Turkish Delight

    Who would’ve thought that Turkey would actually arrive? It’s crazy how fast this summer has gone, and while I’m writing this, we are two days away from arriving in Morocco, which is our final country of the voyage. While this summer has literally passed in the blink of an eye, I definitely feel like I have enough memories to last a lifetime.
Okay moving away from this sappy stuff… let me just tell you how much I LOVED Turkey. The skyline was dotted with gorgeous mosques and palaces, and turning around to see Asia in the distance was always a plus. Istanbul is a city like no other, and I really recommend that everyone find time in their lives to visit this breathtaking city. Except make sure to purchase some linen pants, because anything with more fabric is pretty much unbearable.

July 28th:
    So I spend my first day in Istanbul with Jew Jordan and Olivia. We start off our day by heading to the Galata tower which had the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. On our way to the tower, we try to find some exchange places, and let me just tell you that finding an exchange place that exchanges Travelers’ Check’s is nearly impossible. So after stumbling into a pharmacy (that is something like “exchange” in Turkish) being fooled by the big lit up “E,” we realize that there are not very many exchange places in the area. With travelers’ checks still in store, we head up this massive hill to the Galata tower. We buy our ticket to the top and take in the absolutely breathtaking 360 degree views of Istanbul. The city was breathtaking on foot, so seeing a birds eye view was unbelievable.
    After befriending some Canadians who snapped some pictures for us, we went to this little café at the base of the tower where I first experienced apple tea and fresh baked bread. Olivia had this fabulous little Turkish breakfast while Jordan and I chowed down on a basket of bread… per usual. After having a nice break of taking in the city, we decide to cross the bridge to the old city!
    After crossing the hectic bridge of lots of fishermen and salespeople selling nike shoes and stolen watches, we arrive at our first place, the New Mosque. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it was a time of prayer when we got there so we weren’t allowed to actually go inside, but we were allowed to go into the entry area  and experience all of the men washing their feet to prepare for prayer. We were notonly some of the only women in the area, but one of very few tourists, so it was really cool to see how everyone acts in time of prayer.
    We leave the New Mosque and head over to the Hagia Sofia (pronounced Aya Sofia) and the Blue Mosque. On our journey, we realize that Turkish men are QUITE open with their feelings. If you ever want a boost of self confidence, I would definitely recommend heading over to Istanbul because being called Spice Girls, Lady Gaga, Shakira, J-Lo, or Barbie, is more common then one would think. The first experience we had with this was a man yelling after Olivia that she dropped something, and then continued to explain that she dropped his heart. While apparently this pick up line was also used in Croatia, it was the first time I had ever heard it and got quite the kick out of it.
    We go into the Hagia Sofia and it was just so amazing because it was a church turned into a mosque. So there were Arabic disks that apparently had the name of all of the Islamic prophets covering the ancient paintings of Jesus and different crosses. It was really cool to see, and is definitely something that cannot be captured adequately by photographs. After the Hagia Sofia we stroll through this really beautiful park that has a name that I can’t remember, and make our way to the Blue Mosque. The Blue mosque was definitely busier than the Hagia Sofia, so we had to wait in line for a little bit to get into the tourist entrance. The Blue Mosque has six minarets,  which is quite the site to see from the distance. The only mosque that has more is Mecca, (who has 7) because the architect wanted Mecca to have the most minarets in the world…. Or something like that. This tidbit of info is in my guidebook so I will need to check back on that and let you know. Anyways we wait in line to get in the mosque and it is quite the site. The dome is so intricately decorated and it is absolutely breathtaking.
    After visiting these mosques, I have realized that there is something about Mosques that is so amazing. When you walk in, you obviously are not wearing shoes, and there are no chairs. So basically, everyone is hanging out on the floor in their socks (or not) and lounging. It kind of gives this impression of being a kid again, because you are just hanging out with your socks on the floor with your friends. I know that that seems kind of weird, but there was something about Mosques that I was absolutely captivated by.
    We then realize that we are famished and use Olivia’s guidebook to find this PRECIOUS little café kind of tucked away next to the Hagia Sofia. It was super quaint and looked like it was right out of a fairy tale and just amazing. The workers were so nice and it was just the perfect lunch for such a great day. After lunch, we head to this little art gallery that we saw on the way to eat, and it was SO GREAT. The artists name is Josh (I believe) and he does this technique called marbling, where he puts all this paint and oil into this thing of water, and through various strokes of his hand, he creates this masterpiece of art in the water, and puts the paper on top of it and WALAH, he has a beautiful piece of art. We spent some serious quality time in his studio watching him make art, and by the end of it, he ended up writing each of our names on one of his pieces of art and gives it to us for free. It was super special and a souvenir that I will fondly remember forever.
    Jordan and Olivia both have FDP’s (SAS trips) at 6 pm, so we kind of start heading back towards the ship. But first we stop at this shop for Olivia to pick up some Turkish delight, but later I realize that it is much better to purchase Turkish Delight in the Bazaar because the first shop was a RIP OFF, but the second one was much better and even gave us samples.  Jordan heads back to the ship, while Olivia and I try to find the Suleymane (sp?) mosque. We stumble upon this cool art piece that is basically all about how Istanbul is constantly changing and modernizing. It was really cool. Olivia and I then end up trekking like 12 mountainous streets (SF style) to try to find this mosque, and then when we realize we are almost there, Olivia realizes that she needs to head back to the ship for her FDP, so we head back to the ship without seeing the mosque. I never ended up making it there but that’s okay because it just means I need to come back!
    So we head back to the ship and then head out on a dinner adventure with Katie, Erica, and Jessica to find this square that we never end up finding. But we eat at this delicious Tapas place (obvs we miss Spain already hahah) and eat on a terrace! It was just so romantic. Afterwards, we head across the bridge to try to find a good hookah place, but we finally find a good one underneath the bridge full of SASers! It was really fun to hang out under the bridge and smoke some good Turkish Hookah. It was a great end to a great day :D
   
