Thursday, June 12, 2008

Meeting Robin and Kanyon Mall

Saturday.
It was looking like it was gonna rain so we decided to postpone going to Princes' Island. Instead we decided to mosey around and explore one of the Boho neighborhoods off of Istaklal. David, Kristina, Kevin, Emily, and I all headed out (we left sick Edward, Kelly, and Zoe at home to watch The Sound of Music). While wandering about we found some cool antique stores with tons of junk that will be cool to look through at a later date. We stopped and ate at Miss Pizza which was so good! I recommend the Pesto Pizza. We weren't really set on eating there until we walked in and there was a puppy sleeping on the window sill. That sold us, especially because we got to hold it!!! It was sooooo cute and the owner feeds it out of a baby bottle. We all wanted to take it home. While eating lunch David got pooped on by a bird of some sort and we of course were cracking up. Then we saw a woman doing her grocery shopping via a basket tied to a string that she would let down to the teenager on the ground. Interesting. Then Kristina called Robin (the lady we went our flats from) so that we could possible meet up for coffee. She was free so she came and met us at this cool cafe/bar her friend owns. She is a very neat woman. She moved here all on her own and has been living here for a little over a year. We made some loose plans about getting together to have a barbecue on our terrace so she could meet the rest of the group.

Sunday.
Still threatening to rain so we decided to take a metro to one of Istanbul's huge malls. None of us (Edward, Kelly, Yekta, David, and I) knew what to expect of the mall. What kind of stores would there be? How expensive would stuff be? Well, it didn't take long to find the answers to these questions. The stores were expensive and the stuff in them was too. None of us had really gone to shop anyway so it didn't matter. We did however stop by a bookstore and read in the kiddy section. Man we must have sounded so dumb to the Turks as we asked out TA (Yekta) how to pronounce different words we found in the learn how to count book or in the transportation book. To have story time we of course sat in the little kiddy chairs too, just to round out the whole scene. We were getting hungry so we walked all around the food places and settled on McDonald's. We had been wanting to try an American fast food restaurant to see how the prices were, if it tasted the same, and if the menu was the same. So, I ordered 2 cheeseburgers (bc it was cheaper than buying a double cheeseburger) and fries. That came to 6.50 YTL. I thought it tasted just like home but some of the others thought it tasted a bit different. Other items on the menu included a McRoyal and a McTurko (hamburger patty in a pita). Then we went to the grocery store in the mall, finally a place we could afford. We all were really thirsty for some reason, like really really thirsty. So, I bought 3 drinks! ha. The grocery store had really cool shopping carts that could turn on a dime, so we entertained ourselves for probably an hour in the grocery store. A good time was had by all! : )

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