Nargile, Spices, and Turkish Delight

The past few days, as all days in Istanbul are, have been amazing! So Wednesday I finally slept in pretty late and some of my friends and I headed to Cehavir again. Haha I know, I know, I've only been here for a week now and I've already been to this mall three times! But I gave in and bought a pair of gorgeous brown leather boots! That's the style here all women weather knee length leather boots. Since it's still pretty cold out it's fitting. Also, Istanbul is crazy hilly and uneven so it helps that the style seems to be flat shoes!

Anyway the rest of the day was pretty chill. I took time to take my clothes to the laundry room for the first time and it is pretty pricey but I haven't seen a laundromat anywhere nearby. But I'm really glad that I decided to suck it up and just go down there. The old man, Mehmet, that works there is SO NICE! I ended up talking to him for about 15 minutes in broken English/Turkish. His son studies at Boğaziçi as well so he works in the Superdorm during the school year to be close to him!! Adorable!! Anyway in the evening everyone was pretty tired from all the crazy touring we've been doing so we had a chill dinner. I met two guys from Montreal, they're studying here too and seem really cool! I think they'll get along well with Reuben when he gets back. Surprisingly, there are barely and men studying abroad here. Boğaziçi is dominated by European and American women right now :) After dinner a small group wanted to smoke hookah but didn't want to go back to Cafe Tetto, which is the place near campus that caters to foreigners and is pricey. So on a whim I asked the delivery guy at the restaurant and he walked with us ten minutes down the road to a super cool place! Just another example of how people here go out of their way to be nice to you. He spoke no English at all but I was able to talk to him!! I'm so happy that I'm learning so much Turkish. I mean don't get me wrong we didn't have a heart to heart but I found out where he lives, and told him that I'm an American student studying here, and I LOVE Istanbul blah blah like little things. But whatever, it's still progress :) The place was really cool and very local which I love! There were a lot of student there just chillin. Anyway we headed in early and Tessa and I ended up just chilling in my apartment talking for a really long time. I really like her, we get along really well and I'm just so happy to have made such great friends already. I was worried about meeting people here and the first few days are a lot like freshman year when you don't think you'll have any friends but in the end I guess it all works out!
Tessa and I in front of the bridge!

Yesterday was a very busy and very fun day! For the first few days of the trip all of the exchange students were hanging out in a huge pack, I guess because you don't really know anyone too well and it's nice to have like a group to hang out with. But now that we've all gotten to know each other better groups have definitely began to split off which is nice. It feels more normal to like know a ton of people but like have your group of friends. I still really don't feel like I live here but it's a process and little things like that really help. So Tessa, Kaylah and I woke up and wanted to do something cool today. We were super adventurous and just opened up a guide book and picked something; we ended up at the spice bazaar which was AMAZING!!

The main entrance to the Spice Bazaar

I want to go there every week! I end met a man! He sells Turkish Delight and absolutely fell in love with me. He brought us a gold platter of Turkish Delight to try (this actually isn't uncommon everyone wants you to eat eat eat all day!)


But there's just so much at the bazaar and while it's still touristy, it has a more authentic feel than the Grand Bazaar. The prices are also a lot more reasonable.

Huge hunks of Turkish Delight. My favorite is the rose water kind yum!


Beautiful bowls that are pretty common here.


Every kind of tea you could possibly imagine!


They also sell tons of fish blehh


And olives :)

Anyway after we finished at the bazaar we headed into the New Mosque which is right beside the bazaar. It's my first mosque here so I was really excited to see inside! There are mosques all over this city, you think that they would all look kinda eh after a while but they are all so gorgeous. You can look at them and see how old they are, it's cool to think that they are the structures that really tell the story of this city.



An inside view

All in all another few great days! I'll leave you all with this gorgeous view I had walking to the vegetable market today. I don't know how anyone can be in a bad mood here when you wake up and see this out your window. Until later kids <3!