Hello Athens, So Nice to Meet You

Okay, I have to pay for internet at this hotel so I am going to try to make this short and sweet.  Today we woke up and had to get ready for the flight to Athens. The plane ride for Rhodes to Athens is a grueling 40 minutes. I slept the whole way. After we landed we checked into the hotel, which you all will be reassured in knowing that the hotel is guarded by a security officer at all times. We left the hotel quickly because we were starving and we ate at the first restaurant that we saw (well really the second because the first we saw looked kind of sketchy).  I had pizza and it was delicious.  Then we meet the tour guide at the hotel and we rode the metro to Mars Hill and the Agora. Mars Hill is where the judicial system in Athens started and is at the base of the acropolis. And the best way that I can describe the Agora is that it is ancient shopping mall. Oh something fun! They are filming some kind of movie at our hotel. If you have questions about these places just comment on this post or email me.  Got to save money, so that's all I'm gonna write.   

Last of the Pictures I was Able to Load

Ruins of Ancient Hospital in Pergamon. You can see the theater in the background.

Another view of the hospital ruins in Pergamon.

Yes, more ruins of the hospital in Pergamon.

Hospital ruins

The theater in the hospital in Pergamon. They only played comedies; this was for the patients' moral.

Troy and Assos Pictures

TROJAN HORSE!!!

This is Kara, Linh, and me inside the Trojan Horse

Ruins in Troy

Roman ruins in Troy

Theater in Troy

Lesbos Island in the distance

Temple of Athena in Assos

Apparently Aristotle came to Assos to be all philosophical and what not, so they erected this statue of him

Images from Taksim

The actual square of Taksim Square

Street at Taksim Suare

Church (not mosque) at Taksim Square

Some Pictures That I was Able to Get on My Computer

This is just a picture of one of the halls of the Egyptian Bazaar

This is what one of the stores looks like

This is a store that is selling tea, spices and Turkish Delight

This is a view from the ferry that took us to the New City in Istanbul

Another view from the ferry

This is the old palace (again view from the ferry)

This is inside St. Chora

Inside St. Chora

Exterior of St. Chora

Free Day in Rhodes

Today was a free day so we decided to go back to the old city because there were some things that people wanted to buy and we all wanted to go the Grand Master's Palace.  This medieval castle was built by a military order during the crusades as a place to house traveling crusaders and then it became a place for others and even housed the first embassies for the city of Rhodes.  It reminded me of Hampton Court except that there were marble and mosaic floors.  It was really pretty.  After that we wandered around the old city and ate some gelato and gyros. Seriously the food is amazing.  I bought a present for the family that I think really encompasses the history of Rhodes (I hope you guys like it).  After we were done in the old city we went back to the beach.  Today was pretty relaxed so I really don't have much to talk about.

The Picture Situation

Okay so here's the dealio with the pictures. I am taking as many as I can, unfortunately, my computer says that I do not have enough space on my hard drive to load any more pictures from my camera to my computer. So, logically I have been trying to find all the things that I can delete and deleting them. I deleted over 400 pictures the other day but then it only let me load 6 more pictures so I don't really understand what is going on there. I am sorry and I am trying to fix it as soon as possible.

