Istanbul: Day 1

Today was our first full day in Istanbul and began with the search for a cafe. We're staying in the dorms of a university here so you would think there would be some sort of cafe here, but no. So, we wandered around and found this place which had lots of pastry looking things so decided it would work out. Nothing was labeled and there is quite a communication barrier when you don't speak a word of Turkish so we basically just pointed at various things.

Surprisingly, the pastries here are not sweet. Well, at least the breakfast ones aren't. Mine had olives in it, some had cheese of various types, one had onions, and so on. But they were all really good! It was just a big change from our Italian standards.

After breakfast, we listened to Resat (our Turkish professor) tell us about what we'd be seeing and all that but I was incredibly distracted the whole time because of this mysterious stray cat that was literally wandering around our group and meowing. There are tons of stray cats and dogs here. This cat wasn't even cute--it was mangy and gross and obnoxiously loud. I really don't like cats all that much.

Anyways, we got on our bus after that (which is wonderfully air conditioned) and went over to the old city part of Istanbul. We were going to do the ancient sites and things today but really, there's not that much to see. Turkey is not like Rome where all the ancient stuff has been preserved and is still there. Really, we just saw a column and some random marble lying around in the midst of a tramway. It wasn't that cool, to be honest. We saw some old walls and went to get coffee/tea at a hookah bar. Our tour guide woman was telling us about this great place for tea and she brought us to it and literally it was full of older Turkish guys smoking. But whatever! I got apple tea for the first time and it was delicious. It was similar to apple cider, only like a million times better.

After that, we saw this ancient racetrack thing that again had been turned into a modern area and the only things there are two columns and this bronze thing. I didn't really understand what we were supposed to be looking at. But, our professor is friends with this woman that started the Istanbul Culinary Institute so we went there for lunch and it was good. Not as good as last night, but good. We had this interesting yogurt soup with wheat chunks that was surprisingly good despite its description. Then, we had a parsley salad that I did not like. Literally, it was parsley with dressing. Parsley is a garnish, not lettuce. But oh well! We had this chicken dish with a Turkish version of pasta that was fantastic for the main course and then a lemon jello-like thing for dessert that I also enjoyed. So overall it was good. Without the parsley mysteriousness it would have been better.

After lunch, we went to the GRAND BAZAAR dun dun dun. It has 4000 shops. 4000!!!! They could give us like 8 days to spend in there and it wouldn't be enough. But they only gave us an hour and a half so we wandered at high speed. I got something completely ridiculous and unnecessary but I wanted it so badly and the guy gave me a really good deal along with a free evil eye charm thing. Curious as to what I got?? A beautiful mosque lamp! I don't exactly know how I'm going to get it home without breaking it but I will find a way. The guy at the store did some extreme bubble wrapping so it should be okay.

After the Bazaar, we came home to the dorms (I napped on the bus) and I uploaded pictures and blogged. Nothing too exciting. But now we're going out to walk along the river and find some dinner so I'm excited. Hopefully we'll find something as delicious as my expectations seem to be.

Only three more days of Istanbul fun and then I'm on my way home!!