Istanbul

Bazaar on the Asian side of Istanbul

Traditional dancing in the park by the mosques. 

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul skyline from the ferry

Inside the Blue Mosque

 

I had a short flight from Santorini to Istanbul which went without any incident. Once I got to Istanbul I was supposed to meet up with Kyle around Taksim Square which is where our hostel was. I had directions from the shuttle stop to the hostel and they seemed pretty straight forward so I wasn’t too worried about getting to the hostel. Little did I know… As soon as I got off the shuttle bus it started to down pour. Like crazy torrential rain and I thought for sure the city would flood in about 20 seconds flat. Not only that, but this Taksim Square is massive and I had absolutely no idea where I was going. I didn’t have wifi, so I couldn’t contact Kyle and I was stuck under the roof of a little café with about 50 other Turks while we waited out the rain. I met a super nice guy named Ahmed who read my directions and looked at a map and was at least able to point me in the right direction. My stuff was already soaked so I decided just to brave it and ventured out to find Kyle. He had told me there were 2 Starbucks’ right next to each other and to meet there if we didn’t see each other. Of course I walked right past those and onto the third one down the street. I still couldn’t get wifi so I wandered further down this street, which just as a preface is the most famous (and most crowded) street in Turkey so there were a million people, I had my 100 lbs. of luggage, it’s pouring rain, and I have no idea where I’m going. Awesome.  Finally I find wifi and realize that Kyle is clear back up the hill I just went down, so I drag myself back up there and finally find him.  We were still like 15 minutes from the hostel and I don’t think I would have ever found it on my own with the directions I had. Thank goodness for Kyle who dragged my bag around and navigated for the rest of our time there.

Once I got checked in we headed out to get some dinner. We decided to head over by the Blue Mosque and see what we could find. We ended up at this little restaurant and Kyle got his sketchy meat kabob and I got some mystery vegetable concoction. They gave us a huge basket of bread and I had a piece and when we were done we watched the waiter take it from our table and put it on the table for the new people that had just walked in!! I couldn’t even believe it, (actually I totally believe it) Laura you would have died. Before this I was eating a ridiculous amount of bread and I think that experience has cured me of any desire for bread I might have again while I’m here. (Side note: I’m writing this from Israel and today I heard one of the girls saying she took a bite from the top of a roll this morning and found it back in the bread basket tonight at dinner. Apparently this bread recycling thing is universal.) Anyway, we went to the Blue Mosque but weren’t able to go in because it was prayer time so we just walked around the grounds of that and the Hagia Sophia. It was pretty amazing to see and hear the prayers being called from both of these huge mosques.  

The next day we decided to take a ferry to Asia. Half of Turkey is in Europe and half is in Asia so we decided to explore the Asian side. When we got there we found a huge bazaar that only happens twice a week. It was hundreds and hundreds of stands of fruit, vegetables, nuts, meats, clothes, jewelry, shoes, and everything else you can imagine. I found a stand that was selling legit Toms (usually $45-$60 in the States) and I made friends with the girl at the stand and I got 2 pairs of Toms for a total of 8 euro, which translates to $10.90!! So about $5 a pair. I was feeling pretty good about that. We got some fruit and nuts which were amazing and so cheap, and went and sat at a park by the water and ate lunch. We headed back to the European side and decided to revisit the mosques since we weren’t able to go in the first time. They had us take off our shoes, and I had to wear a shawl over my head to go inside. It was so so pretty but I was only in there for like two minutes before they kicked us our for prayer time again. We wandered around the city a little bit more, visited the grand bazaar which was a huge shopping mall in a nice area of town. We  got through it pretty quick though cause we were all bazaared out from the one before. We happened upon a best western and decided to take advantage of some of their amenities. We went up to the roof top terrace that had awesome lounge chairs and an amazing view and just hung out. We took a long walk next to this same unknown body of water, and it was such a nice night!

The next day we did a Bosphorus Tour, which was a 2 hour ferry ride up and around the Bosphorus. It was gorgeous and it gave us such a good view of Istanbul. Once you get out of the main city it’s surprisingly green and actually quite charming. Istanbul itself is crazy, it’s dirty and run down, busy and chaotic, but I actually really really liked it. The culture there is so different, nearly everyone is muslim and the women are all dressed in traditional Muslim garb, there are moques on every corner, you hear the prayers about 10 times a day, it’s just a crazy city but it was a fun place to be.