Clayton and I arrived at our flat at around 1 AM after a short bus and cab ride from Ataturk Airport. We drove down Istiklal, one of the main roads in Istanbul, and it was busy even that late! We even saw some children playing on playgrounds during our bus ride.

They were all pretty young, and I was surprised to see them out so late. Our flat is so cool - there are 3 bedrooms, one with two double beds and two with we one big bed. I share a bedroom with Emily - it is very small but with a lot of storage space. Our flat is on the fifth floor, which is 95 steps! That along with the hill that we have to walk up to get to the building itself make for a serious glut workout. We have AMAZING views - to the left is a picture taken looking to the left out of our flat window, and one to the right that was taken looking to the right. We also have a rooftop terrace which has even more awesome views of Istanbul. (see picture below for a picture taken from the terrace!)


We all slept in until around ten or eleven – which would be three or four in the morning US time. Emily got in around 12:30 after dragging her 70 lb suitcase all around Istanbul. She said she smelled pretty bad, so she changed and then we all headed out to get our first meal in Istanbul. We wandered up near Galata Tower (about a 3-5 minute walk from our flat) and found a nice looking restaurant. Clayton, eager to try his Turkish, strolled up to one of the waiters and said “Merhaba!” which means hello. Apparently Clayton is a believable Turk, because the waiter launched into a string of Turkish that no one had any hope of understanding. The waiter, noticing Clayton’s perplexed look, finally asked in English, “What language do you speak? English? We speak that then.” After that minor mishap, he served us a delicious lunch of dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with rice and some other things), chicken, some sort of lentil/bean patties, and lamb. He also served us a small taste of this juice made from kiwi, mint, and parsley that was very different but delicious. After lunch we decided to familiarize ourselves with our neighborhood, Beyoglu, and walked around for about two hours. I felt like such a tourist – I know my mouth was hanging open for our entire walk. We saw a huge crowd of people around something and we went over to investigate. It turned out to be three or four guys dressed as American Indians – interesting considering they were probably Peruvian according to Prof. Shields. They were singing, playing music, and dancing and even Istanbullus (people who live in Istanbul) were watching, so I felt less like a tourist. After that, we just wandered around the city, and found some really cool places, like this alleyway. There are some really cool stores in our neighborhood, a lot of music stores that sell some interesting instruments. This was a store that sold an eclectic mix of things, apparently including a cat! There are tons of stray cats and dogs all over Istanbul - they not only lay on the sidewalk but also in the middle of the street. People seem completely unfazed by this and just walk around like it's no big deal at all.

That night we decided to walk on the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn (an estuary that runs through Istanbul) to Sultanahmet, the old part of Istanbul where all the tourist attractions are, including Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. It's a fairly touristy area, but we found a good spot for doner (a huge chunk of meat cooked on a stick that they cut off in little pieces and put on a sandwich) that was fairly un-touristy. Then we walked to Hagia Sophia (closed on Mondays because all museums are closed on Mondays in Istanbul) and then to the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet. We sat in the entrance to the courtyard, taking pictures of the mosque with the moon around it, and all of a sudden the call to prayer began to play from the minarets within the mosque. Since Hagia Sofia is right across from it and there are many other mosques nearby, we could hear all the calls to prayer from each mosque and also see all the Istanbullus coming in to pray. After getting fairly lost and wandering around the completely closed down Sultanahmet neighborhood (far different from our hopping Beyoglu neighborhood with busy Istiklal running through it) we finally made it back to our flat.
This is actually Yeni Cami, which we did not visit today but we walked by because it is right past Galata Bridge.