Istanbul Turkey - Volume 1 (day 1)

So today is Tuesday - infamous homework day. I've been attempting to study for my Islam and the West midterm that is this Thursday but I decided to take a break to tell you all about my weekend.

First off, I think it's funny that I need to take out my itinerary list just to find the separations between what we did each day, because in my head it all blurs together into one amazingly long day... probably not helped by the fact that I didn't sleep much any of the nights. This was not the fault of the hotel, it was actually quite nice. Hotel Hali - beautiful interior, in contrast to it's average looking exterior. I could definitely feel the mixing of the East and West in the construction and decoration. Our hotel room was nice enough though a bit cramped, this due to the fact that their were five girls in each room (three beds and two cots). From the curtains, to the bedding and the rugs everything was definitely eastern influenced. But the bathroom was considerably westernized. The "lift" (or elevator) was probably my favorite part of the hotel... except maybe for the spiral staircase. Anyway, the lift is more like a closet. It is literally the size of a small closet, and the door doesn't slide open or closed by itself, it has a normal door that you open and close by pulling or pushing. The best part of this is that the door that you open and shut belongs to whichever floor you are currently on, there is no door on the actual elevator. So when you are in the elevator while it is moving you can literally run your hand over the walls and doors as they slide by. Apparently this is a common style for "lifts" in Turkey because we were in one in another hotel/restaurant and it was about the same size and style... Three of us were stuffed in rather uncomfortably.

We arrived in Istanbul in the evening on this past Thursday. After taking a bus to the hotel to drop off our luggage we all walked as a group to a restaurant called Rumeli a few blocks away. Since the day had been beautiful and it was only beginning to get dark we had our dinner on the roof as planned. This was our first view of the blue mosque, we could see it lit up in all its glory from the roof terrace. Our small group also maneuvered to have the table right on the edge of the building, so not only could we see the full view of the mosque but we could also look down on the long street of small shops and other restaurants. After dinner we had all sorts of grand plans to go out and have fun but some how Julissa and I ended up back in the room fast asleep. It really was a very long and busy day of travel.

Oh and while we were walking to the restaurant we heard, for the first time, the call for prayer. This call is a beautiful man's voice singing out that it is time to pray played from loud speakers from the tower of every mosque five times a day. I think this became my favorite part (or parts) of every day. The call to prayer happens five times a day: 1. around 6am 2. around 10am 3. around 1pm 4. around dinner time 5. before bed, around 8 or 9 in the evening. The sound was just so beautiful and calming, my favorite was probably the first morning call around 6 am. I only heard it once, as I'm sure you all remember I am NOT a morning person, but I heard the 6am call one morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom. I recall laying in bed in a state of peace. That was the first thing I missed on returning to London.

Well that's enough for today, it's time to go make dinner! I'll keep doing this until I catch up on entries... so for now, good bye <3