Today we visited Topkapi Palace. We met outside the gates with Leslie Pierce who has studied Ottoman history. She kindly lead is around and answered out questions about all that we were seeing. We went through the kitchen, council areas, the sultan's throne room, and of course the Harem. The entire compound was decorated ornately and I never got tired of taking pictures of the beautiful tile work and the painted and gilded domes! And then we came to the room with relics. OMG! Turkey does not play around with relics. The palace is host to some of the belongings of important biblical figures. It had the sword of David, a rod of Moses, part of the skull of John the Baptist, the turban of Joseph, and the sauce dish of Abraham. Wow is all I can say. Then they had one of Mohammad's swords, pieces of his beard, and a plaster of Paris print of his foot. Wow again. The Harem was also very exciting. enjoyed the pebble walk way and mother of pearl inlaid shutters. The entire experience was utterly overwhelming with how gorgeous and how absolutely grand everything was, especially when we have nothing to compare it to in the US.
Afterwards, we were all starving (our Nutella and ekmek sandwiches had worn off in the course of 5 hours) so we headed out to grab a bite. Yekta, Kristina and I went to this place that served this one dish that started with a G, was like a very thin quesadilla and was very tasty. When I got my change, a lira fell up under our seats and a search ensued to find it. I think the waitstaff and the fellow diners found this very comical, but in the process we found my lira and 10 cents. The boys wanted to head off on an adventure, but Kristina and I had big plans for dessert so we let them run off ahead. We stopped and bought some Turkish delight at this bakery. The guy working there kept giving us free samples which was very nice. I never cease to be amazed at how friendly Turks are to us, and at how surprised they are that we are from the states.
Kristina and I decided that we wanted to go over to Istanbul University and people watch, too bad the guard stopped us because the university evidently closes at 3 and we were there at 4. What a weird concept? Universities can close. Hmm... interesting. So then we proceeded to walk aimlessly around the city to see what we could see. We saw alot of jokes and crazy things. Mainly how cars just park anywhere and how people can haul sooooo much stuff on their dollies. Turks are such hard workers, I don't know how they do it especially up all the hills! The two of us had joked the night before about how we needed to find a cheap bathmat for the bathroom to replace the towel we're currently using. Kristina said we should just find bathmat street and peep a cheap one. Well lo and behold, we ran across bathmat street today!!!! We were cracking up! : ) To make it even better we found on with two Carolina blue feet on it. Perfection. I mean it is obvi for a baby's room or something but still it means UNC for us. So for a mere 3 YTL we got the mat and were in disbelief that an entire store exists that sells just bath mats.
Later we went to dinner. And where else would hungry Americans go to eat dinner, the corner doner stand. All we wanted to be was full, something we don't experience every day. haha. So we all loaded up with doner, lamacun, and pilaf. Edward got something to eat and he wasn't sure whether it was meat or not. ha, oh Edward.... Over the course of dinner we learned that Zoe had been ordering the cheese bread at the same corner store by using the Turkish words that were just in front of it, Afiyet olsun. She thought this meant cheese bread, but it actually means Bon appetit! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were of course dying of laughter at finding this out. Then one of the guys that carves our doner for us brought us all out some Turkish tea on the house. We were all very thankful and happy that we are all officially regulars : )
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Real World
This is the true story... of nine strangers... picked to live in a flat...work together (learning about Turkishness) and have their lives observed (by Turks)... to find out what happens when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World Istanbul.
Seven weeks in Turkey, 5 in Istanbul and 2 traveling around Turkey. While we are here we will have class with Prof. Shields M-F. Sometimes we met for class in a medresse building built by Sinan near Aya Sofia. Other times we met at a tram stop, on our terrace, or in front of a monument. Its very flexible and perfect. We have already learned so much and it's only been a week. I've learned that Turks get involved with other disputes, want you to eat alot, drive recklessly, get off ferries before they're docked, often learn their English from tourists, are very hospitable, and always interesting.
Friday Night.
We met up with out Turkish friend Murat who lives on the 3rd floor of our building. We headed over to a bar off of Istiklal called Darkness. The 10 of us grabbed a table outside and ordered some Efes, which is Turkish beer, We all sat around, chatted and laughed and then later some of Murat's friends Sarat and Mehmet took us to a nearby club, not before we realized that waterfalling is not a game played by Turks. Here we American learned that American dancing is very different that Turkish dancing. Turkish dancing is all in the shoulders whereas American dancing is mainly in the hips. We did have fun though, especially after we went to the 2nd club (the one with no name and the one where Sarat got us all in for free!). Strobe lights and techno were the buzz words of the night, so was loudness. I felt like I was going a little a crazy with all the strobe lights and the constant request to pass the energy ball (a little piece of American dancing we decided to export) or catch the fish hook. Later back at the apartment Kristina figured out the best was to sum up the night. We had essentially done the Hokey Pokey with some Turks. Perfection.
