Here's the thing, you guys. I had the best intentions of blogging while in Turkey so that I wouldn't have to do a huge post when I got home, and even typed one up on my phone and was trying to add photos when it froze and got erased. I took that as a sign that I needed to forget about it and just live in the moment. But now my real journal is out of pages and I haven't bought a new one yet because I can't find one that fits my specific requirements for a journal, so this blog is suddenly kind of important to me. Don't worry, I won't do a bunch of oversharing about my feelings or anything now that I don't have a journal...but this post will be long and there is another one coming soon, since I've also been to Prague and back since the last time we talked.
I'm going to try and recap for you by day, but it was such a whirlwind trip that I may get days confused. Try to stick with me.
Monday
We left Vienna in the afternoon. I was a little stressed (read: out of my brains afraid) because ALL that we had heard since deciding to go to Turkey for spring break was that we were going to be harrassed, robbed, taken, kidnapped, human trafficked, murdered, followed, and a number of other really unpleasant things. My desire to see Turkey won out over my fear of all these things happening, but when it actually came down to it and we were in the airport ready to take off, I was having doubts. We arrived in Istanbul in the early evening and cleared the passport and visa check without problems. We'd arranged for a shuttle to take us to our hotel and we enjoyed a thrilling hour and a half of driving through traffic (I'm 100% positive we were not in a real lane for the majority of the drive) while listening to an odd assortment of American music on the radio.
Kiely, Kristin and me in the shuttle.
Our hotel was about two steps away from the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace in the old city. The staff was so kind and almost immediately I was put at ease and felt safe. We walked to a little restaurant near our hotel for dinner and got our first taste of how Turkey operates. The main key to success in Istanbul is to flirt. Waiters stand outside every restaurant and when a group walks by they will get their attention and then immediately launch into a whole speech about their menu. Also, there is always a special, but just for the person they are talking to. I can't tell you how many times I heard the words, "For you, I will make special price. Just for you..." Anyways, we got lured into a restaurant with the promise of free apple tea at the end of our meal, which was enough for us (and put us on the path to a full on addiction to apple tea).
Kristin and I at dinner the first night
Tuesday
We woke up early to the sound of the call to prayer right outside our window. Over breakfast, the owner of our hotel basically gave us a personalized itinerary of the things we had to do while we were there. We followed his suggestions pretty much verbatim the rest of the trip. Our first stop was the Hagia Sophia which was built THOUSANDS of years ago and is so gorgeous. Stunning mosaics, domed ceilings, a crazy blend of religions...it was really amazing.
This is a nice view of the minbar in the Hagia Sophia and also the cats toasting themselves by the light. Cats seriously run this town. They're everywhere.
A view of the ceiling in the Hagia Sophia
Next we went to the Blue Mosque, or the Sultan Ahmed mosque. Its just across the way from the Hagia Sophia and they are quite the pair. The Blue Mosque is covered in gorgeous blue tile on the ceilings and is still a working mosque today.
The Blue Mosque
Inside the Blue Mosque
We visited the Museum of Islamic and Turkish Art, where I had flashbacks to my Islamic humanities class. Then we wandered and ate some delicious food before finding ourselves at the Grand Bazaar.
This is the only photo I got at the bazaar. I was just having too much fun inside to take any photos.
If you are a girl and you are ever feeling kind of low, just take a quick trip to the Grand Bazaar. As you pass every booth, you will be showered with compliments. Really innovative ones, too. For example, we were called Spice Girls, Charlie's Angels, tennagers, children, beautiful, etc. Also, they would say great stuff like, "Are you looking for your Turkish boyfriend? I'm right here." Or if you passed their booth without looking, they would say, "You dropped something!" and when you look back they would clutch their chest and say, "My heart." Of course, this is all a ploy to get your money. But it is fun and if you play along you can sometimes get some good deals. I can see how you might get into trouble in this country if you were a) alone or b) stupid. Heaven forbid the two overlap. But we were in a group and we used it to our advantage and had lots of fun and bought lots of stuff at the bazaar. That night after accepting free apple tea at one restaurant, we ate dinner at another one where we made great friends with the manager and he told us pretty much his life story and what it is like to be married and still have to flirt to get people to come into his restaurant. It sounded really miserable. But dinner was good and he was very kind and genuine.
