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Istanbul was awesome.
The tulips, the cozy European streets, the Mosques, the desserts...there are so many features that make it a great city. We stayed in a nice hotel that was in a very central and popular area. (So popular in that we got to hear the hard core partiers outside our window going strong until 8am.) Lots of Aussies and Kiwis were in town due to their Anzac Day (a remembrance day of sorts for them)so we had stiff competition when it came to finding a city map in English. Our only option was the French version so any of the information we had about the sites came in the form of my watered down translation for Christine.
We visited the Basilica Cistern which is a cool underground experience--sort of like the dwarf hall from Lord of the Rings (as described by my friend Emily before I left). The Hagia Sophia (see pic) is a stunning building. It used to be a Cathedral (it was the 4th largest in the world), then it was a Mosque and now it is a museum. We got to walk past that area everyday which also had the Blue Mosque just across
the way and a beautiful garden with tulips between the two. We also visited Topkaki Palace which was pretty huge and had great views of the Bosphorus (the waterway that divides Istanbul in two continents: Europe and Asia).
Our first visit to the Grand Bazaar was a real experience. This is a covered market with hundreds (or thousands?) of aggressive vendors selling everything from jewellery, leather, scarves, trinkets, etc. Coming from Korea, Turkey was already kind of a shocker for me in terms of men being vocal and forward, if you catch my drift, but after going to the Bazaar it gave me a true taste of how Turkish men could be! Mostly harmless (but sometimes annoying) the vendors would call out in various languages offering us the best deals or asking us where we were from or if we were sisters. (Yup, 'cause we look so much alike.) I got asked if I was Chinese too (among other races),Which was a first. That was, however, the third time since leaving Canada that I've been asked if I was Asian....wtf?...obviously I need to start wearing my hair down a bit more!!
We also discovered the spice market which
was pretty cool 'cause it was filled with piles of Turkish delight. Yummy! My only previous experiences with Turkish delight were the Big Turk chocolate bar and Narnia stories when I was little, so eating the fresh stuff in the variety of flavors was awesome. That and the baklava that we seemed to justify eating everyday definitely made up for any longing for quality sweets that I have had since living in Seoul. It's great traveling with a girl too 'cause you can both agree upon a lunch that consists of baklava
and tea.
The funniest part of Istanbul was definitely our experience at the Turkish bath. It was like the hands on version of the Korean spa. It started off by us stripping down to the"basics" (which for Christine consisted of a bathing suit and for me consisted of just the bottoms--still conservative considering they expected us to take it all off!) and then we were ushered into a steamy room with walls and floors made of marble and little rinsing fountains around the room. We waited against the wall as we watched a few women being scrubbed down completely naked on this huge marble slab in the
Can't you see the similarities?
We were often asked by the local men if we were sisters. middle of the room waiting for our turn.
We were both a little nervous about getting rid of our towels in front of each other and were trying to act nonchalant while we watched these other women getting scrubbed down. Finally we were each greeted by our personal bather and did the walk of shame to the marble slab. The lady doing me (for lack of a better word) was big, hairy, and didn't speak a word of English. (Okay, maybe one word:I understood her say "off?" when she tugged at my underwear--obviously those were going to get in her way.) In the end it didn't really matter that I said no, the way she scrubbed and moved things around...ya...they weren't covering much. Anyway...she scrubbed down my body with a wicked exfoliating cloth and showed me just how much skin was coming off too. Sick. After that she lathered me up with some soap and did a quick full body massage which was pretty good, all things considered.
After that she led me to a fountain to be rinsed off and then I sat in front of her while she washed my hair( and face!...I could hardly breath)
with some kind of soapy concoction. She then struggled to comb through my hair and then braided it. I felt like I was 4 years old again: squeaky clean out of the bath and freshly braided hair by mom. Definitely an experience I will never forget!
The rest of our days were filled with some shopping on the both the Asian and European sides, a ferry ride down the Bosphorus, lots of walking, and lots of good food. The bread,kebabs,and desserts were awesome!We also saw some Turkish Dervish Dancers which in my mind should have been called "spinners" 'cause that seemed to be their only move. Christine also peer pressured me into smoking some berry flavored sheesha...but it ended up being pretty good. (You can order it at the restaurants and cafes.)
Our next stop was Egypt...more to come on that!
Kristy
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Marc
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Sheesha
What's Sheesha