One of my absolute favorite things in the world is to travel and see new places and I have been absolutely blessed to be able to do so this past year. Some of my friends and I decided to make a trip to Istanbul, Turkey this weekend. (AKA the 'Bul) We left Thursday morning and got back late last night. It was strange, because before I left, I wasn't really excited about it. People kept asking me, "Are you excited about Turkey?" and I would answer yes but I really wasn't. I was excited to go somewhere and not have to work a couple days, but I just wasn't that pumped to go to Turkey. Turkey has never been on my "Places to See and Things to Do Before I Die" List. (yes, i do have one of those.) But after being there, I would recommend it to EVERYONE. It was incredible. Let me tell you a little bit about it.... So we flew in Thursday afternoon, after stopping in Moldova (a country that I, sadly, didn't even know existed). As we drove through the city we saw green grass and tulips and the blue sea. Right when I saw Istanbul, I was finally excited. This is what I love. I love seeing new places and listening to new languages and having to figure out a new city. The first night, we found a unique Turkish cafe with delicious coffees and pastries. The name is pronounced Star-buks. :) Ok, so we went to Starbucks. We decided to go there and figure out the game plan for the next few days. Old Istanbul is a maze of narrow cobblestone/brick streets with shops and cafes everywhere. It was just so quaint and relaxed and happy. It was so refreshing. About ten minutes from our hotel was the Blue Mosque as well as Hagia Sophia. These buildings are beautiful! Even more amazing in person. They are basically across the street from each other and it was amazing to walk by them each day. The Blue Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616. It's nicknamed the Blue Mosque because of all the blue tiles inside. It is still used as a mosque and is closed to tourist certain times during the day.
The Hagia Sophia sits opposite of it. This was incredible to see. From the date of it's dedication in 360 (crazy old!) until 1453, it served as the cathedral of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox). In 1453 it was turned into a mosque until 1935 when it was secularized and made into a museum. 1453 is when Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and the Sultan ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. I think its history is amazing. This ancient building was once Christian, then Muslim, and is now a museum. (thanks wikipedia for some dates and what not) 
We saw both of these on Friday as well as the Topkapi Palace. This palace was beautiful and was once the home to Sultans and their harems for 400 years, from the 1400s to the 1800s. This stopped when one Sultan decided to move to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace (which we also saw on Sunday.) The Topkapi Palace was very interesting. It was neat to see where the old Sultans lived and it reminded us of Aladdin. Even though that wasn't even in Turkey we kept singing, "A Whole new world...." Here they had a lot of beautiful jewelry and ornate things. I don't know what to call them. Mirrors, pendants, boxes, swords, water jars, cups, etc. They all had diamonds, gold, pearls, rubies and emeralds. One diamond was the size of a large egg, maybe bigger! They also claim to have the cloak and sword of Muhammed. They also claim to have John the Baptist's skull. The last event of Friday was a visit to the Turkish Bath. I experienced this with my two good friends, Leah and Becca. If we weren't close before, we are now. If you would like to know more about a Turkish bath, I'm sure you can google it. It's kind of like a sauna but also with washing and peeling? I don't know, you can ask about it if you want. :)
Saturday was another full day. We decided to take the ferry to one of the Princess Islands. These islands are not too far from Istanbul. The unique thing about them is that there are no cars. To get around you have to walk, bike, or take a horse-drawn carriage. Of course, it was beautiful. I think we walked like 8 miles here. We hiked to the top of the Island where there was a monastery. Back at the bottom we had ice cream. My friends decided to try the Turkish treat which consisted of waffles, ice cream and many other delicious things. OH, I forgot about my feel good story of the trip. Ok so, when we were on our way to the ferry, we were walking across the street and I saw a camera laying in the crosswalk. I couldn't just leave it there to get run over, so I picked it up hoping that the owner was looking for it. We waited for a while, but there was just so many people and the owner was no where to be found. I didn't know what