Snow Angels.

Last night was quite the adventure. We spent our 3rd night in Taksim smoking Nargile (Hookah for you Americans), and having our first cocktails. We also had the Turkish version of grilled cheese, which was a million times better. Not only is grilled cheese my favorite American food in the world, but the Turkish equivalent is only 2.50 L ( $1 American dollar). It will fill the late night Taco Bell run's space in my heart quite nicely. 

However, that is not even the beginning of the night. Having just got our bus passes, we had planned on taking it to Taksim and then back. But by the time we had finished with our late night snack, the snow was coming down so vigorously that we all looked like little snow angels within minutes of being outside. We got on the last bus back, and were only on for maybe a mile when the bus started sliding down a steep hill. As you can see, it didn't make it and we were all forced to get off the bus and walk to try and find a taxi.

Assuming we knew the way, we started walking along the highway, but had not gotten far when a man yelled for us to turn around. He had been on the bus with us, and was the one who explained that the bus ride was finished. He offered to walk with us to the place to catch a taxi. This walk was probably a mile and a half or more, in the snow, on the day I decided that Converse were the best snow trekking shoes.

The man who helped us was named Deniz, and he is a graduate student at Istanbul University. He wanted to practice his English, and offered to take us to some historical sites around Istanbul. All of you back home should think about how many times you have helped a lost foreigner, because I'm sure the number of times could be counted on 1 finger. But without Deniz, I'm sure we would have ended up very lost and paying a lot of money for the taxi home.

In the end, we made it back to our dorm with frostbitten toes and very tired bodies. I will admit that I pretty much slept the day away today in order to avoid getting ill. But the snow has stopped and the sun has come out!

Tomorrow we are going to make our way to The Grand Bazaar to get kitchen supplies and hopefully phones!