Ramadan & Dizzying Dancers (August 1)

Today was a bit of a bummer day. The girls came by in the morning to see if I wanted to join them in Istanbul, but I knew I really needed to stay on the ship in bed. Then they came back for lunch, and I joined them and ate some frozen yogurt, which wasn’t terrible on my stomach but still didn’t make it feel that great. I wasn’t feeling THAT bad and I really wanted to go to the spice market with the girls, but I decided it probably wasn’t a good idea. Who knows where the nearest bathroom was from the spice market. I did not want to be in public getting sick. So, I stayed on the ship. I stayed in bed all afternoon—well, and the bathroom—and tried to sleep some but couldn’t seem to sleep much. It was definitely a VERY good idea that I didn’t go with them, it turned out. While I was in bed, a little lady bug landed on me! SO random!! A lady bug on a ship, in my cabin? I don’t have any windows that open so I have no idea how it got in there, but it cheered me up a little. :)

The girls got back for dinner and a few of them had SAS trips to see Sufi Mystic Dancers, or Whirling Dervishes. It’s a religious dancing they do in Turkey. The rest of us really wanted to see it and decided to look for it on our own. I put a dress on, stuck a smile on my face, and we headed out.

So…we had no idea where to go. We took the tram to one of the main areas of Istanbul, then asked all around and finally were pointed in a direction. Well, we ended up not in the right place, and I guess it looked like it. A man came scurrying across the street and said we looked lost and asked if he could please help us find our way. At first we were a bit skeptical because he was so eager and we didn’t know if he was being weird. He called his friend over too, and we told them what we were looking for. They told us that we could go see it, but we’d have to pay $50 and have a dinner as well at all of the places they knew of. One of them pulled out his phone and said his good friend owns a restaurant/café with sufi dervish dancing, and that normally you have to get dinner but he would call and see if he could do us a special favor. “Okay, great, can you set a table up for us?” US…okay, so I guess he was joining us? It was 7:30 and it started at 8, so one of them insisted we come into his shop and look at his rugs. We had bad experiences with rug salesmen at the Grand Bazaar and apparently the girls had earlier that day too (they’d gone back to the Grand Bazaar) so we were worried he’d end up mad when we didn’t want to buy them, but we went into his store to look around anyway. He had some pretty jewelry and some nice dishes and lots of very nice and expensive rugs. He did try to show us some, but we made it clear that we couldn’t afford them. Then he insisted we sit down and have some apple tea. He brought it out for the 4 of us- Kelsey, Michelle, Brittany, and I. I didn’t eat dinner because I still didn’t feel well, so I didn’t want to risk drinking the apple tea and getting sick. So, Brittany slyly devised a secret plan so I didn’t seem rude—you couldn’t refuse apple tea, and I didn’t want to be rude and not drink it. So I played with the tea with the little spoon, blew on it because it was so hot, and did everything except drink it. I even sipped on an empty spoon. Then when the two guys weren’t looking, I’d put my cup down on Brittany’s platter and she’d put hers down on mine, and we’d continue doing the same thing. She’d actually drink it, and I’d fake it. So by the end, she had 2 cups! Thank you Brittany! Gosh, we’re so sly. :)

By then it was almost 8, so we decided to head over (he said it was about 5 minutes, walking). The shop owner had to stay, but the other guy, “Turkish Delight,” led us over. The guys were joking in the shop asking what we’ve done and what we’ve tried in Turkey, and asked about Turkish Delight and one guy said it was him…he was Turkish Delight. Then when we asked his name, all he told us was Turkish Delight. Alright, then. So anyway, we were walking with Turkish Delight and we ended up going right next to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia to an outdoor café! We walked right in past the waiting area (and many people waiting) and they showed us to our table. They knew we didn’t want to eat dinner, but we did order a little something to be polite. The girls ordered chocolate crepes (I was so jealous!) and I just ordered a Sprite. Turkish Delight asked if I didn’t feel well and I told him I’d been sick all day and hadn’t really eaten all day. *What I didn’t mention yet is that today was the first day of Ramadan. And during Ramadan, the Muslim people don’t eat or drink at all from sunrise to sunset. So Turkish Delight joked that I participated in Ramadan. How was it?, he asked. Was it hard? How was my first day being Muslim? So yep, technically I participated in the first day of Ramadan!

