Day One Istanbul

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Hello Hello,


After a lovely 12 hour sleep Nessie and I went for breakfast at the hotel. It was very similar to Peruvian breakfast in that it was incredibly delicious. There was 100 g fat yogurt with cherry jam, bread, hard boiled eggs, and tea. The other fabulous discovery about Istanbul is that they have NESCAFE!!! I never thought I would get to experience the glory of hot milk and Nescafe again.

After breakfast Nessie and I made our way to the Blue Mosque where they handed us sheets to cover our legs as we walked in. The mosque was very beautiful inside but kind of smelled like a hot yoga studio. Nessie reminded me that it is basically a hot yoga studio...people in child's pose, sweating, and meditating.
After the Blue Mosque we headed to Topkapi Palace, which is the palace where all the Sultans have lived. It was very interesting to see how the Sultan's lived, but all I can say is that I am so glad I didn't grow up in that time period and that I was not a concubine. Living my entire life to hopefully be picked by a sultan and mother 112 children and watch my sons be killed sounds like my version of hell. Also, the wives could only be foreign because the one thing that it is illegal to do to an Islamic woman is imprison her...who would have thought.

After the Topkapi, Nessie and I decided it was time for lunch. We ate at this place called Can...pronounced Jan. We had egg plant, stuffed tomatoes and beans. It was so delicious. In the afternoon we walked around the grand bazar and Istanbul University. Nessie and I decided if we went to school at the University of Istanbul we would get 10 PhDs. The buildings are so old and beautiful I'm not sure why everyone around here isn't a scholar. We hung out on the grass for a bit and pretended we actually went to school there. The only thing that gave it away were my disgustingly white legs. Hopefully that will change with the nice weather.

Tonight we're going out for dinner with nessie's parents and one of their friends and his daughter. We're going for Indian. I wonder if the Indian in Istanbul will be good. My guess is yes...we are closer to India after all.

Anyways dears, more updates later. Wednesday nessie and I head to Safranbolu (everything here is fun to say). Its a 6 hour bus ride and it's a UNESCO heritage site. Wahoo!

Love love,

Poke/Nicole

ps. tried turkish delight. Let's just say no white wish could convince me to bring all my friends back into Narnia for more of that stuff... Honestly though, it wasn't all that bad, my favourite part were the crush nuts and white sugar it's dipped in.

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