I am waiting in my hostel lobby for the airport shuttle to pick me up and whisk me away, and figured I should write my Istanbul stories now, before I get to Italy.I have a love/hate relationship with Istanbul...my feelings about the city change from day to day...or perhaps hour to hour. I'll start from the first day...
As you know (assuming you are a regular reader, and cauht my last post), my flight to Istanbul was a bit of a pain- cancelled flights, re-routing, arrival at 2am...blah, blah. I FINALLY arrived at my hostel around 6:30am. SInce I had a room reserved for the night before, they let me go in and sleep. I slept for a couple of hours, got up for some free breakfast...which includes bread, tomatoes, cucumber, crumbly cheese, and hard boiled eggs. I took a shower and decided to head out and face my fear of this unknown city.
I just started wandering and found myself at Topkapi Palace. Decided to go in. First thing I noticed on my walk through the grounds was the cats and kittens that were everywhere! Everytime I turned around there was another group of 4 small cats. Which I think made me feel better about the city...they were very cute. :) And, I discovered-all over the city!After the palace, I had myself a sesame bagel- which they sell at stands all over...little did I 
know, these would be my main source of fuel for the next few days. I found a coffee shop and had the prettiest coffee you have ever seen. I took a picture and the waiters laughed at me. In a nice way. They were very nice. They also encouraged me to have some baklava and ice cream...mmmm. The waiter told me I couldn't leave because I was bringing customers in. At this point I am thinking, awww...how nice.
know, these would be my main source of fuel for the next few days. I found a coffee shop and had the prettiest coffee you have ever seen. I took a picture and the waiters laughed at me. In a nice way. They were very nice. They also encouraged me to have some baklava and ice cream...mmmm. The waiter told me I couldn't leave because I was bringing customers in. At this point I am thinking, awww...how nice. Then I went back to my hostel and went for a run and stopped at a cash machine to get some money out...and the machine ate my card. Luckily it did give me my money first- just wouldn't give me my card back. And it is, of course, Saturday- so the banks aren't open and I have to wait until Monday to find out about getting it back.
Assuming I would be able to get it back, I continued spending the bit of cash I got out- I went to dinner and had some yummm lamb kebabs...the spices were so good. And the waiter brought me an extra glass of wine, on the house. So nice.
Sunday I spent a fair amount of the day in the hostel. I didn't want to spend any more money, so I wandered around for a while...but was exhausted from the non-stop attention my darn blonde hair brought. I seriously couldn't walk more than a few feet before someone else was approaching me trying to engage in conversation. This is the love/hate part...they were all very nice...but for the love- leave me alone.
I took the ferry over to the Asia side of the city...how crazy is that- a 15 minute ferry and I'm in an entirely different continent...love it. But I got over there and was attacked (not literally attacked) by the tourism people wanting to get my business...it was ridiculous. I started walking and realized I didn't see any other women out anywhere...and started getting a bit uncomfortable...so I went back to the ferry and the Europe side. Monday I went to the bank and was told they could not give me my card but they would mail it to my bank at home...not helpful. I called my bank to see what my options were, and they told me the could re-issue me a new card in 5-7 days and my parents could mail it to me...also not helpful at all. I had a moment of thinking about cancelling the rest of my trip and heading home early...all signs were pointing that way. But I talked to mom and she wired me some money...and while I'm not a big fan of carrying a wad of cash around on me, I'm going to finish the trip. It helped being at the hostel and getting help from tons of people- seems everyone has had something like this happen to them. Everyone was very nice.
I visited the Grand Bizarre...I was planning on buying all my souvenirs 
for people here, because they have cool stuff, and totally cheap...but alas, I could only take pictures of the things I would get people, as I had no money. The bizarre was a bit overwhelming and I def got lost. I avoided making eye contact with anyone and pretended I didn't hear the people trying to talk to me. It worked fairly well. I also visited the Spice Market, which smelled delicious. And was much easier to handle than the Grand Bizarre. 
I am sad that I wasn't able to fully enjoy the city...I didn't go inside the main tourist sites, I didn't eat much of the food (I had some, don't worry), I didn't do a Turkish Bath (which is actually a bit of a relief, to be honest)....but despite all that, it is an amzing city full of culture and unbelievably nice people...I was invited to lunch and tea several times- which I would have done had I been with someone else. The hostel I stayed in couldn't have been better...very helpful and as clean as could be. Kebabs every night. I'm off to Rome in a couple of hours...I can't wait...hopefully all will go well!!
