Turkish Delight

Jumpin around with Erika and Victoria

Last weekend I went to Istanbul, Turkey! Easily the most memorable trip I have been on in my entire time abroad. Istanbul has always intrigued me, as it is so different than every other country in Europe. Erika, Victoria and I left Thursday with smooth travels the entire way. We arrived late Thursday night and took a shuttle to our hostel. We knew our travels had been too smooth all day because when we drove to our hostel our Turkish driver who spoke no English got lost for over 45 minutes driving in circles asking every single person on the street where to go. In that time we managed to hit a car, drive on the wrong side of the road, encounter over 30 cats, and almost be dropped off at the wrong hostel. We laughed our way threw the disaster finally arriving at our hostel at 1:30 in the morning. Our hostel was not exactly what we expected, but it offered us a very “cultural” experience with friendly and helpful staff.

Grand Bazaar!

Our first day we spent wandering around, trying to get our bearings. The whole weekend we sang and danced around the city, mostly “Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and “A Whole New World” from Aladdin because of all the magic carpets. We were all experiencing a bit of culture shock with the extreme differences in food, language, atmosphere, and Muslim traditions of prayer over a megaphone 5 times a day. Victoria’s friend Natalie arrived that afternoon and we all went to the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is basically a huge flea market with everything from fake designer attire to cultural carpets and bags. With over 5,000 shops and shouting Turkish men we were a little overwhelmed, but mostly excited. That night we went to dinner at a rooftop restaurant, which turned out to have absolutely horrible food. I took us 3 days to learn that you need to spend more than 10 lira (5 dollars) to get decent food. Despite the bad food the first few days we loved the apple tea and drank it in bean bags at least 2 times a day.

Palaces with Erika

Day two we crossed the river to the modern part of town. We walked down the main drag and tried Baklava and Turkish Delight, two of the most famous desserts of Turkey. We shopped that day and among all of us bought bags, pillowcases, shoes, shirts, jewelry, tablecloths and much more. We went a little crazy because the currency was so cheap and we couldn’t get enough. We walked back over to the historical side where we were staying. On the bridge there were hundreds of men fishing and so many people walking by, honking horns, everything loud and overwhelming. We stopped in the Egyptian Spice Market briefly where Victoria bought some tea. It was one of the most crowded areas I have ever been in and we all held tight to each other as Turkish people shouted across the way. That night we went to a Belly Dancing performance, which we absolutely loved. It had traditional dancing and was a lot of fun to see. We belly danced our way home that night eating Baklava on the way. In honor of Aladdin we took a magic carpet ride with the carpet in our room before we went to bed.

Mosques with Victoria, Natalie, and Erika 

Our last day was spent seeing the Mosques and the Palaces. The Mosques were beautiful and so unique. I liked seeing them at night because they looked like lit up palaces. The Muslim culture was a little overwhelming at times with the women covering their heads and facing and the loud speaker going off every few hours with Turkish chanting. Definitely very different from the world I know, but all very interesting. The palaces were beautiful and made me wish we were in Agra Bah in Aladdin. That afternoon we signed up for a Turkish Bath which is suppose to be like a spa from the Roman Empire. 

Inside the Hagia Sophia 

We heard incredible things about them and were told we must go. Well it turns out we signed up for the wrong one and we canceled our appointment and went out to a nice dinner instead. Finally on our last night we had amazing Turkish food and delicious desserts. We left early the next morning and headed back to Italy, where we missed so much. The word to describe the weekend: memorable. Everything seemed to be overwhelming and off and things constantly went wrong but we laughed our way through and had an incredible time!