A beautiful city

I will really miss Istanbul. I left the city last night at 8pm to take a bus to the ancient city of Ephesus. I am spending tonight in the cıty and will visit Pamukkale tomorrow. The pictures of Pamukkale look beautiful. After Pamukkale I plan on going back to Istanbul and then flyıng to Athens where I wıll hopefully be able to meet up wıth my flatmate Elena. Then I think I wıll take a ferry to Santorini and fly over to Rome.


Istanbul is a beautiful cıty. On Sunday I spent maybe 3 hours in one place: on a bench in front of a fountain between Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. It was great to be on my own. A Turkish family sat next to me and after an hour asked me where I was from. Their daughter was really pretty. She was about 10 and didn't speak English. She picked some daisies nearby and I took one and put in my hair. I asked if she wanted a picture and she nodded yes so I took pıctures of her and her brother by the fountain. I then took a pıcture wıth the Turkısh women sitting by me on the bench. I found them to be really friendly people.


On Sunday the area was full of the Turkish people dressed for religious services. And they were all there just spendıng tıme wıth their families, sittıng ın the grass or on the bench and takıng pictures. When I was on the bench, a Turkish girl around 13 or 14 years old came up to me and asked if she could take a pıcture of me. An hour before that another girl had asked the same thing. The first time I said yes although it thought it was a bit weird. But then after I spent time sitting on the bench I didn't think it to be so stange. For me, seeing all the Muslims dressed in their garb was so interesting and I really wanted to get a picture of them without being rude. So to this girl I suppose I was equally as fascinating. After I took a picture with her, her friend was like, "Me too!" And then 4 Turkish gırls came all around me for the picture. And then this adult Turkish women looked at me and I was lıike, "Do you want a pıcture too?" So we took a pıcture. And then I got a picture with one of the Turkısh gırls. Also, many of the Turkish girls would pass by me and give me huge smiles. It was a nice exchange of cultures.

A 5 mın walk from my hostel ıs the Marmara sea. It is so beautıful. I went to the Topkapi Palace and again it was breathtakıng. It contains relics such as the Prophet Muhammed's sword, hair, and teeth. The whole experience in Istanbul was wonderful.