Our last day in Istanbul

Our last day in Istanbul consisted of sleeping in deliciously late and more rain, of course. We hurried through breakfast and made our way into town...this time on foot...no shuttle needed! Yay!

In a previous post I told you that we changed hotels, so I wanted to tell you a little bit more about it. It is called Sarniç, the Turkish word for cistern, because it was built on one. Anyway our room was tiny with a little window that looks inside a shaft of some sort. The A/C was broken and it was so hot and stuffy in there. We also smelled cigarette smoke wafting in from other rooms. Gross. Oh and they were doing construction next door and the sound of demo was giving me a headache.

Other than that it was nice though, the staff was great, the room was clean and breakfast was delicious. Breakfast was on the terrace floor, but the terrace was closed due to bad weather. Oh well. We could still see the Bosphorus and the Blue Mosque up there. There is another mosque nearby and we could hear the blasting call to prayer a few times a day.

Back to our day...we were going to take the Bosphorus cruise but the weather was so bad that it would've been terrible. Plus, we missed the ferry due to oversleeping so we'd have to find a private tour. We walked around the neighborhood in Sutlanhamet, farther away from the hustle and bustle of tourists. We did some more shopping of course, and found some really quaint streets. I will post images when I get them from Adam.

It started raining hard so we stopped to eat in another tourist-type restaurant. The room had a green tinge to it and there were smokers galore. I hate smelling smoke when I am eating. Anyway, the food was good. I had a plate of appetizers and Adam had fried meatballs. We also tried Raiki which is the alcoholic beverage of Turkey. It is like Ouzo. Because it is so strong they mix it with water and it turns a milky color. It was gross. :) We got free apple tea to wash it all down with after dinner.

The we walked a few blocks in the rain to Eminounou. We stopped at a candy store and bought a bunch of Turkish Delights. They are so yummy. Then we went to the Spice Market. I just wanted to be out of the rain, so I picked a place indoors. We ran into more students from Adam's program. It was so funny how many we saw. We ate at the recommended Gulluoglu baklava store. Adam didn't like it but I thought it was delicious. We wandered around, bought more gifts and took lots of pictures.

We meandered back to the hotel and rested before dinner. We had the hotel staff take us to the cistern. They had a ceramic exhibition in it and Turkish radio was playing. Also, all of the lights are on sensors so as you walked down the floor lights would turn on. That was kind of neat and freaky at the same time.

For dinner we went to Doy Doy down the street from the hotel. It was not good and it made my stomach hurt. I had the eggplant kebab. Ugh...just thinking about it now makes me want to hurl. We had flavored tea for dessert and there was a huge group of Americans from a tour group there. That was so funny! You can really spot us a mile away.

After a bit more shopping, we retired to the room, packed and went to be mighty early. Waking up at 2:30 was a challenge, especially since we didn't sleep very well. Hmm...not as fun as I wanted my last day to be, but we had to make due with what we were given.