Istanbul is an amazing city! I can't even describe it, it is s
o much different than anywhere I have ever been. London is magical, has crazy architecture, and a ton of personality.
But, Istanbul is seriously something else. I'll start with Thursday. Thursday, we took off in the morning, flew via Turkish Airlines and had a pretty amazing plane. We got into Istanbul and were coached to our hotel. It was really cool to see the city's panorama change as we went further into the city. They have city centers with huge skyscrapers, crazy villages of old and new houses and then the most unbelievable mosques and palaces. We got to our hotel which was very nice and had an amazing view which you got to see each morning for breakfast. That night we went out as a group for dinner at an awesome restaurant. The building we were in had to be a couple hundred years old but it was a small little place that was 5 stories high, but only
a table or two on each floor. The ambiance was really cool and the food was even better. Turkish food is amazing! I was in heaven for the whole weekend. We
had a great appetizer, I got some great lamb for dinner, and then had a weird pumpkin dessert. We were also introduced (by one of my professors who was on the trip with us) to Raki, a liquor that comes from grapes. It kind've tastes like black licorice, and you mix it with water. It's clear until you put the water in and then it turns cloudy.
After dinner we went to a small place and met some local Turks. They were super friendly, great hosts, and had a great time. However, I thought in London people stayed up late. But Turkey is something else, nothing closes so we were out until 4:30 without really even noticing it. The next morning we had to get up bright and early for some sight seeing and touring. We started out by going to the Blue Mosque which is one of the greatest looking buildings in the world. After that we went to the infamous Hagia Sophia, we then went a to a bazaar where there was tons of shops and opportunities to barter with people. We also took a boat trip up the Bosphorus, which splits the city (if you didn't know, one half of Istanbul is in Europe and the other is in Asia). Friday night we found another great Turkish restaurant in a much different part of town called Tacsum Square. Tacsum Square has hundreds of restaurants, bars, and clubs and on a weekend night there is usually 100,000 people on this one strip. It was
pretty crazy. I had another great lamb dish. After that the group of us from SJU met up with our professor and the other two directors from FIE that came along. It was so much fun, we went to a couple places and all had a blast. Hopefully I just locked in an A!
On Saturday we were up and at it early again. We went to Topkapi Palace, which is wear the Sultan of the Byzantine turned Ottoman Empire actually lived. It's now a very famous museum with some incredible artifacts. They have several items preserved from Muhammad (of the bible and starter of Islam). After the palace, we went to the grand bazaar. The grand bazaar was unbelievable. It's a two-square mile village of little streets that have merchants selling anything and everything. I loaded up on some pretty cools things from the grand bazaar. At this place you could really barter with the merchants.
On Saturday night we went out again for some great Turkish food, actually no one but
me enjoyed their food on that night, but that's all that matters. We went back out to Tacsum Square on Saturday and just hung out as a group at a few quieter places. Once again we were out til 4 though. Today was the first day that we didn't have to get up at 8, so we slept in a bit. But at noon we went to a really cool area of town called Ortakoy. There is a very famous mosque there, which is right on the river. There was a great view of the Asian side. The streets around there had lots of little vendors as well, so that was cool to experience. I got a really cool picture of the skyline of Istanbul when I was at Ortakoy today. Eric and I tried some food from a street vendor. Not sure what is was or what was in it, but it was really good.
We got back in tonight and like I said I am super exhausted. I am so glad I decided to
do this trip though, it was unbelievable and I would've paid way more to experience everything I got to do.
Hope all is well back in MN. I probably won't blog again until after next weekend. This week I'm just a student again but Saturday I am going to see Stonehenge. Feel free to e-mail me throughout the week. Love you!
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