3 min read
Türkiye, Istanbul
The song of the mosques ring out across Istanbul. I stand next to the great Süleymaniye mosque, high up atop the city, listening to hundreds of prayer cries come from over 3000 surrounding mosques. The city is singing.
Hello World!
I write this as I fly out to Mumbai from Istanbul,
I was a little optimistic in my last post, we didn’t necessarily make it to Istanbul that same day.
Because of the storm over Istanbul, we ended up playing a game of hokey pokey between the European and Asian continents.
We ended up in Izmir and then commuted up.
Istanbul hadn’t been hit with this much rainfall in over 80 years, so it wasn’t just our plane that was rerouted.
We arrived at our hostel ≈23.5 hours after setting off from the UK, which is a rocky start but hey ho, we made it!
Our stay was at Lola Backpackers Hostel, and this here is Lola:
And this is Ufo the cat:
They both work here.
Claudia only had a day in Istanbul, so we made the most of it and visited many of the city’s sights. Racking in a total of 45000 steps despite the weather!
Claud left the following morning, hugging me and wishing me well on my travels.
This meant I was really alone, at the start of my journey across the Asian continent. And so, I was incredibly lucky to become good friends with my fellow hostel goers.
Aksel and Stine from Norway, Simon from Montana - USA, Bayel from Kyrgyzstan, and Izel from Puerto Rico.
One night, Simon taught us how to play a card game called Cambio.
We spent the next few days exploring the city and trying it’s food.
Here’s me, Bayel, and Simon trying a Turkish “wet burger”:
This was the most unusual food I found for sale in the grand bazaar:
And here’s a picture of me proudly showing off my golden spork!
Now apparently they call Istanbul the “City of Cats” and I can see why. The city if full of them, and they’re well looked after.
I especially love the paw prints found in the concrete. It really shows that Istanbul is a city owned by it’s cats! 🐾
One afternoon, with my new friends Aksel and Stine, I visited the colourful, cobbled neighbourhood of Balat.
There are so many cats here riding motorcycles!
We found a cafe and played a few games of Cambio!
One evening, Bayel offered to sketch me. Check it out, he drew this on my phone’s notes app!
As new people arrived, I made more friends at the hostel!
Cecile from France, Joe from Algeria, and Matt from Romania to name a few.
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A Brazilian, a Turk, a German, an Aussie, a Kyrgyz, and a Brit walk into a bar…
Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but this was my last night in Istanbul!
On the 5th floor of the Sanat Restaurant the six of us, having recently met, attended a trivia night. Aysha (Brazilian), Çağla (Turk), Jakob (German), Riley (Aussie), Bayel (Kyrgyz), and myself (Brit).
Surely with our combined knowledge across 6 different countries, and 4 different continents we would come first!
…
We came 10th.
My trivia knowledge leaves a lot to be desired! 😂
It was still a fantastic night which ended in some brilliant karaoke 🎤
We even learnt the basics of belly dancing! 💃
Overall Istanbul was a brilliant start to my trip but what really made it great was the people I met whilst there!
Goodbye Istanbul, hello Mumbai!
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P.s. The standard baklava in Istanbul is good, but nothing compares to the cold baklava (soğuk baklava). If you ever get the chance to try it, I highly recommend!
