(Insert Asinine Song Lyric Here)

I am in love.  Nineteen years old and I've found love.  Ain't I the luckiest?

Once upon a time, Jerusalem Center students went to Egypt mid semester.  Then the Egyptian revolts began and the Egypt trip was cancelled.  When I found out I wasn't going to Egypt, I was very disappointed.  Who doesn't want to visit an Egyptian pyramid and incur the wrath of an angry dead Egyptian pharaoh, accidentally bring angry pharaoh back to life, become the bride of said undead pharaoh, then send him back to the grave?  (Okay, so everything I know about Egypt stems from The Mummy, get over it.)  Since the overthrows and government upsets began, the Egypt trip has been substituted for a week in Turkey.

And what a week it was.  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the fifteen or so pictures I included still don't do the country or my trip fair justice.  But it'll have to do:

Turkish "Delight."  All I could think was "holy crap, that Narnia kid sold his siblings out for this shiz?"

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

This man had the most phenomenal mustache I've ever seen in real life.
You bet I (literally) chased him down to ask for a picture.

Oh this old thing?  I bought it in Istanbul... but no big deal.

WHY would they only allot an hour in the Grand Bazaar when treasures like
 taxidermied goats modeling men's trousers are to be found?

4,000 shops = 4,000 shopkeepers to bully me into buying their marked up trinkets. 

That giant black hole behind us is the out-of-operation Trojan Horse that tourists usually
 climb into and take pictures. Unfortunately, it was covered for fun killing purposes (or
maintenance... same difference), so we made our own photo op.  Hooray for Troy!

I LOVE the Mediterranean Sea!

Honoring the Isle of Lesbos behind us

Mom I didn't even have to carve my name into this one... the Romans beat me to it!

A little piece of home everywhere.  My single regret of the trip is that I didn't try the McTurko

I honestly don't even remember where this was taken.  Somewhere historic or something. 

We got to walk off the plane and it was phenomenal.  I felt like a movie star.
(Also yes, that's my ukulele in hand.  I really enjoyed playing that in airport lines before
AND after our red eye flight.  Everyone else... probably not so much)

Our teacher played the song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" at least eight times during the week.  We spent over 20 hours on our travel bus.  I had lentil soup twice a day almost every day of the week.  The Turks include more mint in their food than I've ever heretofore experienced.  Stargazing is a completely different experience on a dock of the Marmara Sea.  Fresh, non commercialized oranges are good enough to eat four in one sitting.  White chocolate hazelnut spread is heaven.

Egypt schmegypt.  Turkey is where it's at!