Becca and me at dinner
Wednesday
We took a ferry up the Bosphorous, which is a strait connecting the Black Sea to the Marble Sea (which becomes the Caspian Sea). This is my favorite thing we did. It was perfect weather and the views were incredible.
Kristin, me and Becca at the top looking out over the Marble Sea
We docked at a little fishing village for a few hours and took a pleasant hike up to some old castle ruins. This is pretty much my recipe for happiness these days (nice weather + castle ruins), so I was happy as a clam.
The castle at the top of the hill. Obviously I was in heaven.
We ate lunch at a little cafe on the top floor of a building that gave us a gorgeous view of the harbor, then we bought some baklava and Turkish sweets for the boat ride home. Also, we witnessed the scariest dog fight in the world and had to be saved from the middle of it by a very calm and collected young man.
Friends don't let friends feed sweets to stray animals.
When we returned to Istanbul we went to the Spice Bazaar, which has the same vibe as the Grand Bazaar, with the added bonus of free samples of Turkish Delight and dried fruit.
Tea at the Spice Bazaar
Spices and teas at the bazaar
You guys, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I was pretty hard on Edmond for selling out his siblings for some Turkish Delight. But then I tasted real, good Turkish Delight, and I'm not saying I'd do what he did...but he's not as big of an idiot as I thought.
Various flavors of Turkish Delight
Thursday
We toured the Tokapi Palace in the morning. There were lots of rooms that I wouldn't mind having in my own house and the view over the Bosphorous was pretty wild.
The summer pavilion at Topkapi Palace
Also, a nice collection in their treasury. We ate lunch here before heading back to the Grand Bazaar for some good old-fashioned shopping and ego-boosting. But not before making the biggest mistake of our life and buying tickets to see a whirling dirvish show for later that night. When we got to the bazaar, one of our friends from earlier in the week told us that we could have seen them for free, all we would've had to pay for was apple tea (which we are fine doing...we're seriously addicted). Well, the tickets were paid for and there is no such thing as a refund in Turkey, so we decided to live with our decision. The guy who sold us our tickets was kind of (I mean really but I don't like to flame people on the internet) a tool/liar. He also put straws in my hair when I asked him for one for my drink, so I was not a fan. Also, the whirling dirvishes are kind of (way) boring.
If we're being honest, it was three guys spinning around for 45 minutes while the lights changed colors.
I get that it is a religious thing so it's kind of weird that we could pay to see them anyways, but I would not recommend this to anyone. Also, watching them made me dizzy and I had to close my eyes a lot to avoid getting sick.
The lowlight of the trip, for sure.
Friday
We visited the hippodrome. This is a pretty cool place because it is not only a mosque, but a market, a bath, a school, and more.
The Hippodrome (it has another name, which I think is Sultanahmet, but I can't be sure)
Inside the mosque
We also visited the Spice Bazaar and enjoyed some more samples, in addition to buying an ear of corn on the cob to snack on. At some point, we also visited the archiological museum, which was apparently no one's favorite, since I can't remember when it happened and this is what I found when I came out of one of the exhibits:
We were all feeling a little tired and sick, so we returned to the hotel to rest before going to an Indian restaurant for dinner.
Saturday
We were all still a little sick so we relaxed in the morning before visiting the underground cistern from the 4th century.
Underground. It was pretty cool.
We accidentally fell for the tourist trap and dressed up to take photos.
Later, we made the trek out to Taksim Square. We explored the shops (Topshop, Nike, Adidas, etc) and enjoyed the busy atmosphere before returning to our hotel. I was really hoping Nike or Adidas would have an Okur jersey (everyone says "Utah Jazz" when you tell them you're from Utah because of Memo) or a Deron Williams Beşiktaş jersey from when he played over here, but no luck.
Taksim Square. At night is when it gets real crazy.
I thought looooong and hard about buying this sweater, but ultimately decided against it (but my birthday is in August if anyone's feeling charitable).
Not for sale, but I do love D. Rose
On Sunday morning we woke up early to catch our plane, and arrived home in time for Sacrament Meeting at the International Ward. We had no food and Norbert and Liesl were leaving for a ski trip, so we went out to dinner at a most amazing Mexican restaurant in the Prater where we will be returning ASAP.
Turkey was amazing and I really think just about everyone should go there. I felt safe and I had fun the whole time. Just don't pay for a whirling dirvish show.
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