I'm on a Boat

Today we traveled from Marmaris to Rhodes. We had to wake up and the crack of dawn and when I say crack of dawn I mean 6:30.  The ride was about an hour and a half and we had to go through customs to leave Turkey and to enter Greece. That was a thrill a minute let me tell you. Once in Rhodes we took a bus/walking tour around the old city. The island is absolutely breathtaking. There are medieval towers and walls all over the city but the most amazing thing is the water.  It is crystal clear and the most amazing blue color.  After the tour was finished we were let loose in the city to get lunch and wander around a bit.   We found this little restaurant and honestly we were so hungry we would have eaten anything. You know those times when you get really hungry and then you finally get food but you aren't sure if the food is actually really good or if it just tastes so good because you were starving. Well I believe that the gyros and fries we had were actually really good.  Fun fact: you can't get gyros with lamb in Greece (in fact they will get mad at you if you ask) because lamb gyros are a Turkish thing. Mine was chicken so I didn't have to deal with the international food scandal.  It is hard looking at shops here in Greece because we had to switch over to the Euro. In Turkey the conversion worked in our favor but here the conversion goes the other way.  Although I could not resist getting some gelato and as always it was perfection.  After the free time we were dropped off at our hotel where we were given the shocking information that we were going to have to pay for wifi! No worries though our teachers explained that we have work to do so wifi is free for us in the lobby. After we were checked in and had gone to our rooms Kara, David, and I decided to go to the beach.  FAVORITE BEACH YET! Like I said the beaches have awe-inspiring beauty. The water was a bit cold but once you dive in you get used to it.  The beach that is closest to the hotel has these large rocks in the water that randomly drop into water that is a little bit deeper, which it a way to get really used to the water really fast but not too fun if you aren't expecting it.  This weekend is when there is a three day boat race from Marmaris to Rhodes so there are some sail boats in the water. It looks exactly like a post card.  The beach was fun and we got some good swimming in. Kara collects sea glass and we found a bunch of that on the shore. I also got a magic sea shell (try not to be too jealous).  We were wandering the shore looking for sea glass for Kara and when I got back there was this sea shell on my towel. Both David and Kara denied putting it there. They both said that they thought that this guy put it there but I chose to believe that it is magical. Have no fear though I will harness its power for good. 

nationalities that turkish people think i am

Just because some of these surprised me
Australian
Colombian
Dutch
Irish
Lebanese
Greecian
Turkish
Native American
French
Very few people guess American until they hear me speak. Even then some still question it. One guy asked me if I was 100% American because I didn't look it.
Personally I think I look pretty American

beach in marmaris

Marmaris is a beach town. This is where people in Turkey come when they want to go to the beach. So, naturally we went to the beach today. Let me tell you about Turkish beaches. 1st thing you will notice- some women do not wear tops (most of them should be wearing tops btw). 2nd thing- the men wear speedos (how you can tell americans apart from other countries is that in most cases americans are the only men that do not wear speedos) 3rd- the water is really freaking cold. 4th- there are no waves. 5th- for the first couple of feet into the water the sand is really rocky. 6th- every beach is absolutely beautiful when you get past the things above.  And that is what we did today our last day in Turkey.

sorry but turkish wifi really sucks

okay so since the last time I was able to post we have gone to Aphrodisias, Laodicea, Hieropolis, Ephesus, Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. Honestly all of the sites of ancient ruins all begin to look the same after a while. Here is what you will see when you come to an ancient ruin in Turkey: a central marble street, columns (some erected and some on the ground), a theater, and probably the base of a temple.
Aphrodisias is the city that was built for the goddess Aphrodite. What I liked about this site was that the man who discovered it was a photographer so there was an exhibit of his pictures. His name is Ara Guler if you want to look them up.
Laodicea was really interesting for me because it was still under archaeological excavation and rebuilding (most of the erected columns and buildings you see at these sites are a result of the rebuilding of archaeologists) so we could actually see the Turskish archaeologists working at the site. Also at this site there were people filming for an upcoming Turkish music award show (that was cool) I'm pretty sure the people they were filming were Turkish pop stars but I have no idea what their names would be.
Hierapolis was really beautiful. It is where run off from the mountain flows down the side of the mountain. It makes these little pools and the calcium turns the side of the mountain white. We were able to walk through these pools and the water in the pools of our hotel comes from this water.
These were the three sites that we saw on Tuesday.
On Wednesday we went all around Ephesus. First we went to a carpet making school. We were really surprised at the amount of food that we got for lunch since it was free. Then we went inside and they told us the price of the carpets.  Watching the women (only women make the carpets) weave was really entertaining.  They move so quickly and precisely.  They took us to a room where they rolled out one amazing carpet after another.  They were of every size and of every color. Some of them even changed color depending on how you look at it. The cheapest carpet was $250 and the most expensive one (which is kept in a special room, we were not allowed to see it, and took 5 years to make) was $150,000. Needless to say I did not purchase a carpet for the house seeing as Spirit has a nasty habit of clawing at them.  In Ephesus we saw the house that the Virgin Mary supposedly moved to after Jesus went to heaven. We also went to the ruins of the St. John basilica where he is supposedly buried (he and Mary came to Ephesus together) Then we went to the ancient city of Ephesus (the city that Paul visited). This is the largest ancient city thus far. The temple to Artemis here is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  Here our guide set up a special visit to the cave of Paul. This site is still under excavation and tourists are typically not allowed to see it. Also if I haven't mentioned it everything in Turkey is up hill. This cave is a hike up a steep hill.  It is called the cave of Paul not because Paul actually lived here but because there are frescoes of Paul inside the cave. (since the site is not open to the public we are not allowed to publish any pictures that we took).  What was really cool about the ancient Ephesus is that there are Christian symbols carved into the marble.
On Thursday we visited Priene is an ancient city on a hill.  What was interesting here was the theater because the Romans added these marble seats for the nobles that would have come to see the plays. We hadn't seen anything like this in any of the cities that we had been to. 
Then we went to Miletus, which is the birth place of philosophy. Here we found a doggy family. There were four puppies (Twix, Snickers, Reese, and Hershey) Snickers was my favorite. I found out that the Turkish government takes care of the stray animals (I think I had mentioned that they had tags in their ears), they are feed and looked after. There are stray animals everywhere in Turkey.
We also went to the Apollo temple in Didyma. One of the guys on our trip (Ben) is an architecture major and he was really excited about this site, so I guess its a big deal. (It looked like every other temple to me, except it was quite a bit larger).  We had lunch here and one of the waiters at the restaurant asked to take a picture with me. So that was fun and awkward.
This was kind of out of order first we went to Miletus, then Didyma, and Priene was last.
Friday we had a free day in Kusadasi so we spent most of the day on the beach
Today we had a four hour bus ride to Marmaris and then a free afternoon. I just took a long nap and then worked on some stuff for class (thrilling I know)
Tomorrow is another free day and we are planning on having class in the morning, then going to the beach, and finishing class work.
I have been having some technical difficulties with pictures so they are coming. I'm sorry for the delay, I know that's what you all want to see

