Istanbul!

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Istanbul is absolutely gorgeous. The whole city is dotted with beautiful mosques and the whole city seems to pulse to the call to prayer five times a day. From the plane, the minarets spiral upwards, away from the city.

The first full day we were there, Hilary, Jodi, Nataly, Emily, and I wandered a little bit with the help (kind of) of my new map before we finally asked directions to Sultanehmet Square. We somehow managed to take the tramvay to Sultanehmet and we walked to the Blue Mosque but got there just as they were closing to visitors for prayer. Haghia Sophia is just across from the Blue Mosque, so we went there first. Haghia Sophia was first a church, built by Justinian in the 6th century, and it was later turned into a mosque. Today it's a museum, and the mosaics of Jesus and Justinian that had been covered with plaster have been revealed and restored. From Haghia Sophia, Hilary and I tried to find the Yerebatan Cistern, but some Turkish man told us that we had to go see the Hippodrome first, so he took us there. We realized that most Turks are aspiring tour guides. He told us that the Hippodrome was where they used to race horses. We met up with Nataly, Jodi, and Emily and went inside the Blue Mosque, which is only really called the Blue Mosque by tourists because there are so many blue tiles inside it. Afterwards, Hilary and I walked to the Grand Bazaar, where we were overwhelmed with "hello"s and "Where are you from?"s and "Look in my store"s and "Come to the disco with me"s and "You are so sweet"s. We laughed a lot. We walked to the Spice Market from there, where I bought a mug and some tea and we made a friend in a spice store who kept giving us Turkish Delight. We found the tramvay and navigated it back to our hotel.

Yesterday it snowed. A lot. The five of us took a cab into the New City, to Taksim Square, but we didn't stay there for long because it was pretty miserable out. Then we went back to the Grand Bazaar, where we made more friends with people selling stuff, and one man gave us some apple tea and helped Hilary haggle. We went back to the Spice Market and I got some chicken spice and Turkish pistachios. Emily, Hilary and I took the tramvay back one last time, where some gross Turkish man got a little too cozy with us. I decided I needed a Turkish bath to cleanse myself of that experience, and the Turkish bath was absolutely fantastic. They poured hot water on Jodi and I and we laid on some tile in a very hot room for a while, until they came back in with exfoliating scrubs and rubbed the dry skin off every inch of our bodies. Then they lathered us up and shampooed us and rinsed it all off. It was amazing and my skin feels so smooth. Hilary and I went with a few of our friends to dinner, where we had one last fantastic Turkish meal.

Our flight back was delayed a bit because of the snow, but we finally got back to Israel. Classes start tomorrow, and I need to decide which of the two extra classes I signed up for I need to drop, so the next two days will be pretty busy because I'll be going to all the classes I signed up for.

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