I Hope That's Bougainvillea...Let Me Know If It's Not

A couple weeks ago, my roommate, Niko, and I were trying to find a shortcut, and we ended up stumbling upon a very beautiful church. While he took pictures of the church, I snapped this picture of these beautiful flowers.

At my house in Texas we have bougainvillea like this too. This little side street, with the church and the flowers, reminded me of home. Then I looked in the background of the photo and saw a typical Istanbul sight. A huge hill with houses seemingly built on top of one another. And that's what I like about Istanbul. It's familiar enough to be comfortable but different enough to be exciting. Our shortcut ended up being a longcut, and I'm honestly not sure I could navigate back to this spot. But I can always navigate back to this feeling.

I hope that through this blog those who have never been to Turkey and may be hesitant about a country that seems so different and so far away will begin to get a better idea of the people, of the country, of the land, and most importantly, of my time here.

EDIT: It's a crepe myrtle. The story remains the same otherwise - we have crepe myrtles, not bougainvillea, in our yard. I'm not a botanist, sorry I'm not sorry.