Why Everything In Turkey Was A Delight

Well except for actual turkish delight- I was not a fan. But everything else was absolutely AMAZING.

SIDE NOTE: I knew it was going to be a good weekend when I took money out of the ATM to find that about 2 Lira was $1. So for the first time in 3 months, things were actually cheaper than they looked. Our constant refrain was: "Cut that in half!!!!" Entrance fee 10 lira? "Cut that in half- that's only 5 bucks!" It was awesome!

After a quick and easy flight Friday morning 16 of the 20 of us arrived in Istanbul (the other four girls had arrived earlier in the day). Friday was mostly spent wandering around and taking in view. We went to the Blue Mosque where we watched a free presentation on Islam and the Blue Mosque (officially called Sultanahmet Mosque) built between 1609 and 1616. It was wonderful! Afterwards we took our shoes off and went inside for a look. It was a striking contrast to the many Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches we have seen. No icons, but instead there was writing and intricate designs. It was beautiful.

Presentation with free snacks

So beautiful

Praying

From the outside

That night all 20 of us went to tea and dinner and tried some Turkish Delight (mmmm not a fan). But turkish tea on the other hand is delicious- especially the apple. I must have gotten five cups all weekend. It was a large but very fun group of people. I was two-thirds of our group could make the trip, but we did miss those who weren't able to be there.

Saturday we had breakfast on the terrace of our hostel to stock up on energy before a day full of shopping. Our first stop: the Grand Bazaar. Lanterns, scarves, bowls, thimbles, rugs, jewelry- you name it! It was definitely sensory overload, but an excellent place for some Christmas shopping! We then went to the Spice Bazaar which had mostly dried fruits, spices, and different teas. It smelled heavenly!

The Grand Bazaar

Beautiful dried fruit 

After we'd shopped there was no time for dropping- we had some sights to see. The Basilica Cistern was built in the 500s for water needs. From the outside it sort of looked like people were just in line for a public restroom, but it was mind blowing after going down into it! It was beautiful and looked very mystical. One of the coolest things in Istanbul and I had no idea it even existed!

Does not do it justice...

We went to the Hagia Sophia after that- a very cool building. It is such a mash-up of Greek Orthodox and Islam. Several times Derek, Andrew, Drew, and I just sat in awe of how impressive it all was. Later that night we played cards and had tea on the terrace and had dinner as a group afterwards.

Hagia Sophia 

One Massive Building 

After breakfast on Sunday a few of us went to coffee in a really cute place with handmade beanbags. We were about to leave when the waiter told us there were ruins underneath that we should  check out. Sure enough, 5 minutes later we found ourselves standing in the midst of a Roman Palace. It was quite the surprise!

What started as a normal coffee date with Maggie, Kelly and others...

turned into an adventure! 

For lunch we took a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul (the official continental divide between Europe and Asia slices right through Istanbul). It was pretty uneventful, the food was delicious, but really the coolest thing was just adding "in Asia" at the end of everything we said. "Just eating lunch... IN ASIA" "Exploring... IN ASIA" "Looking for a bathroom... IN ASIA." I suppose that alone was worth the trip.

One last look at Europe from the ferry before lunch in Asia

Megan Levis, Mary and I grabbed some turkish gelato (not as strong of a flavor, but almost a taffy-like texture that was super fun to play with ). We then joined the whole group for some more tea, got falafel for dinner, and called it an early night. 11 of us had to catch a shuttle at 5:50 this morning to catch our flight.

Kate Derek and Me and some apple tea 

Everything went swimmingly until we caught our taxi to head back to our apartment. Kate, Katie, Megan Levis, and I arrived right by our apartment. The taxi service has a flat rate from the airport of 35 euro, but this driver was asking for 48. We tried arguing but he said "with toll and luggage" (we know for a fact toll is only 3 euro and taxi drivers normally don't request that and we only had our small backpacks). Katie and Kate both put in 20 but the driver suddenly was holding a 20 and a 5. He had switched one of the 20s for a 5 and hoped we wouldn't notice. When we called him out on it, he yelled at us to get out of the cab. Quite a stressful way to end, but if that was the worst thing of the weekend, I would say it was a success!