Istanbul was amazing– like Diet Middle East. Truly Rome’s twin city! Though it might also be Athens’s twin city as well. Incredible mosques, a fascinating enormous city to walk around. Meg and I googled approximately 1 million things, here is the stuff I was assigned to look up (we took turns)

Day 1 (Included a long conversation about what flags were the best aesthetically– Turkey’s looks amazing)

• Istanbul- Wikipedia
• Travel Advisories
• Sri Lanka Flag
• Morocco Flag
• Indian Flag
• USSR Flag
• Chinese Flag

Day 2

• Topkapi Tickets
• How much are Turkish rugs
• What is the weather like in Istanbul usually
• 7 Turkish Movies everyone should see
• Where did the great schism happen?
• Who is the President of Turkey
• Can you drink the Tap water in Turkey
• What is in the cube in Mecca?
• Tickets to Blue Mosque
• What is a doge>
• Is Turkey Shia or Sunni
• Ottoman Empire– Wikipedia
• Tanzimat — Wikipedia
• Byzantine Empire — Wikipedia
• Rump State — Wikipedia

Day 3

• Blue Mosque Istanbul — Wikipedia
• Pope Benedict XVI — Wikipedia
• When have popes visited mosques
• Things to do in Istanbul
• What is a cardigan in Muslim culture
• Where was Troy
• What was the religion in Persia
• Sufism
• Whirling Dervish
• Sufi whirling
• Topkapi Film
• When was the first corrective eyewear
• Where was War and Peace 2016 filmed

Day 4

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Russia
• Latest News of Kyiv Ukraine Temple
• List of English words with Turkish origin
• What song is playing
• Where does falafel come from
• Profiterol
• Mangolata
• Marlenka what is it
• When did the Roman empire fall

Day 5

• Main industry in Istanbul
• Muslim prayer beats
• Prayer beads
• Dhikr
• Kyrie — Wikipedia

On the last day, we visited this massive mosque that the current president had built in a wave of religious conservatism as a political tool– it was absolutely breathtaking. Lots of long conversations about art, politics, and religion as we read through Wikipedia articles.

The airport, touted as the safest in the world, was a nightmare– we went through security maybe 6 times? We should have gotten there 2.5 hours early! Running through the airport made me seriously rethink my life choices (I need to do more cardio, if there was an apocalypse where running would save your life I would simply die, Meg is so fit how does she do that, etc.)