Weekend Excursions

This weekend brought a much-needed drop in temperature, thanks to some very strong winds from the North. Of course, I chose to celebrate by sleeping most of Saturday. I did manage to get over to the our local bazaar, where I bought some clothing and shoes. I've noticed something interesting: there is a threshold of money under which I think I am physically incapable of turning down something I want. I think it's generally around 5TL ($3.30), though it varies per item. So when I find a comfy, nice-looking pair of shoes for 5TL (a strangely common occurrence), I basically have to buy them. I hate being the type of girl who loves shoe shopping, but I totally love shoe shopping now, thanks to these prices. Here's the local bazaar, which is like a block from my house:

On Sunday I decided I should actually take advantage of the nice weather and headed down to Taksim for a day of shopping and tourist-ing. I think everyone else had the same idea, because it was ridiculously crowded everywhere I went. I had a great time walking along Istiklal Caddesi again, basically following the same route Ferda took me on, but with many stops to check out stores and take pictures. I considered going up in the Galata Tower this time, but the line was crazy long. I walked across the Golden Horn to the old city area, where I impulsively decided to hop on a boat tour of the Bosphorus. The cruise was very nice, especially as the sun was setting. It was also shockingly cold out on the water. Pretty picture time!

Taksim and Galata Tower, from the water:

The clouds were not nearly as imposing as they seem in these photos. Here's Yeni Mosque (New Mosque):

Topkapı Palace:

After the cruise I decided to try some balık ekmek (literally "fish bread"), which are cheap fish sandwiches from freshly caught and cooked fish. They cook them right on the boats:

I bit into my sandwich and got a mouth full of bones. Not just a couple small ones, as I had been warned about, but a full spine and all. I looked around and didn't see anyone else having as much trouble eating their sandwich, so I think I was just unlucky or totally inept. The non-bones part of the sandwich was totally delicious, though.

I tried to take some pictures of the area at night, since it was quite pretty, but I'm still really bad at using my camera in night mode. So far "night mode" has actually meant "colorful squigglies" mode. I took the tram back toward Istiklal Caddesi and explored the nightly Ramadan celebration at the square, featuring some more Turkish bands. I took the bus back to my place afterwards and promptly collapsed. All of this walking is good for me, though, and will hopefully combat the three-times-a-week Burger King (you'd do it to if it was cheap and delivered to your door!).