FOOD!

Okay here's the skinny on thing that will make you fat (see what I did there)
Beef is rarely seen on menus
There is a special type of fish here that is only found in the Aegean Sea so you can only get it in Turkey and Greece. It is pretty good. I really don't taste a difference honestly.  Fun Fact though if you order fish you get the whole thing head and tail in all.
Turkish meatballs are really good. They are basically normal meatballs except they are made with lamb. (They are very big on lamb here).
Gyros are delicious. They put french fries in them. (They also do this with sandwiches). 
Ice cream is always good but the texture is a little grainy.
Italian pizza is pretty much the same but they don't put any sauce on it.
Turkish pizza is one of my favorite dishes. It is pitta bread with vegetables, beef (only in some places), lamb, and cheese.
Pergamon cheese is like a Turkish queso. It's melted goat cheese with olive oil or butter that you eat with pitta bread. The goat cheese here is very mild.
Desert is interesting. One night we had a flan type thing which I did not care for. Another night we had fruit-green plums, which look like large green cherries and are very bitter; orange plums which are a little bigger and have lots of seeds, apparently they only grow for one month a year and are also kind of bitter. They have these small cake type things (when I say small I mean bite sized) that are soaked in honey, these are really good. But the best of all is a waffle with nutella and strawberries, it is folded into a cone shape.
Izlac burgers are really good. It is lamb on a bun with a little bit of marinara and cheese.
Kabobs are always good. 
Here are the weird foods that I have tried. At the restaurant we stopped at in Taksim we somehow ordered yogurt water which is exactly what it sounds like yogurt watered down to a liquid. It's really gross. And David just pointed to something on the menu and it turned out to be cow tongue. I tried it when we weren't quite sure what it was, it's not too bad but it's really tough. (the menu was in turkish and they brought over the english menu after we ordered)
Our guide told us to try this really greasy food that wasn't too bad but turned out to be lamb intestines.
There is also a dish that I'm not even going to try to spell.  It's basically a baked potato.  I didn't order one but David and Niha did. They bring out a list of toppings, the only problem is that the list is in Turkish so Niha ended up with yogurt (among other toppings) on her's. She said it wasn't too bad, I don't believe her.
The dish that I have been having for breakfast is a noodle type thing with goat cheese and it's really good. 
That is all of the food items that I can think of. If I get something new I will post about it.

