We're in Istanbul!

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We are in Istanbul! This morning we left Santorini at 5:45am and got on a plane to Athens and then we got on another plane for Istanbul. Both of the rides were nice and short, which was great. So we ended up getting into Istanbul around 1pm or so. I love it here so far. It is so gorgeous and there are so many mosques everywhere. The minarets from the mosques sit above the skyline so that is what can be really seen when looking at the skyline. After we checked into our hotel we walked down to St. Sophia (aka Hagia Sophia) mosque and the Blue Mosque. They are both gorgeous and huge. You don’t really realize how big they actually are until you are so close. They are both so cool! I can’t wait til tomorrow when we get to go inside both of them. Another thing that makes Istanbul so gorgeous now is it’s their tulip festival for the next week, so there are bright colored tulips everywhere. So that with the mosques just makes it even better. After Roy showed us a little around the city and got us familiarized with the area, we went to the Grand Bazaar. Wow, that was crazy. It is huge! There are just shops everywhere, and a lot of them look the same. And there are some very pushy, and very forward, salesmen, which isn’t very much fun. But I guess that’s how it all is here. It was really cool to see it and just kinda explore the bazaar for a while. When I go tomorrow, or the next day, I think I’m going to have to have in mind what I want to buy because otherwise it is hard to get anywhere. Then we went to a restaurant for dinner that overlooked both of the mosques. It was a gorgeous view and especially with the sunset and everything. It is just so different here compared to all of Greece and the islands. In Greece and Mykonos there were many great views that mostly were just of buildings with some natural landscapes and then in Crete most of the views were all natural beauty. And Santorini was a combination of the two depending on which part of the island you were looking at. Here, in Istanbul, it is all buildings that make it so gorgeous. But it’s not just normal buildings, there are a lot of mosques, like I said before, along with many other old, unique looking buildings. The dichotomy of the two countries’ landscape is so amazing. I’m so glad that we are going to be able to spend these two weeks here in Turkey getting a taste of a different culture. Anyways, dinner at that restaurant was pretty good. The appetizers were all vegetables. Domates (stuffed grape leaves), stuffed peppers, tomatoes, and some sort of little dish that was mostly eggplant. Plus there was a cabbage and carrot salad. Then for the main course it was chicken and beef is some sort of kinda spicy red sauce, rice, and fries. It was a very good meal. Then the dessert was a rice pudding, which I didn’t really like, but that’s ok. Now it’s kinda back to reality with school stuff. We are coming down the home stretch of the semester and have a lot due soon, so tonight’s a homework night. The last week we haven’t had anything because it was our break, so that was nice, but now we have to get back into the swing of things and really stay on top of it because we are going to be traveling all around Turkey after we leave Istanbul in a couple days. I can’t wait to explore and see more of Istanbul and Turkey 😊

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