While writing this blog entry this time, I am not on a bus or on a bus on a ferry or anything of that sort of level of excitement. No, I am in fact in my dorm room in Istanbul, attempting to recover from my first week of class.
The week started out well (as I do not have classes on Mondays/Fridays...it's a hard knock life). Unfortunately, my schedule did need a lot of add/drop work and I ended up sitting in on several random classes. Tuesday began as I sat in on Ottoman Cultural History which I was later able to add. It covers a huge range of topics in both Ottoman culture and Ottoman history which are things that I haven't even thought about/had the opportunity to learn about before. Next I went to my Turkish for foreigners class where she began to speak in Turkish on the first day. I had been excited to learn Turkish but expecting us to speak Turkish back to her when we have no idea what's going on seems like a little bit too high of an expectation. I'm probably going to end up dropping the class in favor of something a little more exciting. After a nice lunch break with some friends from the great state of Kansas, I headed to a history course on the legacy of Alexander the Great, which proves to be very interesting considering my current geographical location. The professor seems very nice as well and some of my friends are in the class which is always nice.
Wednesday I decided to sit in on a politics class regarding the issues in Turkish foreign policy. I got accepted into the class (teachers here must give consent for some classes based on quota or department restrictions) and will probably add it although it is entirely presentation-based. I sat in on an afternoon class about Museums and Cultural Heritage which is taught by the woman who runs CAMOC (or something to that effect-an international body that governs UNESCO museums). She also worked on Istanbul 2010 and really has just a very interesting career. I will hopefully be able to get into that class to learn about the museums here and go on some fun field trips.
Thursday I had the Ottoman cultural history course again, Turkish, and an afternoon seminar on the History of Philanthropy. I am one of 5 students in the class, and the only one whose first language is English. The rest of the students are Turkish and most are graduate level. The professor is one of the preeminent scholars on the history of philanthropy and is very interesting. The class is also participation-based which puts me a little ahead of the pack. It's definitely a class to keep.
Friday, three friends (2 friends from UNC and a friend of theirs) came to visit from their study abroad in Spain. The weather for their weekend was awful-rainy and cold, which is really unfortunate. This is the first week that I've been in Istanbul that it hasn't been gorgeous and sunny all the time. Regardless, we took them around to our favorite places to eat (including waffles) and other delicious Turkish foods. Really, we just made sure they were well-fed and mildly interested in what they saw. Food is really the most important, though.
Throughout the week, I've been attending practices for the women's varsity futsal team here. Futsal is like indoor soccer except the ball is a little smaller and heavier, and you can't use the walls. I suppose you can now say that I'm playing a varsity sport in college. Hopefully, I will travel with the team to Antalya in two weekends for a tournament. Antalya is a beautiful city on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey that is well-known for being a resort town. It would be a free trip and I really love free travel so keep your fingers crossed!
This week has made me realize a few things about my study abroad experience:
1. I am not actually studying abroad. I'm really abroad, studying. There's a huge difference. I place a high value and priority on my studies but this experience is really about learning about a new culture, not at a different school that happens to be in a different country.
2. I have a love/hate relationship with Turkish time. I love that we randomly take breaks in the middle of my 2+ hour long courses that last for half an hour at times. It's nice to have professors that aren't obsessed with teaching for every single minute that they have class. On the other hand, Turkish time means that people are never in any rush to do anything here (however important those things are). We've been waiting for our student IDs here since we got here and they probably won't be done for another two weeks. Those IDs would get us discounted travel within the city, free museums around Turkey, and also within Istanbul. We haven't seen a lot of the important museums and attractions here as we're waiting on those IDs. Can you tell I really just want my ID?
3. Turkey is nothing like I imagined. I told people I was coming to Istanbul for a myriad of reasons and there are a myriad of reasons why I could live in Istanbul for the rest of my life. People here are some of the most hospitable that I've ever met and will stop whatever they're doing just to help you. Most people in America would never do that for people. We're too engrossed in our Crackberrys and iPhone4000s to look up and see the world around us. It's kind of sad and despicable.
I suppose this is a really random blog with no fun pictures to accompany it, but I mean..this whole school things for 3 days a week is really getting to me and tiring me out. I hope you guys can sympathize and forgive me. I'm just exhausted from the amount of homework I have to do during my agonizingly short four day weekends. Really, I'm inches from passing out due to exhaustion. Keep your fingers crossed that I can make it through.
..anyways, I hope everyone at home is doing well and are actually enjoying reading my somewhat nonsensical ramblings. I think this may put an end to my idea of being a journalist as a career...oops.
Have a good week!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
This time, as I sit writing this blog entry, I am on a bus from Cappadocia to Istanbul. Possibly not as exciting as being on a ferry on a double decker bus but I’m excited to go back to Istanbul. It’s really my home now and I long for its delectable food and comforting feeling. Though my room at the Superdorm is reminiscent of a prison cell with a rock-hard bed, I really love the neighborhood I live in (Etiler) and all of the different things to do in Istanbul. That being said, this past weekend was quite an adventure in itself (though it’s impossible to compare this weekend and last).
Tuesday night we (5 of us this time) left the European side of Istanbul on a ferry to the Asian side where we caught an over night train to the capital city of Ankara. We arrived in Ankara before 7am on Wednesday which, if you know me, you know I do not enjoy being up before 10am. This travelling is making me get used to sleeping wherever I can whenever I can. Once in Ankara we walked around and decided to stop in a nice-looking hotel to ask for directions to the main bus station to buy our tickets to Cappadocia for the evening. The hotel staff pointed us to the metro station where we rode several stops towards the end of the line and purchased our tickets to Göreme (Grr-em-ehh). After purchasing our tickets, we found breakfast and delicious tea in a café in the bus station where I ordered kasharlı tost (kash-ar-luh toast), which is basically like a Panini-grilled version of a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s always cheap but is always delicious. I ended up getting a tea as well. I came to Turkey with a bit of a bias against tea, thinking it was something that people with British accents (and my sister) like to drink. However, Turkey has completely changed my biased perspective in that all of its many flavors are just too delicious to turn down for any reason-especially if they’re free. My current favorite is apple tea, which is kind of like apple cider/apple juice but even better. It’s just beyond words. Aside from my tea rant, we left the bus station and went back to near where our train took us. We walked around and asked several very nice Ankarans (I probably made that term up) where we could find Ataturk’s Mausoleum. This was actually a very stupid question as Ataturk’s Mausoleum was in the direct middle of the city on top of a giant hill, several hundred feet above the tree line. The mausoleum had a gorgeous view of the city from all sides and contained a very interesting museum chronicling Ataturk’s life. The Turkish nation was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after World War I. The Turkish found a long war against several different nations (UK, French, mostly) with Ataturk being their hero. As a side note, he chose Ankara as the capital as it is a lot easier to defend than Istanbul (which is easily accessible by sea, land, and air). There was a movie at the Mausoleum which basically just said how awesome Ataturk was, which does make me somewhat question the cult of personality that the Turkish have for Ataturk. On the day of Ataturk’s death, everything stops. At the exact time of his death, cars stop in the middle of the street, people stop breathing; it’s just something that is completely unparalleled in the US. Maybe if you combined Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, Franklin, and the Adamses, you would get maybe half an Ataturk. Ataturk himself actually did very well with the country, I think. The movie stressed that he was not a dictator despite a 15-year term until his death. However, despite the length of his rule being close to what we might consider dictatorship, the social programs and equality efforts brought about by Ataturk completely defied the stereotypes of a dictator. Ataturk gave women equal rights, expanded education efforts, opened up the Turkish economy to foreign trade, and started a period of slow but steady growth for the nation. Conclusion: Ataturk was pretty bad ass. The tomb itself is in a giant hall reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial but gold-plated and 10x larger. The entire area is guarded by different members of each military branch and some of them are in glass cases (a friend thought they were fake and got a little too close to the case which made for a good laugh). The guards are kind of like a mix of those at Arlington Cemetery and Buckingham Palace. It seemed like a very big honor to work and guard Ataturk’s grave. After leaving Ataturk’s grave and the rest of the museum, we got a guard to take a picture with us, which was a bit terrifying with his sword and machine gun. It was also kind of creepy but in reality, he was kind of just a creep. Creeper magnet is apparently still going strong here in Turkey. Our journey continued towards a place for lunch where my friend Emily and I split a pizza, which was unfortunately not delicious. I guess somehow they interpreted sausage as bologna. Bologna pizza is never okay. After lunch we ventured on towards Kocatepe (Koh-ja-tep-eh) Mosque near the business district in Ankara. The mosque is supposedly modeled after the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It’s very similar in size but nowhere near as old or touristy. The centerpiece of the mosque had this giant hanging golden ball (kind of like the size of the ball they drop on New Year’s). We never figured out where that came from but it was very interesting nonetheless. After leaving the mosque, we took the metro back to the bus station again where we stopped for ice cream sandwiches. My friend Emily and I got dark chocolate with brownie while others opted for caramel or pistachio. Obviously we chose the superior option. After scarfing down our ice cream, we got on our bus to Göreme, which is a little more than a 4 hour bus ride from Ankara. I dozed off a bit and was not woken up to see the sun setting over a gorgeous lake. Some friends! We arrived in Göreme and headed to the pension I had booked for us ahead of time. It was super nice and heated and quite a wonderful find. We dropped our bags and ran to the nearest place for dinner. I got the local special called guveç (goo-vech) which was beef cubes, tomatoes, and green peppers in a wondrous broth in a pot cooked over a fire. It was served with bread for dipping which was quite excellent. After dinner was bed time after a nice warm shower. Having heat was much appreciated and I slept like a rock.
