Between Two Continents- Istanbul (Days 1 and 2)

I know it has been awhile since I've posted and I have yet to write about my time in France, but I thought I'd go ahead and write a post about my amazing trip to one of the greatest cities in the world, Istanbul.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my friend Doga from IU.  I met Doga last year and she's currently subleasing my apartment in Bloomington. I've told her before about how much I want to go to Turkey and also how I want to do some traveling while in Europe and she suggested that I go stay with her family in Istanbul. So within a few hours I had asked my German host family if I could go away for a long weekend, looked up plane tickets and pretty much confirmed my trip.  Doga was so helpful.  She loves Istanbul and knows a lot about the city so she made me a touring schedule, convinced her brother Olcay to be my guide (or just told him he would be?), and had a place for me to stay. So within a couple days I bought my plane ticket and prepared to go to Turkey.

On the Ferry

On Friday morning after breakfast, Matthias and I took the girls to school then I headed to the airport.  I hopped on the train, then on a plane and was off.  I arrived in Istanbul around 4:00 on Friday and Birsen (Doga's mom) and Olcay were there waiting from me.  We recognized each other right away from Facebook pictures and I was so excited to see them.  I was so appreciative that they traveled about an hour and a half from the Anatolian (Asian) side of the city to pick me up at the European airport.  We got on a metro then on a couple of buses to get back to the house.  It was so amazing to cross over the Bosphorus.  As we were driving over the bridge, the sun was setting and it was beautiful. And then, for the first time, I was in Asia! When we got to the house in Göztepe I put down my things, freshened up, then we headed out to the big shopping street in the region, Bagdat Avenue to go to a restaurant with great lahmacun (like Turkish pizza). It was really good! It was nice to walk around a part of the city that wasn't full of tourists.  When we got back to the house I had my first simit (kind of like a soft pretzel) & çay (tea). That's a really popular  combination in Turkey, so I found out.

Sultanahmet Mosque

Saturday morning Birsen made us a big breakfast of eggs, simit, and other Turkish breads and rolls that I can't remember the name of, and of course hot çay.  After breakfast Olcay and I headed out for a day of touring.  First we got on a bus and headed to Kadiköy where we walked around a bit before boarding the ferry to Eminönü (a region on the European side).  I was so, so excited to be on the ferry for the first time in Istanbul.  It was beautiful! It was so, so amazing to be standing in between two continents! The Bosphorus water is blue and the city is beautiful.  After arriving in Eminönü we got on the metro and headed to the Sultanahmet area.  There we went into the Sultanahmet (Blue) mosque and also saw Hagia Sophia, and looked at the beautiful architecture in that area. All of the mosques were so beautiful and it was interesting to go inside Sultanahmet. While still in the Sultanahmet region, I was told that it was mandatory that I ate the Sultanahmet Kofte (meatballs), so we had those for lunch. They were so, so good!

The "greatest salesman" in the Bazaar and Olcay

After lunch it was time for Kapaliçarsi (Grand Bazaar)! I was so excited and overwhelmed upon entering the Bazaar. For a girl who loves to shop and really loves getting a good deal, it was almost too much.  I felt sorry for Olcay right away, because I didn't see any way of me getting out of there quickly.  When I have a chance to bargain, I get pretty serious.  I had not planned on purchasing anything right away but at one of the first booths I was at I saw a pretty purple candle holder I like and the salesman was nice so the three of us ended up chatting for awhile. He gave me a "student discount" and sold me the candle holder for "much less than usual". The sale was pretty quick, so I highly doubt I got the best deal, but I didn't really care.  The guy was fun to talk to and he gave Olcay and I tea so we stood and chatted for a bit.  After that we walked around and I contemplated my purchases, tried on shoes I knew I couldn't afford, and made some purchases.  Olcay helped me bargain by using Turkish and together we got some pretty good prices and I got a few gifts for my family.  Olcay talked to a guy about music while I was picking out earrings, more salesmen gave me "the best price ever" and after about 3 hours we were finally leaving the Bazaar.  I think we both ended up having a good time.  I loved it!

Fortune Telling

After Kapaliçarsi we started making our way to Taksim (one of the liveliest areas of the city). Along the way we walked along the Bosphorus, watched the ferry boats and people fishing, and got yummy lokma (like a donut).  The lokma was great, but really messy.  We arrived in Taksim in the evening.  It was Saturday night and the area was full of tourists and locals.  That seemed to be the main shopping district and there were a lot of clubs and cafes and restaurants.  We took an adorable trolley down the main, crowded pedestrian street and met some of Olcay's friends.  We down a side street to what seemed to be a pretty hidden restaurant, but when we got there it was full of locals.  It was a really cool place. We sat out in the garden and drank Turkish coffee and then told fortunes using the designs formed by the last of the coffee left in our cup.  I'm just going to say the fortunes weren't true, because if they were, all of us have some pretty bad things coming up in the near future ;) After coffee, they decided to go to Burger King.  I felt funny going to get "American" fast food while in a city with tons of great food, but it was still nice to have french fries and pepsi, I suppose. After eating, we went to a trendy cafe where I had some yummy Sahlep (seemed to be hot milk with cinnamon).  After that Olcay and I went back to Taksim square to get a bus home where we had simit and çay with Birsen before going to bed.  It was such a wonderful day.

