What exactly was it that possessed me and tricked me into thinking it would be a magnificent idea to travel, for 11 days straight, w/ a guy named Mark who is an uber meathead? I'm not sure but it turned out to be one of the greatest trips of my life. I can't really get along w/ anybody for 11 days, let alone someone I've only known for 2 months. But it worked and on March 5 Mark and I embarked on an 11 day journey that took us to three countries and two continents. You heard right - I've officially been to Asia! But on to more important things...
We stayed in "Istanbul Hostel" (I recommend it) which happened to be about a 10 minute walk from any and everything you'd want in Istanbul, Turkey. There's the Blue Mosque (have ya heard of it? Google it, you'll be amazed), the AyaSofia, the Topkapi Palace (the children on field trips LOVED Americans), the Basilica Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar in "old Istanbul." The new part across the water is geared toward a younger crowd and is mostly secular. Mark and I spent a night there which I really don't remember at all if ya dig what I mean...But when we were there during the day we climbed (by elevator) the Galata Tower which overlooks both the old city, new city, and Asian parts of Istanbul. It is a huge freaking place - 14 million people and it goes on for miles and miles. The next day we took a boat to the Asian part (technically the Middle East, and you could kind of tell) where there were little to no tourists and being 6'2'' w/ blonde hair, Mark made us stick out like sore thumbs. But Istanbul is also home to some of the most friendly people in the world (I can't decide if it's their nature or just a way to get us to buy things). Either way we were treated to many free teas, coffee, and the like by the Turkish people.
The Grand Bazaar is a shopper's paradise as it houses 4,000 shops under one 'roof.' Luckily the Turkish Lira is pretty weak which was convincing enough for me to spend a..shit ton of money. The Turks are damn good salesmen (and I can say men because the women there are somewhat hidden away. I could ask a man a question and they'd always direct the answer to Mark.) I came away w/ a Turkish rug, a Hookah (I don't even smoke hookah), and plenty of gifts for people back home. So I guess I'm saying YOU'RE WELCOME and my parents can't be mad because I hardly bought anything for myself (except some knock off Adidas pants - but hey! Mark bought a matching pair and we wore them to the airport and got on TV for it). So I guess I'm also saying I'm a celebrity in Turkey.
All in all Turkey was a fantastic experience. It was the first place I've visited where the national religion is non-Christian and it's also a place highly threatened by war. But the Turkish were a very peaceful people (aside from an incident early on in the trip in which we saw a man getting beaten in the head w/ a baton - remotely horrifying).
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