P.S. I am working on getting pictures up

Pergamon and the Red Mosque

We were sad to leave Assos because it was so beautiful but we were excited to get to Izmir.  We took he bus to Pergamon (which is a name some of you should recognize from the letters to the seven churches in Revelation).  Our first stop in Pergamon was an ancient hospital.  They had a theater for performing comedies to lift their patients spirits. And a special method of psychotherapy.  First the doctor would lead them to a dark tunnel and tell them to walk through.  The only light came from the end of the tunnel and there would be the sound of rushing water.  Water would be boiled with opiates and run under the tunnel which had holes in the floor so that the steam could rise up.  The doctor would walk overhead and say calming things. then the patient would meet the doctor at the end of the tunnel and walk around in a circular room and talk about his/her problems.
After this we went to lunch.
After lunch we visited the acropolis, which is at the top of yet another hill.  Thankfully, we were able to take a gondola up the hill.  We saw cisterns, ruins of a temple, a theater, and the base from a stolen temple.  The theater was built on the side of this hill and I think they need to put in some ancient hand rails. I can't tell you how many times I almost fell.  The construction of the temple is really cool. Or I guess I should say the base is really cool. Because of gravity it is very difficult to build giant stone buildings on hills.  So this temple's base is a series of arches that help hold it up and are very sturdy.  Turkey has a ton of earthquakes so all the buildings need to be very sturdy or else they fall over. The arches allow the base to be flexible in an earthquake, so the temple won't fall over.  The temple of Zeus in Pergamon is what Revelation refers to when it talks about the "seat of Satan." Sadly, only the base of the temple is still in Pergamon because the rest of the temple is in Berlin in the Pergamon museum. Why it's there I don't know. It seems from the way our guide was talking that the German's stole the temple. 
On our way down the hill we visited the ruins of the Red Mosque, which is still under excavation. 
We are staying the night in Izmir, which is our guide's home town.  After dinner we went for a walk to the sea shore because all of the restaurants were closed for the election. There are a lot of stray dogs in Turkey and they are all very friendly and I have noticed that (at least for Istanbul) most of the dogs have tags in their ears. (I don't know why it's just an observation).  Anyway we seemed to have picked up a stray on the way to the sea last night. Linh named him Harley, but because he was part pit bull I keep my distance.  He walked with us all the way down to the shore and almost gave us a heart attack on several occasions. We were told if you want to know how to cross the street watch the stray cats and dogs because they do it on a daily basis.  Well this dog almost got himself killed several times crossing the street.  We knew he was following us so we tried to lose him a couple of times so that he wouldn't be in danger. But he would find us again. Several other people tried to get his attention and even give him food but I guess he only wanted us to be his people.  We were finally able to leave him at the sea shore when he got momentarily distracted. It was sad to see him looking for us but we all knew that he was safer there and there would be people that would give him scraps. All the stray dogs and cats in Turkey are really well feed.  I've seen maybe one that looks too skinny.
Today (June 13) is a free day for us and since there really isn't much to do in Izmir we are taking it as a day to catch up on blogs, sleep, and work. 
By the way for those that care AKP won the Turkish election in a landslide (no I don't know what that means for the future of the Turkish government)

Journey To Assos

We had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to get to the bus by 7:30. Fun thing about bus trips in Turkey is that you stop at some point to have a "coffee/tea break." We stop in a city by the sea and have lunch. This is where Kara meets her Turkish boyfriend. We are sitting down and this waiter/busboy comes over and asks only Kara how old she is, when she responds 19 he says that he is the same age (he looks like he's about 13). So, he walks away and we joke with her about him. Then he comes back and asks her what her name is, She responds and then he replies with his name. We really can't make out what he says but it is something similar to Askaban, so that's what we call him. 
The ferry we take is really cool. Our bus drove right on it. (This ferry is taking us from the European part of Turkey to the Asian part, so we are switching continents). We get to the other side and we get back on the bus and head for Troy.  Troy is super cool but hot as hell.  It used to be a port but the river brought in sediment over a long period of time and closed up the inlet for the sea. Troy is an archaeological nightmare because it is 9 cities built on top of one another from periods stretching as far back as early man. The problem archaeologists face is that they are excavating and then they hit a level that they are not an expert in and have to call in experts and wait for them to dig up their part before they can continue.  Troy really brought the Iliad to life for me. 
Next we head to Assos to see the Temple of Athena.  This temple is built on the top of a hill, so we get to hike on up there but the site and the view make the walk well worth it.  From the top you can see the island of Lesbos. THIS IS FOR AMY.  I kid you not according to our guide this island was used as a sanctuary for women and helped to educate them.  This is where we get the word Lesbian.  The ruins of the Temple for Athena are amazing. You can literally climb on top of them (I know because we did). 
Assos is where we spent the night. Our hotel was right on the Aegean but we didn't go in because it was rocky and cold. We played in the pool for a while and then went to bed. 

