Crack is whack!

so this vacay has been one of the most chill we've had in terms of rest. as viv might have previously posted, i have been sleeping a lot more than her. this is unheard of from our beijing days, where she threatened to tie me down to the bed if i got up before 8 am to go to the gym. of course, viv has also been waking up for the pre sunrise call to prayer so i think the reversal in our sleep patterns has surprised both of us. anyways, we got up today, grabbed some delicious paninis and headed down the road towards the commuter ferries and headed to asia. the 15 minute ride across continents was a bit anticlimactic - as viv put it, there should be a sign saying 'welcome to asia' however, seeing as how we're definitely not in kansas anymore, dorothy, there were no signs to be seen. well after we heard another call to prayer, we headed back to the europe side. we thought about going up to the galata tower but didn't quite make it.

after debating what our next step should be (i might add i was open to going to the 7th largest mall in the world to ride an indoor rollercoaster but i got shot down), we decided to stay out in the lovely afternoon sunlight and headed under the galata bridge to drink some turkish tea. so i have to say, at first the tea just tastes like regular lipton tea. but after drinking a cup, you find that there's a flowery aftertaste, which is quite appealing and you might end up on your second or third cup before you know it (which happened to us).

so now i get to the main highlight of our day - we noticed some turkish girls sipping tea, playing backgammon, and smoking hookah. so i had mentioned before that i'd be open to trying this but was a bit more hesitant when it actually came time because i wasn't sure how sanitary it would be. however, they give you individual mouthpieces that are like straws and so viv and i had a blast smoking the apple-y flavored hookah. it was the first time for both of us smoking anything (we're actually not that adventurous besides the traveling aspect of our lives) so we were both afraid of inhaling. but after a few 'sniffs' we just succumbed. and seriously, the experience was a bit like inhaling an apple cider smell. it's very fruity and you drink a fruity tea with it. so we were being silly and taking loads of blackmail pictures, viv will be posting the less scandalous ones. so i'm sure the local people thought we were nuts, laughing and being ridiculous while smoking hookah. anyways, that was definitely the ultimate turkish experience - drinking turkish tea, smoking hookah under the galata bridge on a sunny sunday afternoon. anyways we finally finished and now only have a seafood dinner left to our wonderful turkish trip before heading back. see you on the other side~

regina