So I made it to Istanbul. It’s pretty great here, and I’ve already made some cool friends and had some fun times!
When I finally arrived to the hostel after two flights, a metro, a tram, and on only a few hours of sleep, I collapsed into my bed for a couple hours. Like, I didn’t even have the energy to take the stuff off the bed that I had thrown there. I passed out for a short while, and then decided I needed to eat something before going to sleep for realskies.
I asked what was good and cheap and close at the front desk, and he told me where to go, but then said I could just order in if I wanted. Yes. This sounded like the correct thing to do. I could barely walk, so yeahhhh. While I was waiting, I met a few Aussies that were all solo travelers but had been hanging out for the last few days. I ate my food, hung out with them while they watched some dumb Tom Hanks movie, and then we all went upstairs to the terrace to play some cards. We argued about the rules of Asshole for about twenty minutes, finally agreed on a fun version, and played for the next while. It was just…a nice first night in a new country.
True story: this hostel is BEAUTIFUL. It was renovated recently, and you can TELL. The bathrooms are pristine, the floors are clean and shiny, and everything has that nice brand-new feeling. The hostel is apparently totally packed most of the year, but in the low season there are hardly any of us. Which I am 100% fine with: it makes it easier to meet people, prices are lower, and there’s more space and less stress. Anyway.
THE NEXT DAY: Free breakfast, then I journeyed outside to begin at this underground place called the Basilica Cistern. It was pretty much yeah, a giant cistern. It was super dark and there were these giant columns that were pretty sexy. But the best part was by far the MEDUSA HEADS. Yeah, there were two of them made out of stone, and they aren’t totally sure what they were made for. Beautiful and dramatic looking.
Then I went to Topkapi Palace, which is, surprisingly, a palace. But it’s not really a palace so much as it is a bunch of small buildings inside several courtyards, and all of it was made into a museum. I’m learning that as much as I like to look at stuff, my favorite things tend to have a lot of signage so I can read about the history of things and actually understand them, rather than there just be something impressive that I look at for a few minutes but have no idea where or why it exists. Therefore, my favorite parts were the kitchens and the armory, because they were each basically their own tiny museum.
I took a bit of a walk to get to the Spice Bazaar after this, which had not only spices, but touristy gifts and overpriced Turkish Delights. Luckily, I had read some stuff on the internet advising me to go just outside the bazaar for Turkish Delights for a quarter of the price. I got an entire kilo for 10 lira- about $2.5 USD. Ridiculous. I also walked around the area, which aside from the bazaar, was super local and had all kinds of shit you cant find anywhere else. The most fascinating part for me was this whole little area completely devoted to pet shops. There were about 25 of them, all in little clusters, overflowing with birds and small animals. A couple of them even had dogs. I haven’t seen like ANY pet dogs (several feral ones) so it was really confusing them seeing them in the store and I really don’t want to think about what happens to the ones that don’t sell.
I continued my wandering, and eventually ended up back at the hostel, completely exhausted— I had walked quite a few miles. I ended up going to dinner with the Aussie girls, and then accompanied the two of them, a couple of Turkish guys (one of them a staff member of the hostel) and an Argentinian guy to a Shisha bar that only had locals. I’ve only smoked hookah once or twice before, and only a few cigarettes in my life, so I’m pretty sensitive to it- but it was so great. The guys ordered like an espresso flavor and an apple flavor, which were both wonderful, and we smoked and played more Asshole and talked, ordered my first apple tea which is a thing here and delicious, and had an incredible evening. Then food again, then passed the fuck out because I was exhausted.
The next day was Hagia Sophia day! I couldn’t go the day before because it is closed on Mondays, but it’s like THE thing to do in Istanbul so I was pretty stoked. From the outside, it doesn’t look as impressive as some of the other mosques, but it’s also way older than most. It was originally built as a Christian church, but was taken over (at some point in history) by the Muslims because of some ruler…okay, my history sucks, but that’s the basic concept. So it became a mosque, and the ruler tried to cover all the Christian stuff, including some gorgeous mosaics. And then in like the 1940’s (don’t ask why THIS is the thing I remember) they were like LET’S STOP FIGHTING OVER THIS AND MAKE IT A SECULAR MUSEUM! So that’s what they did. It was so big inside – it’s hard to believe it was built thousands of years ago, before like, machines and shit. No idea how they did it.