It's Friday, Friday Gotta Get Down On Friday

Sorry I know the last post was really long. Something that I have forgotten to mention in earlier posts is that we have all decided that Linh is a Turkish Pop Star. Because in a lot of place that we went little kids will want to come up and shake her hand and in some places, like the Hagia Sofia, we have had to rescue her from creepy people who want to take pictures with and of her (its been strange).  This doesn't have any relevance to what happens on this day but I thought it was interesting and I had forgotten to mention it earlier. 
We had our first class meetings in the morning. Those were interesting and it was nice to remind ourselves of why we actually came here in the first place. 
After class we took the train (an electric one not a choo choo one) to Taksim Square. (This is the place to be for the locals) We have no idea what we are doing and everything is in Turkish. We only know that we have to take a train and to just get off at the end of the line.  So we find a train, buy a token to get on, and climb aboard.  On the train we are taking about what to do when we get to Taksim.  If I haven't mentioned it before the Turkish people are amazing. Some random guy hears what we are talking about and tells us that the train we are currently on is going to turn around (and go the wrong was at the next stop). So when the train stops he gets off with us and gets us on the right train. That is pretty much what everyone is like in Turkey.  So we are on the train and we get to where the train stops.  We then either have to buy a token to get on the subway to Taksim or walk there. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: if you ever run into the question of walking or metro the answer is always metro! We learned this the hard way. Yep we decided to save the two lira (I don't know if I have put the TL-$ conversions in the blog yet so here it is according to our guide 5 TL=$3.50 and 10 TL=$7) Anyway we should have known our decision was bad when every one we asked for directions to Taksim told us to take the subway. We finally get directions. (Let me mention that Istanbul, like Rome, is built on 7 hills - also random fact Istanbul's animal is the wolf because a wolf, according to legend, took in the founder of the city when he was abandoned as a baby and fed him her milk, making him big and strong. Sound familiar?) Taksim is at the top of one of these hills.  Our entire walk is up hill. At one point we come to a group of stairs, these stairs must be a punishment from Dante's inferno (like how I applied what I'm reading to everyday life). Once you near the top of one group of these stairs another group of stairs looms above you. (I'm gonna say that each group is about 100 steps and there were about 5 groups). When we finally reached the top of the stairs we still had about another 15 minutes of walking up hill before we got to Taksim (the whole walk took about 45 minutes). Needless to say we wanted to sit down and eat before we did anything else. (Also, I don't know if I mentioned it but no one drinks tap water in Turkey. The water won't make you sick or anything like that it just tastes horrible so if you order water at a restaurant they bring you a bottle). In the literal square of Taksim Square (its an area with a square in the center) there was a protest going on. I don't speak Turkish and nobody that I'm with does so I can't tell you what they were protesting but I would assume that it has something to do with the election that was going on then but finished last night (June 12). The authorities were not taking this lightly we saw oodles of police cars, people in uniforms with giant guns, water cannons, and riot vans. Everything was beyond peaceful when we were there I guess they were just being cautious. The longer we were there the more news vans arrived.  We just walked around the shops (clothing stores not souvenir). Taksim is known for its night life but we were there in the afternoon so that's pretty much all we could do.  We also walked by a beautiful church (not a mosque, a church). We took the Metro back to our area of town and did some shopping there.  Ben wanted to go back to the Grand Bazaar to get a scarf for his girlfriend so I went with him. Not much else happened. We packed up that night because we were leaving Istanbul in the morning. 

Spice Bazaar, Ferry, Museum, and Grand Bazaar.

