So If you have a date in Constantinople she'll be waiting in Istanbul" My Turkish Weekend

What is there to say about traveling to Turkey? It's beyond amazing? A life experience that I wish everyone could have? A trip that you will be guarenteed to never want to leave from? All of the above.

I have been living Abroad for officially for about 8 weeks now and things that I never expected are becoming normal things. I get up in the morning, make my disgusting instant coffee and turn on my computer... forgetting that Im even in Europe. The fact that google comes up in Czech doesn't even phase me anymore. Every city I have traveled to so far; Berlin, Krakov, VIenna, Bratislava, all European countries, are amazing, yet begin to not feel like a vacation but a road trip from say manhattan to Brooklyn. (not that Im comparing those places, its just they are all very simillar.) However, traveling to Istanbul was exactly the opposite and an experience like no other. Hnads down my favorite vacation ever through my 20 years of life. Ill start at the beginning, but beware, I'm telling you EVERYTHING.

Plane ride to Turkey: Turkish Airline. Hands down best airline I have ever been on in my life. They handed out menus for the complete meal that we got for a short 2 hour flight. If only America was so hospitable. So on the way there we had kidney beans with a piece of cheese, Beef burger with sauteed eggplant, potato gratin, a fresh roll, crackers and butter, the BEST almond cake I have ever had, and a cute water container. Also a drink, aka a 187mL bottle of turkish wine (thats right free alcohol on flights in Europe) and turkish coffe and tea and nuts. Talk about service. I took the fork for my collection.

After landing and taking out a million dollars from te ATM (not really, its 1 turkish lyra to 65 cents) we were able to find the metro and get to the hostel. Note- the Turks are soo friendly. We couldn' figure out how to work the metro so the guard helped us buy them, give us change and maps how to get to our destination. Everyone was super helpful and so friendly. We hadn't even left the airport and I was in love.

When we got off the metro, it was the most beautiful weather and such a calm serene setting. There were PALM TREES!!!! We started walking towards the hostel and saw the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. I can tell you they are beautiful, but it will never be good enough to just describe these structures. It was unlike anything I had ever seen and it was such a surreal feeling seeing these buildings, things you read about in school but never ever dream of actually seeing. We made it to the hostel, family room!!! We had a private room with 2 bunk beds that were falling apart and a nice communal bed. Plus the bathroom consisted of the toliet being in the shower as the shower was the entire room. and lots of mold. but it was nice! haha.
It was midnight by this time, so we just explored a little by our hostel and found this amazing street full of little resturants and bars and cafes. Everything was lit up and people were outside and everyone just seemed so content. Also- there are so many stray cats. Stray cats in Istanbul are like Squirrels in NYC. Crazy.

In the morning we got up really early and went to the roof for the hostel breakfast- which was a traditional turkish breakfast and not one of my favorites: a plate with olives, cucumber, tomato slices, a hard boiled egg, and a roll with butter and honey. and the most amazing turkish cup of coffee. I love turkish coffee!!!! After breakfast we headed back into the area where the Mosques are and found an old Byzantine stone that was known as the center of the universe, which is the place where they measured all distances from on the roads throughout the empire, including the silk road. Then we went into the Hagia sophia... which was expensive but sooo worth it. It was absolutely beautiful. A lot of it was covered in gold and there were beautiful mosaics covering a lot of the walls.
OMGZ I forgot the best part. Our first full day was friday which is the Holy day. During the prayer time, a bunch of times throughout the day, the MOsques would sing the prayers over loudspeakers so you could hear it throughout the entire city. It was so beautiful and a GREAT change from the cathedral bells I hear every single day here in Prague.

After the Hagia Sophia we walked through a garden with palm trees to the Blue Mosque. We went in the courtyard but couldn't go into the actual mosque because services were in session.

We then decied to walk towards the grand Bazzar and the spice market on our way to the water. We got a little lost and ended up in areas that probably were not the safest for obvious tourists, but finally made it to the Bazzar and walked through. It was insane. So many people and crowds, people yelling out things in turkish trying to sell to you, cats, everyhing. We made it through, deciding to come back later and spend all the money we had, but never made it back. Instead we found the spice market. The most amazing place ever. so many spices, candies, teas in containers all over the place along with potter, scarves and basically everything you could ever want. It was so hard to walk through and not buy anything.

We finally made it to the sea side (or the strait side as we were on the Bosphorus Strait) and began the tasting of the amazing street food Istanbul is known for. We had a sandwich which is baiscally pita bread with the shaved beef, with lettuce, tomato, pickles sliced in stick shapes and french fries. SO GOOD. I dont know why we never eat french fries on sandwichs before, but from now on that is my thing. Also it was so good and there was no sauce or oil on it... so maybe a litte healthy?

After the eating we borded a ferry and took it across the Strait to the Asia side of Istanbul. Thats right. I, Samantha Strang am able to say I have been to Asia. Istanbul is the only city located in 2 continents. So while here I found an HSBC bank and wanted to take it home to praha with me. We walked around and found a nice little resturant for our second Turkish meal that day, Kebabs, another specialty there. We also tried the special turkish drink Ayran, which is, according to wikipedia, a mizture of yogurt water and salt. It basically tastes like ocean water and spoiled milk and is the most disgusting thing I have ever tried. At least the food was amazing.

