Our last few weeks.

We have finally wrapped up our schooling here, and we cannot be more thrilled! It was a grueling two weeks with very little movement and lots of memorizing. Luckily our hard work payed off, and we can happily say that all of our credits will transfer back home! Two thumbs up for exchange.

After writing our last exam, we felt like sloths to say the least. Luckily Erin Visch-Krahn had just arrived, so we spent the next three days touring the city with her! We finally got out of the house which felt nice. Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful at Christmas, filled with lights and Santa Claus is everywhere! However it felt a bit off with the weather at 10 degrees and no snow.

 Biking in the rain!

 Flower Market

Christmas Market

 Freshly made stroopwaffel the size of my head!

 Skating rink. They were everywhere.

 Erin getting in touch with her Dutch roots.

 Santa in the Red Light District!

 Dam Square

If you are wondering why Selena isn't in any of the pictures, it's because she went to Cologne, Germany for a few days and met her friend Lisel. It was very weird being apart from her, which we have come to realize will be common place once we're back in Winnipeg in less than two weeks!

We spent Christmas in Copenhagen, which was absolutely beautiful as well. There was no snow either, which we had hoped there would be when picking our Christmas destination (we wanted to feel at home, although I hear Winnipeg has been skimping on the snow as well). We found a local church on Christmas day and went to their potluck and church service. We met a few other girls who were living there and away from their families; two from the states, one from Australia, and one from Amsterdam! It wasn't my grandma's Christmas dinner, but it was a pretty good alternative. The rest of our time there was filled with sight seeing, a movie on boxing day, and the Tivoli Christmas markets! The theme was Russia this year which was perfect, as that was one of the few places that was on our list that we did not get a chance to see.

 LEGO Santa. Apparently the Danes invented LEGO!

 Nyhavn

 Nyhavn

 Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid

 Tivoli Christmas Market!

 More Christmas market...

 Our St. Petersburg Cathedral.

We have just spent the past few days saying goodbye to friends, returning our bikes, packing and cleaning our place, and saying goodbye to Amsterdam. Our time here has been amazing and we will remember it forever! I couldn't have picked a better person to do exchange with, or a better location.


I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a happy new year!

See you all in 10 days!

A Whole New World

On Sunday we ventured out to see the typical sights of Istanbul. We visited Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, the spice market, the Basilica Cistern, the Walls of Constantinople, and had kebabs for lunch. We were again underwhelmed by our food, which was probably because we were eating on a budget. You definitely get what you pay for. All of the sites were amazing though, and took us all day to see. Partly because the Walls of Constantinople were an hour walk away from our hostel, and no one along the way could direct us because they didn't even know what they were. Here are some of our pictures from the day:

 Inside the Basilica Cistern, crazy underground cave. It felt like we were in the Lord of the Rings.

 More Basilica.

 Outside of the Hagia Sofia.

 Inner dome of Sofia.

 Inside the Blue Mosque with our head coverings. We went to see it during their call to prayer, so tourists weren't allowed in...

Selena convinced them that we would pray if we went in and not take pictures, hence the angle of our pictures.

 Front gates of Topkapi Palace.

 Delicious dried fruits at the spice market!

 View of the city over the Bosphorus.

 Walls of Constantinople.

The New Mosque.

After our day of exploring we headed back to our hostel, and Onur (our hostel owner) asked if he could take us out for dinner. We were a bit hesitant, but he said he wanted to redeem Turkish food for us. We went to his friends restaurant a few short minutes away from our hostel, and it was so cute! Everything was amazing. We started with a cheese plate with hummus, crackers, and bread, which was all fresh and delicious. Then for the main meal we shared two main dishes, one was beef and the other was chicken. I forget the names of them, but they were both to die for. We polished off those plates and then Onur ordered this chocolate lava cake for dessert, and it came out looking like a hockey puck. We decided it was in honour of Jason, and enjoyed every last bit of it. After dinner we spent the evening walking around the Old Town, and then headed back to the hostel. 

 Dinner with Onur.

 Our hockey puck dessert.

 The Blue Mosque at night.

On Monday Onur arranged for us to meet him across the Galata bridge for breakfast. He took us to his friends restaurant right on the Bosphorus, and it was absolutely stunning. The breakfast was also great, with cheeses, homemade jam and honey, fresh bread, and eggs and tomatoes. Everything in Istanbul is so fresh. After breakfast we went on a boat cruise along the Bosphorus river, boating between the European and Asian side of Istanbul. It was a little bit chilly, but well worth it.

