Goodbyes, Taxim and Bartering like a Turk!

Tuesday was the last day for a few of our little group (Irina, Brent's girlfriend, and Lars and Simon, the Denmark guys!) ... We started out by going to a place for breakfast. I had lamachun (la-ma-joon) which is also referred to as a Turkish pizza and menemen which is a runny egg dish with vegetables. Put them together and got a little bit of deliciousness. It was a good last hangout for some of us, we did some things and then wishes both Lars and Simon farewell...

Left to Right: Brent, Irina, Lars, Simon, Michael Jordan

After hanging out at the house for a bit, I suggested we hit a Hamami! AKA a Turkish Bath...

This was a great idea. Wow! What an experience. I missed out on doing this last time I was here so I was pretty adamant about trying it this time. Brent and I went in one side, and Irina had to go into another side. We started out by getting into some fancy attirewhich consisted of a kilt-like towel. And after a labyrinth of doors we finally got to the first section, which is the blazing hot sauna. I stayed here until I found myself to be medium-well. Then a Turkish guy came and beckoned us onto our next part. Here we sat (by the way, the entire place is made out of white marble) and they scrubbed us until we left a few layers of skin on the floor. This was intertwined with a good soaping. Afterwards we laid out on big marble slabs and received massages! A cool shower followed, and then we were led to individual rooms to relax. A very awesome experience!!!

Now that I felt like a million bucks, we gathered the rest of the guys and jumped onto a ferry to Taxim to hangout for Irina's last night. Taxim is the "happening" place of Istanbul. Lots and lots of people, lots of things to do, bars, restaurants, the whole nine yards.

The guys on the ferry.

Brent, Safak, Me, David.

A street performance.

Fire dancing and a band. They were incredible. I would have bought tickets...

The night wrapped up at a restaurant. We had countless glasses of tea and good company.

Brent went with Irina to the airport and we headed back to the house.

Wednesday Brent and I slept in until noon, which felt great. I headed out shortly after to scavenge for food and soak in the city. I tried to get lost, but since I am writing on my computer at the moment, that failed! Anyway, I did run into this guy who was selling cactus fruit. That was kind of interesting, of course I had to try it, the taste was veeeery faint, but it was good... lots of juice/water, and it had hints of a lot of mango-esce fruits. Now I know how to cut open cactus fruits! They do have a lot of seeds however, apparently they were okay to eat, but if I grow a baby cactus in my stomach - I will not be happy.

The rest of the day was spent running around getting quotes and bartering with a laptop and iPhone that I am trying to sell here. It was fun seeing the game played, although my Turkish is limited, it was a good lesson on reading body language. Tomorrow we will set out in attempt to finalize some prices! Cross your fingers...

We headed to the Bosporus for sunset. It was pretty epic.

Cheers!