İstanbul - Gün 1

Istanbul (the side with Istiklal Caddesi) at sunrise from the Ferry
After having my plans for Mt. Nemrut and Urfa cancelled at the last moment, I tagged along on a journey to Istanbul. We left Thursday night and took an overnight train. I've determined never to take the train again- especially not without a sleeper car. The ride took twice as long, and the lights were never turned out. Upon arrival in Istanbul, we took a ferry from the Asian side to the European side, and checked into our "Chill Out" Hostel and Cafe.


The place was colorful, but the bathrooms weren't very clean. The definition of a "shower" was a showerhead over a squatting toilet that was never cleaned. Ah, Turkey! So, we changed to a hotel of the same price (about 12 USD a night per person) the next day.


The Aya Sofia
Today's agenda consisted of some site-seeing. We visited the Aya Sofia (above), the Spice Market, and the Grand Bazaar. It was quite beautiful, if a bit expensive and tourist-y. The salesmen in the bazaar call to you in as many languages as they can, until you respond. They'll grab you, talk to you, and do anything to grab your attention and pull you into the store.


The Virgin Mary with Jesus, and an Islamic decorative circle saying "Allah"
The Aya Sofia was interesting, because of the two religions showing so prominently. There was much restoration being done, but I'm not sure which art they were recovering- the Islamic or the Christian.


Yellow, Islamic-folk art beside jewelled Byzantium mozaics


A view of the Blue Mosque through a window in the Aya Sofia


A piece of a mozaic in the Aya Sofia

On the way to meet some of the other exchange students, a man called to Katie and I saying, "Excuse me. Excuse me! You dropped something." We turned around, and he said, "You dropped my heart." So, we turned back around and continued on our way. Hitting on foreign women by using cheesy lines from 80s movies seems to be a national hobby.


The sunset on Sultanhamet
We spent much of the day wandering around and getting lost to/from Sultanhamet. The city seems to be arranged in a way that stores of similar types (i.e. hardware, music, etc.) are all clumped together. Sometimes, we're lucky and stumble upon a residential section where the children are playing in the streets. After a day of much walking, we retired to the Bean Bag chaired cafes on Galata Bridge to watch the sunset.


The sunset on Istanbul (the side with Istiklal Caddesi)

The rest of the night was spent at a restaurant and then a small Reggae dance club.