We watched the dancer up on stage, and it was really cool! He was wearing all white and a flowy skirt. He would listen to the music for awhile, then slowly start to spin, then slowly put his arms up, tilt his head to the side, and close his head—while still spinning quickly! I don’t know HOW he did it. Watching his feet was fascinating. He was so peaceful. He just kept spinning and spinning…unfortunately making me very very dizzy. And nauseous. I really couldn’t watch at all because I was starting to feel so sick. Turkish Delight said he couldn’t watch very long the first time he watched too, and it took time to get used to it. We were all feeling dizzy! At that point, I knew I had to go back to the ship soon. I REALLY didn’t feel well. I didn’t make it obvious at all, though, because I didn’t want to be rude. While we were sitting there, crowds of people started flooding into the café, and around the mosques setting up picnics—ALL OVER! It was the breaking of the fast on the first day of Ramadan. In other words, a huge deal. A bunch of the mosques had “Welcome to Ramadan” written in Turkish with lights strung across the minarets. It was so pretty! The sky was darkening and the atmosphere was stirring with excitement. We left the café finally and were walking back to the tram, and Turkish Delight was telling us about how this first breaking of the fast was such a big deal. Everyone wanted to be out and celebrating.

Turkish Delight insisted that we go out with him because we HAD to see the nightlife in Istanbul, but I needed to go back, and the other girls didn’t really want to go out either. We all said we wanted to go back to the ship, over and over because he asked SO many times. He finally let us get on the tram and we thanked him for arranging the Dervish for us. He had been really nice and helpful. We got back to the ship and just took it easy for the rest of the night. I actually made something of today and got off the ship, yay!

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.

Topkapi Palace (July 31, Part I)

This morning we made plans to go to the Spice Market and Topkapi Palace. We took the tram to the Spice Market, then walked…and walked…and walked around trying to get in. We couldn’t find the way in- every door was closed! How odd, though, because it was supposed to be open 7 days a week. We finally asked, and they told us that it is closed only today because they’re doing some kind of renovation. Well, I guess that can wait for another day! We headed to Topkapi Palace and bought our tickets. It is hugeee! And gorgeous. Everything outside the palace is so green and shady and relaxing. It’s like a huge park with lots of grass, trees, flowers, shade, and walkways. I just wanted to lay under the trees or have a picnic! The palace has so many different buildings. We went into a ton of them but still didn’t go into nearly all of them. It would have taken forever! There were many interesting artifacts and preserved things there. Tons of giant gems and jewelry, Muhammed’s footprint, and the old clothes of the sultans were just a few of the things we saw. The balcony and seaside of the palace was beautiful- and we could see our ship! Oh, what a hard life it must have been to live there. :) It would have been hard work to hold those heavy, blingy necklaces up! It was really cool going to the Topkapi Palace.

For those of you who don’t know any Turkish (we got impromptu lessons the night before we got to port), the “i” in Topkapi doesn’t have a dot on it, and is pronounced “uh.” So it sounds out to “tope-cop-uh” palace. Also, if the “G” has a little half circle above it, it is silent and you draw out the letter before it. If the “C” or “S” has a squiggly on the bottom of it, they are pronounced “ch” and “sh.” And lastly, the letter “C” is always a “J” sound. Besides those letters, it’s all phoenetic! And that concludes your Turkish lesson for the day. :)

We got lunch at a cute little place- I got rice and a tortilla/pita-like thing with a funky name, because of my stomach still. Then we came back to the ship to make plans for Asia. And now I have to go because we’re heading to Asia! No big deal…

NAKED (July 30, Part II)

I made you curious with that title, huh? Yep, it means just what you think.

We had checked out Turkish baths in the morning since we heard they were a MUST DO. We weren’t told much about them, because it would “ruin the experience.” We figured it was some sort of massage or something, and a big bath you could go in maybe. Some girls wore bathing suit bottoms, but a few of us didn’t because we figured you could just keep your towel on at all times if you wanted to. We were in for a “treat”……and here’s where the “naked” part comes in.