So after chillin in Asia for a little we took the ferry back to Europe and went back to the spice market to do some shopping. They are big on barginning and LOVE to try to sell you things. Which after a while can get annoying. Also- they love to compliment you to try to get you to buy things, you wouldn't even believe the crazy pick up lines we heard the entire time there. Sometimes its nice, especailly when they give you free samples of turkish delight, the candy there that is kinda like a gummy but most have nuts in them as well. So good! And I bought a ton of stuff... including some turkish coffee beans and their famous apple tea which is sooooo good. I cant wait to be home to have it!

After shopping we went back to the hostel and changed into some "turkish" clothes... aka I had a purple shirt that reminded me of turkey when I bought it, and went to that cute street around the corner to eat. Everyone stands outside their restuant and tries to get you to come and we found one that gave us a geat deal- free bread and tea, and 15% off of the meal. We sat outside next to the heaters and the atmosphere was amazing. The people that worked there were so friendly and wanted to talk to us the entire time, I think they really enjoy speaking english. I had a really good beef kebab, and we tried the national alcohol drink- raki- which is also disgusting. luckily we had the free tea thing going on. What was really interesting was agian, the stray cats sitting under and around the table while we were eating. After dinner and pictures with the waiters, we found a traditional turkish hooka bar and had some apple tea and waited for the rain to stop. The woman who worked there was really nice and was still in schoool in Istanbul. She sat and talked with us and told us some great places to visit the next day. It was such a low key but amazing night to just sit there and enjoy the culture.

The next day, after our turkish beakfast, it was cold and damp from the all night rain. We went to the Topkapi Palace, but it was full of tour groups and cost a lot to get in, so we took pictures of the outside, and then we were going to go across the strait to the other side of Istanbul but still in Europe to see the Galata tower. But before we made it we stopped at the spice market again and bought more things and then stopped and got those amazing sandwhiches again! Then we took the long cold windy walk across the bridge and walked uphill for a million years and finally made it to the tower. We paid to go up and had a beautiful view of the entire city. It was so interesting to see the built up city and then on hills throught were tons of Mosques all over the city. While we were up there is started to DOWNPOUR. SO the 4 of us, under 1 umbrella, slowly walked to a little dessert shop we saw on the way and went in. Apple tea and chocolate rasberry cake made me feel better about all the rain. It was soooo good. and the apple tea of course was amazing!

Afterwards we started on the long walk back across the bridge, through the market and back to the hostel where we got ready for the turkish bath.

Traditional turkish bath... definitely an experience. First they give you a locked room in which you change into a towel that they provivde, which is pretty small so we all wore our bathing suite bottoms.Then the women and men are seperated and we were led into this cave like room where it was very hot and damp. you sit there (naked, except us americans who kept our towels on the whole time) and pour this warm water all over your body. it was actually really relaxing. After about 20 minutes of that you are taken to a room and lay down on a slab on top of your towel. They splash water over you and then scrub your body with a rough scrubbing pad, which hurts but it was nice to get all the dead skin off. Then they take a pillow case like thing that is all foamy soap and spread it all over your body, then massage you and rinse. then you roll over and they do the front, which is interesting, especially being topless. After that they shampoo and massage your head which feels amazing and send you back to the bathing room to rinse off. Then they give you a dry towel and blanket and send you into the common room where everyone is sitting around a heater thing and they give you APPLE TEA!!! overall it was a definite interesting and traditional experience, and Im glad we were able to do that, even if it was a little strange.

Then we went to get dinner and was sold at the place that offered us free tea and bread and free dessert. More friendly staff (we were sold to the owner for camels... great) and some strange experiences (the one played American music on his laptop and left it on our table while he was working outside) but it was a good dinner and good baklava for dessert.

The next morning, after realzing that we were an hour ahead of Praha and so had been waking up an hour later than we thought, we headed out to the square and went into the Blue Mosque, which was beautiful, of course. Then we went to see the Hippodrome. Note- on the map they gave us it said the hippodrome was way far away and we would need to take the metro to get there. luckily we asked because that was the NEW hippodrome and the old one, the one we wanted to see, was just behind the blue Mosque. It was really cool... some old Byzantine ruins and an egyptian tower. And the weather was really nice so it was enjoyable. We headed over to this chicken kebab place we saw the day before and had lunch, which was amaizng, and got free tea and apples. The waiter really loved us... giving us his cell number and email and we took a ton of pictures with him....and Im totally emailing him!

After that we went to get our luggage, and sat in the gardens between the two Mosques until we had to go to the airport. Also tried this hot drink which was milk honey, cinamon and a bunch of other things, but was so good!

The plane ride home was agian enjoyable, being served chicken, polenta, the roll andcrackers, hot veggies, and HUMMAS!!!! and some chocoate moouse.

It was the best trip I have ever taken in my life and I definitely miss it already. Although it was nice to be back to Praha, who knows when or if I will ever get back to Turkey. I definitely reccomend splurging and going to Istanbul! (not COnstantinople!!)