Istanbul

Hi all So Istanbul was interesting. We took an overnight train there from Ankara, which was so nice, especially after all those stinky buses! About half an hour before we arrived I reached into my backpack and miraculously sliced the tip of my thumb off with my razor that was hiding inside my bag. Holy crap was that painful! Poor Hasan nearly had heart failure because it was bleeding so badly and I was crying in pain. Fortunately I remembered all the necessary info from my first aid classes so I managed to control the bleeding and not pass out. To add to the fun it was pouring rain when we arrived and had to find a taxi to take me to a hospital. Two cab rides later we got to an open hospital where a young doctor who spoke English cleaned and bandaged my finger up and gave me a prescription for pain pills and antibiotics. Anyway I'll be fine and most likely my thumbprint will grow back. (Ewwww I know) Soooo after that we had a big hassle over which of the friends and relatives were going to host us while we were there and everyone was upset and offended with us for not agreeing to stay with them the whole time we were there. Eventually we divided it up and agreed to stay one day with one family and the other two days letting someone else host us. So then, we went out in Istanbul to the old bazaar which was basically the Mall of America in ancient times. It was absolutely huge. You could easlily get lost in there. I bought a bunch of gifts and stuff and Hasan bargained and got me great prices because he is so stinkin' charming and likable. Then we went and smoked an apple nargile at this place that is an ancient tomb - you walk past a bunch of tousand year old grave stones on your way in! Then we spent the evening having dinner with Omar's family (though he couldnt come with us to Istanbul). They were really nice and of course didnt let me leave without my hands full of gifts. The next day we went to the bazaar again but it was closed so we just walked around the city for a while and looked at a bunch of the ancient mosques and tombs and various structures. We went and looked inside the Blue Mosque...it was so amazing and intricately decorated. We tried going inside Hagi Sophia, the church which is right across the street from there but it was already closed. We walked in the gardens around it instead and ate some Ottoman candy from a street vendor who was dressed in goofy traditional Ottoman clothes. We had a cherry nargile at another tomb place - it was most excellent We had a walk through a beautiful park to the sea side. The whole city is full of tulips in bloom right now...ahhh....gorgeous. Then we took a bus to the other side of the city to the main street area where most of the college kids and tourists hang out. We walked around and found a place to have a turkish coffee fortune read (which is a really popular thing to do there). You drink your thick turkish coffee and when you get down to the solid stuff on the bottom you tip your glass upside down and wait for about 10 minutes for the stuff to slide down the edges and dry then the fortune teller reads what the shapes mean. The crazy lady made up a whole bunch of stuff and tried to look all knowing and mystical - which was pretty funny....maybe I can get a job as a coffee fortune reader! After a few turkish hamburgers we called it a night and caught a dolmus back. (Dolmus's are a form of public transporation that are like short buses and almost always have insane drivers.) Then on Monday we went again to try to see Hagi Sophia but it was closed so we spent most of the beautiful sunny day lazily walking around and exploring the Topkapi palace and museum. It was really interesting. It is an old Ottoman palace and has a ton of sort of random artifacts housed there. There was the famous 86 karat Kisikci diamond, hairs of the prophet Mohammed, armor and swords from various surrounding regions, a piece of the scull and hand of John the Baptist...etc...very interesting! We took a nap on the nice green lawn then had some of the famous meetballs of the area and went back to our favorite nargile place from the first day and relaxed for a few hours. It was a perfect day except for one thing...