First arrival at the Blue Mosque

Nighttime Blue Mosque

First time at Taksim Square

İstiklal Ave. 3 million people a day on the weekends. I think I visited here almost every day/night

Babylon where Emancipator cleaned house

63 days into my adventure and my last stop is Istanbul. Past Cody was a smart man for planning to go here because this city is unbelievable. I can’t grasp the size or just how a place this big can feel so neighbourly, it feels like I couldve spent a year there and not seen even a quarter of what it has to offer. I could tell that my trip was nearing its end since I was getting pretty touristed out and as a result didn’t even hit some of the must-see places. N YOU KNOW WUT!? I don’t feel guilty at all. My attitude has been if I’m happy with what I’m doing then that’s all I need. I can hit that stuff later 😀

Happenstance led me to meet some international culinary students and locals that we hung out with for 3 days which turned out to be a highlight of this city and even this trip. I got to see parts of Istanbul that I normally wouldn’t have ventured in to and just got to chill with some fine people. The dates timed out perfectly too that we were able to hit Turkey’s Independence Day. I don’t think I’ve been in a crowd that big in my life. And so much passion for Ataturk, it was infectious and bodacious.

And it was no problem making Emancipator’s show, brought a few folks from the hostel along and had a siiiick time. They put on a killer set and made arriving early really worth it.

Booze is not cheap in Turkey. It is an outrage and borderline criminal. Especially when coming from Bulgaria where they pay you to drink. Pretty much anyway.

I stayed on the tourist side in Istanbul, but next time I’ll look into Taksim area since I was over there 90% of the time anway. My stats are BS because fine arts major.

Now onto the sentimental, nostalgic, cheesy and over-mushified conclusion post. Prepare your tissues.