The Stills in Europe Day 7, Istanbul

We have a day off today so we actually have a chance to see some sights. We started out with a trip to the underground cistern, essentially an old reservoir, that dates about 2000 years. Insane. It was fairly small, so it didn’t take much time, but jaw-dropping nonetheless.

 

After that, our friend/guide/promoter, Cian (jee-ahn), took us to a local Shisha joint, where we smoked shisha with the locals. Incredibly cool. It’s so weird to see a bunch of people sticking huge pipes to their mouths, people of all ages from old men playing backgammon to teenagers listening to iPods. It was easily the most unique experience we had, and incredibly relaxing with all the special coffees and teas they served us. The crazy part was there were about 7 or 8 of these places all lined up in a strip mall. They had bean bags outside too, so when the weather is nice, you can sit outside and smoke. It was awesome. A must-do if you ever go to Turkey (which probably sounds ridiculous in it’s own right…). We then went to Asia.

 

It sounds a little weird just like that, but if you know Istanbul, you know that it’s half in Europe, half in Asia, divided by the Bosphorus. We took a ferry across the straight (3 continents in less than one week!) and went to the downtown area, which was nuts because the local football (read:soccer) team was playing an extremely important match. We actually passed by the stadium once we were there, and the sheer volume of the crowd was out of control. We eventually found a Greek restaurant to eat at (ironic, no?) and watched some of the game, but we had to leave before the game was over because the city apparently becomes gridlocked when people leave the stadium. (Driving here is a whole other story, as in complete free-for-all and scary as hell). We then went to dinner at a rather American place, but it was a good time and the food was great. Again tonight we didn’t stay out too late because we’re all exhausted, but we’ll be up early tomorrow to do more sightseeing.