Istanbul Day 1

Everyday is an endless stream of cigarettes and magazines.

 

Another day, another city I guess. We pulled into Istanbul. After breakfast, Brianna, Gabriel and I went up to Galleta Tower on a sheer whim. At the time it felt worth it, because we could see the entire city from the top (It just gets frustrating later though...).

 

We crossed the Golden Horn into the other side of the city and went into the mosque that was right there. Pardon me for not being able to romanticize, but quite simply, it was big, with a nice dome, and Arabic calligraphy all around the interior.

 

In the afternoon, Brianna and I walked Hang and Veronica back to that same mosque. The girls also took some time to shop... yeah... But then we blindly walked along the city. Maybe I really don't like not having a plan, but it irked me to no end. We eventually found ourselves in the park outside Topkapi palace(pronounced Top-Kap-Uh). We didn't go inside, however, which was lame. But we were treated to an interesting ice cream show. The ice cream here works like taffy, it's elastic and sticky, so the guy could do feats of whirling and twirling it. Brianna took a video, I'll see if she can put it up on youtube.

 

In the evening, we walked back to Galleta Tower with other friends. ... Except half of our group and I didn't go up. It left us frustrated and impatient to say the least. Though I did try to busk for the first time- no dice, no cash.

 

We then went to a cafe close to the train station (ah... trains... take me away...). I tried the turkish coffee there (Turk Kahvise). It's not bad. I would liken it to chunky espresso. There were bits of the coffee bean in it. That said... I'm definitely sticking to espresso.

 

The bright spot of the day was meeting the Moroccan interport student, Nihad. She is strikingly pretty while also having a great taste in music. Finally I have someone who shares my love for the Boulevard of Broken Songs.

 

I can't help but feel burned out with these cities. Maybe I'm just not as interested in mosques as I was cathedrals. Maybe I'm not digging the Istanbul atmosphere. Or maybe I need to make my way to Gallipoli to feel. But
I'm not digging Istanbul right now.