July 29th:
    Today, has quite the interesting beginning to the day. Sooooo me, Jew Jordan, and Robyn (Jordan’s roommate) all head out early in the morning in hopes of meeting up with Jordan’s teacher at the Topkapi (pronounced Tope-kapa) palace for a tour. So, we get on the tram and take the tram to the Topkapi spot. We are on the tram for about an hour, and get out at what we think is the right spot. We realize that we are not only not at the right stop, but took the tram about 15 stops too far. We try to ask some Turks directions, but some of them just shake their heads and laugh at us when we ask about the palace. However in our defense, why in the world would you have a tram stop that is called Topkapi that doesn’t even have the freaking PALACE at it?!?!?! We were very frustrated but eventually swallowed our pride and headed back to the tram.
    Soooo we completely miss Jordan’s teacher by about 2 hours, so we decide to head to the palace and do it on our own. We wait in a very long line to get tickets, and realize that it is quite a warm day. We get our tickets and start the long task of walking around the Topkapi palace. The palace is HUGE and has four different areas which are divided by four different gates. The palace was absolutely beautiful, but it was definitely draining to do the whole thing. After a while we head to the Harem which is where the Sultan and his concubines live. The Harem was absolutely breathtaking and was so ornate!! Basically It was just a huge house for the Sultan and his women who were forced to have sex with him and only him. It was definitely cool to see what it was like.
    After the very long morning at the Topkapi palace, we head to get some MUCH needed lunch. After stumbling through what seemed was the “tourist trap expensive restaurant street” we find this little Doner stand on the side of the street and eat some delicious and cheap Doners. Mmmm I wish I could have one right nowww. ANYWAYSSSSS after that Robyn heads back to the ship while Jordan and I head to the GRAND BAZAAR to experience our first look at this amazing place. We head through the spice Bazaar where we meet our friend Emray. He gets our attention by calling Jordan, Jennifer. Jordan is confused because while Jessica is close to her name, she doesn’t understand why he is calling her that! We then realize that he is calling her Jennifer, as in Jennifer Lopez because of her butt. It was SO FUNNY and quite a great realization. HE then starts calling me Shakira, so it was definitely great entertainment. We leave to go to the Grand Bazaar, but not before receiving free samples of CHOCOLATE (so delicious, and I’m bringing some home) Turkish Delight and Apple Tea (which I am also bringing home). 
    We go into the Grand Bazaar and shop around for a while and realize that we are way too tired and hot (or at least I was) to stay in there longer then a few hours. So Jordan does her necessary shopping, and then we head out. We come to the conclusion that while the Grand Bazaar is famous, perhaps the Spice Bazaar has better prices and deals.  We start heading home from the Grand Bazaar and stumble upon this great little hair accessory store. So I have a ball with bows and headbands and 80’s scrunchies (get ready for this to come out in my 80’s wear!!) and am just LOVING this little Turkish version of Claires. We make friends with the owner who gives us a few great things, and we have some great laughs with him. We then go back to the Bazaar to visit our friend and get some more Turkish Delight and Tea for the way home.
    Jordan and I had an absolutely fabulous and successful day of being Royal (at the Topkapi palace duh) and shopping!! So much fun!!!!!! On our way home we went inside the New Mosque and just sat there for a while. It was really an amazing experience just sitting in a mosque and observing Muslims during their prayer. We sat there for quite a while and just took it all in. It truly showed me how cool the religion of Islam is. Then that night I head out for a night on the town in Turkey, which proves to only be fun if you can become your own bartender ☺. Also considering Ramadan begins within the next few days,  the night life was not as poppin as we would think. BUT! We still had a great time!

