Istanbul is such a vast and breathtaking city! After spending a week here, I still feel like that I have only scratched the surface. Throughout my whole project, I have only stayed in hostels, and in Istanbul, I chose Cheers Hostel. Mostly because it is situated near the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (less then a 5 minute walk). The top of the hostel had a straight view of the bosphorus which was beautiful during the sunsets! Being in a hostel instead of a Airbnb or hotel was one the best decision I have made! It was my first experiencing hostels, at first it was a bit uncomfortable and awkward but I quickly adapted to it. 

During my stay, I had the chance to meet so many wonderful people from all over the world. In Istanbul, I befriended people from Germany, Croatia, Australia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Iran, Britain, Ireland, Singapore, and India. I was always in a group exploring the city as many of us wanted to see the same tourist and niche places. In Istanbul you can basically get to whatever place you want with the public transportation! I was actually really surprised of how incredible it was specially compared with the U.S public transportation. It really does make life a lot easier when navigating the city, as Istanbul is HUGE! Their are three big districts in Istanbul: Faith, Beyoğlu , Beşiktaş and not to mention the Asian side of Istanbul. 

My favorite part about Istanbul other then the food, is the mosques. The mosques in Istanbul are simply stunning, each one unique in its own way. One of my most unforgettable experiences was when my friends and I, had accidentally joined a prayer session at the Grand Çamlıca Mosque which is the largest mosque in Istanbul. It was also on a Friday, which is a scared day in Islam so the mosque had a lot of people in it. We quietly followed the lead of the worshippers, not wanting to stand out or be disrespectful. I come from a background of Muslim heritage, but I do not practice so this experience really opened my eyes to the beauty of Islamic practices. After that, I decided to attend prayers at two of the most iconic mosques: the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. It was amazing, mostly because you can truly take in the beauty and how enormous the mosques are. The Hagia Sophia is definitely incredible but my favorite would be the Blue Mosque (see picture #4). If you're interested in experiencing this, I recommend arriving about 20 minutes before prayer time. Tourists are asked to leave, but if you truly want to try praying they won't stop you. 

Istanbul is so rich in culture and history, with so many things to do beyond the main tourist attractions. I truly enjoyed my trip in Istanbul! The people you meet along the way will truly shape your adventure, leading to spontaneous moments and explorations. I will forever remember those that were with me as they were the ones that made my adventure in Istanbul special. I will most definitely come back again to Turkey, but this time explore the other regions! 

For anyone planning to visit Istanbul, a quick tip: Be cautious of scams. There is a lot of people that would try sell you things such as reloaded Metro passes, and they are much more expensive then getting the actual pass.  I actually spent some of my free time helping people avoid getting scammed at the train terminals and I found it really fun. Another thing is don't shop at the Grand Bazaar, everything is marked up at least 50%. You can find the same things a lot cheaper at the Asian side or in  the other side of the European side. Some of my German friends fell into a trap when we went to go see the Grand Bazaar, and they ended up spending $400 on things that would have been max $200. 

My time in Tbilisi was an absolute blast! It is one of those cities where, even if things didn't start out perfectly, everything came together in the most unexpected and exciting ways! It started out very rocky! When I landed and going through customs, I got stopped and was integrated for 30 minutes. Customs did not understand why I was visiting the country, and wanted details that I was not able to provide at the moment. I used my Uzbekistan Passport to enter the country which was why I probably got stopped and as soon as they realized that I have a American Passport, they let me go. 

Another issue popped up when I arrived and settled into my hostel. At first impressions it was really nice, everything was very modern and nice host. But after a day of staying there it felt more like a hotel, which wasn't what I was looking for. There was no warm, welcoming vibe, and I didn’t get the sense that anyone wanted to connect.  After realizing this, I decided to go around different hostels and see if I can move. On my third day in Tbilisi, I packed up and moved to a hostel in the heart of the Old Town. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I made during the entire trip.

The sleeping accommodations in the new hostel was definitely nothing special, the sleeping arrangements were pretty rough but the people I met there more than enough made up for it! I made friends with a bunch of older people, most of them were in their late 20s but two of them where probably in there 50s. They were some wise old dudes that dropped a lot of life lessons on me haha. But they were a lot of fun to be around with! 

In Tbilisi, I actually did not plan out my day to day but instead really just get with the flow.  Each day, I woke up and decided what to do based on how I was feeling. It was ok, because I realized that there isn't really many "must-see" tourist sites in Tbilisi itself as I initially thought. For a lot of the more touristy destinations where all the way across the country and I really did not feel like being on a bus for 4 hours. But a lot of the days I would still be out, as a bunch of people in the hostel made plans somewhere and everyone just tagged along. 

One unforgettable experience for me in Tbilisi was a group dinner we had one evening. You can see some of the photos below (Photos #7 and #22)! Firstly the meal that I had in this restaurant was my favorite dish that I ate in Tbilisi. It was genuinely incredible. Second it was really just the whole experience, I met these people less then 2 days ago and it felt like a big family dinner. I even got caught up in the moment that I accidentally broke a plate! Everyone just laughed it off, and it ended up adding to the memory.

Another standout moment was when a group of us decided to go watch a World Cup qualifying match where Georgia was playing and ironically it was against Turkey. On the way to the game, we met a couple of Russian travelers on the bus, and our groups immediately clicked. We stuck together for the rest of the day. Watching the game was also a big experience, everyone around Georgia gathered that day in parks, stadiums to watch the game. The sheer amount of energy of the fans was incredible. Sadly they did lose, many fans left hurt. After it everyone decided to go to a pub and we ended up hanging out until nearly 2 AM. It was one of those wild, unpredictable nights that make travel so memorable.

Baku was very interesting to me. The city doesn't really offer that many things to see. A lot of it is like the Carpet Museum which was nice and like the f1 track. In Baku I actually had a semi-hard time making friends and meeting new people. It wasn't until I went on a bunch of tours that I met people. Also made a really good friend in a restaurant. But my hostel was basically to just sleep and really make friends or a community. I felt like a week in Baku was too long of a time to be there. But I did enjoy the food and culture here, but it really reminded me a lot of Uzbekistan. The food and culture were very similiar. Even my taxi drivers were complaining about Baku. A memorable memory from Baku would probably the second tour I did! It was to go tour some temples and a mountain resort. For some reason I didn't think to check the weather and thought it would be hot, so I did bring any jackets to the tour. By the time we came on the mountain it was raining and freezing. But I powered through and just was with my friend, funny thing is that she also didn't grab a jacket. I was just powering through, also took on my fear of heights there which was really scary to me lol.