Adventures in Istanbul

!مساءالخير

Hope the fall is nice and pretty back in the states! The weather here's starting to cool off so that it's perpetual sweater weather. I'm a big fan.

Well, for those of you who have been keeping up with this blog (or via various forms of social media), I spent last week with a bunch of friends from the program in Istanbul! We had the week off for Eid al-Adha (Google it if you'd like to learn more about it — it's a super neat holiday!). 

We spent the week living in an apartment in Fatih, right off the Tramway — it was really nice to go back to a land with public transportation — and filled our days with sightseeing and exploring. Here are some pictures! 

Still blown away by the Hagia Sophia

Blue mosque!

Roommates take Istanbul! 

So much tourism. After the first three days of extreme sightseeing, we spent the day on the Asian side of the city, taking a ferry across the Straits. It was exciting to have lunch over on the Asian side and then dinner back on the European side! The next day, we got to explore the Prince Islands — thankfully the weather was great most of the week so we could bike ride and walk around with some exposed shoulders (after two months in a very conservative country, seeing skin was a bit shocking!)

Surprisingly, more people in Turkey knew how to speak German than Arabic! I had fun trying to remember my high school German. Now that I'm back in Amman, it's hard to get the German out of my head!

Needless to say, it was a fantastic vacation. Makes me wonder why I never thought to take Turkish instead of Arabic! Istanbul has such a vibrant culture and amazing history — I still can't believe I got to visit the capital of the Ottoman Empire, let alone see the things I got to see. It was definitely one of the coolest European cities I've been to so far.

Can I go back yet?

But really, it's great to be back in Jordan — this place really does feel like home right now. I've even managed to figure out most directions to the Villa! I can't wait to see what adventures are up next.