 Instead of heat lamps on their patio they used hot coals under the table to keep us warm.

 Under our blankets at breakfast.

 On the terrace of the restaurant.

 Bridge onto the Asian side of Istanbul.

 On the boat cruise.

Asian side again.

After the cruise we went back to the hostel, grabbed dinner, and then decided to try on our new outfits! They were a great investment, even just for these pictures. 

Then we headed to the thing we had been looking forward to the most, the Cagaloglu Hamami, to experience a real Turkish bath. I have been to the Ten Spa at the Fort Garry for a Hamam, and let's just say they've got nothing on this 270 year old building. It was built during the Ottoman Empire for sultans and is in the book "1000 places to see before you die". They gave us small little towels to wear, and led us into this big marble room with a dome ceiling. The room had hot stone slabs everywhere and cisterns on the walls that were pouring out hot water. We lounged around and bathed until our two attendants came in. They proceeded to rip off our towels and scrub us down. These ladies had no shame, and after that hour, neither did Selena or I. It was such a great experience, and we felt like new women!  

The main lounge of the Hamami

It was the perfect end to our adventure in Istanbul. We had a great time there, and were pleasantly surprised with how different it felt. The rest of Europe has a tendency to blend together, as all of the old buildings start to look alike. Being in Istanbul was like being in a different world, kind of like Aladdin.

Istanbul

We have found another hidden gem. Istanbul. We are staying at the greatest hostel ever, with the nicest owners. They greeted us the night we got here by name, took our bags from us, chatted with us, and made us feel right at home. We got the grand tour, which included the fourth floor lounge with a wood burning fireplace, couches, and a bar, with an amazing view of the Hagia Sophia. They also upgraded us to a two person room with a double bed (which they never have in hostels), free of charge.  It was a great warm welcome to this beautiful country. We then proceeded to hunt down dinner, which we figured would be kebabs. We ended up getting Chicken Shish and a Spicy Kebab, which surprisingly was not that great. We figured it was our poor choice of restaurant, because we had heard the food here was amazing.

The next morning the hostel owner came in to make breakfast for us and his friend. These people are seriously going over and above what we expected. It was a typical Turkish breakfast so there were olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, bread, and simit, all which was amazing. Then we were telling them how we were going to go to the Grand Bazaar (one of the biggest markets in the world with 5,000 shops) for the day, and we threw out the invite for them to come with us if they had nothing to do, not actually thinking they'd come because they probably get invites all the time from travelers. Well, Onur (the owner of the hostel) actually took us up on the offer. At first we regretted extended the invitation, but Onur ended up being the best tour guide ever. He was able to bartar for us in the Grand Bazaar so we didn't get ripped off with anything, and he walked around with us for hours, even while we tried on traditional Turkish outfits! He couldn't stop laughing at us, especially when we proceeded to buy them... He also bought us roasted Chestnuts and took us to this local Sheesha bar. He ordered us some classic Turkish teas and we hung out there for like two hours. It was such a great time, we felt very much a part of the culture. See below.

 Grand Bazaar

 Don't we look Turkish?

The Grand Bazaar.

 Sheesha.

 Sheesha.

 Tea time!

 All of our fabulous drinks.

Basically we had a fantastic day, which was only made better by Onur making us dinner back at the hostel! Seriously, you might wonder if this guy has ulterior motives, but we happily found out early in the afternoon that he is gay! Yes, this is cause for celebration. We knew nothing was up, because our creeper radar is always up in full force and we were sensing nothing. He is just a genuinely nice guy, wanting to show us a good time in Istanbul. Which he proceeded to do after dinner by driving us to Taksim Square in his BMW; turns out the hostel business is booming. He showed us around, and then left us to explore on our own. We found Maraş icecream, which is this like stretchy ice cream that we were told we had to try, so of course I had to do it. I love ice cream but I did not love this. It was like stretchy and stringy, really weird. We love trying the local things though, so it was well worth my current stomach ache.

 Beautiful mosque, of which there are approximately 2900 in Istanbul.

 Our hostel.

 Istiklal Street.

Maraş icecream

Our time here has already been wonderful, and we are only one day in. Stay tuned for our next two days of Turkish adventures!!