July 30th:
    Jordan (my roommate), Jew Jordan, Kristin, Erica, Jessica, Robyn, and I all head out to find the Basilica Cistern. Basically, it was this HUGE ancient aqueduct that was used to hold lots of water, and used to be totally full of water. There is something like 300 pillars located in the Cistern, and because they were all taken from other buildings, none of them are the same. The main site of the Cistern was the two pillars with Medusa’s head on the bottom, so that was really cool to see and learn about Medusa’s story. After looking at the weird Japanese Koi (how do you even spell koi? I have no idea) fish, we all head out in search of some lunch.
We find this PRECIOUS little restaurant that has lots of couches and hookahs and cute little booths so naturally the inner tourist in all of us loves this restaurant. We order some pretty good doners (basically all that I ate in Turkey) and Kristin smoked her first Turkish Hookah, so that was exciting! We all relax and drink apple tea (another Turkish delicacy) and take in the wonders that Istanbul has to offer. Afterwards, we part ways to do our Turkish baths!!!! Jordan and Kristin head to a more well known Hamam (Turkish Bath), while Jessica, Erica, Jordan, Robyn, and I head to a more local one that Jessica learned about from a local that she met.
It takes us kind of a long time to find this local Hamam, and I have to admit I start loosing hope that we will find it. Except we finally do! It is definitely out of the tourist section of Istanbul (or Sultanahmet, which is the area where we primarily spent most of our time) and in some residential neighborhood. So we go into this authentic Turkish bath and while it was not as “fancy” as some of the other ones, it was super nice! While I will spare the details, basically it was a SERIOUS bonding moment for all of us in the Turkish Baths ☺. By the way, the Hamam was called the Kadriga Hamami! After the bath we head to the neighborhood mosque and I have the opportunity to just take in the beauty that this mosque has to offer. While I am obviously not Muslim, I have truly gained an appreciation and curiosity for the Islam religion, and see immense amounts of beauty in mosques and the Islam type of worship.
We head back from the bath to shop around a little bit on the way back to the ship, and of course buy a magnum bar (YUM). For dinner, we decide to go to ASIA! I don’t know if you know this, but Istanbul is the only city to be located on two continents, Europe and Asia! While a majority of Turkey is located on the Asia side, most of Istanbul/ the touristy nice areas of Istanbul are located in Europe. So we decide to be adventurous and head over to Asia for dinner. With the large group of us, it ends up being kind of difficult to get over there, and ends up being kind of a bust. Basically we were VERY hungry and just wanted to find some nice restaurant to eat and smoke hookah. Apparently, we missed the really nice square for tourists, and ended up on some street full of bars.
Basically, we are shooed into a restaurant and the restaurant owner claims that they have both food and hookah. However, we come to realize that not only does he not have hookah, but we are sitting at a bar that has no food. The man hands a cell phone to Ben, and all of us are very confused as to why Ben needed to be on the phone. We then realize that the Turkish man is calling a restaurant across the street for us to order takeout. Considering none of us want to drink and they don’t have food OR hookah, we all leave the bar, creating kind of quite the scene. However, it did make for quite the funny story!
In attempt to find a restaurant, we don’t find one, and settle for some delicious Doners off the side of the street. While Asia was kind of a bust, we weren’t going to let that ruin our night so after taking the Ferry back to Europe, we go out in search of a Hookah Bar! We run into Rob by the port who tells us about this great hookah place called Alli Babah, which is just great. They have delicious hookah and all of the fresh fruit you could want. It was SO FUN!!! Alli Babah himself came to our table numerous times, apparently because Rob made friends with him the night before. It was a great night of smoking Hookah after our attempt at smoking hookah in Asia.

