Yesterday was the anniversary of Turkey becoming a republic. Now I’m sure all of you have gathered a sense of this, but Turkish pride is pretty exceptional. For those of you coming to visit here in the future, I dare you, DARE YOU to be able to find any spot in an urban portion of this country where you can travel within in a 100ft radius (about 30 meters, yes I’m American and am pretty horrible at adjusting to being like the rest of the world) and not run into either a portrait of Atatürk or a Turkish flag. If you can manage to do this feat, I’ll be damn impressed.

Anyway, yesterday was a Turkish equivalent of the 4th of July in the U.S., and boy oh boy did we get told!

Take that rest of the world, Turkey just kicked your ass with the most amazing fireworks display I have ever seen. Ever.

October 29th is Republic Day, the day that Turkey officially became a republic and is taken about as seriously as I’ve ever seen a holiday taken.  The entire city is draped in skyscraper sized flags, and the Bosporus lights up with the largest fireworks show I’ve ever seen.  The banks of the straight were lined with people watching, but we got to just head up to the room.  Just an amazing way to end our time here.

When the Fourth of July rolled around this year, Rob and I ventured out into Seoul’s infamous foreigner district, Itaewon, hoping to eat some cheeseburgers and maybe catch some fireworks. Overall we had a good time, but the closest we got to fireworks was hearing them from somewhere deep inside the US military base nearby. Istanbul must have taken pity on us, because in the two weeks we’ve been here we’ve seen at least 20 separate fireworks displays from our balcony. Some are small and far away, while others have been almost right outside our windows, and none of them seem to correspond to any sort of holiday that we can figure out. A few friends have suggested that they might be wedding ceremonies, but nobody’s 100% sure.

Fireworks near the Bosphorus Bridge

Fireworks over the Bosphorus

Fireworks over the Bosphorus