Turkey for Turkey Day

So, this post is on time, however, since my last post, I have traveled to Ireland, and to the Peloponnese, but never posted about them. So I will try to do that, as both trips were amazing!! With less than three weeks to go until the semester is over, everyone is slowly becoming bogged down with homework, papers, and tests. In two weeks we start finals, and on December 1th, I fly to Germany where I will stay until January 10th, at which point I will return to Athens for one week, then Italy for one week, and then the new semester in Athens begins!! It's a wild and crazy next few months!!! So, Istanbul.

Istanbul was amazing!!!! It is one of the best cities I have ever been to, not only because it is super clean, but just because the atmosphere is great, the people are nice, and there are lots of things to see and do! I went with one of my roommates, Lauren, who I also went to Ireland with. We flew out of Athens on Thanksgiving morning, and after a quick hour and a half flight, landed in Istanbul!! Day one began with navigating the metro stations and the trams on our way to find our hostel. We finally found it, on a nice street with lots of other hostels/hotels, and tons of places to eat. We met up with some friends of ours, and decided to go to the Hagia Sophia, a really old mosque right in the center of the old city, where we were staying. It is an incredible building, with fabulous paint jobs on the walls. I would almost call them frescoes, but they weren't scenes, they were just designs. It was absolutely beautiful! After spending about an hour there, we walked around the center of the city for a little while before deciding that we were starving and ready for our makeshift Thanksgiving feast! This meant finding a restaurant that we were all happy with, which we did shortly after looking for one!
My Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be Turkish ravioli, which was delicious!! And, not to end the deliciousness, we were served our first, and free, cup of apple tea! Apple tea tastes to me like warm apple cider, maybe not as strong, but still delicious! And continuing with good food, we went to another restaurant to find dessert, where I had some really good baklava!! (Although I do still like Greek baklava better!!). Then it was off to bed early for all of us, meaning we all fell asleep by 9pm at the latest, something unheard of among college students, and certainly the earliest I have gone to sleep in years!!!!

Day two, Lauren and I headed over to the Blue Mosque where a man informed us that we needed scarves to enter (in actuality, they do let women in without scarves, he just wanted us to buy one from him, which we didn't), so we decided to come back the next day when we would remember our scarves. So instead, we went to the Basilica Cistern, this huge cistern right under the city! It was really an awesome place to visit, and fairly inexpensive compared to some of the other places we went. We got out pictures taken in Turkish outfits, which was fun, and walked around to see the Medusa heads used as column bases that were waaaaaay in the back!! From there, we headed over to the Grand Bazaar, which was one of the most amazing shopping experiences I have ever had!! Booths upon booths of scarves, bowls, plates, hookahs, you name it, they had it!!! And everyone was trying to get us to buy their items, so it was a lot like being back in the markets of Africa! I ended up buying a scarf, and a few things for family. After the Bazaar we ate the cheapest and most delicious lunch I have had in a long time. 4 Turkish Lira, which is about 2 euros, for a can of iced tea and a doner (a Turkish gyro basically, which is suuuuper delicious!!). Over all, Turkey was getting lots of points in the first 2 days!! It did rain on us a little, but we didn't mind, and headed to another side of town, to go to the Spice Bazaar, where we bought some apple tea to take home with us, and some other things. The Spice Bazaar was really cool, all the stores had piles of spices for you to choose from, and dried peppers and other similar things hanging from their doorways. And best of all, it, like the rest of Istanbul, smelled fantastic!!! Our day ended at a restaurant near the hostel, where we had a Turkish chicken casserole with pita, just the right amount of spices!! Yuuum!!

Day three, our last full day, we went to the Topkapi Palace and Harem, both of which were beautiful!!! The tiles inside the Harem are gorgeous!!! All different designs and different shades of blue and turquoise! So beautiful!! We also saw the Treasury of the Palace, where there was a gigantic, 27 carat diamond!!!!! Soooo sparkly!!! Following almost four hours at the Palace, we went to lunch with some friends, and then made our way back to the Bazaar so Lauren could buy one more gift for a friend. On our way back to the old city to go to the Blue Mosque (we had scarves this time!!), we stopped at an earring vendor, who perhaps was selling illegal earring, because we had to follow him down a little alley when the police told him to move from the main street. But we finally got our earrings, and made our way over to the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque is just as breathtaking as the Hagia Sophia, if not more!! And it is actually still in use, so there were many people inside praying. We did cover our heads with scares, but as we were both wearing jeans, they did not make us put on a skirt thing. Our evening ended in a restaurant where we were given 4 free cups of tea, following a good meal!!

The last day, Sunday, we did absolutely nothing. We had run out of money, and were simply passing the time before our flight. So we walked around some parts of the city we had not been to before, and drank one final cup of tea before getting back on the tram and making our way to the airport. And around 9pm on Sunday, we arrived back at our apartment where I discovered something was wrong with my computer, but, thank goodness, the tech guy at school was able to fix it this morning!! Cause I have papers to write!!! Ireland and Peloponnese posts to come soon...hopefully!!