Thursday began after a wonderful night’s sleep. We all got dressed and went to breakfast together. The five of us ended up being able to stay in the same room with a shower and bathroom inside the hostel dorm. Breakfast happened to be included in the fee and I chose French toast as my delectable option. It was of course delicious and made to order, which is appreciated (and wonderful for the price we paid for the room). After breakfast, our “mother” Zeyda (or Zaida, not sure, but pronounced Zey-duh) gave us a lot of travel and sightseeing options for the day. She works at the reception desk of the pension and is from Durban, South Africa (the Turkish accent and South African one mixed together make for a very cool combo). We headed out towards the Göreme Open Air Museum where we were able to convince them that we were all students so they let us in for free. The museum is a group of rock dwellings you can explore. The majority of the ones you could walk into were churches which generally outdated the spread of Islam. They were very well-preserved for being thousands of years old. Coincidentally, we saw the same Canadian/Belgian (I can’t remember his place of origin) who was at our hotel last weekend at the open air museum. Small world. After leaving the museum, we headed for a leisurely hike through the muddy, icy hills of the Cappadocian valleys. My Sperry’s were definitely not equipped for the terrain but I managed. I really didn’t think I’d be hiking through muddy, gross hills. However, the views from the tops of the climbs were completely worth it and absolutely gorgeous. Cappadocia is one of (if not the) prettiest places I have ever been in my entire life. After competing our hike, the owner of the restaurant we ate at the previous night randomly happened to be driving along the main road we were on (we were waiting for a local bus). He stopped and offered us a ride back into Göreme in his very nice car despite the fact that we were sporting muddy shoes. I suppose I have now hitch hiked. One more thing off the bucket list, really. In Göreme we hung out around the hostel/pension for a bit before getting dinner at a place Zeyda recommended. The place served börek, which is philo dough stuffed with different options (chicken, veggies, sauces, dessert items) and fried lightly until crispy. I had tavuk gozleme (chicken) which is the same consistency but kind of egg-roll shaped. It was served with the yogurt they eat here as a dipping sauce and was quite delicious. The five of us split a chocolate gozleme for desert which was magnificent. The owner of the shop spoke to me in Spanish (he spoke 8 languages) which was enjoyable (a foreign language I do understand!). We had an early night because we had to wake up early for…
Hot air ballooning! We woke up around 5:45am and were picked up from the hostel around 6:30 to head to the fields (which happened to be across from the Open Air Museum). There were more than 20 different balloons there preparing for take off. The five of us were also in a balloon with a group of South Korean tourists but the basket was compartmentalized so that the 5 of us had our own space together. The balloon took off and flew around the area for about an hour. The pilot was excellent, flying between rock formations and even touching the ground momentarily before lifting off again. His favorite phrase was “Don’t worry! Be happy” which kept that song in my head for the duration of the day. I honestly cannot describe how gorgeous the flight was but hopefully my pictures (and my friends’ pictures) will do it some justice. The flight was a little pricey but absolutely worth it. We landed after about an hour and were greeted with a celebratory glass of champagne mixed with peach juice as well as flight certificates for successful completion of our hot air balloon ride. We then had to trek up another muddy field (my shoes were about 2 pounds heavier after this trek) to get to the van that would drive us back to the hostel. It was only around 9am. We had another bout of French toast before heading out to rent a car for the day. Emily was the only one who knew how to drive stick shift and thus became our driver for the day while I served as navigator. The rental company asked for no proof of insurance, driver’s license, passport, or anything. Amazing how things are different in Turkey. We drove towards Derinkuyu, one of the underground cities in the area. We explored the 8 underground floors they excavated within the area. The underground city itself was apparently supposed to hold almost 20,000 people. It was very interesting to see how they lived and very cool to explore around (though most things were very well lit). In Derinkuyu we stopped to eat lunch (delicious pb&j’s). We accidentally sat outside of a middle school where the boys opened the windows and started yelling “I love you!” and then proceeding to throw rocks at us. Needless to say, we departed very quickly from Derinkuyu after that. Eventually we made our way to Urgüp (Er-goop) and parked (after some help). The area is well-known for its wine and a group member wanted to go to a wine tasting in the area. The wines that were tried included pomegranate, cherry, mulberry, sour grape, a white wine, and strawberry. After the wine tasting, we headed to a baklava place that Zeyda recommended where we had pistachio baklava (which is traditional Turkish baklava. I prefer walnut, which is more Greek-style). We left the town and headed back to the hostel, stopping to race up a hill to watch the sun set. We got there about fifteen minutes before the sun went down and we watched its progression. It was definitely the best sunset I have ever seen. Again, no words to describe it. We then headed back to town where we went to dinner at the same place from the first night. I had pide this time rather than the house special (I mentioned pide in my previous post-it’s the Turkish pizza equivalent but without sauce). I really love me some Turkish food. So delicious.
Saturday began with French toast for breakfast again (it was just that good!). Three of us decided to go to the nearby city of Kayseri (kaiser-ee), which houses an immaculately preserved 14th century house. The house also had coins and paper money from the 600s in great shape as well as some papyrus scrolls from the time period. They were so well preserved which is amazing. After the house, we went for waffles, which I don’t think I’ve explained yet. The Turkish enjoy taking a Belgian waffle, covering it in nutella, chocolate sauce, fruit slices (banana, apple, kiwi, strawberry-today’s even had pomegranate seeds which were amazing), and sometimes a pistachio spread. At times they put chocolate/vanilla ice cream on top. If not, the waffle is wrapped up like a pizza and shoveled into one’s mouth. It is beyond delicious. I could eat a waffle a day because they are just so amazing. We took a taxi back to the main bus station where we caught a bus to Avanos (a city to the north of our hostel). In Avanos we caught a bus back to the hostel, said our final goodbyes to Zeyda (she’s like my adoptive mother), and headed out for dinner. I got a cheese gozleme but this time it was not fried, rather, it was cooked in a pan and was extra crispy. Kind of like a quesadilla. After dinner, we got baklava for the road (don’t judge me) and now here I am, writing this in the mountains of Cappadocia.
