Istanbul or Constantinople?

Of course it's Istanbul.

The history of this place is incredible. I know my posts are sometimes typified by a little history lesson, but this shit is just too much for me. So do your own research.

Actually, I'll just say a few things: Istanbul has been the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. Istanbul is the only city that is located on two continents (Europe and Asia). Once an Islamic country, Turkey was secularized under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - who established the Republic of Turkey. Today, Turkey has appealed to be part of the EU - an issue that still faces opposition. Is Tukey European or part of the Middle East? Let discussion ensue...

By this point in time, I've established a nice little group of friends, and we like each other enough to take a longer trip together too. Fortunately Eid al Fitr (end of Ramadan) provided us with a nice little break from classes, and we were able to hop out of the country to nearby Turkey. Being a little unsure about travel time and costs, we decided to spend the entire holiday in Istanbul. We were given school off Thursday and Monday, so we decided to make the break as long as possible and left Wednesday evening. We landed in Istanbul some time that night. The flight wasn't too long or too turbulent or anything like that. Shortly after landing however, life got a little hectic.

First thing that happened upon exiting the plane - one of my friends realized that he had left his phone on the plane, and had to run back to get it. Then, we had to deal with visas, and money. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I think for some reason we had to pay for our visas with US dollars, which we had a very small supply of. And it took a while to find somewhere to get US dollars. Once we finally worked out the visa business, we had to collect luggage and all that. And we were probably all a little tired and hungry. So we weren't very happy about being given the run around with visas, and didn't want to be lugging bags all over the city.

The airport was a bit far from where we had decided to stay, so, being too cheap to take taxis across the city, we had the fun of deciphering Turkish, and taking public transportation. We did pretty well getting from the airport to the tram stop that would have taken us to the area of our hostel. However, we were a little too late, and missed the last tram going our direction. We were literally seconds too late too, as we saw the last tram pull away. However, we weren't sure how late the public transportation ran, so we waited a little to see if another tram would come. Some passerby somehow informed us that we had missed the last one. So then we had to figure out how to get from our present location to where we needed to be. One of our friends really had to use the bathroom, so we wandered across the street to some buildings. He went in search of a bathroom, and we ran into some taxi-van drivers. They didn't speak a lot of English, and we spoke no Turkish, so it was interesting (and a little stressful) to get things worked out. Once we communicated where we needed to go, and negotiated a decent price, we had to explain that we were waiting for our friend to come back from the bathroom - more confusion. So the few hours we had spent in Istanbul since getting off the plane had been a little stressful and confusing, and got much worse in just about ten minutes.

The ride from the tram stop to our hostel was not too long, and we probably overpaid. But it happens. So do other unfortunate things...

My entire existence was almost lost forever in Istanbul. Olivia and I had decided that it would be easier and more economical if we shared luggage, instead of each bringing our own bags. I happened to be carrying the duffel bag with all our clothes and not-so-important things in it. Olivia was carrying my backpack, with every piece of important documentation and identification I own in it. She also had a purse with her important things in it. Somehow, in the confusion of cramming all seven of us and our baggage in one van, and arguing with the taxi driver, and trying to figure out if we were in the right place... Olivia left my backpack in the van. She realized only about two minutes later. But, in the vast city of Istanbul, that was too late. The van had already been driving away for two minutes. And we had no idea where it could possibly be. My backpack had absolutely everything in it - my passport, wallet, everything. I should have been wearing those things in my money belt, but had taken it off because it got uncomfortable or something. Anyway, it was gone. As soon as Olivia realized and said something, I was paralyzed for a minute, trying to figure out what I could possibly do. Some of my friends walked to the spot we had been dropped off to see if it had been kicked out of the van, or just put down somewhere. It wasn't. There were a couple of taxi drivers waiting around where we had been dropped off. Thank goodness one useful Arabic word overlapped with Turkish - "shanta", meaning bag, is the same in both languages. My friend Dan somehow communicated that one of our bags had been left on the van that dropped us off. (I still have no idea how the communicated that, but I'm glad that it was.) And it turned out that one of the taxi drivers knew most probably where the van had gone. So, we all kind of split up. Olivia and one person went to check in at the hostel, three of my friends waited to see if the van would come back, and my friend Dan and I got in the taxi, hoping to find my bag.

Incredibly, we found it. It was absolutely a miracle. I believe in angels. And everything was still inside.

