Friday, June 4, 2010

Tour of the Old Part of Istanbul

Today in one word: busy. After sleeping what felt like a life away (12 hrs..WHOA), I met up with a Turkish student that I am working with this summer. First, we ate döner. DELICIOUS. It's seasoned chicken cooked on a circular roaster and shaved off, served with rice.








 














After that, we took a ferry to the European side of Istanbul.






When we got there, we rode the trolley to the old city.  We walked to Istanbul University, which is the oldest university in Istanbul. There was the Israeli protest there. It was pretty crazy. We skirted around the edges, but it was still intense.


We then walked to a cafe where we had nargile. Yes, that's right HOOKAH. As a non-smoker, it was very interesting. It's flavored. I feel like Willy Wonka saying, "The apples taste like apples. The strawberries taste like strawberries". Sadly, I'm not a pro (yet?) at the hookah thing; I coughed :(. I also had my first Turkish kahve in Turkey.





Afterwards, we walked through the Grand Bazaar. It was amazing and insane at the same time. There was so much to see (and buy :)). I will definitely be going back!



Then we walked to the Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque. We didn't go inside because it was prayer time. My friend could because he was male, but I was not allowed. Don't worry, I'll be going back tomorrow :). They were gorgeous buildings. And enormous! We then walked through a famous park. I'm blanking on the name currently. There we had tea.


We then took a ferry tour of the Bosphorus. The water is incredibly blue. The only houses I've seen thus far in Istanbul are on the shore. They are extremely expensive but beautiful architecture.

There are palaces too!
Mosque on the Bosphorus
Needless to say, I had a pretty awesome day.

Here are some random pictures :)
My room key                                                                Some Turkish Liras (TL)


 
The elevator buttons - NOTE: the basement is labeled by -1                                The view from my window                       

4 comments:

  1. I know some of the picture comments are a little skewed. I am having difficulty loading the page to edit them. I hope it's not too irritating!

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  2. Hey I made you a turkish cofee before ...

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  3. So what floor are you living on?
    What hooka flavor did you have?
    Your room key is sweet and the money is too!

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  4. I live on the 4th floor. I had apple for sure. I think the other was strawberry.

    ReplyDelete