My Time in Turkey - Part 1

This was the first time I have ever been in Turkey! Istanbul is a mix of high-energy fun, and relaxed times in both the hotel and the outside. The first day we were here, we had to ride the metro from the airport, to the tram stop, and then we had to walk a mile to the hotel. Our packs were heavy, and it was about 85 degrees. We had just gotten off of a two hour connection flight from Munich to Istanbul. The first flight was an overnight flight from Dulles to Munich, and we were all incredibly tired when it landed. We all took showers in the spacious, modern hotel showers, and some of us took naps. After a while, we all felt refreshed, and headed out for dinner. We walked around the narrow stone brick sidewalks until we found an interesting Döner (pronounced da-ner) place on a street corner. Döner is a type of food where the main ingredient is beef that is cooked on a big stick that spins (vertical rotisserie). They put it in wraps, tortillas (like tacos) and platters. It was so good! I also discovered that the Turks usually put mayonnaise on their french fries! I tried it, and it actually tastes okay, as long as you don't put too much mayo on.

In the morning, we went to the hotel breakfast, made a pitstop at the closest pharmacy for certain items and then dropped them off at our room. As soon as we finished that, we went on a hunt for small bags to carry our stuff in when we were walking. We found a store full of bags. We chose three small bags that could fit our phones, and other various items. After getting the bags we set out to find a restaurant for lunch. We found a place called Turgut Vindili that had amazing curry grilled calamari (soooooo goooddd) and Turkish pizza. Turkish pizza is called lamacun (pronounced lama - chun). It is like a pizza quesadilla that you can put lettuce and lemon juice in. It is so amazing.

Right now, I am sitting in my bed listening to my sister Tori try to type up her blog post for the day, and to my dad figuring out how to solve a bug in the website. We are having a fabulous time here in Istanbul, and we are having a blast on this trip, and I hope you have a chance to read more of my blog posts. See you next time!