to do. I felt like if I give it to someone, the owner would never find it. But if I kept it, then what? We decided that it would be impossible to find it's owner and we had to get on the ferry, so we decided to just hang on to it. My friend Leah's camera battery died and she didn't have the charger, so we thought, "perfect, now she can use this and have pictures of Turkey." Sorry unlucky owner. We didn't know what else to do. Well, Leah used it throughout the day and on the ferry ride back to Istanbul (the Asian side) I was looking through the owners pictures. Invasion of privacy? maybe but it was worth it. All I found were pictures of buildings with an occasional finger in the way. We decided that it was an old man who was travelling alone because there were no pictures of other people. Until I found a picture of one man. He had a brown jacket and a grey scarf. I also found videos on there. The videos were only a few seconds. In one, we almost caught a glimpse of the owner but stopped short right at his neck. But we did know what he was wearing. Anyway, we exited the ferry and made our way through a crowd of people. Then I spotted him, the old man in the brown jacket and grey scarf. I knew it was him! I had just watched a video of him! This had to be a friend of the camera owner. We stopped him and he only spoke French. We tried asking him if he recognized the camera. He didn't know what we were talking about. Some of my friends were like, "it's not him, he doesn't know." But I knew. So I took it out and showed him a picture of himself! He was surprised and probably confused. I tried to tell him that it wasn't mine. We found it on the ground. Then he said ami, which is the only French word that I remember from French class. It means friend. I think he was saying, "this is my friend's camera." We were all very happy and he kept saying thank you very much. He asked us if we were English and I told him here were Americans and he replies, "Barack!" And I reply, "Barack Obama?" And he says, "Oui, Oui!" Then he says something about Michelle being beautiful. It was so amazing that of all the places we went, we just happened to be in the same place as this man, the only person in all those pictures. And I just happened to spot him. It was so great. I wish I had gotten a picture of him. But he has pictures of us, from our day with his friend's camera.
The next day, we went to the new palace. This was also beautiful and ornate. It had huge rooms and breathtaking halls. One had a ceiling that was almost 100 feet tall with a chandlier that weighed 4 tons. It was gorgeous! It reminded us of Beauty and the Beast and we kept singing, "Tale as old as time...." Istanbul brought us back to our Disney roots. :) After the palace we ate lunch. I had Iskender which is the most delicious Turkish dish ever! It was so good. Then we headed back to Old Istanbul and had Turkish coffee and Baklava! The coffee was not that good. It's not filtered and all the grounds are at the bottom. The baklava was really good though. After that me and Leah and Becca walked around until we found the sea. And when we did, it was so amazing. (i keep using words like amazing, incredible, beautiful, but there just aren't enough words for it.) Because when we looked out at the sea, we saw DOZENS of dolphins! They were surfacing all over and sometimes jumping out of the water. We sat on the rocks and watched them for maybe an hour. It was such a blessing to be there and to experience that.
Our past day consisted of more sun and last minute seaside sitting. I was sad to leave but really hopeful that I would return someday. It's my new dream to go back there with my sister. She doesn't know that yet. :) Now I'm back in the 'Cow or Moscow. During our travels back here, my friend Rick said, "Home Sweet Home?" and I said, "No, Home Sweet and Sour Home." haha. Moscow is my home right now and I do feel an attachment forming for the city and the people here. I'm becoming more and more used to life here and I am looking forward to returning next year. (yep, I'm going to live here another year. ah!) But it is a little sour returning from a trip like that. And I am starting to get into summer mode. I'm looking forward to my parents coming here and to going back to America. Before I know it, I'll be sitting at Caribou Coffee, updating my blog for all you faithful readers. :) thanks for reading and caring about my life. Sorry this one was so long, we just did so much! If you're reading this from Minnesota, I'll see you soon! If you're my parents, I'll see you even sooner! (sooner?....i teach english good.) Anyways, that's all for now. Dosvidanya, Kristin
to see all my pictures go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036230&id=79801790&l=ab07643119