Then I went to the Grand Bazaar, which was basically the Spice Bazaar times a million. So much to see, so much haggling to be done. I’m not the BEST at haggling, but I’m getting better, and I got a couple things for barely over half the asking price. Obviously it would have been way cheaper if I was a local, but that was like, no money to me, so it wasn’t a big deal.
I ended my adventures in the Blue Mosque, which was a mosque that was blue. It is beautiful on the outside, and is actually still in use, so the first time I tried to go in I couldn’t because it was being used for the one out of five daily prayer sessions. But this mosque was not nearly as cool as the other. For one, you can only kind of go stand in the back, you can’t walk through it. You need to cover your head if you are a woman, which I understand and everything but it just makes me think about how sexist religious is and then I get really mad. The main problem, though, was that we had to take off our shoes. Which I don’t mind in theory…except it smelled like feet. HORRIBLY. I can’t imagine what it would be like in the summer, ten times more crowded and sweaty and no socks…ewwwww. It was pretty inside, blah blah blah, but yeah. Quick couple of photos, and that’s pretty much it.
My Argentinian friend and I grabbed some lunch at a cheap place suggested by the staff. It was AMAZING. Not only was the food delicious, cheap, and had big portions, but we also got an appetizer of pita and dip and apple tea afterwards. The place was run by absolutely lovely humans, and I felt welcomed and comfortable.
Once my Argentinian friend left to catch his flight, all my friends from the day before had now left. BUT I had met another guy from New Zealand that day who was really cool. We talked the rest of the day about writing, got some free drinks from the staff, and eventually went out for food and beers. And then we stopped at a convenience store for…more beers. We thought it would be a good idea to get not just the tall beer cans, but the higher alcohol content ones as well. We went up to the terrace, and got DRUNK off of two of this cans apiece. It was nuts. We played som cards, and most importantly I taught him Egyptian Rat Screw, which as I’m sure you know by now, is my favorite card game of all time and I also rarely lose. We also quizzed each other on Harry Potter trivia because we are cool.
Suddenly, it was 3am, so we decided it was PROBABLY time for bed. We got to our room but instead of going to bed we started kissing and then ended up in the same one. I should probably stop staying in 10 person dorms.
We slept the fuck in because, well, we didn’t really sleep last night, and actually took an accidental nap after breakfast as well. I finally dragged my lazy ass out of bed and took the train and the funicular (I LOVE that word) up to Taksim Square, which is the busy center of the New City on the other side of the river. I didn’t love it over there: it didn’t feel special, just like shopping in a city. However, I did witness an unfortunate accident while I was eating lunch.
I was sitting outside a kebab place waiting for my food, when a woman completely faceplants on the street directly next to me. She had tripped on spikes that are supposed to stop cars from going down the street, but they are also incredibly easy to catch your toe on. Her two children ran to her side, as well as the guy driving her car and one of the staff members of the kebab place. She had like, smashed in parts of her face. I think she broke a tooth, scratched up her whole mouth area, and at least bruised her nose. They were bringing her napkins and water, talking about (I assume) getting her to a hospital or something, and I stood there helplessly. What could I possibly provide? And then, in a moment of brilliance: “Do you guys have any ice?!” They didn’t, and had to go next door to get some, but I was glad that I thought of SOMETHING that might have been of use. Poor lady.
On my way home, I sat with a few cats on a set of stairs, and then when I got off my tram stop, a giant dog followed me home, I hung out with her for like half an hour, and I think she’s still sitting outside. She’s perfect and I’m obsessed with her and I want to bring her to my actual home. Feral dogs are the best.
Uh yeah, so that’s been my time in Istanbul so far! I’ve got the rest of today, then another day after that! The city is fun, beautiful, friendly, and full of dogs and cats. What more could a girl want?