Packing:
1. Women: Be sure to pack enough tampons to last you for the duration of your trip. Pads are sold at all grocery stores, but I have yet to find tampons.
2. Even though you are traveling in the summer, bring warm clothing. Some days it gets inexplicably cold and it can get very cold in the evenings and at nightfall.
3. Bring condoms. Even if you're on birth control. They sell condoms here but they are called O.K. condoms...and I don't know about you but I would prefer something not just OK when it comes to AIDS and babies.
4. Buy a phrase book (and actually bring it on your trip ie I forgot mine :(
5. Pack meds your used to benadryl, tums!! pepto, and IMODIUM AD!!! very important. When eating food you're not particularly used to and the combination of turkish coffee and tea after everymeal, can change your stomach's chemistry.
Surviving in Turkey:
1. WATER!! very important. Always have a bottle with you. It gets incredibly hot here. And while they sell water everywhere, they don't take credit cards or large bills everywhere
2. Always have lira. Don't rely on the fact that you'll find an atm, or place to exchange the dollar cause while you probably will, the one time you're hungover while having monstrous cramps and all you want to do is take a cab back home because trying to eat was a mistake...you won't find one! Trust me...
3. Getting lost is ok. While its happening, it can be defeating and disheartening, but it usually leads to knowing the way. And if you can't figure out how to get back on your own, people are very apt to helping and if they don't speak English, they will find someone within a 20 ft radius they can.
4. Don't trust cab drivers. Make sure they start the meter. And before even getting in, ask how much it will cost to get to your destination. Kac para?
5. Never drink tap water...not even by accident (ps it will lead to an accident)
6. Always have an escape route (ie bathroom). Sometimes you never know when it might be more than gas. This is especially important if you are at the market! In fact...
7. If you are having diarreah, do not go to the market. These are generally very crowded places with few, if any, bathrooms. And the bathrooms at markets are generally a porcelain hole in the ground which isn't very easy when going number two...Just don't chance it. There are weekly markets all over Izmir in different locations...go a different day.
While I think of hundreds of these on a daily basis, I'm running short at the moment. I'm going to go grocery shopping and then I will resume...
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