Izmir (Turkey)

Our day started VERY early!  We checked out of the Capo Inn and were waiting for our DV/VIP pax at the aircraft by [about 0700].  We next flew over to Turkey - another flight with great weather! We could see the mountains of Albania and the city of Thesalonika. Lots of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The view of Izmir (near Smyrna) was spectacular, too. When we landed, we had knew we had over four hours to explore. Charlie R and I sweet talked our way into a ride to a local mall so we could do some shopping.  Our (informal) guide (the driver from the airport) was great.  We learned a lot about the local area, including economics and some culture.  He eventually took us to a place that was a supermarket chain store (I think) called "Kipa".  The store was quite interesting and I bought some items for myself and the girls.  The receipt I got was quite hard to read, with all kinds of unusual characters. From this, though, I figured out that a local greeting, "Iyi Gunler", was the way to say "Good day" in Turkish.  We could have seen even more but I got a call that our passenger wanted to leave earlier than we'd expected. We stopped in Incirlik on the way to the desert. This was my first time over eastern Turkey and Iraq - what a view! We saw the outskirts of Bagdhad and the Iranian border. I'm pretty sure we flew right over Mosul/Nineveh. Basra was something to see, too. After landing at [... (1900)], we learned that the Air Force didn't have lodging for us. "Since you are Navy, maybe you can stay with the SeaBees" - the quote didn't inspire confidence.  But they let us get some chow at the big (24/7) dining facility.  [I think they had surf & turf the night we were there!]  After that, I had a chance to go shopping - this allowed me to buy a map of Iraq for our return flight.  Our transportation then took us out to the farthest end of the Base, where we found a few Quonset Huts along the perimeter.  The SeaBees weren't there but they had set up the inside of the huts (or "hooches") to be as good as possible for a bunch of military guys.  Before heading to bed, we played lots of video games and watched movies.  It isn't the Ritz but I was glad we had somewhere to sleep other than the airplane...  Interesting day!