Istanbul - Turkey

Having an awesome time in Istanbul! The weather here is so good atm: 25 degrees and plenty of sunshine! Yay! The city is also quite nice, not in a modern nice way, but in the way that you can tell it has a lot of history. I really do like it.

So on Friday we visited the Blue Mosque which is just so beautiful! We got there just a bit before prayer time so we wandered and took photos, but at prayer time they kick everyone out so they can start the prayers. But for some reason the security guard let us back in and said we could observe the prayer time. So we went upstairs and sat. Then some other women told us that when they prayer they have to do it in a straight line so that we had to move, and she was like "I'm just telling you now because the other women might get rude with you", so that was sweet. So we moved into this little pocket in the wall in the back and sat there. The woman and her friends were then kind enough to explain everything to us. It took a while but it was a cool experience. I didn't realise how packed the mosque was until I stood up and the whole thing was filled; you could not see any of the carpet at all. Then I looked out the window behind us and they had rolled mats out outside and the whole courtyard was full of people! It was amazing to look at. 

We then went to Ayasofia which is a museum kinda building. That was nice to look at as well. All the buildings here are really pretty. We also spotted a really tall guy aka Shawna's future husband lol! Then we visited the Grand Bazaar. My god these things are soo crowded! The streets in general are just crowded. And it was definitely a grand bazaar. Also the things these men say to you to get you to buy something from them is just hilarious! They would say things like "omg it's an angel! charlie's angels!" or just be very straight-forward and be like "Do you want to spend money? Come here and spend money!" ahahah! It's too funny, but sometimes can be annoying when they heckle you too much. 

Today we went around Taksim square and stumbled upon a cultural festival of some sort. So we watched the people play instruments and dance around in a circle, holding hands and hopping about which was cool. And then they sung the national anthem. The guy behind us was so off key it was really funny to listen to!

Then we went up a main street and went around through the backstreets and looked at jewelery etc. They have some really nice jewellery! They even have jewellery that looked like House of Harlow jewellery, so I'm guessing Nicole Richie copied the Turkish designs haha! Then some animal protest march started happening and so we joined the march for a few minutes. There was a man on his hands and knees crawling around like a dog and even had a leash on! Hahah! He was crawling around chasing a stray dog lol! 

Every night we've been just buying bread, cheese and wine for dinner, which has been sooo good! And we've been playing cards as well, which has been heaps of fun. I learnt a new card game called Rummie/500. I suck at it though, and always come last hahah! It's still fun nonetheless.

Going to go Izmir tomorrow morning. Taking the ferry and then a train for about 7 hours I think. Cannot wait! Beach time! 

Mm that's all I can really think of from the top of my head. I know we have done some more things but I can't remember for the life of me atm. Just really tired because for the past few nights I haven't been able to sleep properly, if at all. So yea. 

Well that's it! Will try update at the next city!

xx