The next morning had to get up at 7 to join a walking tour around Istanbul, holy geez it was so damn cold i was not expecting it. I only had a pair of flats with me it was snowing like a bitch my feet were freezing. But I went to all the major sights saw the blue mosque, st. sophia, Topkapi Palace. I really loved the mosques, it was definitely interesting. I took a quick walk around the grand bazaar, dear gosh it was a maze in there and i totally got lost, and it did not help that a million men are yelling out at you to get your attention or make you buy things, yeah i was super uncomfortable there the first day. I would have liked it a lot more if it was so cold and if my feet werent soaking. I had to go and buy new shoes in the modern side of Istanbul, on one street you could find a kfc, burger king and a starbucks. I ate dinner at a cafe and was getting sick with a huge cough =(
Then I took an overnight 11 hour bus ride to Cappadocia. It was seriously a bad 11 hours. I walked into the bus station and felt all the eyes on me, I was the only Asian and of course carrying the pink-est bag, and the male to female ratio was like....pretty much all male. I was told that I needed to change buses once but no it was really 2 times and I had no idea. No one on the bus speaks english at all, the only words they would know was 'ticket, water, tea' after figuring out how the seating works on these buses i sat beside an old turkish lady. I felt so bad for her because i kept coughing every few minutes and it was so uncomfortable it was no sleep at all. But she was so nice, when the bus people would ignore me when i wanted some water she would ask for me and even though she spoke 0 english she helped me out with the bus changing deal.
I got to Cappadocia after bugging the people around me every stop to make sure where i was going. I met up with a tour with 3 japanese med school students and the guide was no more than 30 so it was nice to have people around the same age. We took a hike down to the valley and saw the pigeon houses, it was super muddy thank god i bought those new shoes. We then went to the underground city. After a huge hotel mix up later i was dying tired i think i slept about 6-8 hours in the past 3 days. I got seriously sick. seriously. i had a fever and was just dying in my room. After many bottles of water and tylenols i had the strength to get up for dinner which was actaully really yummy grilled chicken and a rice pilaf with herbs and dried fruit. Later I decided that i could not take that bus back and booked a flight out. It was very unfortunate because I was supposed to stay in Cappadocia one more day but I was just so sick and I had a great day there with the group.
I flew back to Istanbul dying on the flight, literally just slept in my hotel room for a day, like i was sick. The next day I got up feeling much better but still had a cold. The weather was finally beautiful and warm. I walked down to the spice market, it was amazing in there! so many colours. There were spices, teas, candies, scarves, carpets and so many colours! I bought some souvenirs there and kept wandering around the outdoor markets around there so much food! by this time i got used to all the people haggling me. Even though i was alone it was a lovely day.
The next day I got up at 5:30 am yes that early to catch my flight to Izmir. Crazy early got there and joined a day tour to Ephesus. The weather was amazing seriously even hot. Turkey weather seriously confuses the fuck out of me one day it was snow storming the next i was wearing a tshirt. I saw the major sights of this once greek and roman city and saw virgin mary's house, the old city, etc etc. The library was amazing so many details, just so mannnyyyy tourists! it was insane. After the tour I spent sometime on the computer to make sure I had everything planned out to go back to Weimar. Flew back to Istanbul and the next morning back to Germany.
Turkey was such an interesting place! Every city i went to was so different. Even though i got sick i really enjoyed it and really recommend it =) even for a single tiny asian girl. Did I mention the apple tea is friggin amazing?
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