Reflection (a little lame, but oh well)

So, today is the last day on the ship. I cannot believe that this trip is over. It flew by! I was looking forward to it for so long, and it really was one of the best summers of my life. I have learned so much and made some really great friends. I have also grown so much, and I think I am officially a world traveler. I’m pretty sure I am addicted to having new adventures and experiencing different cultures.

I know reflecting is a little lame to write about in a blog, but I feel like it is necessary with a trip like this. I don’t know if I have really figured out everything that I have gained from this trip yet. I don’t really think I will know until I get home. I have learned a lot though. That is for sure. Especially about the countries we have visited. Spain and Italy were probably the most similar to the U.S. Not to mention the fact that the areas we visited were super touristy. The riots we saw in Spain showed how they are having problems with their economy. Yet, we saw also that even though they were having these problems, they were still proud of their country just like anyone else. Bulgaria was a serious look at what communism can do to a country and how long the effects of it can last. Yet, the thing I think I learned the most about was the Muslim religion. Well, not only the religion but the Arab world in general. Turkey and Morocco (and maybe Global Studies) showed me how similar the Muslim religion is to Christianity and Judaism. I really had no idea that it basically sprang from the same roots. I also learned that dressing conservatively and wearing a burka doesn’t make you completely foreign. I’m not really sure what I though before, but I feel like the media in the U.S. makes it seem like the Muslim religion is one that breeds terrorists which is completely ridiculous and untrue. Islamaphobia is a very real problem, and I hope that I can spread the idea that the terms Muslim, Islamic, and Middle Eastern don’t mean terrorism. The seriousness in which they practiced Ramadan was also eye opening. August is obviously one of the hottest months in most of these countries, and these people were not eating or drinking ANYTHING all day. Nothing. Not even gum! It was definitely an interesting thing to experience, even though it made me feel terrible to eat and drink in front of them.

Secondly, I have gained a greater faith in people. I have met some of the nicest people while traveling through these foreign countries. Just about everyone we encountered (there are always a few exceptions) was kind, helpful, and generous to us. Yes, I know that most people were trying to get us to buy stuff, but the people we asked for recommendations or directions were just as helpful and kind. Hamid was the best example of us. He literally put his whole life on hold for 3 days to tour us around his city. He wanted us to have a great experience in Morocco and really appreciate his hometown. He succeeded too. I have a feeling that without him, I wouldn’t have enjoyed Morocco as much as I did. It may have even been my favorite because of him. It definitely showed me that I need to be more open to helping people, and that Americans should be more welcoming to foreigners.

I also think that a lifelong effect of this trip will hopefully be a global perspective. When I do things or think of things, I feel like I may think of the effect of my actions on a larger scale than just who and what I am. I realized also how insignificant I am in this world. Not in a bad way, but just that there is so much to learn from others that I need to be open to. This trip has also inspired me. I hope that I can turn this experience into more travel and a continued effort to learn about the world.

Another thing that I realized was that everyone speaks English. Well, just about everyone. So, that means just about everyone is bilingual. At least! We met a bunch of people who knew three or more languages. I really hope I can learn more than one language too. I felt so behind!  I really think learning a language should be started at a younger age in the public schooling system. It is so much easier to learn when you are younger. I really would love to continue learning Spanish even though I know it will be a struggle with all of my engineering classes. The language barrier was definitely the biggest struggle in all of these countries.

I also learned how lucky I am to have the freedoms I do as a woman in the U.S. Women in the Muslim world have very few choices. It is all about getting married, having children, etc. They have been given more opportunities and things are changing, but it is nothing like the U.S. I have so many choices, and I am so lucky that I do.

I also learned how fortunate I am. People in the U.S., including myself, have way more than they need.  I am so blessed to have been able to go on trip and see all of these places. It has been the experience of a lifetime, and I wouldn’t change a moment of it. Adding on to that, I have finally realized how blessed and lucky I am to be an American. Not that I didn’t love America before or have pride in my country but seeing how children in other countries are growing up in comparison to my childhood is really eye opening. I had a big backyard with grass, and everything I could ever ask for. I saw kids playing soccer on the patio of a government building in Morocco because it was the only place big enough. Not to mention what I have learned about the governments and the legal systems.

I also learned a lot of things about the U.S. I learned how we are perceived in other countries. Mostly, people would yell famous movie and pop star’s names at us. We are definitely known through the media. I also learned that the U.S. isn’t the center of the world. It is definitely an influence piece of the puzzle, but I feel like we need to have more of a global outlook considering the way technology is shrinking the globe. Yet, in the end, I am so happy and lucky to call the U.S. home. I should have figured, but my dad was right. The best place in the world is home sweet home, the good old U.S. of A. 

Muppet's gonna do, what she wants to do..bomchicwowow

Being on the ship is really starting to get to me. It was fine for the first few days, but most of the people on this ship are so ridiculously rude, I can’t stand it. I have also been doing a lot of school work which is absolutely no fun. Haha. Megan and I wrote our negotiation paper on the first day, so that was done early. We also went to a presentation about the Peace Corps. One of the LLCs (basically an RA) just got back in December from serving in the Peace Corps. I really would love to do it, but I don’t know how I feel about being away from the U.S. for 3 years. I know it isn’t that long, but it will feel really long. I dunno. Maybe right now just isn’t the right time for me.

We have also been laying out a lot. We all got burned really bad the first day we laid out after Morocco just because we got a little lighter. It’s okay though. It will turn to tan. We all met up and exchanged pictures and music that night. Those are the times I am going to miss because I really have a great time just sitting around with all my friends. We laugh at the dumbest stuff, and it is going to be weird not being with them 24/7. We got up for the sunrise one morning too which was pretty cool. It is just so weird that this is almost over. I started packing yesterday which is pretty interesting. My stuff is NOT going to fit. I am probably going to have to carry a lot of it off just because it is fragile. I think I did well on my global studies final though. I don’t know about my Spanish final though. I studied a lot, and it was multiple choice, but I am not that confident. It has been so hard learning a language in 23 days. We literally cover a chapter a day, not to mention the fact that we don’t have class for a week in between. It has been a struggle. I think tonight is stargazing night though when the captain turns off all the lights on the ship. Hopefully we will see lots of stars!

LOVE getting ripped off!

We slept in until lunch which is at 11:30 am. It was so nice to sleep in. We then went out to do our last little bit of shopping in Casablanca. Dice wasn’t feeling well, but she really wanted to spend the rest of her money, so she came with us. It was really hard to bargain with people without Hamid, but we managed. I was pretty tired of bargaining by that point, so I probably got ripped off once or twice. I also got my henna redone, and the lady TOTALLY ripped me off. We agreed to 20 durhams for redoing my hand, and she didn’t do a very good job. Then, she asked if I wanted my foot done, and I agreed. I first said though, for the same as my hand? 20 durhams? And she said yes. Then, when she finished my foot, she was like 70 durhams. So, obviously I said “what? You said 20 durhams for my foot”. And she said “No. 50.” There was a really big group around me, and I really didn’t want to start something with her, so I paid it. It was really annoying though. Megan was yelling at her for ripping me off. Dice wasn’t feeling well at all though at this point, so I walked her back to the shuttle. After that, I shopped around by myself for a while because they chances of me finding anyone were slim to none. It was kind of fun to wander around by myself though. This one woman got really upset with me when I wouldn’t buy clothes from her, but I got out of there without any problems. I did go into one store which had some really cool stuff, but I couldn’t find the shop owner. I stayed and looked for a while hoping he would show up, and I eventually saw him sleeping behind the desk. He woke up after I made a little bit of noise though, and I bought some stuff from him. I got a little lost too in the souks because it is pretty much a maze of shops. It was fine though. I eventually found my way back to the main street and ran into Megan and Katie which was a complete coincidence. I gave the last of my money to people begging on the street, and we headed back to the ship.

We had dinner on the ship, and Ray-ray and I headed up to the top deck to watch the ship sail away from Morocco. Megan bought us fro-yo but she went to sleep pretty early because she found out she had strep throat. Lame. It was crazy to watch us sail away from Morocco though. I can’t believe that this trip is over. Well, the seven days at sea are going to be rough, but I was looking forward to this trip for so long and now it’s over. I am really excited to come home though. I miss everyone. I miss Pittsburgh. :-)

I don't give a what-what

So, I was lucky enough to have Dice wake me up this morning by poking the shit out of my leg. She seriously poked me so hard. Haha. Anyways, she poked me at 8:45 am when we were supposed to wake up at 9:45 am. Good thing Dice can read her watch. So, we went back to bed for like an hour and then woke up. Amid was picking us up at 11 to go shopping, so we headed down to breakfast. We didn’t even have to order anything because they just brought us exactly what we ate yesterday morning. Haha. So, that was pretty funny. We ate and went to go meet Hamid in the lobby. Megan was feeling a little bit better this morning which was good too.

So, we headed to the souks which are where we were the other night. It was really different during the day. It was really hot, and there weren’t as many people out as there were at night obviously. We went to get money out of the ATM, and while we were doing that, a fight broke out near us. Hamid went to go break it up, and apparently some guy said something rude to another guy’s girlfriend. Hamid is such a gem though. We walked into the souks, and Hamid wouldn’t let us buy anything until we were pretty far in because he said the stuff on the outskirts is cheap. The first store we went into was a tapestry store which has these really cool tablecloth things that you hang on your wall. They are handmade and really cool though. So, we went in, picked out the ones we liked, and Hamid did the bargaining for us. That is pretty much how it was at every store. Everyone said they gave us a way better price than they normally would because Hamid was there. He just saying that we were his family which was probably the most adorable thing I have ever heard. He also refused to let me carry all of my bags, so he was carrying so purses and stuff for me. What a cutie. I also felt bad for him because we really do love to shop, and Megan can be indecisive at times which can take a while, but he was really patient.
We walked past this one guy that was a wood carver, and he was carving these really cool skewers WITH HIS TOES! Yes. His toes. He made us these really cute, free necklaces, and we watched him do it…with his toes. I seriously can’t get over it. I am surprised he still has both big toes because that is the main toe he uses. It was crazy. He was really cool though and showed us a picture of him carving like that when he was a really young boy. It was awesome. I also bought these really cool, handmade shoes which I am super excited about. They are so cute! We saved a TON of money thanks to Hamid, and he was the best negotiator we could have had. After shopping for a while, we decided to head back.

When we were walking through the square, we saw snake charmers which I was really excited about. Dice was not so excited and stood about 15 feet away from the snakes. Haha. Pretty hilarious. When we walked up, he pulled one of the snakes out of a bucket of water, and I thought it was just a normal garden snake because that was the one he was holding. As soon as he set it down though, its flared out these flaps from the side of its head, and I could see that it was a cobra. Pretty scary. The other one they had was a viper. They are both incredibly poisonous, so I was kind of scared. I got a picture with the garden snake and Hamid though. Haha.
We got back in the car, and Hamid dropped us off at the hotel to pack up. He really wanted us to eat something, but I didn’t want him to have to watch us eat again, so we refused. I feel so bad when he can’t eat! We packed all our stuff up and went to check out of the hotel. So, this was probably the funniest part of the whole day. The hotel room was really nice and in a really nice hotel in general, cost us 240 durhams. That is about the equivalent of $10 a person. That was for two nights, and breakfast both mornings. Isn’t that INSANE!?! We couldn’t believe it.

Hamid picked us up to drive us to the train station, and I gave him my Pitt ballcap and all of our contact information. He gave me his authentic Moroccan straw hat, and his contact information. We thought he was going to drop us off at the train station, but he parked and came in with us. Megan and I wanted to get a little more money out for Casablanca, but we decided to buy waters first. While Dice and I were buying water, Megan dropped the skewers she had bought all over the floor in front of the ATM. I didn’t even realize she did it until she almost had them all picked up. People were staring though, so it was a little funny. Haha. Our train was leaving in about 15 minutes, so Hamid walked us to the place where they took our tickets. We each gave him kisses on the cheek and a hug. He was seriously SO nice to us, and we still can’t figure out why. I guess it was because I go to Pitt, and he went there back in the day, but he made our stay in Morocco 10 times better than it would have been without him. He left, and it was really sad to see him go.

We got on the train and were really excited because we got first class tickets. We were in our own Harry Potter compartment, and we were hoping that no one else was in there. Unfortunately, as we were fighting over who was Hermoine, a man came in and told us we were in the wrong seats. Boo. We were supposed to be in the other first class car which was just a bunch of seats without compartments. There were some women sitting in our seats, so we had to get the conductor to kick them out. It was just really stressful because we had a TON of stuff with us, and we were having trouble carrying it all. Of course everything goes wrong as soon as we leave Hamid’s sight. They finally moved and we sat down. Unfortunately, the one girl was in the right seat, and she ended up trading seats with this younger guy so she could sit with her family.

This guy was not the smallest guy ever, and of course he sat across from me. He had NO problem hogging all the leg room and literally had his feet all the way under my chair. At one point, he even put his leg in between my legs! ARE YOU SERIOUS? I was super pissed, but he was being nice to Dice because she was studying French, and he is fluent in French. He was getting on my nerves though because I was trying to study too, and he wouldn’t shut up. Ugh. We were also really hungry. Not eating because of Hamid was apparently a bad idea. We should have at least grabbed some snacks.

We finally got off the train and away from that AWFUL man. As we walked out of the train station, we were SWARMED by taxi drivers. Absolutely swarmed. The guy on the train told us not to pay more than 20 durhams, but no one would take us for less than 50 durhams.  I was completely exhausted and hungry by this point and didn’t feel like arguing, so we agreed. A bunch of people from SAS were in taxis in front of us, so our taxi was basically just following them. It wasn’t a long ride, but the ship was docked pretty far back in the port we were in. Also, there is a security gate that you have to get through to get to the ship. The people at the security desk made our taxi driver give them his taxi license, and he was clearly not happy about it. So, as revenge, he dropped us off a good 10 minute walk from the ship. He was super rude to us too. Everyone else got taken all the way to the ship, so we were pretty annoyed. Megan got him back though by accidentally ripping off the lining of the car door when she got out of the taxi. It was a crappy taxi anyways. We walked back to the ship, and Megan’s flip flop broke when we were about 50 feet away. What are the chances? So, she had to change into her tennis shoes. I felt bad because they are her only pair of flip flops! Also, when we got back on the ship, they took Megan and Candice’s skewers away from them because apparently they are weapons. So, hopefully they get those back before we get to Boston.

We took a nap and got ready to go to dinner. We went to Rick’s Café which is based on the place in Casablanca. We met up with Katie, Nicole, Amanda, and Ray-ray and heard all about their adventures. I realized how lucky we were to have Hamid with us once I heard from them because apparently a lot of people bothered them in Marrakech. I guess a lot of children were begging for money from them, and a lot of people bothered them on the streets. We didn’t really have a problem with that, but it was definitely because of Hamid. So, we walked to the restaurant. Luckily, we made a reservation because it was packed! The place was really cool though. It looked exactly like the movie, and they had a piano player! The food was also SO good. We had a bottle of wine, and I had duck which was yummy. I also got a chocolate sundae. It was awesome. Katie paid for dinner which was really nice of her, and it was a great last dinner in port.

What? You want fancy feast?

We slept in since we weren’t meeting Hamid until 11 A.M., but Megan woke up feeling like shit. I felt so bad because today was our last big day of the trip, and we were supposed to ride camels. We went down to breakfast at the hotel together though and took a look at the menu. They seemed to have a lot of great choice, but we could only choose between the Moroccan breakfast or the continental breakfast. Why do you give me so many choices then?

We got fresh squeezed orange juice (they really are into that here), and I got the Moroccan breakfast while Megs and Dice got the continental breakfast. They were both all carbs except for a small container of yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and some weird looking pieces of meat. The Moroccan breakfast was made up of this yummy bread, crepes with nothing in them, and these holey pancake things. I just put honey on everything and dug in. Dice and Megs basically got a bunch of croissants. Yummy. Megan really wasn’t feeling well, so we were going to ask Hamid if we could ride camels with her close to the hotel, bring her back, and then go to the mountain.

Just as a side note, this weird thing started to happen with us and Hamid. Every time he picked us up, I would sit in the front, Dice would sit behind Hamid, and Megan would sit behind me. Also, anytime Megs or Dice wanted to say something to Hamid, they said it, and then he would look at me to repeat it. It wasn’t like I was translating or anything, but I kind of was. I think he just liked me a lot because I went to Pitt and so did he, but I would just repeat what they said slower and with some hand motions. It actually became a little joke between us girls.

So, Hamid arrived, and we asked him if Megan could ride camels close by. He said “No Problem!”, so we all hopped in. Before we took off, he pulled out this big envelope with a ton of pictures of him from the 1980’s in Pittsburgh! He had a picture of Forbes which looks super different now, and a picture of the cathedral. He also had pictures of himself at Kennywood and The Pittsburgh Zoo. It was seriously the coolest thing ever. The best part was that in most of the pictures, he was rocking some old school Pitt gear. It was some of the same stuff that my dad used to have. It was seriously really cool. He was obviously really excited to show it all to me too. After I looked through them, we started to drive. I noticed that we were headed in the direction of the mountain, so I reminded him that Megan wanted to ride a camel and go back. Hamid basically refused and said that she needed to see the mountain. He also said that she would regret it if she didn’t because she would see all of our pictures and be really upset. I could tell Megan was super pissed at this old man for tricking her into coming along, but she was a trooper and agreed.

So, let me set the scene for you. We are all in our assigned seats, rolling through the most beautiful mountain range, while Lady Gaga’s Judas is pumping out of the speakers. Definitely an experience. The road was super windy and became more and more narrow as we got farther into it. The mountains had this red look to them because the dirt is pretty much red, and they were spotted with green plants and trees. It was so beautiful. Hamid is a big fan of using the horn and basically honked it at every corner to let people know we were coming. We drove through Ourika which is the region we were in to get to the village named Stivadma. After about a two hour drive and a ton of pictures, the road ended, and we had to park the car. We walked around the village a little, and we saw this little goat that was tied to a pole in the middle of a porch. It looked so helpless because it was tied up with a piece of ribbon, but Hamid wasn’t afraid and picked it up! I stood behind it for a picture, but we learned that it was eventually going to get killed. You know how we knew that? We saw its brother’s head hanging in the shop next door along with its body and legs. EWW.

Then, the most amazing thing happened. IT RAINED! I honestly never thought I would be so excited for rain in my life, but it was awesome. I missed it these past two months! It rained really hard too. We took shelter in this outdoor restaurant that had a tin roof so the rain sounded even louder than it was. Hamid ordered mint tea for us which were SO good. He then ordered more tagine but this time it was egg and ground beef. He called it a hamburger, but it was honestly better than any hamburger I ever had. There were so many spices and deliciousness in it. Ah. So GOOD. We sat and ate for a while which I felt bad about because Hamid couldn’t eat. He was fasting along with almost the whole village we were in. We didn’t ask him to get us food though, but as I said, he doesn't take no for an answer. We started feeding some of the food to a bunch of stray cats that were around and before we knew it we looked like a bunch of cat ladies. One of the cats had a face that looked like a dog though, so we named him Catdog. Hahaha. Some of the cats were a little picky though, and we had fun making fun of them (see album title). Hamid kept getting up and walking around while we were eating, and he eventually came back with a honeydew melon. He got the restaurant owner to cut it up, and it was really good too. Good old Hamid. Gotta love him.

The rain had slowed down by the time we were finished eating, and Hamid wouldn’t let us pay for our food yet again. We started following him through the town, and we started to head down a side road. There were a bunch of chickens everywhere which was really funny. But then it started POURING rain again. Hamid literally started running through this alleyway filled with rocks and mud, and I couldn’t even keep up with him. We were all laughing at the fact that we were running through the rain, and a 64 year old man beat us to shelter. We jumped into this little store, and Hamid said he would bring the car down to meet us. We refused and told him we would run to the car with him, so off he went like a lightning bolt again. Haha. Oh Hamid. We all jumped into the car and headed out of the little town. We were all soaked, but it was really funny and refreshing.

As we headed out of the thick of the mountains where Hamid said it rains a lot, we drove past a bunch of old, rickety bridges that cross over the river. Hamid decided to pull over (he makes all the decisions..seriously though..he does), and he led us over to the bridge. Candice is really afraid of heights, so when Hamid basically started to run across this bridge, we were all taken aback. It was rocking back and forth like crazy and the bridge had a ton of holes in it. It was made of tree limbs and cable wire, and it was really scary to walk across, but we all did it. Once we got to the other side, we walked down to the river, and Hamid started climbing on top of all these big rocks. By this time, we had traded hats. He was wearing my Pitt baseball cap, and I was wearing his traditional Moroccan straw hat. We took a picture together that is pretty adorable.

We hung out down there for a little, and then we headed back across the bridge. We all jumped back in the car and headed back out of the mountains. By this time, Megan was feeling a lot better (gotta love medicine), and I think she was really glad that she came along. The drive and the town were probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I love getting out of the city and seeing these countries for what they really are. As we drove out of the mountains, Hamid had the radio up loud, and we were all singing to Chris Brown and some other American artists. We also taught Hamid how to pound it or “knucks” which he loved. We really bonded with him.

Once we were almost out of the mountains, Hamid pulled over where there was a large group of camels chilling on the side of the road. Guess it is time to ride a camel! We all hop out, and Megan is the first to mount her camel. I had no idea how BIG camels were. I was really surprised. They are SO huge. The way they stand up and sit down is pretty funny too. They first go down on their front legs and then on their back legs. It was really funny, but these animals are also kind of gross. They were covered in flies and flees, and I really wasn’t a big fan. Yet, I still jumped on! We all got on our camels, and the guy who owned them led us around for a couple of minutes. Hamid was snapping pictures like a pro, so we caught the whole experience. He really liked the fact that my camera could take videos, so he swallowed up my whole memory card with a video of the experience. I wasn’t mad though. It is a pretty hilarious video.

After riding camels, we headed back into town while singing and dancing in the car. It was a lot of fun. Hamid took us back to the hotel and said he would pick us up at 9:30 to go out. Apparently he wasn’t sick of us yet! When we got back, Megan took a nap and a shower while Mandice and I walked to the train station to get tickets for the next day back to Casablanca. We stopped to get postcards and water, and a few guys were yelling stuff at us while we walked. Can’t go anywhere without Hamid! We got to the train station and were lucky that the attendant spoke English really well. We also ran into another SAS girl who asked to borrow Megan’s phone which I took in case we got jumped. Hey, you never know! We hung out in the hotel and showered until it was time for Hamid to pick us up. Even though we were basically best friends with him by this point, I was a little nervous getting in the car with him again. I just don’t know why he wanted to hang out with us.

He started driving and decided that we were going to go to Chez Ali which apparently means the Two Alis. It is this really famous show that is pretty similar to Medieval Times. I think it is probably where Medieval Times originated. We were a little nervous on the drive there though because this place is kind of far outside of the city. Megan wasn’t feeling well again, so we were hoping it wouldn’t be a late night. We arrived, and the place looked like a palace. We paid for just the show because we had apparently missed dinner and got our pictures taken with some women dressed in cool outfits. The place was really cool with a place in the middle for the performance, and a big palace build around it. We got a table, and Hamid ordered a coke and some water. There were a bunch of groups of performers that came around to each table, and they made us get up and dance with them. Hamid just took pictures. Haha. He showed us around the place, and apparently Reagan had visited at one point. This place was really famous too and had won all kind of awards.

He showed us all the indoor seating which was really authentic, and then we took our seats for the show. It was a story about a woman being married off I think. It started with a girl who did belly dancing, and then there were two people on a flying carpet above. It was hard to follow because it was in Arabic, but it was still cool. They also had guys on live horses that charged the audience and shot these really loud guys. Candice screamed when it happened the first time. Pretty typical. Haha. They also had a couple of guys who did tricks on horses which was really cool. At the end of the performance, they lit a bunch of letters on fire to spell goodbye in Arabic. It was a really cool experience. Megan still wasn’t feeling well though, so after the show we asked Hamid to take us back to the hotel. He wanted to just drop Megan off and take Candice and I to get dinner, but Candice and I didn’t want to leave her. So, we all headed back to the hotel after a LONG day. I felt kind of bad because he was obviously disappointed, but it really wasn’t a good idea for us to split up. It was just really hard to explain things to him without sounding rude or ungrateful. :-(

To Get in the Car or Not?

We got up early on our second day because we needed to catch a train to Marrakech which is a bigger city about 3 hours from Casablanca. We had breakfast on the ship and left to catch the shuttle which transported us to the front of the port. From there, we needed to get a cab to the train station because it was on the opposite side of town, so we took this really nice BMW cab that was unmarked. Probably not smart, but oh well. We also paid more than we probably should have but we didn’t know that until later. I guess you live and you learn right? We got to the train station and ran into a bunch of people from SAS because a ton of people were planning on going to Marrakech. We were pretty early though, so we got tickets, but we didn’t get first class tickets like we had hoped. The difference between first and second class is air conditioning which is a pretty vital thing in the desert. So, we weren’t looking forward to that. We went out to where we thought the train was going to be, but all of the announcements were in French, so we almost got on a train to go to the airport. Luckily, one of the professors stopped us, and we finally boarded the correct train.

Now, as I have mentioned in many previous posts, lines DO NOT exist in Europe. Well, they don’t exist in Africa either. So, we had been waiting for the train for about an hour and a half before it got there. A ton of SAS people got there right before it left and were PUSHING us out of the way to get on the train first. So annoying. I KNOW you are from the U.S., where lines exist, so DON’T CUT IN FRONT OF ME. I was literally fuming because to be honest, I am SICK of most of the people on the ship. People are rude, obnoxious, and obsessed with getting wasted which I do not understand because you can do that at home. So, anyways, I was basically elbowing girls out of the way, and I was the first of my friends to get on the train. By the way, it was just Candice, Megan, and I on this little adventure. Everyone else had plans they had made earlier. So, I was saving two seats in a compartment (yes! Just like Harry Potter!), and this awful SAS girl comes barging in, throws her stuff in the two seats I was saving, and yells to her friend that she saved her a seat. At this point, I am BOILING. So, I told her that I was saving those seats for my friends. So, she took her shit out of one of the seats, but not the other one. So, I just gave Megan my seat because she wasn’t feeling well, and Candice and I sat out in the aisle way because I felt bad making Candice sit out there by herself. So, the awful girl got her way. I hate when that happens.

The good news is that Candice and I only had to sit out there for two stops because three people got off at another stop which was awesome. So, we all moved to another compartment together. There were two men in there, one that spoke English and one that didn’t. The guy that spoke English talked to us for a little bit, but he was a little creepy. After about two stops, another older man came into our compartment and sat down across from the three of us. Of course, we were just talking up a storm, and I started reading Candice’s palm at one point. Before I knew it, I was reading this old man’s palm! Don’t worry. He had a really long lifeline. We started talking to him and became really good friends with him on the train ride. His name is Hamid. He is a native of Marrakech, and I found out that in the 1980’s he studied abroad at Pitt! Isn’t that awesome? He knew all about the Cathedral of Learning, and he even lived in the Towers! We talked about Pittsburgh and some other stuff, and he was just a really nice guy. His English wasn’t that good, but the more we talked, the better it got. About halfway through the train ride, Megan started feeling really sick. I felt so bad because she had gotten pretty sick in Italy too, but we were on the train so there wasn’t really anything we could do.

The train ride finally ended after about three hours, and Hamid offered to give us a ride to our hotel. He said his son was picking him up from the train station, and our hotel was only two blocks from there. We said we could walk, but he advised against it because of the heat. So, we know that we shouldn’t get in cars with strangers. It definitely is not a good idea, but his son was waiting for him outside, it was hot, and we were tired. In our defense, it was also the middle of the day, so we could have yelled and screamed and barrel-rolled (HAHA) out of the car if necessary. So, we hopped in. All three of us were squeezed in the back with our stuff, and Hamid was right! It was only like two blocks away. His son pulled up on the wrong side of the hotel, and the hotel looked deserted. Hamid hopped out and walked us inside. He helped us to find the main desk and helped to translate with the people working at the desk. We were all checked in, and Hamid said he would pick us up at 8:30 P.M. in the lobby to show us the old town of Marrakech. We said okay because we were delirious, and off he went. He was just the nicest man!

So, the hotel we stayed at was SO nice. Like ridiculously nice. There was a bellhop that took us up to our room which was a one bed room apartment. There was a big living room, kitchen, bathroom, and two balconies. The common area of the hotel had this really nice pool, and it was decorated authentically. It was awesome. We were all really excited about how nice our room was, but we were STARVING when we got off the train. We hadn’t eaten lunch, and it was pretty late. So, we headed out to the main road because our hotel was a little bit off the main road. We walked down the street a little bit until we found a cab, and we tried to get him to take us to a restaurant. He didn’t speak very good English, but he seemed to understand that we were hungry, so we hopped in. We ended up at the mall. Yes, the mall. Clearly he didn’t understand us, but oh well. We tried. So, we headed for the food court to find that there are two restaurants open: Pizza Hut and Korean BBQ. Yup. Just those two. I mean, it is Ramadan and just about everyone is fasting during the day, but COME ON PEOPLE. I’M HUNGRY. So, I got Korean BBQ while Candice and Megan got Pizza Hut. The Korean BBQ wasn’t too bad because it was sushi with BBQ sauce to dip in, so I enjoyed having some sushi. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Megs and Dice got salads from Pizza Hut, and we ate together in the completely deserted food court. Kind of eerie.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to relax and shower before our big night out with Hamid. As the sun started going down, and we were online (FREE WIFI YAH!) telling people what we were about to do, we started contemplating if going with Hamid would play out the way the movie Taken did. I mean, why would some random old man want to hang out with us? We weren’t sure if we were going to go, and we decided that the best course of action was to tell him that we would meet him in the Old Town, so we wouldn’t have to get in the car with him. Even though we already did get in a car with him. But that is beside the point because that was during the day which is completely different. Megan was pretty much set on the scenario of “What if he doesn’t come?” but I knew that was never going to happen. So, we went down to the lobby and were waiting for him there. While we were waiting, we had this brilliant plan to ask the hotel desk for the number to call the police. The woman working at the desk did not speak the best English, so Megan went to try and ask her for the number. The conversation didn’t go well, and pretty much ended with “What is the number for 9-1-1, but not 9-1-1?”. Hahaha. Yah. She didn’t know what that was. So, we just got the number for the hotel. We are brilliant.

Hamid did show up and was right on time. He came into the lobby, and we were all sitting in the seats. He asked if we were ready, and we asked what we were doing. I was trying to tell him we would just meet him there, but we ended up just getting in the car with him. I know, but he was an old man, and we had Mandice with us, so I wasn’t too worried. We were all really nervous in the car, but he did take us to the center of the city, not a random, dark basement with torture devices. I did breathe a sigh of relief when we got out of the car though.

He parked a little bit off the main street, and we walked towards the city center together. All of a sudden the street we were walking on opens up into this HUGE square, and it was filled with people. There were street performers, tourists, locals, horses, cars, etc. Literally, everything you could think of going in all different directions. It was a little overwhelming, but I enjoyed it. I was really glad we went with Hamid though. He kept all the creepy guys away and helped us to find our way around. As soon as we got into the main part of the square, we came across a man with a monkey! It was the cutest thing ever! He climbed on to my shoulder, and Megan snapped a picture. I was surprised at how big it was though. I was expecting it to be smaller. We walked in a little more and found a ton of places serving food. Since most of the people had been fasting all day, including Hamid, there were a ton of places to get food. Hamid bought us all a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice which was really good except for all the pulp. He basically chugged his, but it took us a little longer to drink it. We walked farther back in the square, and he ran us through the souks really quickly which are all the places to shop. We didn’t do much shopping, but he definitely knew his way around. We did stop at a purse shop, and he bargained a great price for us which was great. The souks sold all kinds of stuff from food to furniture. It was a lot like the Grand Bazaar, but people weren’t as pushy. I think that might have been because we were with Hamid though.

After we ran through the souk (Hamid is a REALLY fast walker), we headed back to the main square. We all decided we wanted to get henna, so Hamid negotiated a price for us, and we all got something on our arms. Hamid got another glass of orange juice, and as I got my henna, I watched a belly dancer do her thing. Yet, I was wrong. Hamid told me that it was a MAN who was belly dancing. You really couldn’t tell because his face was completely covered, but it was super weird.

We then headed back to the main square where we ran into a bunch of clowns. Now, these weren’t your typical clowns. Hamid called them cloons (his pronunciation is his biggest problem), but they were basically guys dressed a little funny telling stories. They had huge crowds around them, and in the middle were a bunch of kids who were clearly engulfed in the story. It was a really cool thing to watch. Even though I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I could tell if the story was funny or scary. We didn’t stay long to listen though because Hamid is always on the move. I swear he is a 15 year old boy trapped in a 64 year old body. He moves at lightning fast speed. So, we were off, and this time we were headed in the direction of the mosque. In most of the cities in Morocco, the city center is accompanied by a mosque (thanks for that lesson Global Studies!). It is where people gather to pray, socialize, and such. So, we headed over to the mosque. On the way over, we passed a bunch of horse drawn carriages which apparently act as taxis. Hamid said they would take us all the way back to the hotel which was a pretty good way. I’m sure it would have been expensive though. The funny thing was that the horses had these cloths behind them to catch their poop! Pretty clever huh?

So, as we approached the mosque, we had to cross the street to get to it. Crossing the street in any country we have been in has been a task, but Morocco was definitely the worst. People WILL run you over. So, Megs, Dice, and I were basically clinging to Hamid because locals seem to know the exact moment when it is okay to cross even if a car, bike, and moped are less than a foot away. I guess they are born with it. We arrived at the mosque, and it was beautiful. It was all lit up, and there was a sea of people outside of it, all in white, praying towards Mecca. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have seen on this trip. I am not really sure why, but after seeing these people fast all day and then pray, I really understood the religion. It is such devotion. Anyways, they all moved in unison as they prayed, and they just seemed so connected. I obvious didn’t take any pictures because that would just be wrong, but it was awesome.

We then headed back to the main square and then back to the car. Hamid was basically our tour guide and very rarely told us what was planned next, so we figured out when we got in the car that we were headed to dinner. He took us to this café that was on the other side of town behind a gas station. Don’t worry. No one dies. We were all pretty tired though, and Megan wasn’t feeling well still, but telling Hamid no is IMPOSSIBLE. I swear he pretends to not understand me anytime I say no. More examples to come about that one. So, we walk into the restaurant and are literally the ONLY foreigners there. I mean, that is kind of typical since we are rolling with a local, but I have never been stared at by a whole restaurant in my life until that moment. I swear EVERYONE looked up at us. That was kind of a surreal experience. We sat down though, and Hamid ordered us water and tagine. Tagine is basically a mix of a meat, fruit, and vegetable all in this cone shaped pot. They put the cone shaped pot into an open fire stove, and let it slow cook for about an hour. Want to know what comes out? The BEST food I have ever had. Seriously. He got one with lamb, apricots, and onions. The meat was falling off the bone and was infused with the apricot and onion taste. It was SO good. We all ate out of the same pot though which was also pretty cool. They also served it with tanourt which is a weird kind of flat bread. We ate pretty quickly, and Hamid wrote all of our names on our napkins in Arabic which was pretty cool. He then got in a little argument with the waiter about our check (Hamid is kind of impatient like me!), and we paid for dinner since he had been so nice.

By this time, we were all really exhausted. Yet, Hamid has plans. He really wanted to show us this public bowling alley, and I honestly got a little nervous that he was going to kill us or something. But there actually was a bowling alley. Apparently, he thought it would remind me of Pittsburgh. Haha. He wanted to go in, but I told him we were all really tired, so he took us to buy some water and then back to the hotel. We thanked him for everything and for being so nice to us, and he said “No problem! See you tomorrow at 11? We will go into the mountains!” We had told him we wanted to see some of the Berber villages which are in the mountains of Marrakech, and apparently he wanted to take us! So, we agreed, headed back to our room, and informed everyone that we hadn’t been “Taken”! Quite an interesting night to say the least.

But can we buy them HERE????

We got up early on our first day in Africa, but it took a while for them to clear the ship because they decided to stamp all of our passports. I was really excited to get a stamp though. They are super cool and prove that I’ve been to Africa! We ate breakfast and headed out to the Hassan II Mosque which is the 3rd largest mosque in the world next to two that are in Saudi Arabia. It was built in 6 years which means that they pretty much worked on it 24 hours a day for all 6 years. Crazy! It was finished in 1993, so it is actually a really new mosque. It is built right over the ocean too because there is a verse from the Qur’an that says something about Allah being near the ocean. It is absolutely GIGANTIC. It was so big that we couldn’t really figure out where the entrance was, but we asked and eventually found it.

We walked down underneath the main entrances of the mosque which are only opened during Ramadan before sunrise and after sunset. We had to pay 120 durhams to get in, but that is only like $15. We had a tour guide take us around too which was nice. We took our shoes off before we went in, and it was the most magnificent place I have ever seen. The ceilings were so high, and it was actually made out of cedar wood. The ceiling weighed about 50,000 pounds, and it can open automatically which is pretty cool. They open it during Ramadan to help keep the place cool because it can hold 25,000 people. Yah. It is THAT big. The ceiling is beautiful though and has gold in it. The floor is also made of marble, but they had carpets all over it to make it more comfortable for Ramadan. All the materials used to make it came from Morocco except for some Venetian marble and Venetian chandeliers. I really can’t explain how beautiful it was. You could see the ocean from the windows on the left, and a lot of the materials used like the cedar ceiling and the titanium doors are to prevent erosion from the ocean.

The tour guide also took us underneath the mosque which is where everyone must wash before praying in the mosque. We then walked to another part of the mosque which was separated into sections for women and men. Apparently each side is exactly the same, and they have a pool underneath which is supposed to be for socializing. The cool thing about it is that people who aren’t Muslim can use it.

We walked to the mosque, and we walked back which was a really far walk. It was probably about 45 minutes each way, but it was a good way to see the city. It was actually only about 80 degrees which wasn’t bad with the breeze. We walked past Rick’s Café which is the place they built to replicate the café from Casablanca. I think we are going to eat there on our last night in Morocco. We went back to the ship to grab lunch because a lot of the places to eat were closed in Casablanca. So, we ate and relaxed for a little before heading back out to the Medina which is where they sell a bunch of stuff. They had a bunch of cool stuff to buy, but we just decided to look around. They had a TON of bootlegged movies, and some super cute shoes but my feet are too big for all of them. We did walk to Rick’s Café to try to make a reservation, but it was closed. On our way there, we were walking through some serious back streets though. We saw two guys having a verbal fight that attracted a bit of a crowd, but it wasn’t too intense. People kept saying “welcome to Morocco” to us which was really nice. They seemed genuine at least. Rick’s Café looked really cool from the outside though, so I am excited.

We walked back to the ship after that, and Katie, Candice, and I went to the train station to try and buy tickets for the next day. Crossing the street was quite the event though. People here drive crazier than anywhere else we have been which is saying a lot. They have lanes drawn on the road, but they are only a suggestion. So, we raced across the street to get to the train station. It was a live version of Frogger for sure. We got there though, and the guy selling tickets only spoke Arabic and Spanish. Katie took Spanish for a few years though, so we found out that we couldn’t buy train tickets from this station. The tickets we needed were at a station across town. It was really hard communicating with him though, and I pretty much pulled a Candice by repeating over and over if “we could buy the tickets HERE”. Clearly, we couldn’t, so we just decided to wait until the next day.

We ate dinner on the ship and relaxed for a little bit. A lot of SASers were all dressed up and ready to go out, even though they don’t serve alcohol during Ramadan. I heard the next morning though that a bunch of girls and a couple of guys tried to go to a bar, and they wouldn’t let the girls in. I guess that is understandable since it is their holiest month.

After dinner, Candice and I went back out to try and buy phone cards. We were literally the only women out though. It was insane. People kept yelling stuff at us, and we were even dressed appropriately! We did end up buying phone cards, but they were only for about 8 minutes. While I was waiting for Candice to finish on the phone, this woman dressed in black from head to toe came running by. Actually running though, and her outfit was flying up behind her. She actually looked like a bat. It was crazy. We walked back to the ship though because we knew it would be an early morning trying to get to Marrakech the next day!

What time are we going to Asia?

We had breakfast and decided to go to the Suleyman the Magnificent Mosque. Rick Steve’s recommended that we see it, so we started the hike up the hill. Suleyman the Magnificent was one of the great sultans of Istanbul, and the mosque was obviously built in his honor. The mosque holds the remains of Suleyman and his wife Roxelana who was probably my favorite person from that time period. After Suleyman died, his heirs were pretty incompetent, so she started the “reign of the ladies” where the women were pretty much doing everything except for leading the army into war. My girl! It was quite the walk, and we were all sweating to death. We had to walk through a local area which didn’t really help, but this nice man led us to the mosque which was really great of him. I don’t think we would have made it there without him. We finally got there, and Megan and I had to pee really bad. So, we paid 1 lira, and we had the choice between a squatting bathroom and a toilet. Quite the choice, but we both went for the actual toilet.

