Saturday/Sunday June7/8

Saturday

Today we went to Cihangir, which is the bohemian neighborhood of Istanbul. We had found it in one of David's guidebooks and had seen some interesting places that we wanted to visit, such as the supposed best pizza place ever, a pickle store that contains over 50 different types of pickles, a cafe where the local film stars hang out, and various antique/vintage stores. We decided to eat lunch at the best pizza place ever, called "Miss Pizza," where a tiny puppy was napping on some pamphlets in the window. How much is that puppy in the window? we asked, and for a minute, I envisioned keeping the puppy in our flat, taking it on our "Hop on, Hop off" bus tour throughout Turkey, and even taking it back to the US with me. Some other interesting events in Cihangir included: having a delicious bananas foster-ish dish, meeting our landlord who is an amazing lady, David getting pooped on by a bird and his ensuing ironic comment ("Are you sh***ing me?!?!?"), and cats who try to find the weirdest spots ever to hang out (the top of an umbrella, a moped's floorbed).

After that, I attempted to make falafels, which was quite a struggle as Turks apparently don't believe in canned chickpeas. We watched the Turkey vs. Portugal football (soccer) game which ended in our defeat, and then headed to our favorite bar, Darkness, to meet up with our American friend and Turkey connoisseur, Joe. Then we headed out to a club, which actually had real dancing - maybe a byproduct of the American songs that they played.

Sunday

Today we slept in and then some went to the mall, apparently one of the biggest in Europe, while the rest of us (minus Emily, intently watching the French Open) went to go explore around our neighborhood. We found some awesome things, including an ANCIENT mosque built by Mimar Sinan, Mimar Sinan Universtesi, a very European-looking mosque, a great tea place overlooking the Bosphorous (which was rainy and beautifully foggy at this point) that was out of this shack in a parking lot (legal??), a huge room full of watermelons, a cat that looked like it was performing prayers towards Mecca, some cute kittens that were actually domesticated by this family who lives in a beautiful house (the kitten that I got to hold climbed up their fence multiple times as we were chatting with them), and a pastry shop where I purchased a delicious muffin/cupckake thing for 1 lira (77 cents). Then it was time for pilav from Mehmet, my love, and watching Federer get destroyed by Nadal.