The Heather Jones Bucket List: New Thing #86 - Balkans Trip

June 27, 2015

Megan left bright and early this morning to head out on the next leg of her European vacation sans Nikki and I. We, on the other hand, chose to have a leisurely breakfast and interact with the super friendly staff at our hostel. (If you go to Istanbul, you HAVE to stay at Cheers Hostel. For real, you guys. Everyone there is so nice. The breakfast is fantastic, and the overall vibe is wonderful. I promise you they didn't ask me to say these things. :)

After trying her hand at Bosnian coffee, Nikki wanted to see how Turkish coffee differed, so we headed to a place our hostel recommended. Turns out we didn't pay close enough attention to either the name or the directions because we didn't find it. We stopped instead at another little shop where Nikki got what looked like motor oil in a little cup, and I opted for some apple tea to start the day. It cooled off by around 5pm. :/

This shop by our restaurant had the most beautifully intricate plates and bowls, etc. If I could have carried one of these on the plane the whole way home, I probably would have bought one.

We decided to go back to the Bazaar to kill a little bit of time and determine if we had in fact gotten everything we wanted/needed the day before. We came in yet another entrance than we had the two previous days and immediately got lost. I'm pretty handy with a map, but seeing as how we never officially got one, nor had any kind of layout on where the shops were located, we just kind of winged it. Yes, we ended up walking down the same aisles about a billion times, but I guess that's just all part of the fun.

New sites to see on this trip to the GB.

I finalized my trip with a little tea set for two, a trivet and a coaster for myself. Yesterday was spent getting gifts for friends, so now it was time to spoil Heather for a bit. While the cafe this morning had been quiet and peaceful (for a Saturday morning), all the crazies must have been at the Bazaar. It seemed like the vendors were even more aggressive than before. Perhaps because there were only two of us to harass. Or, maybe they assumed there would be more tourists on a Saturday. I have no idea, but it was incredibly annoying.

After we had had our fill of trinkets and annoying Turkish men, we tried to find the Doner shop that Dalim had pointed out two days ago. He had mentioned that they had the best doners and and told us to stop when we had a chance. A doner is basically a meat filled sandwich, and since Megan is vegetarian, it didn't make sense to stop yesterday. After easily a 45 minutes trek in and out of the Bazaar trying to find the exact entrance where it was, we came upon it by sheer dumb luck.

And damn, am I happy for that dumb luck. I can't even begin to describe to you the deliciousness of this sandwich. It wasn't much. Just some shaved meat, tomatoes and onions in a pita. That's it. But, sweet sassy molassey was it tasty! I managed not to get all of the juices on me as we walked back to the hostel, but it was close.

Found it!!!!

Mmmmm...shaved meat!

I should have gotten two.

After dropping off our goodies yet again, we figured we should take a cruise down the Bosphorous. After all, all the guide books recommended it. They had some that took the better part of an afternoon, and some that took all day (with numerous stops on and off), but we really weren't interested in spending that much time on a boat. Instead we found one that would take about two hours or so and hopped on a bit early. We managed to find seats on the top of the boat at the very front for some of the best views.

We're adorable.

We had a couple of guys sitting next to us who were Australian and Greek, and I loved just listening to them talk. Not to mention the Australian was a bit of a silver fox. Heyooooo! Eventually we set sail, so to speak, and headed north along the European coast line. We didn't go nearly as fast as I thought we would, and there wasn't a tour guide to explain to us what we were seeing. (That kind of bummed me out a bit.) And heading the direction we were, it was super chilly and windy....and actually quite boring. There was only so many buildings I could take pictures of. (Not sure what we were expecting though.)

We eventually had to head back south along the Asian coastline, and that direction provided us with a warmer and sunnier return trip. (Thank God). There still wasn't much to see, but it was a nice relaxing trip with nowhere to be. After we departed the boat and said goodbye to our sexy Aussie friend, we stopped to try some chocolate baklava (which is legit, ya'll), and then found a shop near our hostel that sold Turkish delight.

Prepare yourself for a billions water/coast/building photos.

Our boat.

Now, we had tried some Turkish delight in the airport when we first arrived in Istanbul while waiting for our connecting flight to Vienna. It was terrible. I wasn't too keen on purchasing any as a gift for someone if it was that bad. The salesman roped us in though, and told us that pre-packaged T.Delight is the worst idea possible. They make it fresh there, and he insisted we try some.

I'm damn glad we did, because again, it was fantastic. Like night and day from the other stuff. He told us that he could build us a giftbox of various flavors and then vacuum seal it for our trip back home. Sold! I got pomegranate, honey, lemon, orange, coconut and a bunch of other things, including some baklava (and chocolate)! It was a pretty stellar purchase, though people in my office the next week didn't seem to think it was as good as I did. :/ Jerks.

More street corn. No, I didn't get any. For numerous reasons.

Chocolate baklava! Effing delicious.

My assortment of T.Delight and baklavas.

So many to choose from!

We managed to make it to our hostel in time for their BBQ. They had prepared minced meat and chicken kebabs with bulgar wheat, bread, salad and veggies for their patrons to enjoy in the upstairs lounge/bar. A few additional beers, some darts and checkers to round out our night, as well as a random conversation with a guy from California who had just graduated college. He asked us about our backpacking trip, again thinking we were in our early 20s, and we didn't have the heart to correct him. If he thinks I'm 22, then I'm damn sure not going to correct him. They invited us out for a pub crawl, but my almost-36-year-old, end-of-a-whirlwind-trip self just couldn't hack it. Nikki and I opted to pack and turn in before our grueling journey back home the next day.

We're party animals, what can I say?