Istanbul - not constantiople

I cant believe how hard its gotten to keep writing on here..I'm sorry I def want to keep everyone updated :(
I'll try and run thru the past 2.5 weeks in a bullet form. Next up: Istanbul

WED:
- arrive to the airport to heavy questioning, they had to search us multiple times since they forgot to do it at first. so annoying
- at check in, i realize my nose ring is missing..nooo!!
- short flight with yummy food..turkish air is pretty baller. we got a visa and entered the country
- our friend with an israeli passport had to look in the camera at customs even tho none of us did
- found a cab to our hostel..super cheap. love the turkish lira
- realize our israelphones dont work in other countries..oops

THURS:
- begin by taking a tram to the train to get to taxim square on the asia side. the best public transportation freakin ever! so easy and cheap..taxim and iksia street are known as like hte "soho" of istanbul and is very cool
- down the streets are lots of chain stores, boutiques, churches and everything in between. we found a tattoo parlor and climbed (evrything in istanbul is like a spiral staircase) up 4 levels to get me a nose ring. the guy cleaned it and put it in and all was good!
- went alll the way down the very veyr long street- found cool stores with unique handmade sweaters and turkish bakeries with free samples :)
- next street: music stores: littel banjos and drums everywhere along with musical equipment like stereos and radios! on the street we found a popcorn like dispenser full of couscous and chickpeas on the street..uhh weird/yum/gross
- next stop: tram to the Grand Baazar! justt as it sounds - soo many stores and so many thigns i wanted! ha you have to bargain with them hardcore but they have the most beautiful handpainted bowls and pretty scarves, tea sets etc etc. very fun!
- found a cool place to eat that has turkish pizza: boat shaped, thick crust, no sauce
- at night explored the local area and got hookah

FRI:
- stop at the spice baazar, nothing too exciting or far off from the regular shook
- next: to the hagia sofia aka ayasofia aka byzantine church turned mosque turned museum. huge and beauitufl, red exterior and many beautiful mosicas on the insde. combonation of muslim and christian characters - christian library but islamic portraits, doing construction so that sucked
- next: the underground cistrine dating back 500 years - created during the roman empire to store water..now its all lit up in red lights and absolutly beautiful. its 12 rows of 28 columns and extends to the back where you see 2 columsn with medusa heads as bases: no one knows where they came from!
- next: blue mosque..well after several attempts for it finally to be done prayng (5 prayers a day makes it difficult for the public) = one of hte biggest mosques in the world. we had to go thru a separate entrance, take off our shoes and put coverings on our head. then eveyrthing inside was blue! it was beautiful!! def huge and so much to take in at once..would be cool to be able to pray there..its most beaituiful from outside..u can see it from so far awy!
- nighttime: we took the tram down to Taxim to see the nightlife. so crazy - all these side streets had bars and clubs full of turkish people and not that many tourists. we went to a bar on the top roof with a great view. on all the side streets people were selling 4 lira tequila shots haha we then found a cute little pub with live turkish music playing, super cool. then a bunch of us crammed into a cab and it wa s a cheap ride back

SAT:
- rainy day :( on top of how cold we were...start by taking the tram to the bosphorous area - the water btwn the asia and europe sides. 1.5 hour boat ride that took us along the coasts of both to see lots of mosques, churches, castles and the forts of both sides. very beautiful!
- back to the grand baazar to explore and pick up cool souveniers
- i was exhausted and feeling pretty sick but a couple people went to this dance performance that was supposed to be men in the white dresses swirling and twirling around. they said it was pretty stupid and they danced very slow..so im kinda happy i got to sleep instead!
- at night we were back to the tourist area of town where we foudn a couple cool pubs and just chilled to popular music. weve all become huuge fans of the turkish beer: efes!
- ps. this entire weekend: worst service at restaurants ever. in front of some of them were women making pita type breads but seriously it was all about just having you sit there for hours so ur restaurant looked busy..they all ran out of food and wer eso slow. we got pissed a couple of times

SUN:
- spent a good couple hours exploring the Topkapi Palace on the euro side. huuge castle with lots of different rooms. saw ancient sultans clothes and weapons = cool knives! a couple interesting artifacts were there like "moses' staff"..hmm i think prob not but whatever istanbul.
- we went out to a realy nice but actualy not super expensive restaurant in taxim..it was on teh roof of a building and had a great 360 view of the entire city..beautiful! and prob the best meal ill have in months :)
- we took a 4 am cab to teh airport to go back to israel. the airport is so messed up tho and you have to check in based on flight not just airlines..so we had to wait for our ticket counter was open.

still have a couple turkish lira that i cant exchange..haha sweet souviners and a very intersting city!