Spring Break, Istanbul

Let me just start out by saying spring break was amazing, Istanbul and Prague are two incredible places you should try to visit if your in Europe. For our first journey Henna, Tuna, Rican, Mad Cow and myself ventured off to Istanbul at 4:30 in the morning. Getting to the Istanbul airport wasnt a problem but actually stepping onto Turkish soil was little difficult. Upon handing my passport to customs, and the custom agent telling me I need a visa, scared the living daylights out of me. Now after going through a gruesome, lengthy process of getting a spanish visa I thought I was going to have to buy another ticket back to Barcelona and spend spring break there but lucky their visa is a little different then Barcelona, you can buy one for 15 euros. Unfortunately, our bad luck strike didnt end, Henna or as some people call her Jenna lost her bag, but she was actually really calm and ok with this.

Once we finally got to our hostel things started to turn around. The hostel personel was very nice and spoke fluent english which helped alot and it wasnt that bad of a hostel. Istanbul had some magnificant architecture, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, etc. but the most interesting and unique place to experience while in Istanbul are the Bizzare Markets.

These markets are incredible, you can buy anything you could ever want from spices, jewerly, handbags, clothing etc. and the best part about these markets is there are no fixed prices so you have to hangle the prices down and if you are really got at hangling you can get some amazing stuff for a great price.

In addition to the markets the culture in general is really unique, I felt alot safer and welcomed in Istanbul then in Barcelona. I didnt feel like I was going to robbed just for walking down the street alone. However because Turkey is a Islamic country its really not social accepted to get piss drunk and stumple home, so unfortuantely we werent able to do this is Istanbul but we did drink. However, Prague is a different story...