Today was the second half of our "travel day," which ended up lasting until about 2:30 p.m. today. When we got to the hotel, we checked in and went to Taksim, the major shop street in Istanbul. It reminded me of a Fußgängerzone, or pedestrian-only zone in Germany. However, cars also drove on it, which was a bit weird. We got some money and went to the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sophia, which were absolutely amazing. I had never been to a mosque before, and the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet) was simply breathtaking. We heard the call to prayer around 5:30 p.m., and while we waited, Professor Leblebici and Professor Yontz took us to a little cafe where they served fresh-squeezed orange juice (there were even seeds!) and Mike, Lucas, and I talked to them about Turkey in general.
After that, we went to an alley of shops called the Rasta Bazaar while we waited for the professors to recommend a restaurant for dinner. We ended up going to a great place called Tamara, which specialized in Kebobs. I got grilled meatballs, but what I really liked was the rice, actually. It was very reasonably priced, especially considering the favorable exchange rate of the US dollar against the Turkish Lira. After dinner, we took the tram to Karabaş, and then the funicular (underground tram) to the Taksim stop to walk back to the Hotel Villa. We were all really tired, but I went with Allison, Lucas, Varun, and James around Taksim for a while to see what all was open. We stopped at a grocery store and then went back to the hotel around 9:30 to go to bed - we were beat.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment