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!