Last Day in Turkey!

Well, we woke up around 1030 or so and headed out with James’ roommate John and his friend Patrick. We headed straight for the Grand Bazaar one last time. James got his little oil lamp that he was hankering for, and I was able to get one last souvenier. We literally spent every dime we got out here in Turkey. We spent way too much money. Lol. It’s funny. We automatically say that we’re from Canada now. It’s a trip. They ask us where we’re from right after they give their first price. We tell them Canada and their price automatically drops twenty lira. It’s almost funny. Except that’s how little they think of Americans. Rich and snooty. That’s what we heard. One interesting thing: Patrick wanted this scarf for his sister and the guy wouldn’t give him a good price so he asked me to help him out. The guy started out at 40 lira. I went on and on about how beautiful it was, but that I literally had no money to buy it off him, only twenty dollars. We went around and around till Patrick showed up. The guy freaked out when he saw him, and was like this guy just asked for this. Do you know him?! And I was like, “no no no! Who’s this guy?! I’m a girl, you can’t sell this to him. I want it more than him!” Patrick got the hint and left. And the guy made me promise that it wasn’t going to him. I pulled out the twenty. I said it was all that I had. James handed me a five, and said I can tell you really like it. Here’s five, but it’s all we have to spend. The guy totally gave in! I felt a bit bad, because it was for Patrick, but it was just because Patrick is a horrible bargainer that I did it for him. Lol. It was kinda cool. We got to do some more bargaining for some other things and I got some pomegranate tea and spoons for my set. So I was happy.
Afterwards we went inside the Blue Mosque. We went in like ten minutes before a call to prayer too, so we were really lucky. Inside was a trip. You have to take off your shoes and put them in bags to get in and you have to cover your hair. The floor is carpeted with this awesome carpet that is so nice to walk on. The inside was huge, and extremely beautiful. I’ve been in cathedrals and a temple of two and some really huge churches. This was something a little different. Beautiful in its own way.
We returned to the ship next and had some lunch for free which is always nice. We took a little nap (because we woke up pretty early) and then headed out to the hookah bar to skype with the really fast internet. We were lucky. There were hardly any people there smoking hookah. Haha. We bought a coke and got away with it. Made it back to the ship right on time. We had a lifeboat drill, which stank, and got some homework done. Pretty nice day.

Overall thoughts on Istanbul:
This was one of my favorite ports. Things were different here. You can definitely tell we’re not in Europe anymore. The Middle East is somewhere that I never thought I’d go to, but I’m glad I did. The people are really different. Their culture is really different. It reminds me of China in a way, though I think I like China’s culture a bit better. I never felt scared in China. I was a little uncomfortable one time in Istanbul. Still, the good outdid the bad. Bargaining was fun. Talking to the people was interesting. They were really willing to talk to us and tell us their problems and what we thought. Our server the third day was so open to telling us why he didn’t like Americans and why he appreciated them nonetheless. The people complained about the university, just like I do on occasion, for the same reasons I do.
The city was beautiful. It’s architecture was beautiful. The history is intense. The Ottoman Empire can still be seen almost everywhere and it’s interesting to think that it used to be called Constantinople because it was part of the Roman Empire. I loved it.