Istanbul, Not Constantinople....

We had lots and lots of fun in Istanbul. We thought a few times that we would be trampled, someone tried to pickpocket Morgan, my professor said we passed at least 10 radicals on jihad in one day (although he told us this afterwards), but all in all, it was an excellent time.

We left Blago on Thursday afternoon and got stuck in the mud on the way to bus station. Nathan almost lost his shoes as we had an exciting adventure of climbing up riverbanks and trying not to slip into the river. Please, don't worry about us too much--we just make bad decisions sometimes.

So our mud adventures made us miss our bus and we had to wait with a million other people for the next bus to Sofia. Have we told you about lines in Bulgaria? They don't exist. It is definitely each man for himself and two people weasled onto the bus in front of us and we didn't get seats on that bus either. Thankfully, another bus to Sofia loaded 5 minutes later and we hopped on that one. Sometimes you can really luck out with buses because timetables also don't really exist in Bulgaria. I mean, they have time tables, but each one says a different time and none of them are really accurate. You pretty much go to the station, hope for the best and it always (so far) has worked out.

We finally got to Sofia, met with the other students and hopped on the bus to Istanbul. We fell asleep and slept the entire way there except at the border. The border with Turkey is kay-ray-zy. It took us 2 hours to cross the border. We had to disembark the bus 4 separate times. The Americans had to buy visas. We all had to have our luggage searched. It was cold, rainy and 2 in the morning. Traveling this much has taught me that borders are exceedingly creepy and this border was no exception. Ugh.

So we finally arrive in Istanbul around 6 am. We can't check into our rooms until 1 pm, so we decide to walk around the city a bit. We went to the Grand Bazaar to walk through before all of the shops opened. Here is Nathan and I at 7:30 am in front of the Bazaar:It was very rainy and slightly cold and we were all a bit cranky so we stopped in to a tea shop for tea. Whew! Turkish tea is super strong. You know when you leave the tea bag in for too long and the bitter tannin of the tea comes out? That's how the Turks drink their tea. Good, but rather odd tasting.

Speaking of cranky, it was at this point in our trip that Team America (that's what I call all of the study abroad students collectively) began to get a bit miffed at one of our traveling companions. I won't go into everything, but the long and short of it that you can't make blatantly rude and judgmental statements that are sweepingly general about our country without offending us. Look, I think we all carry a good bit of guilt around about the US. For crying out loud, we are white American college students. We are taught to feel guilty about our country. See: Stuff White People Like--Guilt. Still, we draw the line at people attempting to make us feel guilty about decaf tea (chamomile was the tea in question) or trying to tell us that we ONLY eat processed food (this person was shocked to know that we eat fresh fish--seriously). Also, it is best if you want to form grossly inaccurate opinions about another country, ie the United States, that you actually go to this country at some point in your life. I'm just saying....

So anyway, this person routinely brought up lies about the US throughout the entire weekend and could not be persuaded that she might be wrong. Needless to say, it got to be really old very quickly...

Moving on....after breakfast we visited Hagia Sophia. That's right--on Good Friday we were in Hagia Sophia. It really is as majestic and beautiful and elegant as I've always been told. It was amazing to stand in this building that for hundreds of years was THE center of the Christian world.
Across the street is the mosque that was built to compete in greatness with Hagia Sophia after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. We didn't get to go in there because we were there around the time of noon prayers.
One of the most famous mosaics in the world...saw it with my own eyes.
What was so beautiful about Hagia Sophia was the care that they put into designing and decorating it. There was really nothing more important for the Eastern Romans than to build the grandest Christian temple in the world to assert their faith and the claim on the mandate of Heaven. Here's a prime example of this idea--below is a picture of wall composed of 10 marble slabs. The marble was sliced in sheets and then mounted so that the entire wall would have symmetry. Beautiful.
We went back to the Bazaar after Hagia Sophia to do a bit of shopping before it got way too crowded. Isn't it beautiful? Nathan haggled and bought me a beautiful pashmina to add to my collection!
Here is a pottery shop in the Grand Bazaar. The Bazaar was, at one point, the largest market in the world and goods from every part of the known world from Chinese silks to Italian glass was sold in its stalls. It has survived numerous earthquakes and business is still done there in much the same way as it was thousands of years ago.
When we finally got to our hotel this little girl was waiting for us outside of our room. We had fun playing with her. We also made a cat friend in Hagia Sophia. There were cats everywhere in Turkey and unlike in Bulgaria, France, Italy and Greece, they actually let me talk to them and pet them--very exciting!
The next morning we started off our day by going to the mosaic museum. It houses the mosaics that hung in the Byzantine palaces. This was my favorite--look at those geese!
Prettiest. Bathroom. Ever. This was at a smaller bazaar.
I think the coolest place we visited in Istanbul was the Byzantine Imperial Cistern. It was awe-inspiring to think of people 1500 years ago building this water system. It was also really cold and dark and creepy because it was underground.
After the cistern, we walked to Topkapi Palace where the Ottoman sultans lived. The treasuries were filled with insanely ornate, diamond-encrusted items. Also, remember the trees that the French compulsively trimmed? They have the same trees in Turkey and here's what they look like when you let them grow for a few hundred years:
I have no pictures of Topkapi because they weren't allowed, but we saw a gorgeous palace grounds, the sword of David (as in, David and Goliath), the rod of Moses, the arm of John the Baptist and the beard of Muhammed. I don't generally believe in relics, but there sure were a lot at Topkapi that they obviously thought were very, very real.

We walked down from the palace to the Bosphorus and I finally got to see a stork flying! There were a ton of storks nesting and wild parrots! Here's a shot of fisherman lined up along the Bosphorus. You can see Asia on the other shore.
I asked my professor what kind of fish they were catching. His reply? Poisoned. Oh well, I ate a Bosphorus fish sandwich. It was delicious--grilled fish, raw onions. lemon juice and salt on freshly baked bread. Here are Kim and I about to eat the most delicious meal I've had in the past few months:
Speaking of food, we ate really, really well in Turkey. Lots of yummy spiced vegetables over rice and fresh baked bread and stuffed grape leaves. Mmmm...

I'll leave you with a shot of the Turkish flag against a beautiful blue sky. Mama and Daddy arrive on Wednesday so I'm sure we'll have many more adventures to report on soon!