Sad. So sad. Today the group goes its separate ways. Most are heading home, some are staying here in Turkey, and others are heading off to other grand adventures. I fortunately have a few more days here in Istanbul, which I am super psyched about. More time for explorations :)

We all got up extra early this morning to see our comrades off. Since the majority of their flights were departing at 11 am, the plan was to be down in the lobby and ready to leave by 8 am. And guess what?? For the first time this entire trip, everyone was down in the lobby and ready to go by 8 am. Shock and amazing. One teensy weensy wittle problem. No bus. Call it cosmic justice.

8:15 rolls around, still no bus. People start getting antsy. We call the bus people. We are told the bus will be here in fifteen minutes. A collective sigh of relief goes out from the group. However, 8:30 comes and goes, and still no transportation. Suspicions begin to arise that the Asian group that left at 8 am had stolen our bus. Whispered murmurings of a retaliation attack on Japan start flitting among the troops.

However, the day is saved when lo and behold, the bus arrives! Hooray! It’s only 8:50 at this point, and despite there being a 30-40 min drive to the airport, several security checkpoints to pass through, a fairly large airport to navigate, and Matt’s plane departing at 10:30, there are nooo worries at all. Success.

So end of group tour. Begin explorations of Istanbul. Well, after I indulge in a long and lengthy breakfast followed by a delightful conversation with the group members left in Istanbul, of course. Omid offers to take me to go see some of the cool mosques that we didn’t have time to go visit earlier, so after I finish my third cup of coffee, we set off.

 The New Mosque. Built 500 years ago. Still referred to as the New Mosque. That is just plain awesome. I mean, think about it. The oldest thing you can find in the States is 200 or 300 years old, tops. Hell, when this “new” mosque was being built, Americans were still running around wearing buttflaps. Amazing.

I actually really enjoy the New Mosque, especially the outer architecture. The courtyard is quite gorgeous, and really designed to catch the eye, as well as the skyline. The inner decoration, despite being a bit paler than I personally would’ve picked, gives b a peaceful yet noble feel to the mosque. All in all, me likey.

We cross over to Asia (I still get a kick out of saying that) and set off to explore the only mosque ever built by woman. It’s pouring down rain at this point, and on multiple occasions I discover why Rainbows ironically should not be worn in the rain. However, Omid did get an opportunity to demonstrate his cat-like reflexes in an attempt to save me from falling…5 seconds after I had already righted myself.

We make it to the Woman mosque – I think it does actually have another name, but I’m sticking with this one. Unfortunately, we seemed to have stumbled upon a funeral. Hmmm. Normally, I love attending random events and blending in with the masses, but alas I had several handicaps:

·         Clearly American features

·         Flip flops

·         An inability to wear a head scarf properly

·         A complete inability to speak or even understand the language

Hmmm, yes this does make it difficult to make small talk with the other attendees. Though I did smile and nod and pretend to understand one guy when he offered me candy! Maybe I should’ve played the deaf-mute card?

The mosque itself was awesome. Due to the funeral service going on, I was restricted to the woman’s section, which awesomely enough is located above the men’s section. It means the women get to look down on the men below and mock their bald spots.

The design inside was beautiful. Loved the color scheme and the decorations were so elegant. Yes, this is why interior decoration should be left to women. None of that gaudy gold and tile excess that men use to blatantly display their wealth. Pshh, newbs. Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture, mainly due to the fact that I was trying to blend in and look as pious as possible. (And I think it worked! The consequence? The only picture I got was of the courtyard above. Alas.)

We decide next to trek our way over to the third mosque of the day, a smaller one of Sinan’s. My ability to remember the mosques’ names decreases exponentially the further I get from a knowledgeable expert. I shall refer to this one as the Patriotic Mosque – solely because the color scheme was red, white and blue.

This one was fairly cool, though in my opinion, having both red and blue as an accent color was a little bit too much. There was a faintly musky smell in this one too and an obnoxious fly that disturbed the meditative feel. Also there were random splotches of green. Like the minbar was green. Uhh random. Either Sinan needed a color scheme lesson or the workers who repainted it had absolutely no sense of visual coordination.

We end the morning/afternoon adventures by stopping at a nice restaurant and indulging in one of my favorite meals: beans and rice (Dad, you’d be so proud of me). Lunch was delicious, and more importantly, the restaurant was warm and dry. Nothing like eating warm food and partaking in good conversation while watching the rain coming down outside in solid sheets.  

Finally, several hours later, we accept the fact that no, the rain will not let up and we brave the dreaded drizzle to make our way back to Europe (tehe).

Sooo what would you do with a free afternoon in a fascinating city located in a foreign country on a continent that is not your own? I don’t know about you guys, but I partook in a rare activity that one could not possibly do anywhere else in the world. Yepp, you guessed it. I took a nap.

Hey! But in my defense, I had been operating on about four to five hours of sleep the entire trip, and that was an AMAZING nap. On a real bed too. A rare commodity for a roomless teenager home for the summer.

Once I finally awoke [damn those heavy curtains blocking all light from entering], the evening was spent lounging on cushions (chairs are so overrated), enjoying delicious gözleme and fruit, while mocking tourists for wearing stupid Oriental outfits. Nothing better than a nice, therapeutic session of judging people for their stupidity.  Judgejudgejudgejudgejudge.

The latter part of the evening/night was spent at a local café, which was actually quite a lot of fun. We got this weird tea – and by weird I mean real tea with leaf thingers floating in it [once again showing my sophistication] – and got to listen/watch the mini hurricane that was swamping Istanbul.

And guess what? The power went out! Sudden and complete pitch blackness! (I really don’t think I’m remembering this phrase correctly). Luckily, I was secretly destined to be a Boy Scout and I was prepared with matches. Candles, no. Lamp, no. Torch, no. But I had matches! So we had light! For about 6 or 7 seconds until my fingers burned, but we had LIGHT. Just call me, Ellen – Master of Flame.

Eventually power was restored, light was produced, the rain ceased, and the night ended. And thus ends my post. Ta-ta, dahling.