The mosque was really cool, but there was one thing I really didn’t like about it. There was a woman’s section way in the back of the mosque. How annoying is that? I took a picture with the sign, but it annoyed the hell out of me. I will never understand a culture where woman are looked as lesser than men. I mean, I know some people in the U.S. still feel that way, but it isn’t posted in plain sight.

When we were walking into the mosque, there was a guy trying to sell stuff outside, and he was trying to guess where we were from. He guessed that I was from Holland, and he was the third person who has said that to me while we were here. I guess I am not the stereotypical American. He said I was to strong of a woman to be an American which I guess is a compliment. The stereotypical American is sorority girl which I really am not at all.

We walked back to the ship, grabbed our computers, and headed to Asia. Since it was our last day in Istanbul, we started the day in Europe, had lunch in Asia, and were headed to Africa by the end of the day. How cool is that? The reason we could have lunch in Asia is because the city of Istanbul is separated by the Bosporus Strait. So, we were allowed to go over to Asia. Pretty cool huh? We took a ferry over, and it was a real struggle trying to figure out how to buy a ticket. Luckily, a local helped us again. People are pretty nice here except for the ones that “hate” Americans. We went to this really nice restaurant in Asia, but there was no one there because it was Ramadan. They had internet too, so we literally had the whole place to ourselves. It was really nice. Our waiter was super nice too, and since we sat there for a good four hours, he brought us two free teas. What a nice guy! We headed back to the ship after that which ended our time in Istanbul. I really had a great time here because it was so different from any other place I have ever been. Yah, I got stared at a lot, but it was nice to get outside my comfort zone and learn something new!

No penis? You got the job!

We had breakfast on the ship and headed straight to the Topkapi Palace which is this amazingly huge palace where the sultan used to live when there was one. It didn’t take us long to walk there, but the actual palace was enormous. It has 4 courtyards and most of the grounds are outside which is probably because of the really nice weather in Turkey. We went into the Harem first which cost us an extra 15 lira but was probably my favorite part of the whole experience. It was where they kept the concubines and women of the sultans. I learned a lot about it though, and it is very different than I expected. The sultan didn’t just have his pick of women, but his mother basically picked the woman he was allowed to sleep with. Also, every night he spent with a woman was recorded to keep track of who was having babies. A lot of the woman who lived there were just slaves and maids, and some of them became “favorites”. The sultan usually had 4 favorites which were the women he slept with, but he rarely married any of them because of how that would lessen his power. The coolest part about the whole thing was that there were male guards to watch over the women in the harem. The sultan didn’t have to worry about them though because they were slaves from African that had been CASTRATED on the journey. Yes. Castrated. Sucks. Yet, he really didn’t have to worry about them did he? It was really interesting though and inside, the rooms got nicer and nice as you moved from the favorites, to the mother sultan, to the sultan.

As we were walking to the next courtyard, this live performance started behind us, so we decided to double back and watch. It was a bunch of guys in traditional clothing playing traditional instruments and marching to the entrance of the next courtyard. It was really cool though. It was clearly based on what they used to do, but the drums they were playing were HUGE. It was pretty cool to see. We then walked farther in and saw the displays of some of the sultan’s clothing, jewels, and thrones. All of his clothing was really oddly shaped. It was like he had a pointy butt, but maybe that was just to make it fit a certain way. One thing is for sure though. He was HUGE. Definitely the biggest man ever. His thrones were also really impressive because most of them were inlayed with jewels, pearls, and gold. And obviously the jewels were fantastic. There was a ring that was an 86 carat diamond with 49 diamonds surrounding it. I am not sure how you could hold that on your hand, but it was breathtaking. He also had this pretty sick dagger that was covered in diamonds and at the bottom had a huge emerald. It would have made a great souvenir! Haha

It was getting really hot and gross, so we decided to leave because it was also getting really crowded. So, we walked down the street in the direction of the Bazaar to grab lunch. Nicole bought an ear of corn on the way there which is what most of the street vendors sell. That and these bagel like things that apparently taste like everything bagels. She said the corn was really tough though and not delicious, so I didn’t get one. We got to lunch and luckily it was air conditioned. The place was also empty because it was Ramadan, so we were pretty much the only people stuffing out faces. I had these veal and cheese patties with veggies, and it was delicious. The waiters were having trouble understanding us, and accidently brought us a cup of tea because Nicole asked for change for a fifty. Tea, fifty; they kind of sound the same. They were nice though and gave it to us for free. I feel bad expecting people to speak English, but Turkish is so far from anything I have ever even heard before.
After lunch, we headed back to the Bazaar to do a bit more shopping. I know it sounds like we have done a lot of shopping, and we have, but bargaining prices is actually a lot of fun! Yet, something completely devastating happened. Candice, Nicole, and I got separated from the rest of the group in the Bazaar because it is huge, and we ran into our friend Caroline. We talked to her for about a minute, and then kept walking. Later on, we found out that Caroline ran into BEN AFFLECK about 5 minutes after we saw her. She got a PICTURE WITH HIM! So, chances are that I walked right past him. Apparently he had a really thick beard and was eventually surrounded by people, but I am so mad I didn’t see him. I tend to keep my head down in those places so that store owners won’t yell things out at me. I guess I need to start looking for famous people. He was apparently scoping Istanbul out for a new movie!

So, while we were unaware of the presence of Ben Affleck, Candice, Nicole, and I wandered into another lamp shop. This store owner was really cool and sold me a lamp for 15 lira less than the guy I originally bought one from! Yah! He also spoke really good English which he said was because of his girlfriend. So, of course, I asked about his girlfriend. He met her when she came to visit Istanbul from San Francisco. They started dating and have only seen each other twice since then. He visited her once, and she came back to Istanbul a second time. Kind of crazy. I wasn’t sure how long they were dating for, but it was still a crazy story. He said his girlfriend was just as stubborn as me because we had been negotiating the price. I guess it is an American thing.

We were still separated from everyone as we went through the rest of the Bazaar, but we saw them right as we were leaving the outside gate! How lucky was that? We went back to the ship for dinner and then headed out to the hippodrome for the evening. Since it was the first day of Ramadan, we heard there was a big festival by the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. So, we hung out at the fountain in between the two mosques for a while and just chatted and people watched. It was really relaxing. We then heard the festival and walked over to the main festival. There was a performance going on, and the stands were filled with locals. There was also this long row of little shops that were selling handmade things and art. There were also places selling food which was the only place we bought stuff from. We bought these crispy little doughnuts that were delicious, and we bought baklava which was seriously so delicious. It was made with pistachios which was different from other kinds I have had. It was really good though. We watched a guy roll out the dough for baklava for a woman that was apparently just buying the dough. It was really interesting. It was just layers and layers of super thin dough. He was really talented. Haha

We taxied back to the ship and found the guards outside of the port entrance taking care of the CUTEST little kitten I have ever seen. He had like a syringe and was using it to feed the kitten milk which was supposed to be like its mom I guess. I took a picture with it though, and it was like clinging to my clothes. Ugh. I wish I could have brought it back on the ship!

I didn?t flash them! (with a camera of course)

Our plan for today was to have a relaxing day and do a Turkish bath. Megan, Katie, Maggie, and I were all doing it, but Candice opted out of this little adventure. We slept in a bit and went to eat breakfast at this café down the street. The waiter there couldn’t speak any English, and they didn’t have an English menu, so we just pointed to pictures. I got a cappuccino and a flaky spinach pastry thing. It was pretty good. We then started walking towards the bath! It was a Sunday, and it was insane how different the streets were. Almost everything was closed, and no one was walking around. It was surreal. We had to ask a few people if we were headed in the right direction, but we eventually found it. We went up to the front desk and decided to get the full treatment which is the actual bath and a hot oil massage. They gave us little towels to cover up with on our way in, and we also got these little domino-like tokens that showed what we had paid for. We also got out on kese which is the scrubber they use to rub you down.

We walked in, and the place was really cool. Almost everything was made of wood like a typical sauna. She led us up the stairs and showed us our lockers which were where we were to get undressed. We were a little hesitant to only wear our swim suit bottoms, but we decided to go for it since it was part of the experience. After stripping down, we walked back down the stairs through a different door that led to the bath. As soon as we walked in the door, we could feel the steam. It was really hot inside. We walked through a little holding room for people waiting to get their oil massages and into the bath. Now, to some, this may sound like a males dream. There were about 20 women in their topless with just bottoms on. Sounds great for all the guys out there right? Well the thing I must mention is that the women who rub you down and run the bath are also in there in their bras, undies, and some were even topless. In addition, these women are OLD and OVERWEIGHT. Quite the sight to be honest. My friends and I went in and didn’t really know what to do because the women that work there speak a few words of English at best. Megan had led the group into the bath, so she was first to get rubbed down. Before we even knew what was happening, this old, Turkish woman whipped off Megan’s towel. She was definitely totally unprepared for it. The rest of us were told to whip off our own towels, lay them on the large, round, marble circle in the middle of the room, and relax. Naked. With 20 other women. Pretty weird to be honest.

But we did what we were told. I laid there for about 3 minutes before I was called over by the largest woman of them all. This woman was literally the size of a small house. Luckily she had her black lacey bra and undies on, but they didn’t hide much. Before I knew it I was lying in front of her on the marble slab which she rubbed my whole body front top to bottom with soap, water, and my kese. Please keep in mind that I am topless, and this woman has absolutely no shame. She was all up in my butt and gave me a nice slap on the ass when it was time for me to flip over so she could get all up in my boobs. Not to mention the fact that her boobs were popping out of her bra and hanging RIGHT in my face. I was completely covered in bubbles and soap, but once I got over the uncomfortable feeling of it, it was pretty refreshing. Let’s just say, it was quite the experience. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that during my entire rubdown, I was in perfect viewing position to watch a 300 pound woman rinse her entirely naked body at one of the side faucets. That was fun.

After my scrub down was done, she walked me over to this faucet and washed my hair which was basically a scalp massage. That was awesome. Also, PLEASE keep in mind that there were about 20 other women in the room along with my close friends. We definitely were a lot closer after this! She rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and almost drown me in the process. My woman wasn’t the best with words. After my rinse down, she literally RIPPED my towel out of my hands and pushed me towards the pools; one of really hot water and one of REALLY REALLY hot water. So, I walked across the room naked and jumped into the really hot one.

