She was greeted in Florence by my host mom Paola's home cooked dinner and Paola insisting that Briana was not eating enough, a typical comment from Paola. The next day we got panini's from Pino, and friendly man with an amazing panini shop around the corner from my house. Then we visit the Baboli Garden and lounged around eating out sandwiches and making daisy chains
For dinner we had went to an apertivo, a place where you pay for a drink and then have access to an all you can eat buffet. We got fun fruity drinks and planned for opening our own apertivo restaurant in Chapel Hill.
We were flying out of Bologna and went a little early to enjoy some tortellini and Bolognese!
We arrived in Istanbul and prompting got lost, resulting in a slight rage blackout on my part, but eventually found our hostel and happily went to bed.
The next morning we stumbled upon the spice bazaar, which was a good way to prepare us for the grand bazaar.
We stumbled out of the bazaar feeling hungry and ate lunch at the restaurant where the men yelled the loudest at us... That was pretty much the only factor in our decision making. Neither of us knowing a word of Turkish we trusted pictures and pointing for ordering, Briana braved some chicken and it was an overall entertaining time.
This pretty accurately portrays how Briana felt about her chicken wrap...
I had Beef... probably.
That night we could not decide what we wanted for dinner and finally ended up having cake... A great decision!
The next day was sunny and beautiful and we took a ferry over to the Asian side of Istanbul. We wandered around to lots of shops, Briana got new boots, and we met the most adorable man at lunch. Our decision on where to go was really just a random pick, we walked into the restaurant and the only man working there spoke no English but with the help of other customers we managed to tell him we wanted a little of everything. After making us each a plate, he tottered around and tried to talk to us in English, and mostly just managed to inform us that we were happy sisters. He told us to come back and we were both very sad that we weren't able to.
That night for dinner we had much-anticipated pide's or Turkish pizza. We had both had it before at Mediterranean Deli in Chapel Hill, and could 'g wait to have it in Turkey.
We had been eyeing a place next to our hostel since we arrived and although we were not very hungry still very excited. We decided we could split a small size but were told that would surely not be enough for us and were easily convinced to get a large. The small definitely would have been enough but we had no problem finishing it!
The next morning we went to Capadoccia, a beautiful area in the center of Turkey! Our first day we went on hike, after Briana may or may no have had a slight breakdown, easily cheered up by a wonderful lunch!
Our hike ended with some delicious apple tea!
That night for dinner we went to a Turkish Dinner show, and somehow were the only people in the giant dining room for about 30 minutes! While we didn't love all the food, the people there noticed we were really enjoying the kiwi and kept us rolling in the kiwi!
At some point I was selected to participate in the dance.. I don't think I did very well, but I tried!
We returned to Istanbul, saw the blue mosque and aya sofia, took another trip to the grand bazaar, ate pineapple on a stick and waffles for dinner!!
Sometimes everyone in Turkey thinks you're German, but are all still very nice!
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