The Other Side

I think I had one of the best days of my life this past Sunday. I'm not sure why we are all in such good moods, it couldn't have just been the weather, but for some reason we were in a state of unwavering bliss. A group of us took a ferry to the Asian side of the city and spent the day there. We immediately fell in love with the side streets flooded with young locals. The fresh produce markets,  buckets of flowers spilling onto the sidewalks, and the most inexpensive and delicious baklava we've had to date. After exploring a bit and eating a lot, we sat by the water and soaked up the warm sun and the positive energy of the crowd around Ataturk's statue (half of whom were dressed up like zombies/dancing to techno music and we still don't know why). We found a great residential area with incredible cafes (where I had the best Turkish coffee since arriving here and two scoops of pistachio and blackberry dondorma for 2 lira) and some backstreets lined with tiny bars stuffed to the brim with men in jerseys watching soccer. We stopped for an afternoon Efes and managed to fall even more in love with this city. I can't wait to go back.