Well... I survived.

As you have probably guessed I did make it out alive. I went back to my apartment in defeat and scrounged for something there to eat. I grabbed a can of Ranch style beans from the shelf with a solemn promise to repay the beans to the owner. I later found out that the beans were given to my roommate by his parents to make a family recipe soup on a special occasion. Also those beans are not available in Turkey. Day one… success.
I was able to get an ATM to work later and am now reveling in the small victories. I am able to get on a bus (if someone shows me specifically which bus) and actually bought a bag of chips from a gas station with no help whatsoever. I am all that is man.
Since I have been here I have been able to go see the Aya Sofya (or Hagia Sophia) which was a Byzantine Orthodox cathedral until 1453 when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul and turned it into a mosque. Ataturk opened it to the public as a museum in the 20th century. One enters through massive doors that were reserved for the Ottoman sultan to enter through. The interior is filled with a mixture of Christian and Islamic frescoes, mosaics, and paintings. You can see the outline of crosses underneath the Arabic script and designs. The original altar was built at the back of the church under a gigantic mosaic of Mary and Jesus. The altar was positioned so that it faces Jerusalem. After the building was turned into a mosque, the altar was repositioned slightly to the right of its original position so that it now faces towards Mecca. If you love history this place is fascinating!
Later that day, we went to the beautiful Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome, and the Cisterns that sprawl underneath the city. We finished the night with dinner in the Taksim section of town (which is what I would compare to Istanbul’s version of Beale Street) and then stopped by an outdoor Turkish concert. We then crossed back across the Bosphorus Strait from Europe into Asia.
This city is a pretty amazing one. I finally have a working phone so I will be able to actually venture out into the city by myself without having to worry about getting lost and showing up several months later with amnesia and no kidneys.
In my next blog I will discuss my first real encounter with a Turk… let’s just say that it was an uncomfortable experience for both parties.