Saturday.
Edward and I decided that were we're ready to bite the bullet and really get into doing some exploring and work for our project. We decided that we are going to do our project on Hamams, Turkish baths. We researched for what seemed like forever, found the hamams on the map (a joke!) and then I of course took a nap. We left at about 5:30 and headed over to some fo the historic hamams. At the first one, Gedikpasa, I got to take a tour of the women section. My glasses fogged up of course from all of the relaxing steam, but from what I could see with them off it seemed like a very cool place. It was built in 1475 and although it has not had undergone many of the same renovations as other hamams, I feel like that is the appeal. I ran into a fellow American woman from Philly and she told me that she had been to the Cemberlitas bath and that it was wonderful. Perfect, that was the next one on our list anyway.
We headed over there but not before a Turk asked us if we needed some help and told us how not many American vacation in Turkey, a little tidbit that we keep hearing. We found Cemberlitas which was built in 1584 by Sinan. It was cool but we weren't allowed to tour the facilities. We could definitely tell it was more touristy though. I stopped to exchange my $100 in US money and we encountered a real Turkish dispute. It gave some interesting cultural insight we thought. We found that random, uninvolved in the altercation Turks can and will get involved in disputes that do not involve them. Whereas in America we are encouraged to mind our own business thank you very much, the many that was helping to calm things down in the exchange office was not treated meanly by the man being reprimanded. Interesting.
Now for the far away hamam, Suleymaniye. It took us a hot minute to find this one. We walked through a ghost town and landfill to get there. By this time we were both getting hungry and all we wanted was some kumpir, a stuffed potato, but they were no where to be found. Everything was sort of closed seeming and it was not a tourist area. Let's just say that two of the things were not like the others. We finally found the hamam and went in. There was a European couple having some sort of dispute with the people working there, we took some pictures and left.
After returning to the room, exhaustion ensued.
Sunday.
Red Bull FlugTag 2008! What a crazy time! We all met William down at the base of our flat and headed over to take the ferry to Asia after we all put some more $$ on our Akbils. Then when we got to Asia we hopped on the number 4 double decker bus and rode for a ways out along the coast. This was my first time on a double decker and it was cool to have such a view of the street and all the traffic. What wasn't cool/smart was for all of us to be on the 2nd story when William (the only one who knew for sure where to get off) was on the 1st floor. I mean just because we're in the Honors program doesn't mean we have loads of common sense. When we arrive at the Red Bull event I was totally overwhelmed with how many people were there. The heat was also suffocating after a while. I got a kick out of the creative "flying" machines and at the paper hats some of the people in front of us were wearing. Emily needed to cool off and I was ready to have some space so we headed over to McDonalds with Zoey. McDonalds was packed of course so then we just started walking back along the main street. Zoey headed back to the group and then Emily and I had an adventure getting food, dessert, Cappy apricot juice, finding a rose garden, learning how to count to 10 on the ferry, and passing out back in the flat.
Six of us went to dinner at the restaurant next to Darkness. Yum!! I was cracking up that the menu had denoted one salad as only for tourists!! haha!! : )
Seven weeks in Turkey, 5 in Istanbul and 2 traveling around Turkey. While we are here we will have class with Prof. Shields M-F. Sometimes we met for class in a medresse building built by Sinan near Aya Sofia. Other times we met at a tram stop, on our terrace, or in front of a monument. Its very flexible and perfect. We have already learned so much and it's only been a week. I've learned that Turks get involved with other disputes, want you to eat alot, drive recklessly, get off ferries before they're docked, often learn their English from tourists, are very hospitable, and always interesting.
Friday Night.
We met up with out Turkish friend Murat who lives on the 3rd floor of our building. We headed over to a bar off of Istiklal called Darkness. The 10 of us grabbed a table outside and ordered some Efes, which is Turkish beer, We all sat around, chatted and laughed and then later some of Murat's friends Sarat and Mehmet took us to a nearby club, not before we realized that waterfalling is not a game played by Turks. Here we American learned that American dancing is very different that Turkish dancing. Turkish dancing is all in the shoulders whereas American dancing is mainly in the hips. We did have fun though, especially after we went to the 2nd club (the one with no name and the one where Sarat got us all in for free!). Strobe lights and techno were the buzz words of the night, so was loudness. I felt like I was going a little a crazy with all the strobe lights and the constant request to pass the energy ball (a little piece of American dancing we decided to export) or catch the fish hook. Later back at the apartment Kristina figured out the best was to sum up the night. We had essentially done the Hokey Pokey with some Turks. Perfection.
Saturday.