July 31st:
    Today we head to the Prince Islands! Jordan, Kristin, Rob, Lea, Blaire, and her two friends, and I all head out to the Prince Islands! While we think we are getting an early start to our day, that ends up not being the case. We end up heading to the wrong ferry station in six different locations, and are continuously told conflicting information. While walking around in the heat was not exactly an easy morning, it also was just one of those things that made for a good story. We finally realize that we need to take a ferry to Asia, and then take a ferry from Asia to the islands. While I had already been to Asia, many people in our group had not, so it was VERY exciting for us all to be in Asia!
    We arrive in Asia and immediately take the most culturally insensitive picture possible (get excited for that on facebook) and share a few laughs with this crazy old man. I am hungry (of course) so me and a few others head to a doner stand and get some delicious doner sandwiches! Our ferry arrives and Jordan and I decide to sit on the outside of the ferry because sitting inside was too stuffy. We end up meeting this Turkish man who works for the US government and writes for a Turkish journal, so it was really cool to hear what we had to say. He was super nice and I’m hopefully looking forward to getting in touch with him the next time I’m in DC!
    After Jordan and I almost got left on the ferry, we all get off at the first Prince Island (I’ll get the name for you later) which is the smallest of the three. We decide to sit by the beach and eat some lunch, and play some rum jimmy (I think). We soon realize that the food was not that good and that the game was not free. So it was a nice place to relax, but definitely kind of a rip off. We then go rent some bikes and ride around the Island, which was so fun! We took some great pictures and stumbled upon an outdoor gym, which was definitely entertaining. After bike riding, we realize that there is not much to do on the Island, so we head over to the ferry station and eat some terrible ice cream (boo) while waiting for our ferry.
    After we get back from the Islands, Jordan, Kristin, Abby, and I all head over to this strip of restaurants that all have free wifi because I need to register for classes. We end up going to this restaurant where no one really orders much, but I decide to order this omelet from this restaurant next door. Unfortunately the omelet I order is ACTUALLY smothered in chunks of butter, so this healthy dinner I was planning on having was not so healthy.
    After this failure of a dinner (but at least we got wifi!) a bunch of us get ready to go out to this club called Reina that is apparently free because it is the first night of Ramadan! We go back to our favorite Gyro place with our favorite waiter from the night before, order some food, and have a great night on the town!

August 1st:
    While I am currently writing this as we are crossing the Atlantic, I need to stress that I was SO SAD to leave Turkey!! I absolutely fell in love with Istanbul and definitely need to go back. I know that it seems that I have fallen in love with every city that I have visited, I especially enjoyed Istanbul and all of the culture that it has to offer. Okay sorry about the random emotional tangents. Butttt basically on the last day my roommate, Kristin, Jessica, Erica, and I all went out to the Bazaars to continue shopping. I did some pretty serious damage today on some awesome Turkish goods, so It was a great day. Also as an impromptu action, we all got our ears pierced! Don’t freak out parentals, it was just my third hole, so no worries ☺.

Stay tuned for the blog of the last country of the voyage: Morocco! Coming soon to a computer screen near you. haha