It's All Uphill from Here!

**Note: Post Date is July 20, 2009**

Walk, hike, climb, all the time. And it doesn’t help that the city of Istanbul is basically all urban hills of shops and such. It isn’t nice on the feet especially if you’re wearing flip-flops. And going down is even more treacherous. Nonetheless the crew makes it up these steep streets to finally reach the main street that we fell in love with the first evening. The girls wanted to shop and us boys were along for the ride. Our shopping concluded with some skirts, some jeans and a dress. We were hungry and where did we all end up? Pizza Hut! It was an unexpected unanimous agreement that pizza was the way to go tonight. Erika and I were in disappointment of this particular establishment though because it was not up to par to our last encounter with the food chain. And either was the food. It was agreed it wasn’t as good as it should have been, but cheap enough to get over it!

I had to see Transformers! I just had to. There it was. Erika had pointed it out. It was playing at a Turkish movie theater at 3:00pm and I knew it then that it was my destiny. And I’m so glad I went. First off, part of the film takes place in the sands of Egypt which has only heightened my excitement for our visit there and the Turkish cinemas are an experience all on their own. First you have to climb (once more) stairs to only walk down another set to finally enter the theater playing your movie. Inside it was pitch black! We couldn’t see a thing besides the flashlight that the worker was providing us with. We sat in the first seats that we bumped into and gazed at the screen. I was blown away. Not by the movie per say but definitely by the sound quality. It was so loud and so dynamic that I thought I had headphones on. The movie was funny, sentimental and corny at times but all in all I had a blast. I only wish I had got to see it with my mom and brother! We love our movies and it would have been a great afternoon. It still was.

The night was great too. Nice and relaxing. To keep up with the theme of the day we all gathered around at a hooka bar not far from the boat. Erik, Lauren and Ben joined the gang as we played backgammon, drank tea, smoked hooka and enjoyed each other’s company. Oh and the waffles. I can’t forget the waffles. Lauren and Rachel started the trend when they decided to order loaded waffles with chocolate, fruit and ice cream. This creation was absurd but looked delicious. It didn’t take long for Kate and Becca to follow in the outrageousness of the dessert. With full tummies and hours of playing games it was time to walk back to the boat and head for the covers. Besides I need my rest for the dunes of the Bazaar tomorrow.

Today’s Expenses

………………….......Lira…………Dollars
Transformers……8.00.………..5.33
Pizza Hut………..6.00.………..4.00
Tea……………......2.00.………..1.33
Drink……………...10.00.………..6.67

Total……………...26.00.………17.33

Explore. Dream. Discover.

P.S.  The thing I had for lunch the other day, it’s called a Doner. Yum!