Edward and I decided that were we're ready to bite the bullet and really get into doing some exploring and work for our project. We decided that we are going to do our project on Hamams, Turkish baths. We researched for what seemed like forever, found the hamams on the map (a joke!) and then I of course took a nap. We left at about 5:30 and headed over to some fo the historic hamams. At the first one, Gedikpasa, I got to take a tour of the women section. My glasses fogged up of course from all of the relaxing steam, but from what I could see with them off it seemed like a very cool place. It was built in 1475 and although it has not had undergone many of the same renovations as other hamams, I feel like that is the appeal. I ran into a fellow American woman from Philly and she told me that she had been to the Cemberlitas bath and that it was wonderful. Perfect, that was the next one on our list anyway.
We headed over there but not before a Turk asked us if we needed some help and told us how not many American vacation in Turkey, a little tidbit that we keep hearing. We found Cemberlitas which was built in 1584 by Sinan. It was cool but we weren't allowed to tour the facilities. We could definitely tell it was more touristy though. I stopped to exchange my $100 in US money and we encountered a real Turkish dispute. It gave some interesting cultural insight we thought. We found that random, uninvolved in the altercation Turks can and will get involved in disputes that do not involve them. Whereas in America we are encouraged to mind our own business thank you very much, the many that was helping to calm things down in the exchange office was not treated meanly by the man being reprimanded. Interesting.
Now for the far away hamam, Suleymaniye. It took us a hot minute to find this one. We walked through a ghost town and landfill to get there. By this time we were both getting hungry and all we wanted was some kumpir, a stuffed potato, but they were no where to be found. Everything was sort of closed seeming and it was not a tourist area. Let's just say that two of the things were not like the others. We finally found the hamam and went in. There was a European couple having some sort of dispute with the people working there, we took some pictures and left.
After returning to the room, exhaustion ensued.
Sunday.
Red Bull FlugTag 2008! What a crazy time! We all met William down at the base of our flat and headed over to take the ferry to Asia after we all put some more $$ on our Akbils. Then when we got to Asia we hopped on the number 4 double decker bus and rode for a ways out along the coast. This was my first time on a double decker and it was cool to have such a view of the street and all the traffic. What wasn't cool/smart was for all of us to be on the 2nd story when William (the only one who knew for sure where to get off) was on the 1st floor. I mean just because we're in the Honors program doesn't mean we have loads of common sense. When we arrive at the Red Bull event I was totally overwhelmed with how many people were there. The heat was also suffocating after a while. I got a kick out of the creative "flying" machines and at the paper hats some of the people in front of us were wearing. Emily needed to cool off and I was ready to have some space so we headed over to McDonalds with Zoey. McDonalds was packed of course so then we just started walking back along the main street. Zoey headed back to the group and then Emily and I had an adventure getting food, dessert, Cappy apricot juice, finding a rose garden, learning how to count to 10 on the ferry, and passing out back in the flat.
Six of us went to dinner at the restaurant next to Darkness. Yum!! I was cracking up that the menu had denoted one salad as only for tourists!! haha!! : )
Episode One
Ok, so episode one is a lil late...but I must carry on. Turkey is amazing!! I've been so caught up wandering around the city, buying doner, and climbing up Mt. Everest (aka. our 5th floor apt.) to set up my blog, that and being consumed by thoughts of all things Turkish. Here's a brief run down of funny things that have happened so far...
1. Doner at the corner store for 1 YTL
2. Women in Burkas carrying converses
3. "I saw you on facebook last night!"
4. Playing chicken with double decker bus
5. Hopping off a ferry before its completely docked
6. Drinking Efes
7. Liking Raki which tastes like black licorice. Yum!!
8. Power Turk playing crazy songs
9.Akbils to use the pub. transport system
10. Washers and strawberries the size of your fist
11. Hello! Yes Please!!! exclamations from street and restaurant vendors
12. Turkish dance clubs = Techno, strobe lights
13. Doing the Hokey Pokey with Turks (who do not dance like we do at all)
14.Me needing to get a job, knowing no Turkish
15. Only eating Nutella for breakfast
16. 5 flights of stairs to our apartment
17. Trying to communicate with the Turks
1. Doner at the corner store for 1 YTL
2. Women in Burkas carrying converses
3. "I saw you on facebook last night!"
4. Playing chicken with double decker bus
5. Hopping off a ferry before its completely docked
6. Drinking Efes
7. Liking Raki which tastes like black licorice. Yum!!
8. Power Turk playing crazy songs
9.Akbils to use the pub. transport system
10. Washers and strawberries the size of your fist
11. Hello! Yes Please!!! exclamations from street and restaurant vendors
12. Turkish dance clubs = Techno, strobe lights
13. Doing the Hokey Pokey with Turks (who do not dance like we do at all)
14.Me needing to get a job, knowing no Turkish
15. Only eating Nutella for breakfast
16. 5 flights of stairs to our apartment
17. Trying to communicate with the Turks
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