The Underground, A Ferry, and A Lot Of Walking

So yesterday I met up with several other exchange students and cruised İstanbul. It was pretty sweet. So I head over to the Vapour (ferry station) at Beşiktaş and Amanda (California) finds me then spots Eve (Australia) with two boys- Jimmer (Mexico) and Blaze (Michigain). Now that we're obviously all foreign, Derek (Brazil) spots us and comes to join us. Eve says that we're meeting Garet (Illinois) at Taksin and so we're about to head to the Metro when some tourist comes up to us and says something along the lines of "You guys look like you know what you're doing. Can you help me find this?" *holds out a travel guide (one I have at home)* Eve starts giving directions and Jimmer asks "Where are you from?" Mexico. Of course this is really exciting for Jimmer and he pulls a Mexican flag out of his bag and has Amanda take a picture of them.

Because we're headed in that direction anyways, and Jimmer is now deep in coversation- en espanol- with this fellow, we decide to just take him to the pallace-thing he was looking for. We took some pictures by the gates (because we're exchange students and that's what we do) and then said good-bye to the tourist and headed to the underground! So the subway really wasn't that exciting. It only took like 3 minutes. Then we waited for Garet and when he came we went and ate some food from this set of food stands. I didn't have anything (having just had breakfast).

Then we wandered back to Beşiktaş and to the vapour. Took the ferry to Asia. Wandered around Kadiköy. Eve took us to this sweet Cafe that's entrance is on this hugely busy street in Kadiköy, yet it was nearly empty. Good find, Eve! I will most definitely be going back there. So we had something to drink and hung out and talked and then headed back out onto the street to find a book store. Jimmer and I each bought ourselves dictionaries. We did some window shopping, and then Eve and Jimmer and Blaze had to go. Amanda, Derek, Garet and I made our way through the streets, talking and examining the menues in fast food restaraunts. Like McDonalds and KFC. We ended up eatting at McDonalds, just because we could. I just had icecream. All the fast food was way more expensive here.

When we finally decided to head home, Amanda and Derek headed for the buses (they both live on the Asian side) and Garet and I took the ferry back to Europe where my host mom picked me up. It was by far the best day I've had since I got here. I was losing my voice by the end of the day. It appears that I need to get my vocal chords back into shape after two weeks of minimal use. Lol.

-Maeghan