Istanbul: Carpets, Baklava, and... Cats?

The Blue Mosque

Last weekend I experienced a country that was completely different than anything I had ever seen before. Istanbul, Turkey is a city that is filled with so much energy, culture, stray CATS and above all, tradition. After sharing the city of Prague for two months now, with locals who are so reserved to the point that they barely pay you any mind, I was in shock at how open and friendly everyone in Istanbul was. On the bus ride over, our tour guide Ava warned us about how hectic things can get there; Us girls should expect to be hollered at and everyone with be heckled. She also gave us a heads up about the bargaining there. I believe her words were, "If you think it's rude, get over it. Bargaining is fun for them." So that’s exactly what I had to do, get over it. I figured I would lower my prices more and more each day as I got more confident with the routine (bargaining isn’t really my thing).  The first thing we did when we got to Turkey was check into our hotel. The rooms were small, but cozy, and the building we were in was an old Turkish hotel made from wood. We were right in the heart of the city. One of the first things I noticed as soon as we stepped off the bus, was that we were surround by cats. Dani was having a bit of a panic attack considering she isn’t a big fan of them, and their numbers seemed to be growing by the minute. I was easily won over by their charm however, and I thought it was adorable to see them roaming the streets. 

I was surprised to see how much religion and tradition still existed in this city. The majority of women were still wearing head coverings and every few hours the chilling sound of prayers would be played over the loud speaker, ringing throughout the entire city. As the calls for prayer were played, people would stop what they were doing and head toward a mosque to pray 5 times a day. Some people even stopped what they were doing, got down where they were, and prayed facing in the proper direction. Their dedication was pretty unbelievable. As religious and traditional as some of the people may have been there, I have never met a friendlier group of people. Everyone wanted to be your friend and joke around with you. I was surprised at how amazed and excited locals would get when we would tell them we’re from America. They would always try to relate to us by telling us how it is their dream to go to California, or how they have a cousin (probably 3 times removed at least) living in Chicago. Regardless, we were constantly making friends with the people surrounding us, and I’ve never had so much fun meeting and conversing with new people.

Dani and I in front of the Blue Mosque

Learning the traditional dance

The first tour that we had in Turkey was visiting the Blue Mosque. This was such an interesting and unique experience because it was the one mosque we went into where women were not allowed to show their hair. For this reason, all of us girls were required to wear some sort of headscarf. Even the girls whose pants were considered to be too tight were told to wrap skirts around their bodies. As soon as I walked in, I could feel the sacredness of my surroundings. Men were up toward the front, praying in the direction of Mecca, what is regarded to be the holiest city in Islam. The lights were low and the mosaics were intricately done. It was so great getting to visit this mosque, especially while people were actively praying inside of it. Later that night a few of us wandered the streets to experience what Istanbul is all about. Of course, our first destination of the night revolved around food. Our tour guide had recommended the best Baklava store in the city, which is saying a lot considering almost every other store sells Baklava. Needless to say, I discovered a new favorite dessert. Each piece is rich and moist with honey and every bite melts in your mouth. After weaving our way in and out of stores, we finally picked a place to eat dinner (which was pretty hard to do since apparently every restaurant in Turkey has “the best prices in town”). At dinner Dani and I decided to try a traditional Turkish cuisine. We started off with a huge pita pocket that was served to the table and followed it up with some chicken and vegetable shish kabobs. The meal was so flavorful, we absolutely loved it! After dinner a few of us wandered around, in search of a traditional Turkish hookah bar; that took all of two minutes to find. When we decided on which one to go to we were led upstairs to a room filled with colorfully detailed pillows and rugs. All of the waiters were beyond friendly, to the point where they would sit down and have drinks with us. It seemed as though everyone there was friends with one another. Eventually, the waiter had Steph and me up and out of our seats to try and teach us a traditional Turkish dance. After listening to the song on repeat and going through the moves about 10 times, we just about got the first step down. It was a nice attempt, I guess. The night continued with dancing, singing, and tons of laughter.

Trying Baklava!

The following day our tour guide took us to visit the Hagia Sophia. It was absolutely stunning. The Hagia Sophia is one of the oldest mosques and is the only mosque with five pillars. The inside was huge and it was hard to keep my eyes off of its gorgeous gold mosaics. Because there was so much detail to look at inside the mosque, it took up a good majority of our day. After visiting the mosque, we went to the Sultan’s Palace, which blew my mind. The grounds were huge and every detail was gorgeous, including the crown jewels of course. Later that night, a handful of girls in our program decided to experience the traditional Turkish baths. Let me just say, we did not know what we were in for. Dani and I figured that it would be normal for women to be topless, but we were not expecting everyone to be, including the masseuses. Dani and I couldn’t hold back smiles and giggles as a husky old Turkish woman guided us into the bathing area, but not before ripping her top off herself. As we walked into the steam rooms, we were surprised to see how unorthodox everything was (for our culture at least), but it was such an amazing experience. It was definitely unlike anything I have every experienced before, and it has become such an awesome memory for all of us.