Amazing. Frightening. Too much for the first few hours in a new country. After that adventure, the rest of us found our way to the hostel and checked in. (The hostel we stayed at was pretty decent. There had been a little bit of last minute planning though, so one of my friends had to stay at a different hostel down the road - not too far away. The six of the rest of us all shared one room. Being that most of my friends are guys, the room got a little smelly.) After getting everything straight away with the hostel, we went down the road to get a beer, which was much needed.

The hostel was located right around all the touristy stuff. Actually, the majority the first night's frightening happenings occurred right between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. (Something I didn't really appreciate at the time.) So the next morning, guess where we went? That's right, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

The Hagia Sophia (Ayasophya in Turkish) - once a basilica, once a mosque, now a museum, famous for mosaics, awesome architecture, and fabulously decorated domes. I've been waiting to see this beauty for quite some time too. (Guess I picked the right part of the world to travel to.) It was amazing, and mind-blowing. They were doing reconstruction of the dome while we were there, so I didn't get great pictures of it. But hopefully I captured some of the wonder of it. The Blue Mosque was equally as amazing. The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia are literally across the street from each other, but from two totally different empires. The Hagia Sophia was built during the Byzantine empire, and the Blue Mosque was built during the Ottoman empire. While the Hagia Sophia is known for it's mosaic-ed interior, the Blue Mosque is known (and titled) for the blue colored tiles that decorate its interior. Very beautiful, and very different from mosques I've seen around Cairo. Somewhere between the two of those sight-seeing expeditions, we had lunch, and exposed ourselves to the alcoholic marvel called Raki. (We did not get drunk before visiting the religious monuments... we just wanted to try the drink.) It was strange, but not one I prefer. Later, we idled away the night wandering around, then finally settling down with some beers and ghost stories. It was a fun night.

The next day, we took a boat cruise around the Bosborus. It was long, but enjoyable. The boat even stopped to pick up some beer. Unbeknownst to us beforehand, the boat trip also included a trip up a mountain in a cable car. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place we were, but it had an excellent view of the city. So, I took some pictures. After the tour, we headed up to Taksim Sq to do some shopping - more out of necessity than anything. It was a lot colder in Istanbul than we had anticipated. While we were up there, it started raining. I bought an umbrella. Then we took shelter in a little pizza place. While we were there, the rain got pretty intense, and the power went out in the restaurant. It was really dark, haha, and one of my friends was in the bathroom when it happened. Once the power came back on, we finished up dinner, and walked back to the shopping street. It was still raining a bit, so street shopping wasn't a whole lot of fun. We sought out a bar and drank away a few hours.

Most of our nights in Istanbul ended in some sort of alcoholic indulgence. So, if I don't say it, just assume it. Our fourth day in Istanbul was spent, well, my fourth day, was spent in museums. It was another cold and rainy day, and as our shopping expedition the night before was cut short by the bad weather, we were still underdressed for the cold. So we decided to go to some museums, and hope the weather got better. Unfortunately my friend Steve and I are much more the sort to spend an entire day in a museum than my other friends. After a few hours, the others were ready to split, but Steve and I still had a lot to get through in the museums. So, we split up. I don't remember exactly what everyone else did. But I spent a solid couple more hours in the museums. And enjoyed it very much. We met up later and got dinner and did some more shopping - this time we were smart and those of us who needed it (me) bought some stuff to keep warm.

The weather the next day was just as miserable as before. We went to the Topkapi Palace. Since it was another gloomy, wet, miserable day, I don't think any of us really felt like roaming the palace grounds. We saw a few of the rooms, the Harem, and then left. That day, instead of indulging in history, we indulged in pleasure, and got Turkish baths. What an exposing experience. Oh, it was wonderful, and I've probably never been more relaxed after something in my life... but man, being stark naked in a room full of other stark naked, yet unashamed women is not something my modest self is used to. Let alone having someone else wash me. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the Turkish bath, and highly recommend getting one at some point in your life.

Day 6, last day. We spent the day at what is becoming one of my favorite activities - market shopping. In this case, shopping at the Grand Bazaar. It was really cool. The Grand Bazaar is a lot like the market places you find in other countries, except, it's covered, and the roads are paved. It was fun wandering around, getting lost in the never-ending twisting and turning of the alley ways. I didn't buy a whole lot, but definitely enjoyed looking at everything. After that, we got one last meal in Istanbul, then headed back to the airport, being extra careful not to leave anything behind.