Welcome to Istanbul!Three days in Istanbul! Surprise #1: it snowed all weekend. Serious, serious snowing, with often horizontal winds. We persevered in our sightseeing, though, and did not miss a single major site! Aya Sofia, a 1400-year-old church? Check:
The Blue Mosque, during freezing snow and getting to see the tail end of the Islamic services that evening? Check:
We also went to the Basilica Cistern (complete with live, eerie mood music), the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar, the Topkapi Palace (home to the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years) and the Archaeological Museum. Much of the weekend was spent bracing ourselves for the weather, enduring it as long as we could, and then racing for refuge in the form of an indoors sight, a restaurant, a hamam (Turkish Bath), or the hotel.
For the full album of Turkey photos, go here.
Other random highlights of the trip:
- Stalls in underground passageways selling handguns. Just rows and rows of handguns.
- We went to a hookah bar, where the attendant had to come by every two seconds and "fix" our hookah because we couldn't keep it properly lit.
- The random bar we ended up at Saturday night, complete with '80s music and a Turkish man wearing a black t-shirt with the Bald Eagle emblazoned across the front.
- Giving ourselves insulin shock from eating baklava.
- Lots and lots of Turkish tea.
- Being delayed by an hour on our return flight, and not getting home until 2:30 a.m.
- The grossly smoochy couple who used babytalk with each other. Sat in front of my friend on the plane, behind us on the shuttle into Istanbul, and were with us in line to board on our return flight, and with us on our train into London. They were ubiquitous.
Generally, Istanbul is amazing. Try not to go when it's freezing. People are very nice and helpful, food is tasty, and there's nothing quite as amazing as escaping a snowstorm to sit in a hot, steamy room and get scrubbed raw by an ancient Turkish woman in a saggy one-piece and a buzzcut. You think I'm joking, but I'm so not. It was amazing.
One thing I did not love: the book Istanbul, by Orhan Pamuk. He's a Nobel Prize winner, and he's lived in Istanbul all his life, so I thought it would be amazing and inspire a deeper love of the city. Instead, it somewhat made me want to poke myself in the eye with a fork. It's more or less intolerable, actually, and I'm not sure I can finish it. And I'm only at chapter five.
The Blue Mosque, during freezing snow and getting to see the tail end of the Islamic services that evening? Check:
We also went to the Basilica Cistern (complete with live, eerie mood music), the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar, the Topkapi Palace (home to the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years) and the Archaeological Museum. Much of the weekend was spent bracing ourselves for the weather, enduring it as long as we could, and then racing for refuge in the form of an indoors sight, a restaurant, a hamam (Turkish Bath), or the hotel.
For the full album of Turkey photos, go here.
Other random highlights of the trip:
- Stalls in underground passageways selling handguns. Just rows and rows of handguns.
- We went to a hookah bar, where the attendant had to come by every two seconds and "fix" our hookah because we couldn't keep it properly lit.
- The random bar we ended up at Saturday night, complete with '80s music and a Turkish man wearing a black t-shirt with the Bald Eagle emblazoned across the front.
- Giving ourselves insulin shock from eating baklava.
- Lots and lots of Turkish tea.
- Being delayed by an hour on our return flight, and not getting home until 2:30 a.m.
- The grossly smoochy couple who used babytalk with each other. Sat in front of my friend on the plane, behind us on the shuttle into Istanbul, and were with us in line to board on our return flight, and with us on our train into London. They were ubiquitous.
Generally, Istanbul is amazing. Try not to go when it's freezing. People are very nice and helpful, food is tasty, and there's nothing quite as amazing as escaping a snowstorm to sit in a hot, steamy room and get scrubbed raw by an ancient Turkish woman in a saggy one-piece and a buzzcut. You think I'm joking, but I'm so not. It was amazing.
One thing I did not love: the book Istanbul, by Orhan Pamuk. He's a Nobel Prize winner, and he's lived in Istanbul all his life, so I thought it would be amazing and inspire a deeper love of the city. Instead, it somewhat made me want to poke myself in the eye with a fork. It's more or less intolerable, actually, and I'm not sure I can finish it. And I'm only at chapter five.
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