It took us forever to try to find the Turkish Bath. We had our map out and were looking for it, but as it turns out the name of the particular bath we were going to was also the name of a small district within Istanbul. So when we said the name (to 4 different people as we asked directions), people would point us in a direction that we followed…and ended up at a junction of 3 streets. Apparently we were “there.” We found one last person to ask and he understood we were trying to go to the baths, and thankfully he pointed us in the right direction. We finally got there! The baths were actually pretty expensive. The prices were in Euros. In other words, a lot more expensive than they seemed. We heard it was definitely worth it and an experience we had to have, so we all sucked it up and paid for just entrance to the baths and a massage. We could get the exfoliation if we wanted, and much more, but we just stuck with the basics and really wanted massages! Back massages, that is…

We were given receipts and pointed in the direction of the women’s section of the baths. We walked in, handed the receptionist our receipts, and were shown to our changing rooms upstairs. We all had our own room with a massage bed, so we sighed a sigh of relief that the massages were in there and we could probably stay covered with our towels. Turns out we were wrong—very wrong.

We changed into our towels, put on our wooden clog shoes (so hard to walk in!), and headed back down to find the baths. As I walked by the entrance door to the baths, I looked in to see a completely naked woman laying down with her hands up, being scrubbed by another woman (who worked there). NOOOOOOOOO. Oh no. This wasn’t real…this wasn’t happening. What happened to it being a big bath? Why was everyone naked?! We all kind of freaked out and hesitantly walked in…we found a little empty alcove and all plopped down. CULTURE SHOCK. There was no “bath” in this large, overheated sauna room. There was a giant round marble platform. Naked women were laying along the rim of this circle and were being scrubbed and massaged- face up and face down. We were all still FREAKING out, and decided we would just use the little faucets and “bathe” ourselves…really, we just wanted to get out of there ASAP. Mid freak-out, we were approached by a woman who worked there. She took one of the keys from the girls and told her to follow her. Uh oh. We were all scared for her. She hesitantly followed. She was told to take off her towel and lay down. Could she keep her towel on? NO! Oh….kay…she was the first one to brave it. We stopped watching because we didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable…so we all just looked at each other panicking and still freaking out. I’m not talking feeling awkward…we were freaking out, freaking out. We were NOT planning on being stark naked in a room full of women. Yes, it was only women, but STILL! We were seeing more of these women than we ever wanted to see, ever ever ever. And everyone in there just acted like it was just no big deal at all! I thought they were CONSERVATIVE in Turkey! Apparently just for the men!

One by one, women who worked there came and got us. One of the girls asked if she could only have her back massaged. Darn communication barrier. The woman didn’t understand and flipped her over anyway. When she tried to stop her, the woman wouldn’t have it. She paid for a massage, and a massage she was getting.

Finally it was my turn. And so proceeded the most awkward 20 minutes of my life thus far.

There was no room on the platform, so she grabbed my towel off of me (as I gracefully—not—attempted to cover myself), laid it on the ground near the rest of our girls who were waiting, and motioned for me to lay down. I looked panicked but she didn’t care, she wasn’t very patient. She grabbed me and started pulling me down so I finally just laid down. There was no such thing as conservative anymore! I started on my back. They don’t have any privacy rules apparently with this massage. She stayed away from my biggest “no-no zone,” but apparently to her the rest of my body didn’t have any more “no-no zones.” Massage meant full body. She kept telling me to relax but there was no relaxing! I would relax when she flipped me over! Boy, was I glad I didn’t sign up for exfoliation as well! That’s all the detail I’ll go into here. When she finished with the massage, she told me to sit up and face the other way. All of the sudden I was being doused in water and couldn’t breathe! No warning?! I thought maybe she’d rinse me with big pans of water a couple times. No, this went on for about 5 minutes. DUNK, gasp for air, DUNK, DUNK, DUNK, gasp for air. Then she washed my hair (I think with just soap) and proceeded to dunk me all over again. DUNK, gasp for air, hold breath, DUNK, soap in eyes, DUNK, DUNK, DUNK. Finally the dunking stopped. Finally I would get my towel back!! Nope, wrong again. She then made me sit there for 15 minutes to “dry naturally” and refused to give me my towel back. She just walked away with it! The other girls got to put their towels back on! Finally after about 5 or 10 minutes of sitting there, I asked (on the verge on demanding) for my towel back. I think she realized that I REALLY did want it. I was finally decent again and happily scooted in my wooden clogs back to the girls. All of us were still in shock. One of the girls came back all bundled up in warm towel- one for her body and one for her hair. No fair! Where did she get those?! She took us outside the bathing room and we discovered the warm, dry towels (rather than the drenched towels we had laid on, got soaked, and put back on)!!! Hallelujah! AND we were officially out of there! Well, it was quite the experience…to say the least. We sat out in the waiting area to let our hair dry some and saw that there were menus on the tables. We decided that after that experience, we DESERVED to treat ourselves to chocolate milkshakes. After waiting about a half hour, we received our chocolate “milkshakes”— milk + Hershey’s syrup. Yeah, they probably “shook” it but that does NOT count as a milkshake in my book! We finally changed and left, and took the tram back to the ship. Apparently, though, it’s obvious that women have come from the baths when they walk around with wet hair. We got just gross comments from men on the streets telling us that they’d be better at bathing us, and it would be better if they could join. Thank goodness we’re getting used to these comments and can now brush them off as perverted. That’s one thing I do miss from the US—the fact that you can walk all the way down a street and not get hit on about 1000 times—in disturbing ways, not flattering ones. Yeah, maybe you’ll get a whistle from a car going by or a honk, but it is nothing like Europe. That’s for sure. Anyway, we braved the trams again and finally got back to the ship.