I know this entry was very long and probably a little more information than you wanted about my journey but oh well. I start classes this week (after being out of school for about two months) and hope my classes will be interesting. As of right now I have no classes on Mondays and Fridays but my schedule does need a little tweaking.
Anyways, moral of this story: Cappadocia is amazing. Go there if you ever get the chance. You really won’t regret it, no matter what kinds of things you like to do while traveling.
Transportation recap: total number of modes of transport: 10 (bus, feet, ferry, train, metro, mini-bus, “hitch hiking,” hot air balloon, rented car, and taxi).
Hope everyone is well and enjoying the wonderful weather I’m hearing about back home!
Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034813&id=1391040260&l=91e2a908ec
Tuesday night we (5 of us this time) left the European side of Istanbul on a ferry to the Asian side where we caught an over night train to the capital city of Ankara. We arrived in Ankara before 7am on Wednesday which, if you know me, you know I do not enjoy being up before 10am. This travelling is making me get used to sleeping wherever I can whenever I can. Once in Ankara we walked around and decided to stop in a nice-looking hotel to ask for directions to the main bus station to buy our tickets to Cappadocia for the evening. The hotel staff pointed us to the metro station where we rode several stops towards the end of the line and purchased our tickets to Göreme (Grr-em-ehh). After purchasing our tickets, we found breakfast and delicious tea in a café in the bus station where I ordered kasharlı tost (kash-ar-luh toast), which is basically like a Panini-grilled version of a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s always cheap but is always delicious. I ended up getting a tea as well. I came to Turkey with a bit of a bias against tea, thinking it was something that people with British accents (and my sister) like to drink. However, Turkey has completely changed my biased perspective in that all of its many flavors are just too delicious to turn down for any reason-especially if they’re free. My current favorite is apple tea, which is kind of like apple cider/apple juice but even better. It’s just beyond words. Aside from my tea rant, we left the bus station and went back to near where our train took us. We walked around and asked several very nice Ankarans (I probably made that term up) where we could find Ataturk’s Mausoleum. This was actually a very stupid question as Ataturk’s Mausoleum was in the direct middle of the city on top of a giant hill, several hundred feet above the tree line. The mausoleum had a gorgeous view of the city from all sides and contained a very interesting museum chronicling Ataturk’s life. The Turkish nation was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after World War I. The Turkish found a long war against several different nations (UK, French, mostly) with Ataturk being their hero. As a side note, he chose Ankara as the capital as it is a lot easier to defend than Istanbul (which is easily accessible by sea, land, and air). There was a movie at the Mausoleum which basically just said how awesome Ataturk was, which does make me somewhat question the cult of personality that the Turkish have for Ataturk. On the day of Ataturk’s death, everything stops. At the exact time of his death, cars stop in the middle of the street, people stop breathing; it’s just something that is completely unparalleled in the US. Maybe if you combined Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, Franklin, and the Adamses, you would get maybe half an Ataturk. Ataturk himself actually did very well with the country, I think. The movie stressed that he was not a dictator despite a 15-year term until his death. However, despite the length of his rule being close to what we might consider dictatorship, the social programs and equality efforts brought about by Ataturk completely defied the stereotypes of a dictator. Ataturk gave women equal rights, expanded education efforts, opened up the Turkish economy to foreign trade, and started a period of slow but steady growth for the nation. Conclusion: Ataturk was pretty bad ass. The tomb itself is in a giant hall reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial but gold-plated and 10x larger. The entire area is guarded by different members of each military branch and some of them are in glass cases (a friend thought they were fake and got a little too close to the case which made for a good laugh). The guards are kind of like a mix of those at Arlington Cemetery and Buckingham Palace. It seemed like a very big honor to work and guard Ataturk’s grave. After leaving Ataturk’s grave and the rest of the museum, we got a guard to take a picture with us, which was a bit terrifying with his sword and machine gun. It was also kind of creepy but in reality, he was kind of just a creep. Creeper magnet is apparently still going strong here in Turkey. Our journey continued towards a place for lunch where my friend Emily and I split a pizza, which was unfortunately not delicious. I guess somehow they interpreted sausage as bologna. Bologna pizza is never okay. After lunch we ventured on towards Kocatepe (Koh-ja-tep-eh) Mosque near the business district in Ankara. The mosque is supposedly modeled after the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It’s very similar in size but nowhere near as old or touristy. The centerpiece of the mosque had this giant hanging golden ball (kind of like the size of the ball they drop on New Year’s). We never figured out where that came from but it was very interesting nonetheless. After leaving the mosque, we took the metro back to the bus station again where we stopped for ice cream sandwiches. My friend Emily and I got dark chocolate with brownie while others opted for caramel or pistachio. Obviously we chose the superior option. After scarfing down our ice cream, we got on our bus to Göreme, which is a little more than a 4 hour bus ride from Ankara. I dozed off a bit and was not woken up to see the sun setting over a gorgeous lake. Some friends! We arrived in Göreme and headed to the pension I had booked for us ahead of time. It was super nice and heated and quite a wonderful find. We dropped our bags and ran to the nearest place for dinner. I got the local special called guveç (goo-vech) which was beef cubes, tomatoes, and green peppers in a wondrous broth in a pot cooked over a fire. It was served with bread for dipping which was quite excellent. After dinner was bed time after a nice warm shower. Having heat was much appreciated and I slept like a rock.
Thursday began after a wonderful night’s sleep. We all got dressed and went to breakfast together. The five of us ended up being able to stay in the same room with a shower and bathroom inside the hostel dorm. Breakfast happened to be included in the fee and I chose French toast as my delectable option. It was of course delicious and made to order, which is appreciated (and wonderful for the price we paid for the room). After breakfast, our “mother” Zeyda (or Zaida, not sure, but pronounced Zey-duh) gave us a lot of travel and sightseeing options for the day. She works at the reception desk of the pension and is from Durban, South Africa (the Turkish accent and South African one mixed together make for a very cool combo). We headed out towards the Göreme Open Air Museum where we were able to convince them that we were all students so they let us in for free. The museum is a group of rock dwellings you can explore. The majority of the ones you could walk into were churches which generally outdated the spread of Islam. They were very well-preserved for being thousands of years old. Coincidentally, we saw the same Canadian/Belgian (I can’t remember his place of origin) who was at our hotel last weekend at the open air museum. Small world. After leaving the museum, we headed for a leisurely hike through the muddy, icy hills of the Cappadocian valleys. My Sperry’s were definitely not equipped for the terrain but I managed. I really didn’t think I’d be hiking through muddy, gross hills. However, the views from the tops of the climbs were completely worth it and absolutely gorgeous. Cappadocia is one of (if not the) prettiest places I have ever been in my entire life. After competing our hike, the owner of the restaurant we ate at the previous night randomly happened to be driving along the main road we were on (we were waiting for a local bus). He stopped and offered us a ride back into Göreme in his very nice car despite the fact that we were sporting muddy shoes. I suppose I have now hitch hiked. One more thing off the bucket list, really. In Göreme we hung out around the hostel/pension for a bit before getting dinner at a place Zeyda recommended. The place served börek, which is philo dough stuffed with different options (chicken, veggies, sauces, dessert items) and fried lightly until crispy. I had tavuk gozleme (chicken) which is the same consistency but kind of egg-roll shaped. It was served with the yogurt they eat here as a dipping sauce and was quite delicious. The five of us split a chocolate gozleme for desert which was magnificent. The owner of the shop spoke to me in Spanish (he spoke 8 languages) which was enjoyable (a foreign language I do understand!). We had an early night because we had to wake up early for…
Hot air ballooning! We woke up around 5:45am and were picked up from the hostel around 6:30 to head to the fields (which happened to be across from the Open Air Museum). There were more than 20 different balloons there preparing for take off. The five of us were also in a balloon with a group of South Korean tourists but the basket was compartmentalized so that the 5 of us had our own space together. The balloon took off and flew around the area for about an hour. The pilot was excellent, flying between rock formations and even touching the ground momentarily before lifting off again. His favorite phrase was “Don’t worry! Be happy” which kept that song in my head for the duration of the day. I honestly cannot describe how gorgeous the flight was but hopefully my pictures (and my friends’ pictures) will do it some justice. The flight was a little pricey but absolutely worth it. We landed after about an hour and were greeted with a celebratory glass of champagne mixed with peach juice as well as flight certificates for successful completion of our hot air balloon ride. We then had to trek up another muddy field (my shoes were about 2 pounds heavier after this trek) to get to the van that would drive us back to the hostel. It was only around 9am. We had another bout of French toast before heading out to rent a car for the day. Emily was the only one who knew how to drive stick shift and thus became our driver for the day while I served as navigator. The rental company asked for no proof of insurance, driver’s license, passport, or anything. Amazing how things are different in Turkey. We drove towards Derinkuyu, one of the underground cities in the area. We explored the 8 underground floors they excavated within the area. The underground city itself was apparently supposed to hold almost 20,000 people. It was very interesting to see how they lived and very cool to explore around (though most things were very well lit). In Derinkuyu we stopped to eat lunch (delicious pb&j’s). We accidentally sat outside of a middle school where the boys opened the windows and started yelling “I love you!” and then proceeding to throw rocks at us. Needless to say, we departed very quickly from Derinkuyu after that. Eventually we made our way to Urgüp (Er-goop) and parked (after some help). The area is well-known for its wine and a group member wanted to go to a wine tasting in the area. The wines that were tried included pomegranate, cherry, mulberry, sour grape, a white wine, and strawberry. After the wine tasting, we headed to a baklava place that Zeyda recommended where we had pistachio baklava (which is traditional Turkish baklava. I prefer walnut, which is more Greek-style). We left the town and headed back to the hostel, stopping to race up a hill to watch the sun set. We got there about fifteen minutes before the sun went down and we watched its progression. It was definitely the best sunset I have ever seen. Again, no words to describe it. We then headed back to town where we went to dinner at the same place from the first night. I had pide this time rather than the house special (I mentioned pide in my previous post-it’s the Turkish pizza equivalent but without sauce). I really love me some Turkish food. So delicious.
