Jellyfish and Taxis

Aah. Today was wonderful. I am skipping France and making this all about Istanbul, but needless to say, France was amazing. SO many cathedrals, so much cheese, so much champagne. AAH.  I had breakfast (at noon, so...lunch?) and then wandered around Bebek--a really fancy part of the city where everyone drives Mercedes and eats brunch. i had to stop by a pharmacy because one of my wisdom teeth is infected (according to my brilliant medical knowledge, which is that my mouth hurts) and weirdly enough, you can buy antibiotics without a prescription here!

THEN comes the fun. We got on a ferry and just sailed (ferried) across the Bosphorus and wandered around in the Asian side of Istanbul for a while. Slash hung out in a Turkcell for an hour trying to get people phones. The view on the way over was incredible--and it was TWO LIRA (about a dollar, thanks to the Turkish economy dive). The Bosphorus has this incredible turquoise water--not like the clear white-sand beach water, but deep, dark turquoise. and we could see the Aya Sofia and the blue mosque and everything on the European side once we got on the water. Oh, and the jellyfish. but whatever.

The beautiful, beautiful Bosphorus

I literally just ate a plate of chickpeas in sauce for dinner. and it was incredible. and magical. like better than most of the food in paris. (well, maybe not better than creme brulee).

Then we took the boat back and tried to get in a taxi. somehow (not really super clear on how this worked, but the taxi driver was into it) we managed to squeeze SEVEN people into a taxi, and then as we were driving the driver says, "oh, so you know, there are 400-500 traffic accidents every day in Istanbul" just conversationally. Not the kind of thing you want to hear.