Istiklal- Main street in Taksim

So, that's an overview of my first two days in beautiful Istanbul. Within the next day or two, I'll share about the rest of my time Turkey. :) 

Joys Of Being An Au Pair

I have one of the greatest jobs ever.
<3 I love spending afternoons playing with children.
<3 I love that I currently have candy, candy wrappers, tissues (both new and unused), a Thomas and the Big, Big Bridge, and tons of tram and old bus tickets filling my purse.
<3 I love going to an international school and hearing people from all different countries speaking various languages.
<3 I love feeling like I'm on my own but also having a loving, caring adoptive family.
<3 I love taking day trips to France and weekend trips to places like Italia and Turkey
<3 I love going to adorable cafes with good friends after putting the kids to bed
<3 I love reading stories at night
<3 I love driving on narrow little roads and speeding down the autobahn
<3 I love spending Friday nights in the city
<3 I love chatting, drinking coffee, and eating chocolates with my host parents late at night
<3 I love going out for a day and not hearing any English
<3 I love learning about a new culture


I have been blessed with such a great opportunity.  I thank God for how he worked through this and is teaching me so much. I am thankful for the people he has brought into my life. I have been blessed with a great little community of Christian friends and have gotten to meet people from so many places. I've had opportunities to travel.  I've gotten to spend time with friends from home and to meet new people.  I sometimes miss my family and friends at home, but I'll find it hard to leave in April.

I love being able to finally be a big sister and also like a mom.  I have learned so much about raising a family. I know I have so much more to learn but after living with two different families as an au pair and doing a lot of babysitting, I've gotten to learn a lot about what I want for my future.  I'm so blessed with this opportunity to meet new people, learn a lot, and experience a new way of life.

God is so great.

Bonn und Köln

This is a bit late, but about a week ago I went to visit Ching (about 2 hours away) for the weekend and we did a bit of sightseeing we had a great time.

About 2 weeks ago, Ching contacted me and asked if I wanted to spend the next weekend with her and travel to another city with her.  I have a great host family here so they told me I'm welcome to leave Friday-Sunday (and even longer if I wanted).  So Ching and I started making plans. We considered Ludwigsburg, Cologne (Köln), Bonn, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt.


On Friday morning I boarded a train going from Bickenbach (my local train station) to Frankfurt to catch a train to Koblenz to meet Ching.  I got to the train station early so took an earlier train.  I made it to the main station (Hauptbahnhof) in Frankfurt and had time to eat lunch and explore the station a bit before boarding my next train.  I really love all of the hauntbahnhofs I've seen so far here in Germany. They're a great combination of old and new architecture and they're fascinating.  I also love the train system here, it's timely, safe, and somewhat affordable (especially if you travel in groups.) After an hour or so in Frankfurt, I boarded my train to Koblenz.  I enjoyed the beautiful train ride along the Rhine River.  There are castles built all along the river and there are also vineyards and beautiful villages and houses. It was a nice ride.

I was so happy to meet Ching in Koblenz! We haven't seen each other much at all since high school. And I never spent time alone with her, so it was cool that the first weekend we spent together was in this beautiful country.  She took me back to her adorable university town (Vallendar) and I napped in her room while she was in class. That night we ate dinner at an adorable (and yummy!) Italian restaurant then explored the town, the university campus, and the island nearby. Although it was cold, it was nice to walk around the town. Later Friday night we made our plans to go to Bonn and Köln the next day.

We woke up the next morning and took an hour train ride from Koblenz to Bonn.  The train ride was once again beautiful.  When we arrived in Bonn, we walked through the beautiful city to Beethoven's birth home. It was so cool! It was amazing to see the room where Beethoven was born, see his handwritten score, look at his worn-out piano keys, etc.  I'm not even a huge into music history, but it was so amazing to be there, I got chills.  After exploring the home for awhile Ching and I got lunch then took the U-Bahn (subway) to the modern history museum.  Ching taught me a lot at the museum.  It was great to learn more about German history, considering I don't know much.

After the museum we headed back to the train station to board a train to Köln.  We had an interesting ride there.  It was the day of a football game so we ended up in a train with a bunch of drunk football fans.  It was nice of them to offer us seats on the full train and beer (that we didn't take, of course).  It was interesting to sit with them. When we boarded the train they started chanting a Japanese football player's name thinking Ching was Japanese. It was funny because the whole time they were trying to speak to her in English and to me in German. I was quite flattered that they thought I was German, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying.  Once we cleared things up, they spoke to us in English.  It was still quite entertaining because they were so drunk.

Once we walked out of the hauptbahnhof in Köln, we saw the huge cathedral. It was so beautiful! We got to walk through and see all of the beautiful alter, sculptures, windows, and just the architecture.  The ceilings were so tall and the whole building was gorgeous.  I loved it!!

After exploring in and around the cathedral we looked around around the city some and saw the Rathaus then walked over to the bridge.  The bridge that stretched over the Rhine was utilized by cars, trains and pedestrians.  Along the pedestrian path, the bridge was covered with thousands of padlocks.  Couples in love write or engrave their names on a padlock, lock it to the bridge, then throw the key in the Rhine.  It was fun to look at the locks.

After watching the beautiful sunset from the bridge we decided to warm up by doing a bit of shopping. We shopped around and Ching ended up with an adorable blazer and I got a new pair of heels from H&M.  After shopping we decided to go get dinner. After walking into a few over-crowded and/or over-priced restaurants, we found a great, tiny Italian place.  We ate great food and didn't talk the whole time because we were trying to figure out what the girls next to us were talking about. They were speaking half Italian and half German.  I picked up a few Italian words, and Ching picked out some German.  I loved being there because I could speak to the waitress in Italian and didn't have to ask for English. That felt so, so good.  After dinner we headed back to the hauptbahnof and headed back to Koblenz.


The next morning we slept in and I headed back to Seeheim in the afternoon.

I had such a great weekend with Ching.  We spent so much time talking about the past, present, and future.  We shared stories with each other about high school and previous years in college.  We talked about our love for Germany and for European men.  We talked about our futures in Europe and things we loved and hated about America.  It was such a great, great weekend. It was so exciting and so relaxing at the same time.