Saturday & Sunday

This weekend was 'catch up' weekend.  Catch up on a little bit of CSC work, catch up on a little bit of IBM work, catch up on souvenir shopping, catch up on local Izmir sight seeing, and of course, catch up on sleep!

On Saturday, half of the group (not including me) attempted to go to Pamukkale but their car broke down on the highway.  I'm sure that will be a good story whenever someone gets around to blogging it :-)  Must have been a sign that we needed more work time!

I slept in and lounged about the room until about 11am when I ventured out to find a coffee shop.  Being too lazy to walk all the way to Starbucks I tried the local coffee shop at the Swissotel and found that they make a lovely hot chocolate.  Then back to the hotel to work on some of our CSC deliverables for a few hours.

By 2pm we (me, Frank, Subra, Zoran) decided to call it a day and went out sight seeing and shopping.  First stop was the Smyrna Agora.  It's an ancient market place (agora) that is being restored but has a long way to do.  We didn't pay the 5 TL to get in but did take a few pictures from the perimeter.

 
A side note: In the evening we were telling others about our adventure to the Agora and shopping in the bazaar and Subra jokingly said "So does agoraphobia mean fear of shopping?" (It's the fear of being in public.) So of course we had to look it up.  And the word agoraphobia does literally translate to 'fear of the marketplace'!

Next stop was the bazaar where Subra and Zoran needed to do some last minute souvenir shopping.  I had been to the west side of the bazaar before but this time we entered from the east and stumbled upon the food courts where we stopped for a beer.  Most of the streets in the bazaar are narrow and twisty so there is no motorized traffic allowed.  The shops hang tarps and other coverings between the buildings so most of the streets are covered and it feels a bit like you are indoors but with dappled sunlight and pleasant breezes blowing through.  After sitting and people watching for a while, we found the 'old' bazaar ... a bazaar within a bazaar.  This was a square brick building with vaulted ceilings and an open courtyard.  It was much like the bazaar in Istanbul but smaller.  Inside was souvenir paradise with jewelry, pottery, scarves, evil eyes, rugs, bags, and more.

The old bazaar with a mosque behind

Today has been another mix of work and laziness.  I slept until almost 11am and then ordered room service for lunch.  (P.S.  I haven't slept in like that since before Elly was born.  Elly is a great sleeper and has been known to sleep until 9am on some weekends but getting to stay in bed until 11 was wonderful!)  Then I headed downstairs to work with the team on consolidating our presentation for Monday.  Most of the team is now out exploring and shopping again but I've decided to stay here and catch up on my blogging.  I probably should go get a bit of IBM work done as well.  And we've got a team meeting in a few hours to review each others presentations.  Too much to do, too little time left in Turkey!

#ibmcsc Turkey 8