Hello, it's official I can cross of another continent on my list. But I will get to that in a second :) Our journey to Turkey began on an early morning day, with a few stops before arriving. Our first day on our Turkey trip had us stopping in Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, and we had yet to see it since being on the trip. Our teachers provided a tour guide and showed us the city through walking. I liked Thessaloniki, but when getting towards the end of this trip, we were getting touristy tired. We saw some churches, ancient ruins, and the sea walk. I have to admit, the Volos sea walk is better, in my opinion :) The next day we began our very long bus ride to Istanbul, we left around 10 in the morning, and didn't arrive until around 9 at night. The only place we went to in Turkey was Istanbul, but we could already see the differences between Greece and Turkey when we arrived. Turkey is a more well off, than Greece and there were many wealthy people walking around. We had to make sure to hold our tongues and not speak any Greek, because the Turks and Greeks do not get a long at all. When we arrived in Istanbul, which has 16 million people, by the way!, we went to their main square for supper. It was packed with so many people. The square we were at was modernized with many shops, and restaurants, and sky scrapers in the background. The next day we saw the Old City of Istanbul. We went and saw the Blue Mosque first which is still a mosque today. It was beautiful, amazing architecture and wonderful painted designs. In order to go in I had to wear a skirt, and if one wanted the ladies could cover their head with a scarf. Our next spot was the Hagia Sophia, which is one of the seven wonders of the world. It was beautiful as well. It began as a Christian church and was then converted to a mosque, and now it is a museum. Once again the architecture was amazing, and the place is very big, with tall balconies, big chandeliers, and beautiful mosaics. After the Hagia Sophia our teachers to the Grand Bazaar and left us on our own. The Grand Bazaar is truly grand, it has rows, and rows, and rows of shops where you can find and barter for clothes, antiques, spices, and other things. It was crazy. Although I would have loved to buy many things, I held on to my purse and saved my money :) The next day we went to Tokapi Palace. It was big as well, lots of buildings, gardens, and jewels. Once of the biggest jewels was a huge diamond, now safely on display. We then crossed a bridge and arrived in Asia :) Every day Turks cross the bridge and go from Europe to Asia, back and forth. It doesn't look any different, but the place we stopped at was really pretty. We took a boat ride on the Bospohrous River and saw Istanbul in a different light. Our last stop of the day was at a spice market, I didn't buy any spices, but I was able to see the set of the new James Bond movie...that was really awesome. All in all Istanbul, was a nice place but it wasn't my favorite. Now don't use my opinion to create your experience, I think if we would have went earlier in the trip, I would have seen Istanbul in a new light. On our way back we stopped and slept in Kavala, Greece a sea side town which was really nice. My favorite part was seeing a carnival set up for that night, lots of happy kids and families running around :)
