Day 38...No big deal but I ate lunch in ASIA today!

Day 38, July 22nd:

Istanbul Day 3!

Good morning!!!  Today is a very exciting day!!!  I will be visiting ASIA!!! 

I woke up, grabbed some breakfast, took a quick shower and fled to the ferry station near the Golden Horn Bridge.  I booked a 25 TL cruise up the Bosphorus along with Mindy, Heather and Danielle.  The ferry finally pulled away around 10:30 and provided s with about an hour and a half full of amazing views of both the European side and Asian side of Turkey.  We passed several neat sites along the way, including palaces, a university, the 2 Bosphorus Bridges, a small number of government buildings and a few castles in the lush green hills as well.  Once we finally arrived in the itsy little port town of Anadolukavagi, we began climbing up the city streets until we reached the Yoros Castle.  This castle provided us with an absolutely amazing view of both the European and Asian sides, as well as the Bosphorus and the Black Sea.  You could see for miles!  It was so beautiful.  The homes carved into the lush mountainsides were so picturesque and the little fishing town was situated beautifully on the Black Sea.   There also were these signs that had pictures of people holding machine guns saying no trespassing.  It is rather weird to see that on a sign.  I forgot to say this in yesterdays post, but we went to look at this map outside of an information booth and there was a lady wearing high heels and carrying a machine gun standing out front.  What a different culture.  All of the police had machine guns, not hand guns like in the US.  After climbing up on the castle walls and taking millions of pictures, we began our descent back down the steep roads until we were back in Anadolukavagi.

We definitely worked up our hunger on the hike, so we decided to stop to get something to eat before we took the ferry back to Istanbul.  Now there is something you must understand before I proceed with the rest of the day’s activities.  People in Turkey will come out into the streets, even in the Bazaar, to get you to come into their store, get in their taxi, or even go eat at their restaurant three blocs away.  Everyone seems to be “my friend” and all of the girls are told that they must be models, etc.  Out in front of several restaurants, they will all come and surround you at once telling you everything they have on their menu.  It is ridiculous!  Now back to the story.   When we reached the bottom of the hill and began looking for a place to eat, every restaurant came swarming us!  We couldn’t even move or begin to see what they had to offer.  I finally just break out of the circle of restaurants and begin walking away.  Other restaurants begin to come out and holler their menu items at me still.  We couldn’t even see what they had to eat!  All of us finally just ran up the street and out of sight from the restaurants to determine what and where we actually wanted to eat.  It was crazy!!!  We then briskly walked down the hill and into one of the restaurants that we could see had chicken kabobs on the menu.  All of the others didn’t even serve meat, just fish. 

We all ordered chicken kabobs and they really were not good.  They were just bland chicken chunks on a plate.  The whole table ate more bread and olive oil than chicken.  After our wonderfully filing lunch, we made our way to a little market to buy some snacks for the ferry ride home.  They even had Doritos!  My life got so much better after the trip to the market!  I have never wanted Doritos so badly in my life until you jump on a ship and travel the Mediterranean.  It is weird to see what you crave when you can’t get it anywhere.  We then took the ferry back to Istanbul, but got off one stop sooner to walk back to the ship.  We passed the Dolmabahce Palace, an enormous piece of property with walls 5 stories high surrounding the Palace.  There was more security surrounding this place than there is at the White House!  It was crazy.  They even had bulletproof glass boxes on the sidewalk near the entrance.  It was really cool. 

We ate dinner back at the ship and then I headed out with Danielle and Hannah to get a waffle for desert.  These things are amazing!  We went in search of a good place that was close to the ship, but couldn’t find one so we went up to Taksim Square.  We took the metro and the underground cable car up the hill to the Square, since we learned not to walk there after our first adventure.  The hills in this town can get super steep real quick!  We walked down the street searching and we finally came across MADO.  We walked in the door and immediately were in heaven.  So these waffles are made to order and then topped with whatever you want:  flavored chocolate (dark, milk, white, raspberry, caramel, walnut, pistachio, lemon, blueberry, hazelnut, etc.), fresh fruit (banana, orange, kiwi, strawberry) and other toppings (coconut, pistachio, walnuts, sprinkles, etc.).  IT WAS SOOOOO DELICIOUS!!!!  I could eat one every day!!!!!  Definitely worth the search!  We then walked back down the hill and back to the ship. 

It was very nice and exciting day!  I mean who else could say they went to Asia just for lunch and to climb up a mountain to a castle!  Not only did we visit ASIA, but we also rode up the Bosphorus, ate AMAZING waffles and after all we spent the day in Turkey!