Burgazada & Turkish Hospitality at its finest!

Saturday (?): After a good day of reading and having Cay (TEA!) by the Bosporus, I met up with about 10 of Brent's roommate's friends. We headed off to the volleyball courts! The best part was, as we were finishing up, the Turkish Olympic Volleyball team showed up! The #1 and #2 doubles teams played a few games which I watched very intently with a big smile on my face! Court side to some of the best volleyball players in the world. Amazing!

We went and got some food afterwards, I had meneme, which is like a runny egg dish in a bowl with vegetables and other stuff. Generally you eat it with bread. First time I've had it and it was pretty good. The night ended with myself, Safak, David (Brent's roommates), and Lars (Danish guy) going to a part of Turkey that is a big hangout. It's called the "saw-hill", it's a giant grass lawn which borders the water. Hundreds of mid-20-30 year olds drinking, smoking, having a grand ol' time. There was a lot of people playing music, volleyball, frisbee, dogs, cats, iguanas. It was a good day.

Sunday: Went to church with Brent's roommates and others... afterwards we headed out to the Islands!!! This was probably the highlight of my previous trip to Istanbul, so I was much looking forward to this.

We're off!

There are 9 islands, called the Princes' islands.

It was great, we went to the island of Burgaz. (Ada means island)...

Found a secluded little cove, and hungout for a bit.

David and I set off hiking, we climbed a rocky point to get to the other side of the island, here we found even less people and even more cool climbing areas. I was in my rainbows sandals, which are supreme for climbing. Really, they are, I didn't slip once. :) We ran into two guys on top of this hill we hiked up, chatted a bit in broken English/Turkish, David did a bit of translating as well. On our way back to the cove we decided to take a rather daring route. It was fairly steep and covered in pine needles which made traction next-to-none. Luckily it was spaced out by trees about 10feet apart. So you could slide and grab onto the next tree. Very exhilarating, and again, my rainbows held up. Unfortunately, David's shoes didn't treat him as well and he has to hook his arm around a tree to avoid tumbling very far and painfully. Leaving a big bruise and scrap on his back, underarm, and forearm. When we got to the end, we popped out of the trees about 20 feet away from our group! It was great.

I had to head back a little earlier than the rest of the group in order to be back in time for dinner at Mahir's (Brent's old roommate who I stayed with last year).

The boat was extremely backed and I ended up sitting on the back railing, these seagulls followed us the entire 45 minute journey.

A few busses later, and I was reunited with my old friend! This was truly a great night. Mahir had recently become married to Hava. I had such a good time at their house I was sad to leave! We had NINE different dishes!!! Two noodle dishes, one with yogurt, the other was a spicy sausage type. One rice dish. A salad. A tomato soup with cheese. Another soup with chickpeas and meat. An absolutely fantastic eggplant dish. A plate of fruit. And homemade Baklava (A Turkish dessert, very sweet and good!). I also indulged in numerous Cays and another homemade drink that resembled a cappuccino. Hava's food was excellent!

These types of nights are what makes traveling so great, spending time with an amazing group of people from all different parts of the world and at different points in their journeys. I enjoyed the talks and the company tremendously. Until next time, Insha'allah.

From left to right...

Irina, Brent, Hava, Mahir (Hope to see you all in India!)