Istanbul was once Constantinople

Once in Istanbul, I found my way to my friend’s place, got to see her for a few seconds as I was early enough to catch her on her way to school, and then crashed.  About noon, I woke up and decided to go sightseeing.  I was quite proud of myself for remembering so much of what Istanbul looked like and actually was able to get around fairly easily.  I strolled through the Spice Market, Grand Bazaar, through the Hippodrome, by the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, but quickly realized that I did not sightseeing alone nearly as much.  

Shots of the Spice Market/Egyptian Bazaar

 It was blazing hot, and I was sweating mercilessly, so I decided to add a new cultural twist to my adventure and check out the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art.  Sadly, the air in there was stifling, but I did see some beautiful art, including giant carpets, beautiful books, and some gorgeous furniture meant for holding Korans.  My favorite exhibit was the ethnographic area which recreated the inside of houses of various types from around Turkey.  It highlighted women’s work, like dying and weaving wool while also showing me how a yurt worked.  After that, I decided to take a real break and head to my favorite place for Turkish delight.  Yes, Turkish delight is real and is usually made of nuts (pistachios are the most common) covered in a flavored sugary gummy compound which can then be covered with powdered sugar or coconut.  It’s much better than that description makes it sound, and I have come to the conclusion it is soooo much better fresh than when bought in a sealed tourist box so I limit my enjoyment to when I can get it fresh.  I got a sample and some tea and enjoyed both as I watched a family struggle to make purchases.  They bought a lot, but the boys wanted everything, and the parents took forever to find a box they thought would survive an airplane ride.  I got there after them and still left first.

Tea and Turkish delight

Eventually I wound my way to Taksim to meet my friend.  When we met up, we strolled through the main street of shops, restaurants, and street performers and caught up.  Eventually we decided to find a place for dinner.  One lucky salesman found the magic words of “salad bar 6 lira”; beautiful words to two girls whose colons had suffered from a severe lack of vegetables for months.  We piled our plates high with delicious veggies and then shared a main dish.  We were two bednieri gogos (happy girls).  

SALAD BAR!!!!!!!

The next morning we set out to find an epic Turkish breakfast.  My friend is a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain so when I saw he had a Turkish breakfast recommendation near my friend’s place, we ventured over there.  It was not cheap for breakfast, but we stuffed ourselves with the various kinds of bread, cheese, pepper-covered vegetables, and honey butter while looking out over the water.   They also continually served you fresh Turkish tea, so I had seven.

Our amazing Turkish breakfast

Full of delicious food from the Kale Cafe

After we could eat no more, we walked along the waterfront, seeing all sorts of men fishing, swimming, and lounging.  We only saw one woman daring to go into the water, but we saw more of her than we wanted.  We passed by an old Roman fort and eventually made our way back to the touristy area.  One of my goals for Istanbul was to buy lots of scarves.  By myself in the Grand Bazaar, I easily got overwhelmed, but with a friend, it was easier.  It was still crazy hot, so we frequently tried to cool ourselves off with stops for fresh squeezed juice and even a trip to McDonald’s for the AC.  We met up with another TLG friend that night, went to a more local part of town, took a funicular up a hill, and paid too much for tea and a great view of the Golden Horn.  We wandered around that area a bit and then made our way down through some houses.  The only negative experience of the trip happened then, but it is much better described by my friend here.  I did feel special finally making it into her blog, since her blog was one of the more popular ones in TLG.  I also was unaware we had a certain reputation for misadventures, but, as this blog probably shows, we deserved it.

Getting over the incident, we found a place to eat.  We started talking and it turned into another fabulous Georgian night, where talking to expats whiled away the hours.  Unfortunately, once we stepped out of the restaurant, we were reminded we weren’t in Georgia anymore but in Turkey, where public transportation apparently stops about midnight and taxis are not as cheap or easy to come by.  We split a cab to a more central location, said goodbye to the one friend, and then, thanks to a family, made it on the last tram on the night to Taksim, where we again caught what was probably the last bus to my friend’s neck of the woods.  Once there, I showered and packed.  We did not get to sleep until past 2, but since it was my last night on my adventure, it was worth the short amount of sleep.

Thankfully I made it to the airport just fine the next day. For some reason, there were about 7 layers of security for American flights, but I passed them all.  After an extremely long day with no sleep, I eventually ended up in Springfield.  It took my bags another 3 days to get home, but neither will be leaving America anytime soon. TSA searched my bags but did not touch the chacha.  They did however trade my beautiful red leather belt for a red HTC battery, which I'm not so happy about.

Right now I’m just trying not to turn into a pumpkin at 10pm and trying to make decisions about my life here, so processing has taken a bit of a back seat.  This may be the last blog post, or I might have more reflections or extra stories I never told.  Either way, thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed the ride almost as much as I did.  It’s been an incredible year.