It's past 3am and we've just arrived at our hostel in Istanbul. On the bus ride from the airport, I was too curious to sleep. As we sped down the highway, we passed lots of hillside apartment buildings that looked like layer cakes stacked on top of one another and car factories with exotic foreign names like Ford and Mercedes. We crossed the Bosphorus on an enormous suspension bridge lit by neon lights with a magnificent view of the illuminated Asian and European sides of the city. On either bank, blue, yellow, and white lights twinkled- one of the international students said that's the sign of a poor city- when the night lights aren't all the same color. I'd never heard that one before.
I saw the first Mosque of my lifetime- I think they're the most beautiful houses of worship of any religion, at least on the outside. The towering minarets look like rockets about to blast off into space. I also noticed countless Turkish flags, all of them rippling in the warm night breeze and majestically illuminated by spotlights. The bus let us off in a square at the top of a hill, where we descended via a winding, narrow cobblestone street full of cafes and music shops closed for the night. I can't wait to start exploring.
