the world as i know it.

First off, I’d like to say that Istanbul exceeded my expectations by far and is an absolutely amazing city. I think it was the perfect transition country between Europe and Africa. It was the perfect mix of European tourism and religion. There would be bars and nightclubs and shopping in Taksim, but then 5 times a day they would do the call to prayer over the loudspeakers all over the city. It goes on for such a long time. I never got to see one person actually get on there knees and pray though..disappointing! It really was where east meets west. Did anyone know that half of Istanbul was in Europe and the other half is in Asia? I definitely didn’t until I was straddling the continent line. That was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done…being in two states at once is cool, but two continents..way cooler. Being a blonde there was so exhausting. I was like an alien. They loved it. By far the worst harassment compared to the other countries. They were nice about it though, just got a little bit intense at times. I had to be on full TURK ALERT as Jess calls it.  People even gave up their seats on the metro for us, which still baffles me because going into this I was under the impression that they strongly disliked Americans (probably because at preport orientation we were shown pictures of them burning American flags). It was actually a very pleasant experience and we had almost no problems.

We got up at 6am to watch the arrival into Istanbul on the first day. Seeing the sunrise behind the mosques was probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The Istanbul cityscape at any time of the day is incredible, but at sunrise it was the best. It’s so neat to see a bunch of mosques with their minarets just mixed in with ordinary buildings. We got the touristy stuff out of the way as soon as we got there and went to see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. They were gorgeous and it was kind of fun to have to follow all the rules to go into the mosques (taking off your shoes, covering your head, etc). After that everyone went to some museum that I had no interest in so I sat in a really pretty park and people watched by myself until I met my Turkish friend. This old man came and sat down next to me and my Turk Alert went off at first, but then I discovered he was harmless. I’m sooooo glad I got to talk to him. He taught me more about Istanbul and Turkey as a whole than I ever could have learned out of a book or museum. He knew so much about everything and just had so much information and stories to share. Talking to locals is the best way to get to know a place in my opinion. Our first meal in Turkey was surprisingly great and surprisingly expensive. Wow. Our dollar is worth more there but they definitely take advantage of that. We were brave and all got super traditional Turkish/Ottoman cuisine and didn’t really know what we were eating but it was really yummy. And then that’s also when we discovered Turkish apple tea and became absolutely obsessed. I bought six boxes to bring home so everyone can have some yay. We hit the Grand Bazaar after that (and pretty much every other day too). You can easily spend hours and hours in there. I never knew I had so many friends in Turkey with such special deals just for me until I came here hahaha. I also did not know I looked like Jennifer Lopez? I think they only know a few American celebrities and just tell you that you look like them to make you feel good..I’m not really sure, but after that I just started messing with them and told them I was from Hong Kong and such. They didn’t seem to notice. I had to take a million pictures with random people because they just thought my hair was the craziest thing they had ever seen and apparently the Turks are obsessed with Facebook, strange at first but I guess I got used to it. Another man told me “Oh, your hair, it’s so different. It is spun of gold. I cut it off and sell it for lira.” Uhhhh no thanks you sir. I ran away real fast after that. We just browsed and haggled for like 6 hours and got to drink lots of tea and try lots of Turkish delight. It really is delightful. Good thing I brought some boxes of that home too! There are over 4000 shops in the Grand Bazaar and we hardly even made a dent in it. A lot of them were the same though..carpets, hookahs, fake designer bags, jewelry, knick knacks, lamps and stuff like that. I behaved and didn’t really buy much of anything except some evil eye jewelry because I just love that too much to resist.

The next day we took a boat across the Sea of Marmara to the Princes’ Islands, which is the only part of Turkey that isn’t completely Muslim and it pretty much consists of Russian royalty and other extremely rich peoples’ summer homes. It was really pretty, until it started pouring rain. It actually rained almost everyday for like an hour in the morning…reminded me of Florida haha. We took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the big island, Buyukada, to see all the homes and then Jess and I discovered their version of waffles. Oh my god, probably one of the best things I’ve ever had in my entire life. We got one or two every single day after that (which is why I now have to run for hours on end..totally worth it though). They make a big Belgian waffle right in front of you and then have all these toppings and ice cream to choose from so we got nutella, fresh strawberry and banana, and vanilla ice cream and then they fold it in half and you eat it like a taco. Sooooooo delicious. Oh, and their ice cream is unlike any ice cream I’ve ever had before. It has like a chewy and stringy texture when you eat it..still good though.

