Istanbul...

Not Constantinople!

The above picture is courtesy of Hannah Gerstenblatt's camera.  I lost mine in Istanbul, so my camera is somewhere in Istanbul, not Constantinople.

Turkey was awesome. We flew out on Wednesday night and got into the very cozy Sultan's hostel around 10 pm. I don't know how this hostel is in business; it must be losing money. $8.50/person/night, and it includes FREE complementary breakfast (tons of hard boiled eggs, yogurt, granola, and rolls), FREE coffee and apple tea until 6 pm (apple tea is the staple drink of Turkey, it's amazing, tastes just like apple cider but a little tangier), and FREE internet/tv (proud to say I barely utilized that) to go along with a very nice location, right in the heart of the old city, about two blocks from all the sights. I got more than my money's worth just with breakfast, we stuffed rolls and hard boiled eggs in our pockets like packrats and ate them throughout the day while walking around the city.

The city is gorgeous. On a scale from 1 to 10, pictures don't do it any justice. There are two HUGE mosques, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, that are impossible to miss. The outside of the Blue Mosque is shown above, and the inside looks like this:

I bet the maintenance guys are happy the chandelier is so low to the ground, I can't imagine replacing light bulbs on the ceiling.

                                              

Outside from the imposing mosques, another highlight of the trip had to be the Grand Bazaar.  It's like the shuk, but about 10x as big and with a much bigger variety of things for sale.  Imagine Mall of America outside, spread out all on one floor.

This photo courtesy of Lindsay Weisberg

None of us had phones while in Istanbul because our Talk n Save are only set up to work in Israel, so one of the bigger challenges of the trip was staying together while we were in the bazaar.  I made things tough on everyone when I peeked my head in a rug shop and saw the two owners taking a break eating a meal.  I was about to leave but they beckoned me in, sat me down, and started feeding me while asking me where I was from.  It's painful that I had to type that out, because it was such a normal thing for them, it's custom to invite strangers in to eat if you are in the middle of eating, and just being hospitable is a part of their culture.  But it doesn't really work like that in America, especially in the malls.  I had a great talk with them and completely forgot to tell anyone where I was.  I emerged about 25 minutes later, full, knowing the full life story of Mohommed the Turk (he's got an uncle in New York), and saw the frantic faces of everyone I was with.  Oops.

Sightseeing was great, but since we were there for 5 days, we had time to do non-touristy things too, and those ended up being the most fun parts of the trip.  The first morning in Istanbul, we (Me, Isaac, Mike, and Sarah) all went for a jog around the city.  Our hostel is prime location so we got straight to the Bosphorous River, which runs through Istanbul and literally divides Europe from Asia.  That was one of the coolest running experiences I've had.  A bunch of young Turkish students started chasing after Isaac at one point, thinking he was Ussain Bolt.  Here's the river:

Not terribly exciting... BUT LOOK AT THE BOARDWALK!!!

You walk down that boardwalk, and you feel like a celebrity.  All the restaurant owners are standing out waiting to approach you as you walk by.  We literally didn't walk five feet down that boardwalk without someone trying to get us into their restaurant with special deals.  None of them really understand the word "free" though.  They say it to get your attention, but it doesn't mean anything.  Here is a typical way they would approach us.

"Hello, can I just say one thing?"

"Sure"

At this point, 2 different conversations will follow, depending on if you're a girl or guy.  

GUY

"I give you special deal.  Here is menu but don't look at prices, I'll give you a special deal."

"Ok.. what kind of special deal are we talking about?"

"Everything... FREE!"

"You mean, on the house?  Free?  We don't have to spend anything?"

"Yes, yes... FREE!  All... FREE! Special deal."

Then if you are naive enough to believe that there IS such thing as a free lunch (only if you stumble in on rug shop owners in the Bazaar), you will eat the meal and then receive the bill.

GIRLS

"You are beautiful.  I want you in my restaurant."

"Haha... what's so special about your place?"

"We have nice... chairs"*

"Sorry, we are gonna keep walking around, maybe we'll come back!"

"I hope you come back!  If not you break my heart."

*This was a verbatim quote from one flustered restaurant owner.  After walking around all day though, the nice chairs were appealing

Ironically, we passed on all of them and settled at probably the most expensive restaurant on the boardwalk, where I got a fish (which was delicious, to be fair) for about 24 Turkish Lira (about 16 bucks).  The best food opportunities in Turkey are buying from the street vendors.  They all have delicious rolls or drinks or clam, all for just one lira each.  Impossible to resist.  That's like not even 70 cents.  

The last day of the trip was by far the best one.  We took a ferry to Prince's Island, and fed the birds that flew alongside the boat during the ride by throwing bread crumbs at them.  They would swoop and dive to catch the bread in midair before it hit the water.  Then I came up with the genius idea to catch one of the birds.  I used the string from my 1 Lira Turkish top and tied it to a 1 Lira breadroll and waved it over the side of the boat, hoping to reel in a big bird.  I didn't have any luck, but I had fun trying:

When we got to the island, we rented bikes and rode around for about an hour.  We found a crazy high hill and pushed our bikes up it, then saw this really old church with intricate artwork at the top of the hill.  There was also a restaurant, so of course we had to get a beer and sip on it while looking out at the amazing view.  Then, we rode down the hill, which was not as fun as it seemed it would be because the rental bikes don't really have brakes.

All in all, Turkey was incredible and I wish I still had my camera but the memories will live on forever.  I definitely want to go back sometime.  There was one interesting piece of news waiting for us when we got back to Israel...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/22/turkey.sledgehammer.arrests/index.html

THAT HAPPENED WHILE WE WERE THERE!  Didn't hear a word about it.  Crazy.