat. After stopping in Alexandropoli for about 15 minutes to stretch and find a bathroom, we drove the hour to the Greece/Turkey border. After waiting and then clearing out of Greecian customs, then getting our travel visas and clearing Turkey customs, it was 12:30 by the time we entered into Turkey.

After switching buses twice and driving for a really long time, we finally came to the coast where European Turkey ends and you can see across the straight to Asian Turkey. We drove on to a ferry that took us across the straight, and a half an hour later we were in Asia minor, in Turkey and in the middle of nowhere. Then we drove even more and came to the town by the Biga river, ancient times names Granicus. It was 4:00 pm. We finally ate lunch which was free (all the meals in turkey are free) and then had a brief lecture about the battle of granicus and its importance for Alexander. Then we drove another 3 hours to our hotel in Canakkle. So after traveling 12 1/2 hours we finally rested at a super great hotel with a pool, restaurant, and really nice rooms. We had a good dinner, and had a walk around the harbor our hotel was on, stopping to take pictures with the wooden horse from the movie Troy.

Today we went to Troy..and I will blog about that probably tomorrow...when I have more time. Right now its time for dinner in a different city, and then maybe some pool time before starting early again tomorrow. love you guys