This is the moment when I realized that other people from SAS were there. Yes. Terrific. So happy to see more people that I see every day without their clothes on. Most of them were older though, so they were less fazed by the nudity. I chilled in the pool for a while and worked my way up to the hotter one. Megan and Katie came into the pool room after a while, but those jerks still had their towels. Apparently their towels had not been ripped from their naked bodies. Lucky them. They hung out in the pool with me for a bit, and then we all went to one of the little side rooms where people rinse off. It was really nice to splash some colder water on my body after all the heat. We were all walking around naked at this point just because it was whatever. After that, we headed back out to the waiting room to wait for our oil massages. There were dry towels out there so we got to dry off a bit. Katie and Megan went in first, and I relaxed because the room was like a sauna. Maggie came in a little bit later because she was the last one to get her totally body rubdown. I eventually got called in to get my oil massage. This portion of the process wasn’t so bad because it was just like a typical massage. She did massage my butt though which isn’t something that usually happens. The oil felt really good though, and my skin looked great. The dead skin that the lacey bra lady had scrubbed off of me was jaw dropping because it was totally visible on the kese she used on me.

After the massage, I headed back out to the sauna room and rinsed off in the shower.
I had trouble finding Megan, Katie, and Maggie, but it was because Megan and Katie went back into the pool which they actually weren’t supposed to do. Oh well. We can’t read Turkish. We couldn’t find Maggie, so we decided to wait outside of the sauna room for her and have a glass of apple tea. It was super relaxing. I definitely don’t regret doing it. We finished our tea, so we went up to the lockers to look for her. We finally found her because apparently she was taken to the third floor for her massage which was weird. So, we got dressed and headed back out into the real world. It was a really cool experience though. We grabbed a taxi to get back to the ship, but our cab driver was super weird. I got out money to pay him, and he started grabbing for my 50 kuna bill. I think he was just trying to explain how much it was, but I didn’t like it.

We got back to the ship and showered to get the rest of the oil off of us. My sin felt great though. We grabbed dinner at the pool bar which is on the 7th deck. They serve good food, but you have to pay for it which sucks. Anyways, we left to go find this Turkish dancing performance which is something we were told we had to see while we were here. It is actually a religious ceremony, but they dance. So, we went to ask a taxi driver to take us there, but he didn’t speak the best English. He said it didn’t exist anymore or something like that, but we decided to take our chances and go to the place we were told. He was right. The monastery that it is usually held at is under construction, but it was being held down the street in about an hour at a theater. So, we walked down, got tickets, and went to an ice cream shop because Chelsea was in the mood for waffles. It was really good ice cream though, but expensive. They apparently have a location in L.A. too, and two other random countries. It was really delicious.

It was about a half hour until the show, so we headed over to the theater to get a good seat. The dance is a religious ceremony, so it was very plan. It started by the musicians walking out and playing music for a while. It was definitely a different type of music, but it was interesting. They were also playing some really cool looking instruments. There were three guys who were singing, and I am pretty sure two of them were twins. They looked exactly the same. The dancers came out and all hell broke loose. Everyone in the audience started snapping pictures like crazy. The guy sitting a couple seats down from me had the brightest flash EVER on his camera which was a little distracting, and the guy in front of me didn’t stop taking pictures the entire time. About halfway through the performance, the woman sitting behind Candice tapped Candice on the shoulder. She asked Candice to get the attention of the guy sitting in front of us. Candice obviously did, and he turned around. The woman behind us proceeded to tell him to stop taking pictures and being so obnoxious. The guy was really pissed and said “I am just trying to enjoy the performance!” Not sure how that is possible through the lens of your camera, but he didn’t stop taking pictures like a crazy man. At one point, his battery died, but don’t worry. He had another one in his pocket that he popped back in within a couple seconds of the first one dying. No worries. Anyways, that was all audience stuff going on.

The actual performance was really cool. It was very repetitive. They bowed towards this red cloth that they laid on the floor which I think was in the direction of Mecca, and they would start spinning one after another after another until they were all spinning together. When they were spinning, their left hand was down and their right hand was up which I am sure means something. They were also all men and dressed in big white dresses with pants underneath. They also had hats on that looked like straw thimbles. Pretty legit looking. The dance is actually supposed to represent the release from worldly possessions and worries and getting closer to Allah. It was a really cool ceremony to see. Apparently it has been done for centuries, but I have no idea how these guys didn’t barf. They spun the whole time and only stopped 4 times within an hour to take turns bowing to the red cloth. I would have puked.

After that, we were hungry because the performance was pretty early in the evening, so we went looking for a restaurant that Rick Steve’s recommended. Unfortunately, his book was published 3 years ago, so the restaurant we were looking for didn’t exist anymore. So, we just decided to eat at the restaurant that had taken its place. It was kind of awkward eating before sundown because people were still fasting for Ramadan, but a girl’s gotta eat! So, we sat down to probably one of our longest dinners yet. We sat there for about 3 and ½ hours which was pretty good for us. They served us olive oil to dip our bread in, but it had olives in it. Katie doesn’t like olives, so she suggested putting some olive oil in the ashtray and dipping into there. Luckily, we stopped her before she could because I am pretty sure they don’t clean those things. Oh, how she hates olives. Also, while we were eating (and drinking two yummy bottles of wine ), this little girl and her mom came by begging for money. Her mom was playing an accordion, and she was playing this toy flute. After they played a song, the little girl who was really adorable came up to our table with a cup and was asking for money. I felt so bad, but I didn’t have any change on me. She blew us a kiss when she left, but it is just awful that her mom teaches her to do that. God only knows what values are beginning instilled in her. I did end up giving some money to another old woman who was begging. There were a lot of people like that in Istanbul. We also had two delicious desserts. It was a really good night!

Tricking me into eating a banana? YOU are on the SHIT LIST!

As soon as we woke we walked straight to the area where all the major monuments are. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, but once we crossed the bridge, it was really hilly. Luckily, it wasn’t too hot yet though. Crossing streets in Istanbul can be quite the task though. Cars literally DO NOT stop. For anything. We were trying to cross this one street for like 15 minutes when eventually this nice Turkish man stood in the middle of the street for us so that we could cross. Basically, he risked his life for us. What a good guy. They drive like lunatics here, even more so than the other places we have been. So, our first stop was the Blue Mosque. We asked a local man selling corn on the street how to get there, but we did pretty well for ourselves with a map. Also, for all of you haters and doubters out there, I am getting better and better with a map! I just need to start carrying around a map of Pittsburgh.

We get to the top of the hill which is where the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are located. They are really close to each other and are separated by this beautiful foundation, hippodrome, and garden. It really is beautiful. There were a bunch of trees with colorful flowers, and tons of people just hanging out in the shade between these two magnificent mosques. Talk about a day in the park. Anyways, we headed to the Blue Mosque first. The Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque within the city where people come to pray and have services. The building itself is surrounded by this huge outside wall, and it looks gigantic from the outside. We walked into the inner courtyard and courtesy of Rick Steve’s, I read a little about the history.

The mosque was built in just seven years which is completely unbelievable if you ever get the chance to see it. It has six minarets which are these small towers poking out all around the mosque. The minaret is where the muezzin or the leader of prayer will climb up 5 times a day to announce to the city the call to prayer. It is still used for that purpose today, but they all use loudspeakers. Sultan Ahmet I apparently asked for a gold minaret, but the architect misunderstood him and instead built six because the word for gold and six are very similar. That is just legend though. It is really thought that the Sultan wanted six minarets because the central mosque in the city of Mecca only had six minarets. So, of course, the central mosque built a seventh minaret to keep the power balance. Pretty interesting if you ask me. I really enjoyed learning about the Muslim religion and Turkish culture while I was here just because it is so different from anything I know.

We accidently tried to enter the mosque through the entrance for worshippers only but were quickly redirected to the semi-long line of tourists. We all got prepared will our scarves around our heads, but apparently we didn’t really have to have our heads covered inside. We had to have our shoulders and knees covered and were not allowed to wear shoes inside. Luckily, we all brought socks which I was incredibly happy about. Another thanks to Rick Steve’s! I was a little put out though because they still made me wear a blue sheet skirt that they give out for people that aren’t dressed appropriately. I had a skirt on that hit my knees, but apparently that is not enough. Oh well.

Inside, the mosque is breathtaking. The carpet is beautiful, and the tile work on the walls is also very impressive. It was a bit of an optical illusion though because from the inside, the dome did not look as high as it did from the outside. It is probably because the dome is all one color, but it was a bit weird. Another thing that stood out was the chandeliers. They were HUGE. Like SO BIG. The main chandelier hung really low to the ground in relation to how big the place was and probably had a diameter bigger than an SUV. It was awesome. Additionally, there were no chairs. There was a wooden rail that separated the tourist area from the prayer area, and the carpet had a design that clearly designated where each person was to sit on the ground. They obviously stand, bow, and kneel a lot in their ceremonies, so I guess chairs really aren’t necessary. Also, the carpet had really small tiers which were almost invisible. These were probably in place so everyone could see the front. Pretty interesting. Also, there are no pictures of people or animals like there are in catholic churches, but they did have some Arabic words written on the wall which were pretty. I really loved it and didn’t expect the inside to look the way it did which was basically a vast, open space.

We left there after a while to walk over to the Hagia Sophia. Some people were really annoying though. There were signs clearly stating where to put your shoes back on and where you should not walk, but people were just oblivious to it. It really started to get to me to see people walking around the city in really revealing clothing. It may not be our culture, but we aren’t in American, and respect is what I have learned is the most important thing to have while traveling the world. It doesn’t mean you are Muslim to cover up your shoulders and knees for four days. I don’t know. It really got to me though, especially because we were here during a Ramadan which is an incredibly religious time. Walking around in miniskirts and tank tops is just ignorant, rude, and disrespectful.

Okay. So, I am done with my rant. We then started to walk over to Hagia Sophia, and it was getting HOT. We stopped to grab some water for like 50 cents and walked across the hippodrome and the garden. The hippodrome was a popular place for chariot races during the time of Constantinople. That was kind of a cool thing. So, Hagia Sophia is no longer a working mosque and is a museum. We had to pay 20 lira to get in, but it was definitely worth it. The line wasn’t too bad, and we only waited for about 15 minutes. Oh. And by line, I mean large mob of people standing around the ticket office. I don’t know what it is about Europe (east and west), but LINES DO NOT EXIST. It seriously pisses me off more than anything else. I absolutely HATE when people cut in front of me, and here it is totally acceptable.

