Welcome to the gun store!
Jill and I then traveled under a major intersection to get to the Galata Bridge so that we could start visiting the mosques and the main area of Istanbul.
There is a strange bunch of little shops under this massive intersection and I noticed something that really blew my mind.
There was a gun store here.
Now, in the USA, noticing gun stores isn’t something that unusual for me.
I see them, once in a while, and don’t really notice them that much.
But, in China, the only time I see guns is when the military is carrying them.
These could do some serious damage.
Sometimes the police but they seem pretty minimalist regarding showing them off.
It was right in your face here in Istanbul and just a bit of a shock.
I was guessing these are bb guns or fake but my friends, who know guns, thought they were real and there was someone who fired a few rounds and it definitely sounded like the real thing.
It was just another reminder that we were in a different country and we were about to find out so much more about the world.
And that is exactly why Jill and I love to travel.
One never knows what is around the next corner, or underneath the next major intersection, for that matter.
By the way, neither Jill nor I ever felt any danger or fear on our whole trip. People were incredibly kind, generous and open with us.
In fact, after living in Beijing, things seemed slow, lazy and so uncrowded or busy, that we were able to relax a lot and noticed how anxious we had been in the last few months compared to how we like to be and want to live our lives.
It was a really good lesson to learn and something that we will remember about ourselves and how we choose to live our lives and make choices regarding our future.