And then we all showered after our Turkish baths. We did NOT feel clean after that experience! We met up on deck again when it got dark and enjoyed the best view in the city for a beautiful and relaxing end to a very Turkish day.

And that concludes today’s post. :)

Grand Bazaar (July 30, Part I)

Today we went to the GRAND BAZAAR! We took the tram out in the morning to the Grand Bazaar. We were all dressed very conservatively and had our “wedding rings” on, because one of the girls we’d talked to who was there yesterday got proposed to 5 times, and got hassled a lot. She was covered too but was wearing no ring. Better safe than sorry! We had a BLAST at the Grand Bazaar- I loved it! We had no idea what to think when we walked in- it was so huge and there were scarves and decorated ceramics and hookahs and jewelry and carpets and pillow cases and belly dancing outfits and “poopy pants” (will explain later) and just SO much EVERYWHERE! I wish I could describe it. We started out walking around and just wanted to see how low we could bargain to see what prices should be around. We found some scarves that ended up being a really good deal, we just didn’t know it yet. After walking around for awhile and just getting a feel for how much things should be, we started getting stuff. One place in particular was our favorite. We looked at their stuff displayed outside and walked to go in, so we did (voluntarily, opposed to their opinion that they coaxed us in with their words) and started looking around. Right when we went in, a guy went to the back and changed it from American music to Turkish dance music and cranked the volume up! We were all dancing and so were the guys who worked there, and we were trying to get them to teach us how to belly dance. Then Michelle saw a journal she wanted, and they started at such a high price- I don’t remember exactly what it was. They bargained back and forth and at 30 Turkish Lyra the guy just wouldn’t budge. She even tried putting it back and walking away and that didn’t work, so finally I chimed in after hearing a story from yesterday. I knew one of the girls got something for a third of the “settled” price when she said 10 and a kiss- on the cheek, of course. She hadn’t specified, and kissed the guy on the cheek and ran. So for Michelle’s journal, I chimed in with a “10 and a kiss.” He thought about it and settled for 15 and a kiss. Then we specified on the cheek and he went back up to 30! We told him she couldn’t because she was married, and he finally took the 15 and a cheek kiss. We got it all on video- it was so funny! And she got her journal for a good price. :) We were there for about 7 hours- we bargained and walked and looked and bargained and looked and bargained and walked alllll day long! We stopped for lunch at one point and went just outside the bazaar to a little tiny restaurant. I still wasn’t feeling well, so I got bread and rice, and even that made my stomach hurt with tums and pepto bismal. I also tried Apple Tea for the first time—DELICIOUS! It’s so big there, too. At the Grand Bazaar, if you are going to make a big purchase, they will invite you in for apple tea while you bargain the price! Anyway, we were finally burnt out and decided to leave and head to the Turkish baths, which I’ll write about in the next post!

*Like I said I would, I will expand on “poopy pants,” very popular all over Europe. Think of loose pants with bright colorful designs. They are usually down to your ankles or a little higher, maybe mid-calf. Now imagine elastic at the bottom of each pant leg. Now imagine the crotch of the pants below your knees. There ya go, those are poopy pants for you! Are they really called that? No. Do all SASers call them that? Yep!