The next morning we went to the Basilica Cistern (where Ali and Frank had lunch on the Bachelorette..we went everywhere they went on the show. I actually credit the show for getting me excited about Istanbul) and it was realllllly interesting. It’s basically just an underground area with water and marble columns and red lights that make it look cool. It doesn’t sound that great, but it really was. Unfortunately, I wore rubber flips flops and the floors were so slippery that I had to hold on to Jess and Lauren and basically be dragged through the entire thing because I could not walk without slipping. I thought it was fun..them, not so much. Nah, I’m just kidding, they didn’t mind at all. They’re wonderful :) Then we headed to the Spice Bazaar which I liked wayyyy more than the Grand Bazaar. It’s not nearly as huge and overwhelming and seeing all the spices was really fascinating. We got to know one Turkish delight shop owner particularly well and he let us try pretty much everything in the entire store. He even gave us edible 24 karat gold Turkish delight. SO cool. It’s normally $50 for one little square. He was telling us how the Turkish delight industry (I guess you could call it that) in Arab countries is out of control. They love it. Lucky for us..we got to see exactly what he meant (as we were drinking more apple tea and eating figs). Some completely covered ladies from the UAE came in and bought 45 boxes of Turkish delight that were $70 a box. They dropped over 3 grand on candy like it was nothing. We couldn’t believe it. I am now considering going into the Turkish delight industry..haha just kidding. At night we just went to a hookah bar and drank tea and got on the computer because they all have free wifi. Pretty much the best thing ever.  It was so cool to smoke hookah with the locals and look up at a lit up mosque at the same time. Definitely something you couldn’t experience anywhere else.

The nexttttt day we went shopping at Taksim Square which is part of New Istanbul, a much more modernized/Americanized part of the city. They had lots of cute shops and cafes and Starbucks and McDonalds of course. They even had a Topshop!!! I’ve never been more excited in my entire life. I’ve only heard amazing things about this store and I thought there was only one in NYC and London, but apparently there is one in Istanbul. I love finding surprises like that. I got some cute stuff :) Thennn it was time for the Turkish baths. We went to the same hamam that Ali and Ty went to on the show…it’s called Cemberlitas Hamam. I don’t really know how to describe the experience there. It’s kind of a strange concept. You go in a huge sauna made completely of marble completely naked and get scrubbed and washed by a large, gnarly Turkish woman. Then get in an extremely cold pool and extremely hot pool. The oil massage was nice though. It was one of those things that you let your guard down and just do it for the experience and then never have to do it again. Definitely one of those once in a lifetime kind of things. We explored some more around the city and got an amazing dinner and decided it would be a good idea to walk home at night. Not a good idea. We did get to see some really cool fireworks randomly and walk across the Galata Bridge. It wasn’t really that bad, but I wouldn’t do it again.

The last day we went to the Topkapi Palace. It was beautiful but all Jess and I could think about was seeing Eclipse FINALLY!!! We had been looking for a movie theater in every country that was playing it in English and finalllyyy found one. We went and got to see most of it. It had Turkish subtitles which was kind of distracting because I was trying to translate the whole time for some reason. We didn’t get to see the whole movie though which was such a tease because apparently in Turkey they have intermissions in movie theaters..what?! Yeah we were very confused, but we had to be back on the ship at 6 and the movie started at 4. We stayed as long as possible and then had to sprint back to the ship and made it 30 seconds before we would have gotten dock time. Ahhhh. Thankfully we made it AND we found someone on the ship that has a bootleg copy of the movie that’s going to let us borrow it so we can watch the rest. Thank god. It was soooooo good from what we saw.

Now we are on our way to Egypt. I’m getting really nervous. Wikitravel says “Women should dress conservatively and cover all parts below the neck and still expect to be harassed”. Awesome. Oh well, I’m sure it will be a cultural awakening. I’ll let ya know. Everyone is studying like crazy for tests around me right now..the piano lounge is hoppin’. And someone is playing that song from Forgetting Sarah Marshall on the piano. I’m loving it. Time to study for infectious diseases, oh joy.

Miss you alllllll. I can’t belive it’s already more than halfway over..27 days to go! <3