I recently got back from a six-week adventure, spent wandering a few European countries and others surrounding. Here is one of my journal entries, scribbled while on the road.
We got off the plane at Istanbul. We were so flipping paranoid about our bags. We bought 90-day visas. Got our passports stamped. Then headed to the metro line. We couldn’t understand the ticket machine instructions, so Dan [my boyfriend] bought a bottle of water to get some change, took a wild guess and bought us some train tokens. We got on an empty carriage bound for Zeytinburnu, where we got off then back onto another train for Sultanahmet. People looked at us and I felt quite out of place.
At Sultanahmet, there were a bunch of tourists. We walked by The Pudding Shop, the Blue Hotel, oh and a handlebar mustached man looking bored in the Tourist Information office. We eventually found our hostel with boulder-heavy backpacks on our backs (which was killing my neck and exacerbating my headache). Emmy at the front desk was from the Hunter Valley [NSW, Australia]. We had a chat to her while our room was being prepped.
We got upstairs to room 301. I showered and took a little nap. We then hit the town, followed the rail line, dined on vegie curry at Home Made, learnt to say thank you in Turkish. It sounds a little like “Two sugar, a dream” spoken very fast. The waiter thought we were Greek. We crossed the Galata Bridge. Dan bought some nice black shoes. Took a lift up the Galata Tower. Went to the Spice Market. Strolled back to the hostel after a relax in the park. Fell asleep and didn’t get up for 12 hours. It’s 8:10am now and after sleeping through dinner tonight, I’m so ready to eat!
We’re obsessed with the Turkish apple tea they serve here. It’s tasty. Very sugary. Afterwards, we made our way over to Hagia Sofia. Once a Christian church, then a Muslim mosque, now a Turkish museum. Really incredible to look at from within. With detailed Christian mosaics. There was a tour guide who sounded like a robot recording. We later went to Topkapi Palace, very big. Awesome harem, which we walked through, saw their living quarters. Where a Queen Victoria bathed. A massive pool. Cool tile decor in pretty colours. Afterwards, we were hungry and buggered so I bought overpriced watermelon and we stopped by an internet cafe.
Istanbul is 99 per cent Muslim. It’s Ramadan here right now and the streets are filled with families eating and celebrating. There’s a call to prayer we hear out our window every morning and night at sunrise and sunset. It sounds really cool and makes me feel worlds away from home.
I’ve just downed a tub of Dondurma, Turkish ice-cream. It has a thick, rubberband-ish consistency. Very nice. Earlier, we went to Cemberlitas Hamami, an olden style Turkish bath, where I was scrubbed in the nude by a big Turkish mamma. I was nervous but got over it. I enjoyed having my hair washed. I pretended I was Princess April. The stone I laid on was very nice and warm. I liked looking up into the roof of the dome, little star-shaped holes I think. Before coming home tonight, Dan and I sat on the benches outside the Blue Mosque. We watched the families, friends, locals and otherwise relaxing and enjoying themselves. It was so nice. I really like Istanbul.
Love,
April
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