Saturday began with French toast for breakfast again (it was just that good!). Three of us decided to go to the nearby city of Kayseri (kaiser-ee), which houses an immaculately preserved 14th century house. The house also had coins and paper money from the 600s in great shape as well as some papyrus scrolls from the time period. They were so well preserved which is amazing. After the house, we went for waffles, which I don’t think I’ve explained yet. The Turkish enjoy taking a Belgian waffle, covering it in nutella, chocolate sauce, fruit slices (banana, apple, kiwi, strawberry-today’s even had pomegranate seeds which were amazing), and sometimes a pistachio spread. At times they put chocolate/vanilla ice cream on top. If not, the waffle is wrapped up like a pizza and shoveled into one’s mouth. It is beyond delicious. I could eat a waffle a day because they are just so amazing. We took a taxi back to the main bus station where we caught a bus to Avanos (a city to the north of our hostel). In Avanos we caught a bus back to the hostel, said our final goodbyes to Zeyda (she’s like my adoptive mother), and headed out for dinner. I got a cheese gozleme but this time it was not fried, rather, it was cooked in a pan and was extra crispy. Kind of like a quesadilla. After dinner, we got baklava for the road (don’t judge me) and now here I am, writing this in the mountains of Cappadocia.
I know this entry was very long and probably a little more information than you wanted about my journey but oh well. I start classes this week (after being out of school for about two months) and hope my classes will be interesting. As of right now I have no classes on Mondays and Fridays but my schedule does need a little tweaking.
Anyways, moral of this story: Cappadocia is amazing. Go there if you ever get the chance. You really won’t regret it, no matter what kinds of things you like to do while traveling.
Transportation recap: total number of modes of transport: 10 (bus, feet, ferry, train, metro, mini-bus, “hitch hiking,” hot air balloon, rented car, and taxi).
Hope everyone is well and enjoying the wonderful weather I’m hearing about back home!
Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034813&id=1391040260&l=91e2a908ec
Monday, February 14, 2011
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
As I sit here typing out this blog entry, I am legitimately on a ferry from the Asian side back to Istanbul. No, really. I’m on a double-decker bus aboard a giant ferry across. It’s kind of trippy being inside a bus, on the second floor (first class is below-with a kitchen and a bathroom), and on a ferry going from one continent to another. This will hopefully conclude a very successful weekend with newfound international friends (okay, so we’re all Americans) and a very enlightening journey throughout a large part of Turkey.
We left Thursday night at around 6 from our dorm. I decided around 5pm to go ahead and attend the trip, thinking it’d be a great way to see a huge part of Turkey and also meet new people who would also want to travel in the future. We caught the bus from around our dorm to the tram that I had previously taken to visit Sultanahmet. From there, we took the metro to the otogar (bus station) in which we were shepherded around by several men who essentially stole our planned itinerary and made us chase after them until they eventually booked us (all 13 of us) on a bus to Denizli. The men left us alone after they got their cut of our ticket sales under the table but did not actually receive payment from us. They enjoyed calling the girls “baby baby baby” on a repeated basis, making me question the reverberating presence of Justin Bieber worldwide. All in all, the men were actually helpful in securing such a large group a spot on the bus.
Friday began after a ten hour long bus ride from Istanbul to Denizli, where one of my compadres made a Turkish sister on the bus, as they exchanged multi-language conversation over the duration of the ten hour bus ride. The majority of us attempted sleep in cramped spaces that could have been much worse. A cart with juice, tea, coffee, soda, and small snacks was brought around to everyone twice on the ride and I have definitely found a new favorite in a Turkish peach juice. After getting off the bus, our Turkish sister helped us find a bus to Pamukkale, a nearby town famous for its deposits (travertines) with hot springs as well as neighboring Roman ruins of Hieropolis. We took many a picture in the ruins of the ancient Roman city as there were no guide rails or signs to indicate that this was bad behavior. I did not participate in the antics as the majority of Hieropolis was centered on death and burial. Many Romans thought that the hot springs of Pamukkale had healing powers and came to Hieropolis for treatment but based on the number of graves, this whole “healing” thing didn’t work so well. The ruins were surprisingly well preserved and the amphitheater was one of the largest in the ancient Roman world. We ventured over to the travertines, which also contained hot springs (I have no idea how that is actually possible, but oh well). We had to take off our shoes and socks in order to walk on the travertines which was somewhat painful, but the majority of it felt like cool, wet sand (but even softer than that-it’s like walking on one of those memory foam beds). There was a small waterfall over the deposits, which was absolutely gorgeous but hard to capture by picture because of the reflection of sun on the white travertines. The amount of walking by around 3pm that day was somewhat ridiculous but I find the walking to allow more baklava than my normal quota. We eventually made our way down the side of the limestone deposits and into the town of Pamukkale where we began our journey of odd Turkish interconnection. We were directed to a bus company that then took us to Selçuk and pointed us to a hotel that they promised had central heating (a very important asset of sleeping). At the bus station in Selçuk, a man from the hotel met us and fed us a schpiel about how amazing the hotel is (Hotel Artemis…if you have the name of a deity, your hotel really should be divine). He said he would give us a group rate with breakfast and transportation to Ephesus, which, after a very long day and with very hungry people, sounded great. We then took a tour of the hotel, sat and had some tea (apple tea…mmmm) and then dropped our stuff and semi-sprinted to dinner. We had Turkish pizza, which is a lot like the lahmacun I’ve previously described, but is more oval-shaped with different dough. It was a pleasant meal completed with baklava and a cake bought for a group-member’s birthday. We went back to the hotel where a Canadian, a Belgian, and a Slovene had already checked in and were included in our birthday festivities for said comrade. Though the hotel advertised a central heating system, I do not believe I have ever woken up (violently shaking) in the fetal position like this before. Providing us with two scratchy blankets and non-working heating was really a downer. We were also situated right next to a mosque, so hearing the call to prayer at 5am was rather unpleasant.
