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Where to start. The past two days I have done major exploring of Istanbul. On friday a group of 9 of us exchange students took the metro bus 43R and then the tram to old town istanbul. The busing system is excellent here, during the weekdays buses come about every 10 minutes. The tram is really easy to use as well as most stops have english "sub-titles". Anyway, once in Old town we went straight to the Grand Bazaar. It was absolutely incredible. Store after store jam packed with various goods. Entire sections devoted to gold, silver, ivory, with store after store selling slight variations of the same products. Bartering is really fun too. The trick is to not really care if you actually purchase the item. My best bargaining dropped a touristy shirt form 15 lira to 6. It took about 15 minutes and both myself and the salesman were animated the entire time. I managed to stay away from buying anything else and was satisfied with simply taking picture after picture of the area.
Next we walked off the "beaten path" on some sketchy back streets on our way to the blue mosque and the aya sophia. We saw how some ppl really live in istanbul. very chaotic.
The Blue mosque was awe inspiring. Only four of us could go in because the others had shorts on, turns out they could have come because the mosque provides shalls that can be wrapped around the legs. Once inside all four of us got the chills. It was gigantic. not an inch blank, no space uninspiring. The pictures do no justice to the atmosphere created. We were fortunate enough to be there during a prayer which was a great experience. The only negative part were the extraordinarily rude tourist who were taking pictures with the moslem women praying, that really ticked me off and I told a few of them to stop before realizing my efforts were pointless. Anyway, on to the Aya Sophia
We did not go inside the Aya Sophia but it was able to impress us anyway. The size alone is enough, but the architecture is so full of life and culture. This building has undergone extreme changes, has survived over 1000 years, and even switch religions. It was amazing
my travel partners for this trip were Andrew from Victoria, Canada, Brandon from Detroit, Joe and Jessie from Seattle, Aurelie from France, Duygu from New Jersey though a native of Istanbul, Steven from Holland and Ruth from Cali for the Grand Bazaar.
Saturday Joe, Jessie, Ciera from Indiana, Steven, Brandon and I went to Taxsim, a shopping district with a jam packed main road surrounded on both sides by four story shops of all types. I got shoes for 30 lira and will take picture of the area next time I go there. For now I have to get on with my day.
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