Living in Istanbul had its ups and downs.  However, I’ve learned to love and appreciate it more since I left.  It’s been portrayed in a fairly negative light over the past year, with the riots against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government as well as the highly publicized murder of an American woman.  Having lived there through both of these incidents, I can confidently confirm that this negative view is the product of media sensationalism.  Sure, there were a lot of things there that I wasn’t a huge fan of, but these two instances definitely do not reflect the city of Istanbul, nor the country of Turkey, as a whole.  While living there, J created this video to share what a normal day in Istanbul looks like.  Tadını çıkarın!

Video by Jamie at Great Big Scary World