Saturday began in shivers and curses at false promises of central heating. I think over the course of the night, myself and my roommates got up several handfuls of times to put more clothing on (more than the pants and long sleeved shirts we already had on) to attempt some legitimate sleep. We went downstairs and had breakfast in front of a roaring fire (…why couldn’t that have been in my room?) which consisted of bread, jam, butter, cucumber (uh), hard boiled eggs, and more apple tea. My bread intake for the weekend really has been rather phenomenal. This really is Turkey in the off season. We decided to check out and depart for Ephesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus). What we thought was going to be a bus ride to Ephesus turned out to be a 10 person group (not including myself) piled into a large pick up truck and myself and two other girls in a small sedan. I must say that I am quite glad that I was not in said pick up truck. Ephesus was only about 2km away from the hotel so the ride wasn’t very long. We started at the top of Ephesus where we haggled with a tour guide to get the price to be about 5 lira for all of us. His name was Nail (nah-eel) and he had been giving tours for the last 40 years (apparently). He was very informative about all the different parts of the ruins and even told us where to stand to get the best pictures. At the end, we went in another giant amphitheater, which seems to be our trend). After Ephesus, we walked back towards Selcuk and stopped at the Temptle of Artemis, one of the 7 wonder’s of the ancient world but all that was really standing was one very long pillar. Kind of sad how much everything has been destroyed over time by the elements and the non-Greeks. Still, I suppose I can now claim to have seen one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 6 more to go..! After returning from the Temple of Artemis, the group decided to find a place to eat in Selçuk, and our guide from earlier (who met us at the bus station and took us to the hotel) magically appeared and found us a nice place to eat. We all had a variety of things but splurged on some wonderful çips (French fries) to quench of American hunger pangs. Selçuk was in full market swing so we took advantage of the multitude of fresh fruit, veggies, nuts, cheeses, etc that were offered and scored some sweet snacks for the road. We then trekked back to the main area of town and then basically walked up a mountain to a castle that once guarded the city and the mosque next to it. We strolled around the courtyard of the mosque and then watched the sunset near the mosque and then headed back into town. We stopped for wondrous baklava (you don’t even want to know how many pieces of baklava I had on this trip) and then made our merry way to the bus station. We took about an hour long bus ride into Izmir (one of the largest cities in Turkey behind Istanbul) and then proceeded to find dinner (I had a lamb, lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, and pita wrap) and some çay. We waited until about 12:30 to get on our bus to Cannakkale which is near the ancient city of Troy.
Sunday began with a jolt, as our supposed 7 hour bus ride arrived at an astounding 5:15am into the bus station at Cannakkale. I was violently awoken by the bus…steward. I’m not quite sure what to call him, but he brought drinks and such on a little trolley like on a flight so…steward for now. I do believe I was slapped (or love-tapped as I like to call it) in the face in order to wake me up from my deep sleep in order to alert the group that we were indeed in Cannakkale. We rushed off the bus and into the warm bus depo where several of the group members fell asleep again but being the protective soul I am, I couldn’t allow my group-members’ baggage to go unlooked after. After watching the sunrise, team bonding via card games, and wondrous pastries, we walked towards the water to see where the horse used in the movie Troy was located. It’s huge and it’s hard to think about the amount of work that went into making it. We then took a smaller bus to the actual ruins of Troy, where we all climbed up into the wooden horse there and took photos as well as walked around the ruins. It is very interesting to think about the Homeric epic and how that translates to actual history for the city of Troy. After Troy we headed out towards the bus station again where we took the bus that I am now sitting on.
I think a lot of the time it sounds like I’ve been complaining about things that have happened on this trip, but I legitimately cannot express the wonderful things I have seen or people I met. People here in Turkey are so friendly and willing to help at the drop of a hat and legitimately never ask for anything in return. Hospitality and kindness are the norm here, not the exception. You could never just walk up to random strangers on the street in the US and ask for directions or help like you do here. People here can sense that you are lost or need help and really go out of their way to help you. Travel in Turkey is extremely inexpensive as well, as the buses we took were very high class and no more than $20 for a very nice ride. The things we saw differ so much from what we have seen in Istanbul. Turkey is an amazingly diverse country with so many different attractions for people of all different preferences. Even just being in smaller towns and villages was an experience, with the stories from these experiences definitely something for another time.
A lot of people tend to lump Turkey into one general category under the umbrella of Istanbul, but it’s really not. Turkey cannot really be defined by one city, albeit a large one as my many adventures throughout Turkey have proved this to be false. More adventures to come after this upcoming weekend in Turkey before classes start. Hopefully I will be heading off to Ankara and Cappadocia this weekend for more adventures.
Pictures from this weekend can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034746&id=1391040260&l=0e11adc407
Hope everyone is well!
We left Thursday night at around 6 from our dorm. I decided around 5pm to go ahead and attend the trip, thinking it’d be a great way to see a huge part of Turkey and also meet new people who would also want to travel in the future. We caught the bus from around our dorm to the tram that I had previously taken to visit Sultanahmet. From there, we took the metro to the otogar (bus station) in which we were shepherded around by several men who essentially stole our planned itinerary and made us chase after them until they eventually booked us (all 13 of us) on a bus to Denizli. The men left us alone after they got their cut of our ticket sales under the table but did not actually receive payment from us. They enjoyed calling the girls “baby baby baby” on a repeated basis, making me question the reverberating presence of Justin Bieber worldwide. All in all, the men were actually helpful in securing such a large group a spot on the bus.
Friday began after a ten hour long bus ride from Istanbul to Denizli, where one of my compadres made a Turkish sister on the bus, as they exchanged multi-language conversation over the duration of the ten hour bus ride. The majority of us attempted sleep in cramped spaces that could have been much worse. A cart with juice, tea, coffee, soda, and small snacks was brought around to everyone twice on the ride and I have definitely found a new favorite in a Turkish peach juice. After getting off the bus, our Turkish sister helped us find a bus to Pamukkale, a nearby town famous for its deposits (travertines) with hot springs as well as neighboring Roman ruins of Hieropolis. We took many a picture in the ruins of the ancient Roman city as there were no guide rails or signs to indicate that this was bad behavior. I did not participate in the antics as the majority of Hieropolis was centered on death and burial. Many Romans thought that the hot springs of Pamukkale had healing powers and came to Hieropolis for treatment but based on the number of graves, this whole “healing” thing didn’t work so well. The ruins were surprisingly well preserved and the amphitheater was one of the largest in the ancient Roman world. We ventured over to the travertines, which also contained hot springs (I have no idea how that is actually possible, but oh well). We had to take off our shoes and socks in order to walk on the travertines which was somewhat painful, but the majority of it felt like cool, wet sand (but even softer than that-it’s like walking on one of those memory foam beds). There was a small waterfall over the deposits, which was absolutely gorgeous but hard to capture by picture because of the reflection of sun on the white travertines. The amount of walking by around 3pm that day was somewhat ridiculous but I find the walking to allow more baklava than my normal quota. We eventually made our way down the side of the limestone deposits and into the town of Pamukkale where we began our journey of odd Turkish interconnection. We were directed to a bus company that then took us to Selçuk and pointed us to a hotel that they promised had central heating (a very important asset of sleeping). At the bus station in Selçuk, a man from the hotel met us and fed us a schpiel about how amazing the hotel is (Hotel Artemis…if you have the name of a deity, your hotel really should be divine). He said he would give us a group rate with breakfast and transportation to Ephesus, which, after a very long day and with very hungry people, sounded great. We then took a tour of the hotel, sat and had some tea (apple tea…mmmm) and then dropped our stuff and semi-sprinted to dinner. We had Turkish pizza, which is a lot like the lahmacun I’ve previously described, but is more oval-shaped with different dough. It was a pleasant meal completed with baklava and a cake bought for a group-member’s birthday. We went back to the hotel where a Canadian, a Belgian, and a Slovene had already checked in and were included in our birthday festivities for said comrade. Though the hotel advertised a central heating system, I do not believe I have ever woken up (violently shaking) in the fetal position like this before. Providing us with two scratchy blankets and non-working heating was really a downer. We were also situated right next to a mosque, so hearing the call to prayer at 5am was rather unpleasant.
