Spring Break - Istanbul 3 & 4

I accidentally combined two separate days in an earlier post, so I'm correcting that now. On the third day in Istanbul, I went to the Asian side of the city, not the second day. Each morning in Istanbul, Drew and I ate breakfast while we looked out at the Marmara Sea. The hostel's version of French toast was interesting. It was fried bread with honey, but I liked it. Anyway, on the third morning, I saw a really familiar face that I couldn't quite place. The guy finally came up to me and said hello. It was Frank from the American University in Cairo, and he just happened to be at the same hostel on the same day!

Today I took a ferry to the Asian side of the city. It was clearly less touristy than the rest of Istanbul, and I liked that. I climbed a hill overlooking the water and made my way down the other side of it through a nice park. The park appeared to have little playgrounds, but upon closer inspection, I realized that they were actually little gyms. After returning to the European side of the city, Drew decided to buy some kestane, or roasted chestnuts. The hull turns dark brown, and it looks like it's dipped in chocolate, and that's why Drew ate the hull. It turns out that he didn't like them (even without the hull), but I did.

Afterwards, we went back to the Grand Bazaar, and I finally bought some souvenirs. I got a little something for everyone at the WRC and a beautiful mug and bowl for myself. I really wanted to buy a tunic, but it was too expensive. That evening Drew and I played more drunken chess, and I was still unable to redeem myself, but I certainly did better than before. The next morning we went to the Hagia Sofia, and it was packed. I didn't really enjoy it. It was originally a cathedral, then a mosque, and now a museum. The mosaics were beautiful, but I felt that this was a waste of money like Topkapi Palace.