We did get in though and separated ourselves from the massive amount of tour groups. The main part of the mosque is breathtaking. A fun fact about it is that the Statue of Liberty could do jumping jacks inside of the mosque. Pretty cool huh? Another fun fact is that it wasn’t originally a mosque. It started as a church during the reign of Constantine, but when the Ottoman’s took over, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror converted it into an imperial mosque. The transformation included removing the functional parts of a church such as the altar and covering up the figurative mosaics and frescoes. It really is a cool mix of east and west, Muslim and Christian.
After seeing the Blue Mosque, I didn’t know if I could be more impressed. I was wrong. This place was HUGE. So massive and breathtaking. I absolutely fell in love with it. It had the same huge chandeliers but bigger, and the same huge dome, but bigger. It was also interesting because you could see where some of the frescoes of the old Christian church had been covered. The apse is part of a traditional mosque and has a niche to show where to face in order to pray to Mecca. It was a really cool space, and I can’t even imagine it being full of people.

We then walked towards the back of the church to the miracle column of St. Gregory. This is the legendary perspiring column of St. Gregory, the miracle worker. People believed this column “wept” holy water that could cure afflictions such as eye diseases and infertility. There is a hole in the column and you are supposed to put your thumb in it and turn your hand in a clockwise motion all the way around. If you feel water, your prayer will be answered. Well, of course, there was no water in it, but it was super smooth from the millions of hands that had touched it before me. It was a funny, and definitely a good legend. We left after that because it was starting to get crowded. We took a bathroom break and then headed across the street to Basilica Cistern or the Underground Cistern. We had to pay 10 lira to get in, but it was totally worth it. The outside of this place is literally a small square building above ground that holds the ticket office. As soon as you enter, you begin the descent down the stairs to this huge underground reservoir of water beneath the city. There is a path that goes all around the cistern, and the cistern is held up by recycled pillars from earlier Roman ruins around the city. It used to not have a walkway, and the water used to be six feet high which is around the time when it was used in the James Bond movie “From Russian with Love”. So, the tops of all the pillars have different patterns and different designs. Also, they have lights set up below most of the pillars that give the cistern this really creepy glow. It was really cool. The whole thing spans two football fields and was built to support the growing population of the Byzantine Empire. We walked through the whole thing, and it had this weird peace to it. I really enjoyed it. There were also fish in the water because it clearly is not in use anymore. Also, at the very back of the cistern, there are two pillars that have Medusa heads at the bottom of them. One head is right side up, and the other is on its side. Some say they were used as a reminder of the Roman prosecution of Christians, and some say that they were used just because they were a perfect fit. This was definitely one of my favorite places that we visited.

We took a lot of really funny pictures including one of my Rick Steve’s books in a hilarious light. It was pretty funny. He is our idol. I also pretended to push Candice into the water a few times. She was really amused. Haha. On our walk up to the monuments, we had passed this authentic looking restaurant that had pillows, couches, and tables close to the ground. There were also these two Muslim women sitting near the front of the restaurant rolling and cooking the bread used for gozlemes. So, we decided to eat there. It was really comfortable and definitely a good choice. I got two gozlemes which are small quesadilla like things. I had one with just spinach and the other with a mix of meat and cheese. They were really good, and I got to watch the women make them which was really cool. Lunch was fun though because Candice, Megan, and I were messing around taking pictures. Candice’s face got really burned the other day, so her face looks really red in all the pictures. Kind of like Santa! She obviously wasn’t pleased so she decided to take a bunch of really attractive pictures of Megan and me. It was pretty funny. I was in a giggly mood probably because I was so tired and overheated. Haha.

After lunch, we walked up the street the restaurant was on and did a little shopping. They have these really cool leather shoes that are handmade that I wanted, but they were trying to sell them for way more than I was willing to pay. The first store we went into was quite the experience. As soon as we walked in, I greeted the store owner and asked how he was doing. I mean, I always do that, especially being abroad because these aren’t chains. These stores are these people’s livelihood and their craft. Well, he was taken aback that I was so kind to him. Apparently people come in and out of his store all the time being super disrespectful. They don’t say hi to him, only ask the price, and throw his shoes around when they are looking at them. I do agree that this is super rude, but this guy was a little scary about it when he was talking to me. He started swearing and saying those people had horrible mothers who had raised them wrong and all this stuff. A little crazy. He did have really cute shoes though, but I was just not in the mood to drop 100 lira. So, I left pretty quickly since he was getting so heated.

Candice and Amanda bought some souvenirs and gifts, but I didn’t buy anything off the main street. One of the store owners was really funny though, and anytime we asked the price of anything, he would say it and add on “million dollars”. So, if it was 10 lira, he would say “10 MILLION DOLLARS”. Haha. Kind of like Austin Powers. It was pretty funny. He was really nice. Nicole was looking to buy some cigars so the funny Austin Powers guy led us up to this ice cream shop that sold some other stuff too. The guy serving the ice cream was really funny though. The ice cream they sell here comes out of these small bins, and they use a really long scooper to get it out. So, every time they try to get your attention, they hit the scooper against a group of bells. It scared the shit out of me a few times. So, then you turn towards them, and he has an ice cream cone stuck to the end of his scooper and sticks it in your face. He even stuck a cone in Amanda’s hand. It was pretty entertaining.
We walked a little bit farther up and walked into this handmade comforter and tablecloth place. The guy there was hilarious. He literally pulled like 50 tablecloths of the shelf and threw them on the floor while saying “No charge for looking!” Totally different from American. A few of us left without buying stuff, but he wasn’t even mad. In the U.S., store owners get mad if they put in that much effort and you don’t buy anything. It was fun though because some of the tablecloths were really awesome.

We decided to head back to the ship after this, so we walked down the hill to where we saw a cab sitting. Little did we know, it was almost the last cab ride of our lives. Of course, since we are so cheap, we squeezed 7 people in a cab that should have fit 4. We gave him the green sheet which is a sheet they give us in every country with where the ship is in Turkish or Greek or wherever we are. So, we take off. This guy is a LUNATIC. I literally thought we were going to die. Like swerving with less than an inch of space between other cars. At one point, we swerved around a truck and were headed full speed at the back of a car that was REVERSING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. It was a serious James Bond moment. Luckily, we slammed on the breaks in time and swerved around him, but it was insane. He also dropped us off at the wrong ship, so we still had to walk a decent amount back to our ship. Insanity.

We took a short nap, got showered, and had dinner on the ship. Megan officially caught Candice saying “bomb” which she thought she would never say, and Candice got some of her dinner on her shirt, so we had to wait for her to change. It looked a little like baby poop. Haha. We headed out to Istiklal Street which is this main drag that is made up of TONS of people walking and a lot of shops and bars. It was packed because it was a weekend, and they don’t have a rule about which side of the street to walk on. So, it felt like we were swimming against the current no matter what we did. We shopped a little bit, and I bought a really cute pair of traditional shorts and a painting. I am officially OBESESSED with this painting. I absolutely love it. It was sitting outside of this little music shop, and I even met the artist himself! It is a picture of a woman playing the cello which I can obviously relate to. The cool part about it though is that the cello is a man. So, it is like the woman is playing the man. Haha. I love it. The artist said it was a portrayal of his relationship with his wife. He was the cutest old man too. So adorable. So, I bought it.

We kept walking down the street because we were looking for a bar that served apple tea like the kind that the lamp guy served to us. We were looking for a while though because we all wanted to stop in different shops. Walking down the main street was a lot of fun. There were a lot of street performers, and they had these really cool lights that hung over the street. It was definitely the place to be. A tramcar also goes up and down the middle of the street for people to hop on and off. We all know Candice has trouble with tramcars, and she almost got hit by it a couple of times! We eventually ended up at this restaurant that had this beautiful roof terrace and some delicious desserts. Megan and I split the chocolate fondue with fruit. The chocolate was dark and thick and SO GOOD. We might have even drank it out of the cup once we were done with the fruit. Megan has never had a banana before, so she let me have all the bananas which were awesome. She is afraid to try one, and Candice got a banana frappe which she almost tricked Megan into trying. Haha. I kinda wish she had, but Megan was not pleased with Candice. She went straight to the shit list.

Dice also taught me a new fun phrase. Instead of just saying Ready as in “Is everyone ready”, she says “reds, whites, and blues”. Haha. I thought it was cute. We started walking back to the ship after we paid because it was getting late, and we ran into these really young Turkish boys. They asked me something, and I answered and before we knew it, this huge group of young boys was following us down the street. Not in a creepy way, but they were obviously just excited that we were older American girls. They didn’t speak much English, but I found out using their phone calculator that they were 16. Haha. We kept walking obviously, and eventually ran into some of their older friends. One of the boys was an exchange student from Germany and could speak English pretty well. So, he started translating for us to talk with all the locals. It was pretty funny hearing English translated to German translated to Turkish because the German boy’s friend spoke German and Turkish. I basically told the young boys who were following us around that in the U.S., it would be illegal and weird for me to be hanging out with them unless I was their babysitter. They also had American t-shirts on that said some pretty nasty stuff. Who knows if they actually knew what it meant. We talked to them for a bit, and then continued walking to the ship.
So, my group of friends and I can be a little weird sometimes, and we tend to talk in funny voices and laugh at each other a lot. Yet, for some reason, when I talk in a strange or weird voice, some local ALWAYS mocks me! It happens a lot! Like Candice does this deep, weird voice, and I do it now too. So, when we were walking back to the ship, I was talking to her like that, and this random guy sitting on the side of the street started mocking me! Haha. It is actually pretty funny and a fun cultural connection because I know what he is doing, but I just don’t know why it’s always me!

We ended up going the wrong way back to the ship and got a little scared because the streets were empty, so we grabbed a cab back to the ship. Just to be safe. :-)

How can I spend your money today?