Saturday began in shivers and curses at false promises of central heating. I think over the course of the night, myself and my roommates got up several handfuls of times to put more clothing on (more than the pants and long sleeved shirts we already had on) to attempt some legitimate sleep. We went downstairs and had breakfast in front of a roaring fire (…why couldn’t that have been in my room?) which consisted of bread, jam, butter, cucumber (uh), hard boiled eggs, and more apple tea. My bread intake for the weekend really has been rather phenomenal. This really is Turkey in the off season. We decided to check out and depart for Ephesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus). What we thought was going to be a bus ride to Ephesus turned out to be a 10 person group (not including myself) piled into a large pick up truck and myself and two other girls in a small sedan. I must say that I am quite glad that I was not in said pick up truck. Ephesus was only about 2km away from the hotel so the ride wasn’t very long. We started at the top of Ephesus where we haggled with a tour guide to get the price to be about 5 lira for all of us. His name was Nail (nah-eel) and he had been giving tours for the last 40 years (apparently). He was very informative about all the different parts of the ruins and even told us where to stand to get the best pictures. At the end, we went in another giant amphitheater, which seems to be our trend). After Ephesus, we walked back towards Selcuk and stopped at the Temptle of Artemis, one of the 7 wonder’s of the ancient world but all that was really standing was one very long pillar. Kind of sad how much everything has been destroyed over time by the elements and the non-Greeks. Still, I suppose I can now claim to have seen one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 6 more to go..! After returning from the Temple of Artemis, the group decided to find a place to eat in Selçuk, and our guide from earlier (who met us at the bus station and took us to the hotel) magically appeared and found us a nice place to eat. We all had a variety of things but splurged on some wonderful çips (French fries) to quench of American hunger pangs. Selçuk was in full market swing so we took advantage of the multitude of fresh fruit, veggies, nuts, cheeses, etc that were offered and scored some sweet snacks for the road. We then trekked back to the main area of town and then basically walked up a mountain to a castle that once guarded the city and the mosque next to it. We strolled around the courtyard of the mosque and then watched the sunset near the mosque and then headed back into town. We stopped for wondrous baklava (you don’t even want to know how many pieces of baklava I had on this trip) and then made our merry way to the bus station. We took about an hour long bus ride into Izmir (one of the largest cities in Turkey behind Istanbul) and then proceeded to find dinner (I had a lamb, lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, and pita wrap) and some çay. We waited until about 12:30 to get on our bus to Cannakkale which is near the ancient city of Troy.
Sunday began with a jolt, as our supposed 7 hour bus ride arrived at an astounding 5:15am into the bus station at Cannakkale. I was violently awoken by the bus…steward. I’m not quite sure what to call him, but he brought drinks and such on a little trolley like on a flight so…steward for now. I do believe I was slapped (or love-tapped as I like to call it) in the face in order to wake me up from my deep sleep in order to alert the group that we were indeed in Cannakkale. We rushed off the bus and into the warm bus depo where several of the group members fell asleep again but being the protective soul I am, I couldn’t allow my group-members’ baggage to go unlooked after. After watching the sunrise, team bonding via card games, and wondrous pastries, we walked towards the water to see where the horse used in the movie Troy was located. It’s huge and it’s hard to think about the amount of work that went into making it. We then took a smaller bus to the actual ruins of Troy, where we all climbed up into the wooden horse there and took photos as well as walked around the ruins. It is very interesting to think about the Homeric epic and how that translates to actual history for the city of Troy. After Troy we headed out towards the bus station again where we took the bus that I am now sitting on.
I think a lot of the time it sounds like I’ve been complaining about things that have happened on this trip, but I legitimately cannot express the wonderful things I have seen or people I met. People here in Turkey are so friendly and willing to help at the drop of a hat and legitimately never ask for anything in return. Hospitality and kindness are the norm here, not the exception. You could never just walk up to random strangers on the street in the US and ask for directions or help like you do here. People here can sense that you are lost or need help and really go out of their way to help you. Travel in Turkey is extremely inexpensive as well, as the buses we took were very high class and no more than $20 for a very nice ride. The things we saw differ so much from what we have seen in Istanbul. Turkey is an amazingly diverse country with so many different attractions for people of all different preferences. Even just being in smaller towns and villages was an experience, with the stories from these experiences definitely something for another time.
A lot of people tend to lump Turkey into one general category under the umbrella of Istanbul, but it’s really not. Turkey cannot really be defined by one city, albeit a large one as my many adventures throughout Turkey have proved this to be false. More adventures to come after this upcoming weekend in Turkey before classes start. Hopefully I will be heading off to Ankara and Cappadocia this weekend for more adventures.
Pictures from this weekend can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034746&id=1391040260&l=0e11adc407
Hope everyone is well!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Take me back to Constantinople
I apparently have been quite busy since the last time I blogged. I no longer can remember when I did certain things and am surprised I have almost been here for a week. It seems like longer than that but oh well. I'll go ahead and give you a synopsis of the shenanigans I've gotten up to here.
Sunday: Walked to Ortaköy, a 40 minute walk from Bebek along the Bosphorus. It was a gorgeous day but kind of windy which kind of took away from the beauty of walking along the Bosphorus. Ortaköy is located right near the bridge to Asia and every Sunday they have a market where "locals" (it's kind of an ambiguous term) come and sell their wares. We stopped and ate kumpir (koomp-ear) which are giant baked potatoes that they basically pile whatever you want on them. They mash the actual potato part a bit but it's not as soft as mashed potatoes (though they melt cheese and put that in there-delicious!). I had corn, peas (...sorry, mom), lots of cheese, and some kinds of sauces that I have no idea what they were but they were indeed delicious. We ended up shopping at the little market where I bought a very nice, hand-stitched scarf that is (of course) Carolina blue and white and several other shades of blue for about 8 lira (less than $5). We ended up taking the bus back to Bebek and stopping at a delicious dessert place where they make their own chocolate. It is the oldest pastry shop in the area and possibly the entirety of Istanbul-it was founded in 1923. We had a delicious tiramisu and gawked at the chocolate. I was internalizing my desires to drool over the dark chocolate selection. We met a Turkish man there who was also an American citizen who goes to Miami when it gets too cold in Turkey. He was very nice and not in a creepy way, either. He told us rules about tipping here-very rarely do you tip more than 5% but at most places, you do not tip more than 10% and it is perfectly acceptable to not leave a tip. Very different from the US.
Monday: Went to pre-registration and got my student ID # but not the ever-important student ID (travel is cheaper in the city with an ID). Very simple and kind of a waste of time. Found the good coffee/pastry shops on campus but they are probably relatively over priced. I met with a bunch of other exchange students from around the world but there were too many to list here. We walked down the giant hill from Etiler (my neighborhood) to Bebek (...I seem to spend a lot of time in Bebek) where we took the bus to Ortaköy again. We ended up taking a cruise (like an hour long boat-ride) on the Bosphorus which was gorgeous with the sun setting. Ortaköy has a very beautiful mosque that I have taken many pictures of but have not actually been inside. Go figure. After getting off the cruise, we took the bus back to Bebek and thought it would be a good idea to walk up a giant half-mile+ hill with a steep incline back into campus. It had a gorgeous view but my calves were not very appreciative. We had dinner at a local bar/cafe/restaurant near campus that is located at the top of a building and has very gorgeous views but is over-priced.
