After a solid two weeks of traveling, I finally have enough free time to sit in front of the computer for long enough to begin to recount all of the tales of my journey. Hooray?
Our trip started off innocently enough with a layover in Munich between our early morning train from Innsbruck and our mid-afternoon flight to Istanbul. Since it was a beautiful day outside, and so as to make the most of our time in Munich, the guys decided to go out and explore the city. We walked past the Glockenspiel and ended up at Hofbräuhaus, at which point we figured, well, what the hell, we might as well go inside. When we got inside, we figured, well, what the hell, as long as we're here, we might as well get a beer. When we sat down to order, we figured, well, what the hell, if we're getting some famous Hofbräuhaus brew, we better get the Mass (1 liter size for all of you who still need that sort of help). So we proceeded to enjoy a liter of beer each at 10:30 in the morning. Sketchy decision #1 of spring break turned out to be a great success.
Delicious
Right after we arrived, we were greeted by a very nice Turkish man who invited us rather forcefully into his restaurant and pretty much force-fed us kebaps while stammering on in broken English and occasionally breaking into song on his sitar. He called us his nephews and daughters, and he was our uncle. It was awesome.
The whole family (except for Jonathan, who was taking the picture)
Our hostel in Turkey was pretty much the bomb, except for Snorlax, the lone Asian-Canadian ("Chinaman" being not the preferred nomenclature) in our otherwise ND-filled six-bed room. You can maybe guess why we named him Snorlax.
Day One in Istanbul was a pretty stereotypically touristy day, on which we hit up all of the big touristy destinations: the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia (pronounced "Aya Sophia"), and Topkapi Palace. Each one was uniquely interesting. At Topkapi Palace, there were many unbelievable relics on display, such as part of the Staff of Moses and the Sword of the Prophet David (LOL SURE IT WAS)!
Hagia Sophia
That evening we walked through the progressively colder and rainier weather to a wharf about three miles away where we were served substandard seafood and then charged an exorbitant amount for bread and water. Thoroughly humiliated, we went home, and I cried myself to sleep. Not really. I was already wet enough thanks to the weather.
Monday was cold and rainy throughout. We dealt with it by doing indoor things, like going to the Basilica Cistern, which just so happens to be the place where that awesome sequence of scenes from "From Russia with Love" was filmed. We also visited the Grand Bazaar, where we ate some great Turkish food, and where I purchased a jacket for 30 lira (~2o USD). Asking price? 60 lira. Boom. I could get used to a barter economy. But not really. It was kind of annoying.
Cisterns
We also paid a visit to the spice bazaar, where this stuff was sold:
Potent!
That evening we saw some Dervish dancing, which was ostensibly rather boring, but really quite beautiful and entrancing once the mood set in. The guys capped off the night by visiting a hookah bar right down the street, where I smoked the best and most potent hookah I've ever smoked. It lasted three people one and a half hours and tasted like apples. My lungs said no, but my brain said "For 13 lira? OH YES!"
On Wednesday, the weather became absolutely gorgeous. We took a ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asian side of the city and walked around for the better part of the day. We hiked up a rather large hill, upon which we were afforded a terrific view of both the Asian and the European sides. We spent the rest of the early evening back on the European side, also just walking around, taking in the sights, and experiencing the chaos. So, I guess nothing really happened, and this entire day is probably best summed up in pictures:
Sailing across the Bosphorus
Easily the best picture I've ever taken. Couldn't do it again if I tried.
On Wednesday, we thought we were going to Rome in the afternoon. Instead, we spent eight hours or so in the airport because Blu-Express decided that it would just be swell to move our flight back five hours and then not let us know. It was delayed by an additional hour, too, but at that point, whatever. I also paid 20 Turkish lira for a Burger King meal in that quite literally God-forsaken airport. So much for the up-until-then-favorable exchange rate and price level. Our flight to Rome finally arrived at nearly one in the morning because we had to make a "quick" emergency landing in some city on Italy's eastern seaboard because there was a woman having a life-threatening panic attack in the back of the plane, three rows behind me. This woman, by the way, was checked out by medical personnel on the ground and then ALLOWED BACK ON THE PLANE. Everything ended well enough as we split a cab with some Americans we met in the airport who also happened to be headed the same way that we were and ended up safely at our villa to commence our stay in Rome, which, as you can probably guess, will be the subject of the next post!
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