On another note, let me discuss trams. Groping happens. On the trams. Yeah, ew. In a psychology class on Impulse Control Disorders last year I learned about a sex addict disorder where people rub themselves on strangers, and it often happens on trains in Europe. I didn’t think I’d actually have to experience it, or even see it. Did I mention ew? Anyway, yes, we experienced this on crowded trams and it was very hard to avoid. What can you do when the person has literally nowhere to go? You do what I did and ELBOW him in the stomach, slowly, constantly, until it starts to push him AWAY from my friends. And when it happens to you, you do a really fast elbow in the gut and basically lunge forward as fast as you can to get AWAY. It was disgusting, let me tell you. And you make it very obvious that you know what he’s doing. Okay, enough on that. Just had to acknowledge that it happens! Luckily we were warned about this in pre-port, so we weren’t taken completely off guard. And getting on and off the tram, we learned to put our hands over our rears to prevent from more grabbing. Okay, now I’m really done!

Istanbul Dance Party (July 29)

Guess what I started my day with! THE SUNRISE! Yep, I woke up and we all watched the sunrise together as we entered the Bosphorus Strait approaching Istanbul. We actually got to watch the sun rise multiple times- there was a series of mountains that the sun kept peeking out of…then going behind…then rising above the new mountain…then being hidden by the next. It was fun. And beautiful! At first the sun was a bright orange color, and it slowly turned to a very yellow color as it headed up into the sky for the day. On one side of us was Asia, and on the other was Europe. We went under the big lit-up bridge again, only this time it wasn’t lit up because it wasn’t dark, so it wasn’t nearly as pretty. I went back to sleep, then woke up for breakfast. And thank goodness I was getting up and going to breakfast, because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway! My neighbor’s alarm was going off, and I’m pretty sure nobody was in there…so I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway. I came back to my room and half slept/half watched the diplomatic briefing on TV, but I could barely hear it anyway because the volume was so low since my roommate was asleep. Then I had to get out of bed to get my “landing card,” something they were requiring for us along with passports. Then it was time to leave on my city orientation trip!

Now, I’m a fan of city orientations by bus because they give you a good introduction to the city, bring you to all the main sites, and give you a feel for what’s there. Then there’s always time to go back to what you loved! We drove through the streets of ancient Pera, the Latin Quarter, then drove by Taksim Square (and were advised to come back at night!). Then passed the soccer stadium and went over the Ataturk Bridge to cross the Golden Horn. We drove by the old city walls (from the 4th century!) and saw the Roman Aqueduct of Valens (from the 2nd century!). Then we got off the bus and saw the Hippodrome, and the two columns- the Serpentine Column and the Theodosius Column. Both of these were brought from Egypt in the 4th century. Here, we were given free time to eat our boxed lunches and wander around. Katie, Kristin, and I found a nice curb in the shade and set up camp. It was against a wall, so we thought it would be nice and safe and peaceful and cool. Just as I was indulging in my brownie dessert, a huge police bus started backing up straight toward us—uh oh! Luckily it ended up being about 2 feet to the left of us…but pulled all the way back so if we were there we would have been squished. I guess it was planning on parking here. Just after our sigh of relief, young policemen started filing out with AK-47’s, and stood there with them about 3 feet away from us. No big deal…AK-47’s…about 3 feet away…pointing carelessly at our heads slung over the policemen’s shoulders……..remember our Darwin phrase? I think Darwin would like it here. No, you know what, he’d love it. Yep, DARWIN WOULD LOVE IT HERE! All at once we packed up our lunches, and scurried away in a sprint-walk. Yeahhhh, I guess we weren’t too comfortable with AK-47’s pointed at us after all.