Tuesday: Went to breakfast (...at noon?) and had tost, which is similar to grilled cheese but with crispier bread and is cooked more of a panini style. You can get it with spicy sausage or without, and I went without. It was delicious and cheap, which is always a good find. We took the bus to a metro-bus (kind of like a tram) stop where we went to Sultanahmet, a very old part of the city. The infamous Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (pronounced Aya Sophia) are located there. We entered the Blue Mosque and had to remove our shoes and carry them in a plastic bag as well as wearing head scarves (though this was a bit more arbitrarily enforced). I legitimately have no words to describe how gorgeous the Blue Mosque is-inside and out. Pictures do not even come close to summing it up, either. You'll just have to go for yourself and see! After going to the mosque, we stopped to get some döner wraps (I got chicken-tavuk) and baklava. I think this may as well be my last blog entry as I will gladly become a homeless peddler in exchange for eating delicious baklava all day for the rest of my life. They seriously do not even come close to making baklava like this in America. After gorging on baklava, we headed for the Grand Bazaar. It is indeed quite grand and a giant maze. All the different shops were selling similar things-knock-offs, lamps, bowls, scarves, and the random gold shop here and there. I bought a small hand-woven change purse (as my wallet is too bulky) for 2 lira (less than $1.50) and a small keychain for the same price. Another person haggled at a scarf shop for 3 100% cashmere scarves for 70 lira (less than $50). I remember where that shop is and will undoubtedly return if you'd like to put your orders in (seriously. It's low tourist season now and things are cheap so...if you want souvenirs, let me know). After leaving the Grand Bazaar, we took the tram and the bus back to campus (...almost 2 hours worth of travel due to awful traffic-should have been maybe half an hour). We got back to campus and had dinner near where we had breakfast. I found another cheap staple called lahmacun (lock-muh-joon-the c is equivalent to the j sound). It's almost like pizza-crust dough with mixed herbs, spices, tomatoes, and other crushed up things spread on top. They give you tomatoes, lettuce, lemon juice, and parsley to garnish it with. You wrap it up and eat it wrap-style. It is definitely one of my favorites.
Today (Wednesday): Took a friend to try lahmacun. Always good to spread the word about cheap, good eats (especially if you get similar knowledge in return!). We went to orientation which was very self-explanatory and kind of pointless as they directed all questions to their website anyways. We went to an exchange student dinner that was kind of cafeteria style but was held on top of a building with one of the best views of Istanbul. The sun was setting and I kept internally berating myself for not having my camera on me. Travesty!
I uploaded photos from the above antics to the link that I posted last.
I really love it here. Given, there are things that are very different from Chapel Hill but it's been so fun to explore around the city and meet new people. I think things will be nice when classes start, though. Very few Turkish students are here and my apartment area (it's prison-like, really) is empty.
I hope everyone at home is well (and watching the UNC game...so jealous)! Feel free to Facebook me/Skype (kellyyahner) for more stories/updates and things as updating this blog regularly probably will not happen. And really, if you guys want things from here, let me know. I'm awful at giving gifts and you're all going to get something so you might as well tell me what you want (especially pattern/color-wise for scarves). That's for you, Gretchen.
İyi geceler!
Sunday: Walked to Ortaköy, a 40 minute walk from Bebek along the Bosphorus. It was a gorgeous day but kind of windy which kind of took away from the beauty of walking along the Bosphorus. Ortaköy is located right near the bridge to Asia and every Sunday they have a market where "locals" (it's kind of an ambiguous term) come and sell their wares. We stopped and ate kumpir (koomp-ear) which are giant baked potatoes that they basically pile whatever you want on them. They mash the actual potato part a bit but it's not as soft as mashed potatoes (though they melt cheese and put that in there-delicious!). I had corn, peas (...sorry, mom), lots of cheese, and some kinds of sauces that I have no idea what they were but they were indeed delicious. We ended up shopping at the little market where I bought a very nice, hand-stitched scarf that is (of course) Carolina blue and white and several other shades of blue for about 8 lira (less than $5). We ended up taking the bus back to Bebek and stopping at a delicious dessert place where they make their own chocolate. It is the oldest pastry shop in the area and possibly the entirety of Istanbul-it was founded in 1923. We had a delicious tiramisu and gawked at the chocolate. I was internalizing my desires to drool over the dark chocolate selection. We met a Turkish man there who was also an American citizen who goes to Miami when it gets too cold in Turkey. He was very nice and not in a creepy way, either. He told us rules about tipping here-very rarely do you tip more than 5% but at most places, you do not tip more than 10% and it is perfectly acceptable to not leave a tip. Very different from the US.
Monday: Went to pre-registration and got my student ID # but not the ever-important student ID (travel is cheaper in the city with an ID). Very simple and kind of a waste of time. Found the good coffee/pastry shops on campus but they are probably relatively over priced. I met with a bunch of other exchange students from around the world but there were too many to list here. We walked down the giant hill from Etiler (my neighborhood) to Bebek (...I seem to spend a lot of time in Bebek) where we took the bus to Ortaköy again. We ended up taking a cruise (like an hour long boat-ride) on the Bosphorus which was gorgeous with the sun setting. Ortaköy has a very beautiful mosque that I have taken many pictures of but have not actually been inside. Go figure. After getting off the cruise, we took the bus back to Bebek and thought it would be a good idea to walk up a giant half-mile+ hill with a steep incline back into campus. It had a gorgeous view but my calves were not very appreciative. We had dinner at a local bar/cafe/restaurant near campus that is located at the top of a building and has very gorgeous views but is over-priced.
Tuesday: Went to breakfast (...at noon?) and had tost, which is similar to grilled cheese but with crispier bread and is cooked more of a panini style. You can get it with spicy sausage or without, and I went without. It was delicious and cheap, which is always a good find. We took the bus to a metro-bus (kind of like a tram) stop where we went to Sultanahmet, a very old part of the city. The infamous Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (pronounced Aya Sophia) are located there. We entered the Blue Mosque and had to remove our shoes and carry them in a plastic bag as well as wearing head scarves (though this was a bit more arbitrarily enforced). I legitimately have no words to describe how gorgeous the Blue Mosque is-inside and out. Pictures do not even come close to summing it up, either. You'll just have to go for yourself and see! After going to the mosque, we stopped to get some döner wraps (I got chicken-tavuk) and baklava. I think this may as well be my last blog entry as I will gladly become a homeless peddler in exchange for eating delicious baklava all day for the rest of my life. They seriously do not even come close to making baklava like this in America. After gorging on baklava, we headed for the Grand Bazaar. It is indeed quite grand and a giant maze. All the different shops were selling similar things-knock-offs, lamps, bowls, scarves, and the random gold shop here and there. I bought a small hand-woven change purse (as my wallet is too bulky) for 2 lira (less than $1.50) and a small keychain for the same price. Another person haggled at a scarf shop for 3 100% cashmere scarves for 70 lira (less than $50). I remember where that shop is and will undoubtedly return if you'd like to put your orders in (seriously. It's low tourist season now and things are cheap so...if you want souvenirs, let me know). After leaving the Grand Bazaar, we took the tram and the bus back to campus (...almost 2 hours worth of travel due to awful traffic-should have been maybe half an hour). We got back to campus and had dinner near where we had breakfast. I found another cheap staple called lahmacun (lock-muh-joon-the c is equivalent to the j sound). It's almost like pizza-crust dough with mixed herbs, spices, tomatoes, and other crushed up things spread on top. They give you tomatoes, lettuce, lemon juice, and parsley to garnish it with. You wrap it up and eat it wrap-style. It is definitely one of my favorites.
