Go to istanbul!
istanbul
This beautiful city sits on the threshold where Europe meets Asia and meshes the two perfectly. Get lost in bazaars as big as small cities, and enjoy a hookah among a throng of brand new international friends on the roof of your hostel watching the sunset over the Mediterranean. I spent a week in Istanbul last May and had a great time spacing out my sightseeing evenly among each day. The must-sees are the Blue Mosque, and the Underground Cisterns which are an amazing underground network designed about 1500 years ago, lost and forgotten about then rediscovered. Townspeople would draw water for hundreds of years not knowing where the it was coming from, but now you can take a walk through the dripping cavern lit with deep red lights. The Grand Bazaar is an impressive labyrinth of covered shops and stalls. You can explore this place with a decided agenda, or with a purpose to get lost. If you’re on the fence I one direction or another, this place will only overwhelm you. But at the same time, that’s kinda the point. Don’t eat here because a friend and I were starving so we stopped into a little restaurant here and were charged ridiculous prices for a simple sit-down lunch. The Spice Bazaar was well worth the two visits and if you’re an amateur photographer, this place is like a photographer’s heaven to you. If only cameras could capture scents… The colors, smells and air of this place vibrate with the energy of hundreds of years of tradition with locals and tourists alike coming here for generations to check out this wonder of an attraction. The Palace and Hippodrome are also worth walkthroughs. My favorite was the large collection of treasures donated to the royal family over the years. Look into Boat tour of the Bosphorous, Hookah bars, Whirling Dirvishers, and Turkish Baths while you’re there as well. I enjoyed a pub crawl through the Taksim neighborhood. This newer part of the city is laced with different sorts of clubs and bars which make it easy to stumble onto quality street performers and exciting nightlife scenes. If you like licorice, take a shot of Turkey’s spin on Anis, called Raki. Istanbul also has an exclusive, high-end club scene. One which I didn’t seek out because my budget was running low at the time. Ask at your hostel and look up Reina, famous for it’s dance floor located on the Bosphorus itself.  Give feedback on this itinerary here
Updated Feb. 1st
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