Walking through the outdoor markets

Saturday morning, we visited the Basilica Cistern, the cistern located underneath the Istanbul grounds. This cistern provided a water filtration system for the entire city. Walking across the water through the enormous columns was so dark and serene. After visiting the cistern, we all went to visit the Bazaar shops. This was an indoor marketplace with hundreds of vendors trying to sell you tons of merchandise. This is where I got to practice my bargaining the most. Even though I wasn’t great at it, I eventually got the hang of it and I had a ton of fun playing around. After getting lost in shopping for a couple of hours, Dani and I decided to take another adventure, not before stopping for a Doner Kabob obviously. 

Inside the Hagia Sophia

Since Istanbul is the only city located on two continents (Europe and Asia), Dani and I decided to take a boat ride to the side over in Asia. There was next to nothing there, however it was cool just to be able to say we have been to Asia. Later that night we went to the modern “21^st century” part of Istanbul, which seemed like a completely different world compared to where we were staying before. The nightlife was active and music was playing everywhere. It was such a fun night and so interesting to experience a completely different way of living compared to the traditional area of the city. We spent our last night here, taking in as much more of Turkey as we could. This was such an amazing country and I hope to be able to go back one day!

Belgium... Just Sensational!

Soo, embarrassingly enough I have managed to go over a month without updating my blog. To those of you who are avid followers (aka my mom and about 3 others), my apologies. I will do my best to catch you up on what has been going on in my fantasy world here in Europe, and I'll start with Belgium. About three weeks ago, my three roommates and I hopped on a plane beyond excited to be heading to Brussels. The only reason we were really traveling to Belgium in the first place was because of a huge concert called Sensation White. None of us really knew much about the country, besides that fact that we were planning on stuffing our faces with waffles and chocolates. When we first arrived, we struggled with the transportation system, seeming that it was a little different than what we are used to in Prague. But by combining the brains of four college students, we eventually managed to make our way out of the metro station and up into the open air of Brussels. 

The first thing we did when we got there was check out our hostel. Considering that this was my first hostel experience, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not as bad as some of the horror stories I had heard before. Luckily for my roommates and I, we were set up with a room consisting of only four bunks, so we were able to have more privacy with just the four of us being in one room.  The hostel was filled with friendly people from around the world, most of them being about our age. It seemed as though every person ages 18-30 had the same plans and excitement as we did to go to Sensation White. This only made us that much more excited for the concert on the following night. 

After scoping out the hostel, our roommate Steph had a mutual friend who has lived in Brussels for about 12 years now. She called him up and him and his friend drove over to pick us up from the hostel and show us around Brussels. We were so lucky to have our own personal tour guides, not to mention it makes a huge difference when they are peers. The two guys showed us all the hot spots around Brussels and gave us their personal experiences on what it was like living in a country with next to no government. We immediately headed for the city where I completely fell in love. Brussels was far succeeding my expectations with every corner we turned. The streets were filled with people, vendors, the most mouth watering waffles I have ever seen, and of course... chocolate on every corner. The entire town smelled of sweets. Needless to say, we were all in heaven. The first stop we made after walking around was to Delirium Café. Here they have the Guinness Book World Record for the most amounts of beers. With 2,004 different options (yes, I said 2,004), we each managed to try some beers that we’d fall in love with. The most popular amongst all of us seemed to be the fruit flavored beers. We tried everything from mango beer to coconut. It was way too delicious and so much fun! After Delirium we visited an old train station that was eventually turned into a bar. The atmosphere was very unique and I absolutely loved being there. Later that night, our friends from Belgium took us out to all the hot spots for the night scene. Little did I know that Belgium could be even more beautiful at night. Everything was lit up with colorful lights and the nightlife was thriving. We all had such a great time socializing and meeting new people.

Neuhaus Chocolates.. so yummy!

The following day was the day we had been waiting for since we bought our tickets in December. It was finally time for SENSATION. The theme for this concert was to dress in all white so we had our outfits and accessories ready, hopped on the train and headed for Hasselt, the city where the concert took place. This night was probably one of the best times and memories I have had being in Europe so far. Thousands upon thousands of people from around the world filled the venue and the energy was beyond electrifying. The concert started at 9 pm and it didn’t stop until 6 am. We danced so much the ENTIRE night to the point where my calves were sore for the following three days. Not only was it our four roommates who went, but tons of other kids that we knew from Prague and other countries were there as well. It was so much fun getting to share this experience with so many people we love. When the concert was finally over, we made it back to our hotel to have a not so fulfilling three hours of sleep before we had to catch the train back to the airport. As soon as we made it home, we immediately crashed in an attempt to catch up on some sleep. Belgium was a complete success. I was so overjoyed with how much fun I had this weekend, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. My roommates and I spent hours laughing and looking back at all the memories we had made in those short three days. Belgium was easily one of the best weekends I have had so far!!

Sensation White!!