See Ya Turkey

In case you're wondering, This is what we look like in Turkey.

Okay so Turkey came full circle and after Pammukale we left ourselves a few more days to wrap up istanbul before heading to Israel!  There is so much more I would've loved to do in Istanbul and that includes eating at Burger King just one last time!! Haha just kidding, I was excited to get off our American food kick.  It was Robby's sickness perhaps coupled with our bodies having so much foreign food -albeit amazing- but just needing the good ole American stuff. I never eat at Burger King at home, but I had it thrice in istanbul. Now I'm ashamed. But we did still have some awesome meals while in Turkey - even if Robby did have to suffer for it since he was still dealing with the after math of a Turkish meal gone wrong :(

One thing I realized about istanbul was the more we saw the more we learned we still needed to see and needed more time! I almost felt like I needed to close my eyes on our last day so I wouldn't step into yet another amazing part of the city that would kill me to leave so soon.

The last full day we had we did a boat ride all around the river. This allowed us to see everything from a distance and see both the Europe and Asia sides and how they connected.  We had an awesome group with us and had some major dance parties on the boat and got to go under some cool looking bridges.

Our old ship!

Sailing the angry seas

That is a bridge, they have neon lights and restaurants all along the bottom of it!

I love views of the houses like this in cities

Golden gate?? Where's Danny tanner!?

The bridge connecting two continents!

The mosques light up at night and look incredible!

I just really like this picture ;)

Taksm Square was also amazing and we only saw that our last day there too! It was unbelievable how many people were on the streets there shopping and eating and hanging out.  no protests this time, although it is where young protesters usually go to cause a scene.  This place had American brand stores that were even bigger than any of the stores I have seen in america.  There was a cute trolley that rode through the Main Street too and it was awesome to see how the people had to quickly part like the Red Sea for this thing to pass. I was obsessed with the trolley, it was so cute!!

Look at the crowds! The street goes on forever with floods of people 

Me and the beloved trolley - although my face seems to tell a different story 

The open square empty of protesters

Oh and we couldn't leave without doing a legit Turkish bath! Which pretty much equals sweating to death in a hot room on a hot slab of hard marble until a burley Turkish woman comes and takes you to another room where you get a full, rough scrub down.  Picture yourself three years old again and your mothers giving you a bath type of thoroughness. Except your mother is a stranger the size of a line backer with a piece of sand paper that has probably been used on many other strangers.  Enjoyable? Let's just say it's an experience, but I'm definitely glad we did it, you have to if you are in turkey!

The after math - atleast we were clean! Except somehow we both felt the need to shower again immediately once we got back to our hotel haha

One of the main things I will remember about turkey - aside from it being soo unique and just COOL - is the nice, outgoing, and charming people.  Even though it's a city with almost 15 million people in it - you almost feel that neighborly small town feel. Vendors we had run into days before would recognize us and say hello or make a funny comment to make us laugh when we passed by again. 

We also met a couple Syrian refugees there. One was working at our hostel and we had a long conversation about the chaos there.  Him and his dad came to turkey only a few weeks before to get jobs and prepare the way for his sisters and mom to come out there.  He openly talked to me about what was happening and how scary it was.  We also talked about their general viewpoint of America which was actually much better than I thought.  It was really interesting to talk to him about his situation and he asked me a lot of questions about my country as well.  one of my favorite things about traveling is hearing stories from other people...everyone has an interesting story.  My heart went out to this kid though - he was probably barely 18 years old and had Been through so much. Very humbling and enlightening. 

We had such great experiences in Turkey and both Robby and I still feel that the people we met in turkey have been some of the nicest and most charming we have met. I like those Turk people! Now time to meet the people of Israel!

See ya, Turkey!

It's been fun.