After we finished eating in a NEW spot, we reconvened and went down into the Byzantine Cistern and walked around down there. It was so cool (figuratively and literally)! And it was very wet. The bottoms of my linen pants were soaked. After that, it was finally time to see the Hagia Sophia! Or, as they call it, the Ayasophia. Because we were a tour group, we got to go in the “Turkish people only” entrance and skip all the lines- woohoo! It was HUGE inside! There were these flower-shaped light chandeliers hanging down all over, and there were two floors, and it was gorgeous! We got to hear about its history, and then we got free time to walk around. We also learned about this hole in one of the pillars- if you made a wish and put your thumb in the whole, your wish would come true if you could rotate your hand 360 degrees. So we did it. :) We didn’t have to wear headscarves in here because it is technically considered a museum. It was so cool that it used to be Catholic, and then taken over by the Muslim people. I took plenty of pictures, and finally it was time to go. Then we went to the Blue Mosque. Here, we had to remove our shoes and wear headscarves to cover our hair and shoulders. Those who didn’t wear long enough pants or dresses were given paper scarves to cover all the way down to their ankles. I didn’t have to have a paper scarf this time! One of Kristin’s friends at home wears a headscarf and taught her how to tie them correctly, so the three of us looked pretty legit! Inside was beautiful. The outside isn’t blue at all, but the inside has gorgeous blue tile work all over. We ran into the rest of the girls in there who had come on their own! We got to walk around there for awhile, then had to leave. On our way home, we stopped at one more mosque, the Sehzade Mosque. This was very empty, so we got to sit on the carpet for awhile while we were told about it. All of the mosques have fountains in front for ablutions before people pray, and we got to see those. All the mosques we saw were so gorgeous! Then our tour was finally over and we headed back to the ship. We were so exhausted, so we took naps until dinner!

After dinner, we were just walking around the ship and discovered an outside deck we didn’t know existed! It was right above the gangway, so we could be little creepers and say hi to people leaving and returning to the ship (and watch people skip the mandatory hand sanitizer!).

Because we were so tired, none of us really felt like going out. A couple girls had FDP trips in the evening, and the rest of us went up to the front of the 7th deck to hang out. This was the best idea in the whole wide world. I’m telling you—our ship’s location was IDEAL in Istanbul. There was no better view than from our ship…seriously. We were smack dab in the middle of the heart of Istanbul. We could see the bridge behind us, lit up and doing it’s lightshow constantly, changing colors and dancing with light. We could see the city skyline all around us, filled with flags and mosques lit up beautifully at night. We could see both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia…oh yeah, AND Topkapi Palace! There were ferries that would pass right next to our ship with Turkish dance music playing. And to top it all off, there were about 6 sets of fireworks that randomly went off throughout the night, illuminating the beautiful lit mosques all around. It was incredible!!! We seriously had the best view of Istanbul. One of the girls eventually started playing music, and soon enough we were all up dancing around on the deck, in the heart of Istanbul, on deck 7. We danced to everything from Love Shack to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun to Jump On It…and the list goes on. It was a BLAST! We were all alone and nobody could see us (except for maybe a few professors in the teacher’s lounge…but we didn’t care). It was sooooo much fun! This was definitely one of my favorite nights. :)

Turkey Day (July 28)

Today was Turkey Day!

We only had one day between Bulgaria and Turkey, so we didn’t have all of our classes. We just had Global Studies IN THE MORNING—stupid decision, if you ask me! We were all exhausted from Bulgaria the last 4 days and many of us were sick. If we only have one class, is it too much to ask for a single day to sleep in a little? Apparently. It was impossible for me to wake up for it in the morning- I didn’t feel good and I was so exhausted. So, I didn’t go. My day started at lunch.

With all the Alzheimer’s discussion we’ve had in psychology lately, AND with how I have noticed my body changing a wee bit (maybe from all that Italian food?), AND with how lousy I feel from not working out…I decided it was time to suck it up and start going to the gym. Michelle and I suited up after lunch and hit the gym- elliptical and StairMaster, along with P90X Ab Ribber X. :) The StairMaster was a first for me. I’ve never used one and have always been a little afraid of them- they look so hard! But, it was the only machine open so we did it. I climbed 100 flights of stairs! I was proud of myself. :) I THOUGH about doing real stairs…DAD…but then realized I might get a few odd looks from running up and down stairs. Hey, at least I wasn’t doing it at a soccer game (Dad)! :)

I jumped in the shower to rinse off, then joined my golden tanning friends on the deck—in the shade. :) I decided to go to the medical center for my …skin things… I don’t know if they’re bites or plant poison from running through the sunflower fields. But that fact that I had weird bumps on my skin wasn’t very surprising. Anyway, I went to the medical clinic when it opened and got this scrub for them- before I shower, I have to scrub the life out of these bumps, and even scrub so hard to pop them and keep scrubbing until they’re raw. Sounds fun, huh? Now that I’ve shot your appetite, let me move on to dinner.

Dinner itself wasn’t memorable, but we (as always) stayed there for two hours chit chatting. Meals are when we spend our main quality time together! Today’s topic of conversation was first kisses—oh, there were some funny ones!