Our first day in Turkey was a complete and total culture shock. Actually, I might even say that the first few minutes were the biggest culture shock. We got into port pretty early, but Turkey has this policy where everyone on the ship has to carry a landing card. I am not really sure what it means or anything, but we had to wait in line to go and get it. Megan, Dice, and I were all in line together, and we were just about to get into the door of the room they were giving them out in when this gem of a guy totally cut in front of us along with the other 30 people behind us in line. Megan was pretty pissed so she said “Well after you!” So that just open the flood gates for me to start saying stuff to the back of his head. He never turned around though. Typical SASers.

We finally got our landing cards and went to meet Juliette down at the gangway. We decided to start off the trip by going to the Grand Bazaar because Katie, Nicole, and Maggie had an FDP with SAS, and we had to meet them back at the ship when that was over. So, we are obviously dressed pretty conservatively to respect the culture, but that did not stop people from STARING at us. I literally have never felt like such a zoo animal in my life. We obviously didn’t know where we were going, but we finally found our way to the bridge that we had to cross to get to the Bazaar. As we crossed, there were a TON of men fishing off of the side of the bridge. I’m pretty sure every SINGLE one turned to stare at us as we passed. I really am not exaggerating either. It was really, really bad. I mean, not bad, because I understand that we totally look like foreigners, but really noticeable.

So, we start on our way through the city. We had to get money out in order to go shopping at the Bazaar, so we stopped at an ATM. For some reason, my card wouldn’t work, so I had to keep looking for one. While I was waiting for Juliette and Megan to take out their money, this man walked past me and TOTALLY grabbed my ass. Pretty classy huh? I didn’t see who it was though because the streets were incredibly crowded, but it was a great welcome to the country. I guess I can’t really be surprised considering the fact that we were in an older part of town and not many woman walk around on their own. In addition, at least in the area that we started out in, most women were wearing headscarves or were covered head to foot except for their eyes.

We all got money out and started to walk up this super steep hill towards the Bazaar. Okay, so to put this in perspective for you, the streets are exactly a small car length wide. The sidewalks range from very large to nonexistent in an instant, and people drive like lunatics. I thought Italy was bad, but this place is off the charts for reckless driving. So, lots of people walk in the streets, especially when the sidewalks disappear and when you get to the streets that have a lot of shops on the sides. Not to mention the fact that they put a lot of their products out onto the street. So, narrow road, PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, and 4 American girls. Insanity. We basically were weaving our way through crowds of people up this 60 degree incline while people are yelling at us from their shops because they want us to come inside. Talk about sticking out. Yet, some of the shops were pretty interesting, and we weren’t even to the bazaar yet! They have so really extravagant formal and wedding dress shops, and they were really fun to window shop.

We stayed focused though, and finally made it to the entrance gate to the Grand Bazaar. So, the Grand Bazaar is kind of like a huge shopping mall, but not at all like a shopping mall at the same time. It is indoors, and each of the shop owners rents out their small piece of the puzzle. There are over 3000 shops within the Grand Bazaar. They sell everything from jewelry to clothing to lamps to rugs to pipes. IT IS AWESOME.  I absolutely loved it.

We really weren’t looking to buy anything right off the bat, because we knew we would be coming back with everyone else. We wondered in and out of a few stores with one of the store owners say “How can I spend your money today?” haha. But we ended up finding this amazing scarf place where the men were really funny. No one else was looking to buy, but I really loved the scarves in the store and didn’t want to pass them up. Probably the best thing about buying stuff from these guys is bargaining the price. The scarf shop had two younger guys in it that automatically started pulling every scarf they had off the shelves for us. He started wrapping them around our necks and showing us some really cool ways of wearing them, not without almost copping a feel either. They were nice to us though and were joking about the prices and such. He said that I was a pretty tough bargainer because I really didn’t want to pay over 80 lira for them which he agreed to. He tried to get us all to throw in a kiss too, but that obviously didn’t happen. Even though the men are incredibly flirtatious here, I guess I can kind of understand. Since the women in their culture can sometimes not even speak without permission, there probably isn’t much flirting. But we just brushed them off, and we got back to the scarves. I ended up walking out with a great deal on a couple cashmere scarves, so I was satisfied.

We also went to another scarves place which is where the other girls got their scarves, and the man there was really nice. He offered us tea while we were in his shop, but we turned him down which I kind of regret now. 

While we were in his store though, we heard the call to prayer for the first time. The call to prayer is this Turkish song that literally rings through the streets 5 times a day which calls everyone to prayer. I was kind of under the impression that everyone dropped what they were doing to pray, but that wasn’t really the case. I think it is more of a reminder that you need to pray at least 5 times a day. Some people prayed right away, but others didn’t. Also, they don’t have to go to a mosque to do it. They can pray wherever they are.

It was getting pretty close to when Maggie, Katie, and Nicole’s trip was going to be ending, so we started heading back to the ship. We realized that we had about a half hour to get back to the ship for free lunch on the ship, so we literally ran from the Bazaar to the port. We were really dipping and ducking through people then! We made it back just in time to eat. After we ate, we met up with everyone else, and they really wanted to go back to the bazaar after seeing our scarves. So, we headed to the spice market first before going back to the Bazaar. The spice market is another huge market that sells all kinds of spices, herbs, teas, and candy. They even have cheeses and meats, but we weren’t really looking at that. This one man pushed our group into his store, and let us try some Turkish Delight for free. Turkish Delight is a type of candy that is made out of a variety of different nuts, honey, and sugar. It was really delicious. None of us bought anything from him, but he was still very kind. And guess what. His name was ALADDIN! How cool is that?

We walked a little farther in the spice market and found some really cool spices, so we all stopped to browse. The man running the store struck up a conversation with me and asked where we were from. I said the U.S., and he proceeded to tell me that he knew me from somewhere. I said “yes, you do. We just met about two minutes ago!” and he said “No, I have seen you in my dreams”. Pretty corny, but still pretty hilarious. We bought some spice from him and set off for the Bazaar. Now, I thought that it was crowded earlier in the day, but once it hit Friday afternoon, the streets were PACKED. Like solid body on body action. It was insane. Luckily, we didn’t lose each other and made it to the Bazaar in one piece.

The best part of the Bazaar is not even the shopping but it is the bargaining and getting to meet Turkish people. A lot of them have been so kind to us, but we have run into a few that clearly are NOT fond of Americans. When we went back to the Bazaar the second time, I asked one of the men working at a t-shirt shop if they had any Turkish soccer jerseys, and he yelled at me “We don’t have any t-shirts!” Since he was sitting in his t-shirt shop, I clearly was not welcoming, but other than that, everyone has been very nice. They sell these really amazing lamps all through the Bazaar that are gorgeous, so we kept scoping them out. We finally stopped in this one man’s store and got pretty serious about buying because he had these amazing stands that were handmade. I bought my lamp first for about $45 which I thought was a pretty good deal. After that, we all started looking, and he offered us tea. This time, we accepted and he brought each of us (there were 8 of us) a glass of apple tea. Just in case you were wondering, apple tea is this amazing mix of tea, apple cider, and hot apple juice. It was delicious. Apparently, it is pretty customary to hang out in these stores for a while and drink tea with whoever you are buying from. So, there are these men that work at the bazaar who deliver tea to any store owner that buys it. They have these really cute silver trays and carry so many small teas at once. It looks like quite the task.

Megan is a pretty indecisive shopper, so we hung out with this guy and drank tea for over an hour. It was a lot of fun. The lamps are all so unique and really amazing to look at. He was so kind to us and gave us a small dish as a gift for buying lamps from him. We also took a picture with him which is touristy, but whatever. He was awesome!

We walked a little deeper into the Bazaar after getting our lamps and literally lost sight of women. There were men everywhere though and none too shy to yell things at us as we passed. Mind you, we were all dressed appropriately with our knees and shoulders covered. Still, I am sure they knew we were tourists. One guy selling jewelry even went as far to asking Candice if she liked Turkey. Of course she said yes, and he proceeded to say “I have a big turkey”. Yah. So, we headed OUT of that area of the bazaar and walked back down to the port to shower before dinner.

For dinner, we decided to take one of Rick Steve’s recommendations and ate at a place called Hamdi Resturant. It was a pretty fancy place, but they were obviously really excited that we were eating there. There were 9 of us because Nicole and Amanda came, and so did Juliette and Chelsea. The waiter was really nice though, and we went up an elevator to get up to the floor with a good view. I discovered another of Candice’s fears: elevators. The girl is afraid of planes and elevators, but she wants to work with the criminally insane and enjoys movies like Halloween. Pretty hilarious. We were sitting next to a group of women in traditional Muslim dress which was pretty weird because we usually don’t see groups of women walking around without men. They seemed to be a little annoyed with us, but we are all naturally loud, so we can’t do much about it. They brought appetizers on a tray right to the table, so we didn’t know if they were included or not, but we got two of them just to fit in. We ended up having to pay for them, but they were delicious. 

Megan, Candice, and I each got our own raki too which is a type of liquor that is native to the country. It is 45% alcohol, and is SO strong. They give you a little more than a shot of it in a glass, fill the rest of the glass with water, and add ice cubes. The liquid then turns cloudy when he adds the water. We got the kind he recommended, and it tasted like nasty black licorice. It was really nasty, and I couldn’t finish it, but at least I tried it! The waiter let me get a half order of two different kinds of kabobs. One had pistachios in it, and the other had veggies. They were SO good. We then got this pistachio dessert that was made of this really flaky, sweet bread. They seriously put pistachios on everything here. It was really good though.

After dinner, we wandered around for a bit. We stopped at a hookah bar pretty close to the ship that was a really local place. They definitely do hookah differently over here. First off, SO many places have it, and locals really do love it. The people at this bar were clearly laughing at us because we had no idea what to do. The guy who owned the place came over and recommended an apple flavor though, so we agreed pretty quick. We just wanted to try it. We ordered a hookah for 5 of us, but all of the locals that were there had their own hookah. Insane. We smoked for a while, but they kept putting new coals on the hookah without us asking. So, it pretty much never stopped being super strong. So, eventually we couldn’t smoke anymore and it was hurting our throats, so Candice tried to tell the guy putting coals on our hookah that we were done. Of course though, he did not understand English, but Candice just kept saying over and over again “I think that we are done,” and “Like I think that we might be done with this”. It was hilarious. She couldn’t think of the word finished. He got a coworker that could understand, but by that point, the whole place was laughing at us. Not to mention the fact that we were the only women there which is pretty much the case when we go anywhere after dark. I also bought a calling card and called Mom, Dad, and Brandon which was nice. It was really late by this point, and there were creepy men outside of the port, so we went to bed.