Turkish food and Asia for 3 hours

Hello all!
So I went to Asia today. Saying that never really gets old. Or, 'let's go to Europe for dinner'. God, I love this place.
Anyways, for my post today, I thought I'd show and tell you guys a little bit about what we do for food here. First of all, no Turkish meal is complete without tea. We went for some this morning before lunch:

(also, this is the incredible little tea place we went. It's a 15 second walk from our flat:)

It's served very, very hot in little glasses, with a cube of sugar or two and a tiny spoon to stir them in with. Based on dinner last night (payed between 15 and 20 lira for a mediocre dinner at a nicer restaurant in Galata- at fish off the bone for the first time in my life!), I think the best plan for food here is the little street vendors and cafes. I haven't gotten sick yet, and the food is absolutely delicious. After our tea, we went to a little shop even closer to our building, and got döner. Döner is meat cooked on what I guess is just an upright spit. The meat revolves, cooked on one side by a flame, and they cut off the meat as it cooks. Sounds kind of sketchy, and I guess it is. But, like most things here, it works out. Without too much trouble, I was able to get my döner, which is usually served on a sandwich with some lettuce/onions, pickles, tomatoes, and/or ketchup. Here's the sandwich, which I ate on the terrace:
Oh, and yeah, it cost a lira and a half. Street food is definitely the way to go. We took the ferry over to Asia this afternoon at one or so. This is Sultanahmet from the Bosphorus

and the view into the harbor at Haydarpaşa.

(the really cool building on the left was an Ottoman train station)

We spent the rest of the day going through a series of markets, which was incredible. We got a look at a lot of Turkish food too. One of the first things we saw a fish market,



with a Moray eel??? Not sure if that's what it was, or if people actually eat it, but that's what it looks like. And of course, it was packed everywhere.


The fruit and vegetable market was probably the most fun. I got a piece of artichoke heart with lemon for 1 lira- look Mom, I'm eating vegetables voluntarily!

David being content, me being skeptical, and Yekta being overjoyed. It was surprisingly good and, yes, I did finish it.

On the way back, we stopped at another little döner place, and got some ayran to drink. Ayran is another omnipresent facet of culinary life here. It's a thinned down, unsweetened yogurt drink. It's unlike anything I've ever tried, but it's pretty good.
Mmmmmm. Walking back to the ferry we saw another Turkish delicacy,


geese who live on the street. Actually we have no idea what this was about, and neither did the Turkish people around us. A couple more pictures of the city, from the ferry:

Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and all the city's other mosques' minarets

Do you recognize Galata Tower (basically where we live) yet? It's on the very right

Looking north, up the Bosphorus. Asia is on the right; the long, squattish building on the right is Dolmabahçe Palace; the high rises are in the city's financial district, Levent

Bosphorus Bridge, with Ortaköy Mosque underneath

That's pretty much it for today. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you all again soon!