Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey!

Ups: Good food, cheap shopping, TURKISH DELIGHTS! Hannah Cha, of course. But she's not really Turkish.

Downs: Grey skies, lack of organization from the school, and 12 hour bus ride both ways.

What I thought said Turkey in Turkish. But no. I think it's the name of a city in Turkey though!
Though the clouds were grey, the flowers were superbly VIBRANTLY bright. They were incredible to see! The parks in Turkey were also very fun-looking. I kept eyeing the cool-looking rings (the kind you hang from) and jungle gyms they had. =)

Hannah REALLYYY enjoying her bread! We hadn't eaten a real meal since maybe 14 hours before. haha!

I was very excited to see Korean! AND there were Korean tour groups hanging around Istanbul as well. I really wanted to ask if they knew where the nearest Korean restaraunt was located, buuuut I didn't.
Inside of Aghia Sophia - the first Christian Church ever built!!! (Well, it was built as wood 5 times and burned 5 times, so the emperor got sick and tired of having to constantly rebuild it and decided to build this MONUMENTAL thing. 20,000 workers hired, finished in 5 years! This place was seriously huge huge. My neck hurt from craning to stare at the ceiling.) Later, it got turned into a mosque, so look! In Arabic, the green circular plaques say "Mohammed" on the left and "Allah" on the right. Then, between the two is a picture of Mary and Jesus. The Muslims respected diversity and didn't ruin any of the Christian emblems.
The Blue Mosque. We got to go inside during prayer time and we had to take off our shoes while girls with skirts/sleeveless shirts were given material to cover their bare skin. It was quite an experience hearing the instrumental-less singing of hundreds.
The awesome pita man rolling out the dough at the place we had dinner the first night!
The kabob man skewering his awesome kabobs! What a great picture.

Top to bottom: Apple, Orange, and Turkish tea
The Apple tasted like heated apple juice, the Orange tasted like heated fanta, and the Turkish tasted like...tea?

The impressive Turkish flag at the border.

Amazing scenery on the way home.

sooo. Other then Turkey, King Simeon the II of Bulgaria came to our school yesterday! He held a Q. & A. session about Bulgaria's entrance to the E.U. for the group of 30 students that came. And even though I didn't say a single thing, I had this silly smile the whole time because he kept mentioning prayer and referred to the "Good Lord." This man was so truthful in answering questions and his passion to see Bulgaria become a stable/successful country through HONEST means was very inspiring. Many times, I read the Bible and it seems so difficult to live my life that way, but he's trying to mold an entire country to reflect Jesus. And, random tidbit, he graduated from Valley Forge Christian Academy! (Grace Lee's brother goes there!!)

How cool. What a small world.

Tonight: My roommate and I are having Mexican for dinner! So incredibly excited for good food.

yay for Spring!!!!