Today (Wednesday): Took a friend to try lahmacun. Always good to spread the word about cheap, good eats (especially if you get similar knowledge in return!). We went to orientation which was very self-explanatory and kind of pointless as they directed all questions to their website anyways. We went to an exchange student dinner that was kind of cafeteria style but was held on top of a building with one of the best views of Istanbul. The sun was setting and I kept internally berating myself for not having my camera on me. Travesty!
I uploaded photos from the above antics to the link that I posted last.
I really love it here. Given, there are things that are very different from Chapel Hill but it's been so fun to explore around the city and meet new people. I think things will be nice when classes start, though. Very few Turkish students are here and my apartment area (it's prison-like, really) is empty.
I hope everyone at home is well (and watching the UNC game...so jealous)! Feel free to Facebook me/Skype (kellyyahner) for more stories/updates and things as updating this blog regularly probably will not happen. And really, if you guys want things from here, let me know. I'm awful at giving gifts and you're all going to get something so you might as well tell me what you want (especially pattern/color-wise for scarves). That's for you, Gretchen.
İyi geceler!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Just a quick note..
If you're looking for photos, I will try to update them to my facebook on a daily basis. I will link each album here. My internet is a little slow so it's easier to just upload once rather than repeatedly.
First album: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034591&id=1391040260&l=6cc4df4c85
Let me know if you guys have any problems seeing the photos or if you want to know what they are. Usually I try to put a caption on the first photo of a sequence but not the ones following.
First album: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034591&id=1391040260&l=6cc4df4c85
Let me know if you guys have any problems seeing the photos or if you want to know what they are. Usually I try to put a caption on the first photo of a sequence but not the ones following.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Now it's Turkish Delight on a moonlit night
Speaking of Turkish Delight, it's really not as delightful as the multitude of other things I've eaten so far. I've had Turkish food for every meal and am making it my goal to stay away from American food for as long as possible. They have things like Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc all over the place here. Most frequently seen are Starbucks, though. For some reason, whenever we go to a Starbucks, someone seems to try to talk to us in line and we have to say that we don't speak Turkish. Most of the time they are not actually talking to me because it is relatively obvious that I'm not Turkish (light hair and eyes) but those with darker hair are easily mistaken.
Things have gone well so far. I've moved into my apartment and my room is tiny but it just makes me want to get out and explore more. I had to go out and buy sheets/towels/blankets/pillows/etc which was quite an excursion but only aided my attempts to learn how to get around.
Public transportation here is huge. Istanbul has a really clean Metro, bus, and tram system that is really cheap. To go anywhere on the Metro is about a dollar (1.75 Turkish Lira) for one way and you pay with little tokens that look like poker chips. The bus and tram systems are just about the same but they are usually a lot more crowded all the time.
Yesterday we walked around near my apartment and the university to kind of get acquainted with the neighborhood. It's one of the more upscale neighborhoods in Istanbul and is considered very safe. Many people here speak some broken English since all students at the University are required to know English and speak it in class.
Today we took the Metro to Taksim Square which has a lot of older buildings, embassies, and churches. It is a very nice part of town but the prices are very reasonable and it is very easily accessible from the Metro. I will post pictures when I get a chance.
We have been keeping very busy walking around and exploring but many people automatically try to speak to us in English so it is very frustrating when we are trying to practice. However, I only know how to say polite things (please, thank you, etc), numbers, and some other random things so English is good for now.
A couple of weird things unique to Turkey/not in the US:
-Many restaurants have locks on the bathrooms and will give you the password on your receipt when you buy something (i.e. Starbucks).
-You seat yourself at restaurants and have to call the waiter over when you need help.
-No YouTube ):
-Saying things like "um" and "uh" are actually bad slang words in Turkish. People here look at you like you've just said the worst thing they've ever heard when you say them, even though it's accidental.
-People working in shops (like at a mall) just stand around most of the time. There are so many workers in comparison to customers. In one store we went into, there were employees just standing every few feet from each other looking extremely bored. If you look interested in an item, they will rush towards you and sometimes fight amongst themselves to help sell you something as a lot of their salary is commission-based.
There are probably more but I will list them as I remember them.
Hoşçakalın
Things have gone well so far. I've moved into my apartment and my room is tiny but it just makes me want to get out and explore more. I had to go out and buy sheets/towels/blankets/pillows/etc which was quite an excursion but only aided my attempts to learn how to get around.
Public transportation here is huge. Istanbul has a really clean Metro, bus, and tram system that is really cheap. To go anywhere on the Metro is about a dollar (1.75 Turkish Lira) for one way and you pay with little tokens that look like poker chips. The bus and tram systems are just about the same but they are usually a lot more crowded all the time.
Yesterday we walked around near my apartment and the university to kind of get acquainted with the neighborhood. It's one of the more upscale neighborhoods in Istanbul and is considered very safe. Many people here speak some broken English since all students at the University are required to know English and speak it in class.
Today we took the Metro to Taksim Square which has a lot of older buildings, embassies, and churches. It is a very nice part of town but the prices are very reasonable and it is very easily accessible from the Metro. I will post pictures when I get a chance.
We have been keeping very busy walking around and exploring but many people automatically try to speak to us in English so it is very frustrating when we are trying to practice. However, I only know how to say polite things (please, thank you, etc), numbers, and some other random things so English is good for now.
A couple of weird things unique to Turkey/not in the US:
-Many restaurants have locks on the bathrooms and will give you the password on your receipt when you buy something (i.e. Starbucks).
-You seat yourself at restaurants and have to call the waiter over when you need help.
-No YouTube ):
-Saying things like "um" and "uh" are actually bad slang words in Turkish. People here look at you like you've just said the worst thing they've ever heard when you say them, even though it's accidental.
-People working in shops (like at a mall) just stand around most of the time. There are so many workers in comparison to customers. In one store we went into, there were employees just standing every few feet from each other looking extremely bored. If you look interested in an item, they will rush towards you and sometimes fight amongst themselves to help sell you something as a lot of their salary is commission-based.
There are probably more but I will list them as I remember them.
Hoşçakalın
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks
Today is my last full day in the US but I'm not frantically packing or anything of that sort. I leave tomorrow night and I think the wait is actually the worst part. I'm checking two medium-sized duffel bags and taking a carry on. I didn't think I honestly had that much stuff to take but I'd rather be overly prepared than screwed.
I'm flying the whole way with another girl in my program which I think will be good. Strength in numbers, right? If we have problems in Turkey, we can just jointly yell in English to try and get our point across.
We're taking a smaller (my mother calls them "puddle-jumpers") plane to Dulles Airport (in D.C.) and then from there we're on one of those monstrous planes where I hopefully will get some sleep. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to get a direct flight, but we only have about an hour in Frankfurt (Germany) so it really won't be too bad.
I'm pretty sure I've got everything packed and ready to go, but of course my mother will probably ask me 7-8 times and double check everything just in case.
Again, I will attempt to update this as possible but I really don't think that's really going to happen so I will apologize in advance.
See you in <48 hours, Istanbul!
Hoşçakal, America.
Today is my last full day in the US but I'm not frantically packing or anything of that sort. I leave tomorrow night and I think the wait is actually the worst part. I'm checking two medium-sized duffel bags and taking a carry on. I didn't think I honestly had that much stuff to take but I'd rather be overly prepared than screwed.
I'm flying the whole way with another girl in my program which I think will be good. Strength in numbers, right? If we have problems in Turkey, we can just jointly yell in English to try and get our point across.
We're taking a smaller (my mother calls them "puddle-jumpers") plane to Dulles Airport (in D.C.) and then from there we're on one of those monstrous planes where I hopefully will get some sleep. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to get a direct flight, but we only have about an hour in Frankfurt (Germany) so it really won't be too bad.
I'm pretty sure I've got everything packed and ready to go, but of course my mother will probably ask me 7-8 times and double check everything just in case.
Again, I will attempt to update this as possible but I really don't think that's really going to happen so I will apologize in advance.
See you in <48 hours, Istanbul!
Hoşçakal, America.
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