I know I haven't posted in forever...

but I have been REALLY busy! But enough people have told me that I need to post to get me off my lazy butt to do it. hehe. So.. I'm going to start with the trip to Istanbul!

We left for Istanbul on Saturday evening, arriving that night. For the first two nights we stayed in a hotel RIGHT by the Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia. We didn't arrive until late that evening, so we just ended up putting out stuff in our rooms and splitting up. Mieka and I wandered around all over the place, seeing the Blue Mosque from the outside gates and then heading to a hookah cafe for some snacks. We had a really strange "Cinderella" sandwich with macadamia nuts, mayonaise, lettuce and chicken chunks. It was surprisingly good. We also had some AMAZING rice pudding, which happens to be my favorite dessert. :) After that we went back and went to bed, for an early morning the next day!

On Sunday Morning (April 29th) we got up at 9am and went on a whirlwind tour of EVERYTHING important in the city. We started out at the Blue Mosque -- which had to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was architecture poetry. After that we saw the Hagia Sophia. In order to get into it we had to have our bags x-rayed and go through metal detectors -- some serious security! The interior (much like the exterior) of the Hagia Sophia is a a big mish-mash of things, as it has bee added on to and changed so much over the centuries. There were amazing columns from The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World! As well as tons of other cool stuff plundered from around the world. After that we went to the Roman Cisterns which were AWESOME. They are an underground water storage facility from the time of the Roman Empire in Constantinople. There were these incredible heads of Medusa, also taken from a destroyed temple somewhere, in the far back of the Cisterns. After that we had lunch and went to TopKapi Palace. We saw the Harem and the state jewels and basically it was incredible. By then it was 6pm, and I needed a nap badly! After the nap we went out dinner and then to cool hookah cafe where we made friends with the owner.

The next day we hit the Grand Bazaar which was beyond incredible. It is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined. Anything and everything possible can be purchased there. We bought so much random stuff and had so much fun. We also had our best lunch while we were inside the bazaar! That night we went out an saw a belly dancer at a hostel and then went back to the hookah cafe we went to the night before. There is this Turkish tea called Apple Tea that is AMAZING and kind of like hot apple cider, but not quite, and I must have had a gallon of it every night we were there! The owner of the cafe taught us how to dance Turkish style that night too.

Our last day in Istanbul was a walking day, we toured a bunch of mosques and few more tourist sites, we also went back to the Bazaar for while.

I loved Istanbul and can't wait to get back!