Not Constantinople

Not anymore.  Churches that became mosques that are now museums.  Stuff like that.

I got permission to visit some synagogues here in Istanbul.  Not realizing I could basically go to all of them, about 20, I only asked about 4.  I should have asked about the Italian Synagogue, too.  Tomorrow I will have an adventure to find the last of three that I have permission to see.  I have no idea how to get there.  It is not on my map and the guy at Information who was so good my first day, was a total asshole today.

I saw the AyaSofia and was kind of unimpressed.  Dont get me wrong, Maggie, it is big and impressive.  But kinda boring inside.  I liked the random mosques I went into instead.  Though the idea of making that thing all out of marble is ridiculous!  I guess I expected too much.  The Blue Mosque was also nice, but I expected it to look much different than the others, and it was about the same just more blue and bigger.

Today at the Ashkenazi Synagogue, the guy who let me in did not speak English and I did not speak Turkish or Hebrew, so Spanish was badly settled on.  I think he was angry I only had 5 Lira to donate.  I went to get change before going to the Neve Shalom, but they did not ask.  I thought it was very weird that the guy offered to open the ark for me to take photos.  Like, no big deal.  No prayers or anything, he just opened it.  They have like 30 Torahs.  Saw the Jewish Museum, too.

Chelsea, the girl on the bunk below me, left today and I dont know her last name to find her on facebook.  We had a lot of fun and weathered what is the worst hostel I have been in together.  And now two days without her.  Boo.

She is 28 and I am fully aware that everyone I have really hung out (and liked every minute) with has been my age or older.  On my awful night train from Bucharest to Istanbul I was stuck in a car with three 18 year old British boys who were, ugh, Tories.  And boy what an obvious age gap that was.  My Eastern European Experience really peaked with that train ride because,

There were no toilets, just holes and nothing to hold onto while using them
Intense rocking back and forth
No dining car or food available
An awful smell
A guard with a gas stove making soup in his compartment, no really
A leaking car, we had to move
An electrical failure...on an electrical train
An hour where we stood in the forest watching them attempt to fix the train
An hour stop at the Bulgarian exit border
An hour stop at the Turkish boarder for visas and passport stamps
An hour and a half bus ride to finish the trip because the rails are washed out
And all in all, a 23 hour trip.  I think I should have shelled out the money to fly.