Does It Smell Like Turkey To You?

So, I didn’t care at all about going to Istanbul. It was a bit of “this is Morgan’s trip and I am on it so here we go”. But then we arrive and I can tell I am going to like it.

We take a tram from the airport. We are crammed in. Every time you think no more people will fit, more get on. Morgan is sitting on her suitcase and her face is in some woman’s boobs. When we get off the tram we are in hysterics.

We find our hostel easily. Harmony Hostel with the motto, “same same but different”. It has a rooftop area covered in pillows and reminds us of the Bob Marley hostel in Luxor. We are content.

We immediately meet Stephanie from France and Paola from Argentina who invite us to dinner. We accept, taking any opportunity to get out in the city. We go to Taşim (pronounced Tax-eem) which is the part of town that has the best nightlife. We have dinner in a little restaurant and misread the menu and end up with a plate full of more meat that we can possibly eat. We laugh a lot and wrap up most of the food to go.

Both Morgan and I really like Stephanie. She has such incredible energy from the start. Paola is really sweet as well but her English is not very good and my Spanish is, well, horrible, so it’s hard to communicate. And then to bed early for the tired travelers.

Our first full day in Istanbul begins with breakfast on the roof and Stephanie tells us she is going to show us the city. It is her last day before going back to France but this is how she wants to spend the day. We are stunned. She walks us around showing us where everything is…the Blue Mosque, the cistern, the grand bazaar, the spice bazaar. And we make her stop for a fruit tart, lunch and tea. She thinks we are hilarious and we think she is fantastic.

That night we all agree that we have to go out and celebrate Stephanie’s last night before going back to France (she is very unhappy to leave as she wants to move to Turkey). We meet some other people at the hostel, Guy from South Africa, Alex from Germany but living in Abu Dhabi, and Jake from…Seattle! Guy tells us about a club he went to the night before with great live music and we head out. After a few drinks we go to Araf and proceed to have the best time I have had this entire time of traveling. There is a Turkish band playing who are incredible and when they are done, the DJ plays mostly Turkish music and we dance and dance. We dance until 4 in the morning. We dance with everyone on the dance floor (literally, in a big circle with pinkies linked), we dance with members of the band. I haven’t felt this fun and free in a long long time. I don’t want it to end. But it’s 4 in the morning and time to take a cab home.

The next morning Stephanie has to leave but she comes to us with gifts before she goes. I will stay in touch with her and hopefully see her in France sometime in the near future.

Then it is time for breakfast so we go to a restaurant across the street with Mussels (our nickname for Jake from Seattle…to explain: they sell mussels on the street in Istanbul for about 25 cents and every time we would pass one of these guys, Jake would have about 12). We get to sit on pillows and eat a lovely meal and wonder why there are not more restaurants that encourage sitting on pillows in the US. Then we were off to a modern art exhibit that Jake knew about. It was in a big warehouse on the waterfront and we saw a ton of great art.

On Friday we did the bazaar and blue mosque. It was a good but a bit touristy day. We both got gorgeous scarves for ourselves and the mosque was lovely. And then came the best part of the day. We decided to do Turkish Baths! We found a place to go from the hostel and they picked us up and drove us to the bath. At the bath we were told by a woman who spoke almost no English to go to a little room and take off our clothes (we wore bathing suits because we weren’t sure how it was going to go) and put on a towel. Then she led us into this incredible room that was mostly marble with faucets coming out of the walls and a huge marble table in the middle. It was just us. She showed us to splash warm water from the faucets on ourselves and then lay on the marble table that was heated from the inside. That part alone was wonderful. Then she came in and scrubbed us down one at a time and then covered us in soap bubbles and gave us a massage before washing our hair. It was so relaxing with her humming a little song as she worked. It was a lot like the Korean women’s spa in Seattle (which if you are one of my female friends living in Seattle and you haven’t gone, go! And get the body scrub!).After that, we felt like pudding and were so grateful to get a ride back to the hostel and bed.

Saturday we went to Princes Island. We went to the biggest and farthest island to rent bikes. The ferry ride was wonderful with tea served and still water. Now we were recommended to go do this but we were not told that all the bikes at these rental places are absolute pieces of shit. Seriously, they were the worst bikes I have ever ridden. We were both ready for them to break right under us. But we went on anyway. There are no cars on the island so the only modes of transportation are bikes and horse drawn carriage. We biked up to the base of this mountain with a monastery on top and hiked up to the top. It was beautiful and we had lunch and enjoyed the view. It’s really nice to know there is a little escape from the city like this. And it’s a strange place with these huge plantation like houses. There was a big French influence in Istanbul so we think that is what the houses are about. After some amazing ice cream and sunset, we are on our way back to Istanbul to hang out on the roof with our new friends Christopher from Germany, Christopher from Trinidad and Andy from England.

Our last day in Istanbul was spent with the Christophers. We went to see the cistern which was pretty incredible. It is made with over 300 Romanesque columns. There is still some water down there with fish in it. But the best parts are the 2 columns at the back that have Medusa heads as bases. They don’t know how or why they are there. I like mystery.

For the last little bit of time in Istanbul before the bus, I walked through this beautiful park near the hostel. It was huge and there were all these families taking Sunday strolls. It was really nice to have some time on my own and I realized that, as scary as it is, I am really looking forward to traveling on my own for a while.