Asia for the Afternoon (July 31, Part II)

So it was a pretty typical afternoon, I just went to Asia…

Yeah, for real! Julia has now been to 3 different continents, and I’m working on my 4th in a couple days. Woohoo! The “in Asia” jokes didn’t get old- “Hey guys, should we cross the street in Asia right here?” and “Want to get some tea in Asia?” and “Guys, I’m hungry in Asia.” Not going to lie, it was pretty awesome being able to say I went to Asia for the afternoon! And for how much? I took a ferry for 1.75 Turkish Lyra! So easy.

What did I do in Asia? Well, first we got off the ferry and started walking around. We saw something similar to a CVS and went inside. So cultural of us, I know. One girl was looking for nail polish remover so we went in to see if they had that. Nail polish remover they had…and tons of nail polish! Personally, I bought 4 Asian nail polishes. Two of them are the crackle kind, and they were so cheap! Each was around 2 or 3 Turkish Lyra. And 1 American dollar is 1.6 Turkish Lyra right now…I pay so much more in the US! I should come to Asia to get nail polish more often. Then we left that place (after buying some chocolate, too…of course. It’s me, what do you expect!?) and wandered into a café to find some baklava. We ordered baklava, then were sent up an elevator to sit. Interesting. We got out and had a beautiful view! We sat right on the balcony a few floors up and ate our baklava, and some girls got Turkish coffee and apple tea. I didn’t order any, but I did try some. We had trouble paying since we couldn’t communicate with the owners AT all, so a man came over and helped us. He was just eating there, but knew English. We later exchanged email addresses- he said he wants a pen pal who can help him practice his English. He was nice. We headed back to the ferry after walking through a smelly fish market and returned to Europe!

After we came back to the ship and ate dinner, we headed out to Taksim Square- “the place to be.” We got to take a cute trolley up the big hill! To understand the topography here, think San Fransisco. There is a long road approaching Taksim Square that is seriously like Disneyland at Christmas, but it’s Istanbul Taksim Square at Ramadan. Ramadan starts tomorrow (August 1), so everything is decorated and ready for celebration. Ramadan is one month long, and during this time Muslims cannot eat, drink, or take anything to the body during the day. Fasting starts at sunrise and ends at sunset. They can’t even have a sip of water! Then at sundown, huge celebrations happen! We want to go back out tomorrow night to see all the celebrations! Ramadan is harder when it falls in the summertime because the days of fasting are so much longer. Each year Ramadan starts ten days earlier (because the calendars don’t match up). We were advised to be respectful and not eat or drink excessively in public during the day.

Taksim Square (and the road leading up to it—like the La Rambla of Istanbul) was beautiful and so much fun! There were beautiful lights strung across the buildings the whole way home and it was all so festive and fun! It was pretty crowded. There were stores, cafes, bars, and little shops lining the street. We stopped to try some Turkish delight. I had a little bite of chocolate, rose, and plain. Let’s just say they weren’t my favorite, and when Michelle ate another one I was surprised she at it for fun, and voluntarily!

(Skip this next part if you are queasy.) After walking for about an hour, all of the sudden I felt like I needed to throw up. We kept walking, trying to find a bathroom, and I was constantly locating places I could run to if I couldn’t keep it down. Drains, corners by buildings- everything would have been so open and gross, but there were no bathrooms! Finally we found one at Pizza Hut, but nothing happened in there. We kept walking and I knew it would happen sometime, but I didn’t want to go back to the ship because of it. I wanted to stay and see Istanbul at night, and I especially didn’t want to ruin it for the other girls! Finally we got to the end of the road and were finally at Taksim Square. There were pretty lights and fountains everywhere- tons of flashing lights and loud noises (which at this point almost pushed me overboard). Some of the girls wanted to leave and get some sleep, so I joined them in a taxi. By then, I had asked if anyone had a bag from shopping and got a small plastic grocery bag. THANK GOODNESS. We sqeezed 4 into the back of the taxi, and had one in the front, showed the taxi driver our green sheet with the ship’s location on it, and we were off. Like, OFF. Like, with fast sharp turns and tons of sudden stops and goes, and plenty of bumps too. It was really fun trying to keep everything down…I was on the end holding my bag and was SO determined to make it to the ship. Well, that is until the taxi driver got lost and had no idea where to bring us. I knew I didn’t have long. Finally he asked someone and figured it out, and felt bad for going the wrong way so drove EVEN faster and more recklessly to get us there faster. Aaaaaaand that’s when it all came up, thankfully into the grocery bag. (Okay, now really don’t read this if you’re queasy.) I was so bummed I didn’t make it, but I felt TERRIBLE. The girls were so sweet rubbing my back and telling me we were almost there, and assured the taxi driver I wasn’t getting it anywhere because I had a bag. I filled that bag up COMPLETELY. The taxi driver had some Kleenex that I used so that was helpful. When we got out, they checked and all was clear. They said I was a neat thrower-upper- I sure didn’t feel like it! I had to pull it together coming through port and onto the ship, because I looked terrible and didn’t want them to question me about drinking. I hadn’t had anything to drink, but I looked so bad and sick they might have thought that, and I did NOT want to deal with getting breathalyzed while I felt this bad. I didn’t know if I’d have to throw up more too, so I really hurried. The girls brought me up to my room once we got back and brought me plenty of water and tea. I curled up in a ball and the girls stayed with me for awhile. When I was finally at a point where I was starting to fall asleep, they left and Katie told me not to hesitate to call her if I need anything at all.

I hate disturbing people when they’re trying to sleep, so it took a lottt of pain for me to do anything about it. I slept for about an hour, maybe less, then woke up in so much pain. Everytime I closed my eyes I started dreaming/picturing myself shopping for rings and jewelry and it was SO annoying because I was in so much pain- I don’t know why that was my dream but I was so sick of it! I just wanted to feel better! I was rolling around in so much pain (thank goodness my roommate got a hotel in Istanbul for the night) and finally couldn’t take it and didn’t know what to do, so I called Katie and asked her to come over- somehow I managed to get the words out! She came over and sat with me and kept telling me I should really let her call the on-call doctor. I was so sick of disturbing the doctor though! Especially because it was the middle of the night (around 1:30 am). Like I said, I grew up with my parents both being on call so I know what it’s like. People need their sleep! After trying to make the bathroom floor a bed and crawling back to my real bed, I called my mom (yes, internationally- it was that bad) and she told me I needed to see the doctor right then. And Katie heard. So she made me go. When I got down there, someone with alcohol-related issues was brought in so I didn’t know if I’d be seen right away. It was the same Physician’s Assistant who’d been seeing me (Diane) and she was really nice. I ended up getting 3 different kinds of medicine that all did different things and that should all help me. One of those medicines was for nausea…the pill version of the shot. She wanted to give me the shot right away but I begged for a chance to try to keep the pill down! And I did! I went back to my room filled with meds but still feeling not so great. As time passed I got a little better and tried sleeping, and finally dozed off. Katie was the BEST and I am sooooo appreciative of her help! She was up with me until 3:30 am even though the girls came back so they could go to bed early. That just goes to show how amazing some of the people on this voyage are! I am so lucky to have found such great friends on this trip.