Walking to Asia

So we walked to Asia yesterday…

Istanbul is split by the Bosphorus Strait into different parts: the European side and the Asian side. We have spent most of our time on the European side, so we figured we should spend our last day in Istanbul by walking over the bridge to the Asian continent:

Loads of Fishermen Line Each Side of the Bridge.

View of Asian Istanbul.

We really had no destination in mind, so we just wandered around Istiklal Avenue which is Istanbul’s equivalent of Fifth Avenue or the Champs-Élysées. Every chain store (Sephora, Diesel, Nike, etc.) lined the street. We never really get excited about shopping in cities around the world as we have all this stuff at home…

A Crowded Sunday.

Most Pairs of Chucks Were Over US $70. Absolutely Nuts.

After a ridiculously long walk in chilly weather, we rested in the hostel for a bit, and then the ladies decided they wanted to go the Turkish bathhouse for round two. (Mike chose not to go again. All he has heard is that it’s not so fun for guys.)

We went out for our last dinner of kebabs. This is pretty much all we ate in Turkey…and we loved every minute of it. The hardest choice each day was figuring out which stand we wanted them from and exactly what kind we wanted: wraps, pita, on bread, etc. The night was capped at a cheap bar where Bonnie kindly bought Mike a beer (he is her fake husband after all) and we smoked a shisha:

Team Turkey.

We like visiting with friends on this trip, but the absolute hardest part is leaving them.

Hanna: Ladies’ Turkish Bath Night

After visiting a very interesting Korean bath in New York with Bonnie, we knew that we had to hit up a Turkish bath while in Istanbul. Mike had considered coming, but in the end, he realized he doesn’t enjoy saunas by himself all that much. Everything that we had read said that it’s enjoyable for women but not all that fun for men. He stayed back at the hostel’s rooftop bar, smoked the free shisha, and chatted with backpackers from all over.

Us ladies headed over to the bath around 8pm for a few hours of relaxation. After paying we were ushered into a locker room and handed some underwear and a loincloth…and yes, the underwear was new. We stripped down and were directed in Turkish to go into the main room. The building was beautiful and hundreds of years old.

The bath consisted of one large domed room with small off-shoots. The main room had a large heated marble slab to lay on, while the smaller side rooms had basins that were meant for washing yourself. We spent a while soaping up and dumping lukewarm water over our heads. The most enjoyable part of the ordeal was watching the larger Turkish women who worked there scrub down the patrons…like literally scrub these naked women down with exfoliating gloves. Quite amusing. We skipped out on this service.

After relaxing on the marble slab for some time, we headed to the hot tub for a quick dip, and then we were done. Definitely had seen our share of big boobs for the day. We had a great time and enjoyed experiencing a new bathing experience.

Sorry, no pictures were taken on this outing.