I know that I am behind on posting but in my defense we are really busy and I have to do some school work right? Plus it doesn't help that the wifi is really unreliable.
That said here is what we did last Thursday.  I awoke at 7:00 in the AM. The mosque didn't awake me nor did jet-lag so woo hoo! We got some breakfast and got on the bus around 8:30. The bus took us to the Egyptian Bazaar (or the spice market but I think Egyptian Bazaar sounds so much better). This is probably one of my favorite places. the building is in the shape of an L and each hall is about 200 meters, so its pretty small.  What our guide told us to do is to first walk all the way through and then go back to places that looked interesting and start shopping. 
Now I'm going to assume that most of the people reading this have never been to a Turkish Bazaar so I'm going to go into how the shop owners behave (if you have been you may feel free to skip over this part). Basically there are two types of shops in the Egyptian Bazaar: 1-Stores that have spices and teas 2-Stores that sell trinkets. Basically all the stores have the petty much the same thing; therefore it is the shop workers responsibility to get people walking down the hall into their shop and buying their goods. Pretty simple right? Well this is bad and good for tourists. Bad-you are just walking admiring goods from a foreign land but you have to be really sneaky in the way that you look because if you look at the shop people or seem to show any interest in their merchandise they will not leave you alone. Good-first of all it can be taken as an ego boost for the ladies because if you're a woman walking by they will just keep saying how pretty you are yadda yadda yadda second-and this is the most important because these people are so desperate for customers, you can haggle with them and get the price reduced.
Okay back to our experience.  So we take our guide's advice and just look at first. Some shop owner asked if we were Australian, which is odd because most everyone just assumes that we are American.  Also something fun about the spice market, at the stores where tea is sold they will brew the tea and let you try it before you buy it.
One of the funniest encounters at the Egyptian Bazaar was at this one store where Linh was looking to buy a hookah for her boyfriend. The guy took us downstairs to see more of a selection. So, she is looking and trying to haggle and he just won't go any lower than 30 TL (turkish lira) which is about $21. She is not looking to spend that much, so he comes down to stand around where I am standing to show her the quality of the merchandise/smaller ones that he has.  All of a sudden he is touching my hair and picks up the strand with the feather in it and asks "What's this?" I just sheepishly respond "a feather." This seems to satisfy him and he goes back to haggling. We end up leaving the store because it is just too expensive for Linh.  Different people want to go to different stores so we split up. I buy a present for Mom and Amy. (Note: if you buy anything at any Turkish Bazaar you better stick it in your purse because once the shop workers see that you are spending money they are relentless) Kara and I are walking back to a store that we were in earlier because I decided to buy a turtle there (shocker right?). We pass the hookah guy and he sees that I have a bag (because of the gift for Mom and Amy). The following is our exchange: Him-"You break my heart" Me-"No this is such and such (telling him I didn't buy a hookah)" Him-"I have that here" Me-*shrug* Him-"Why you break my heart? Why you break my heart?" Me-*averting gaze and walking away quickly because I have nothing left to say*
Overall super fun experience and I wish that we got to stay longer. But we had to leave because we had a ferry to catch.
We took the ferry to cross the Bosphorus, which is the body of water that separates the Old City (where our hotel is) and the New City. The view from the ferry was amazing.  You could see both sides and a old palace that lined the river. 
We had lunch in the New City (I am going to make a separate blog post about all the Turkish food so I will hold off on talking about our lunch) I will say that we decided to order the unofficial national drink of Turkey to share between the 5 of us (Ben was having lunch with his dad). It is called Raki and it is made by mixing a white powder with water.  You drink it the same way you drink the coffee, one sip Raki, one sip water, etc. Let me tell you I thought that it was really discussing.  I could only do one sip. It tastes like black licorice and it is very strong.
After lunch we got back on the bus and headed toward a church that was turned into a monastery that was turned into a mosque that was turned into a museum. It's called St. Chora.  The inside is completely covered with gold mosaics, frescoes, and marble (fun fact: grey marble is really abundant in Turkey, therefore it is a relatively cheap material so it is used in a lot of buildings).  St. Chora was really beautiful. When the tour was over our guide gave us some free time to wander around. But the building is small and he had taken us into every room so Linh, Kara, and I wander around the shops that are in that area. When we finished wandering we just sat down on some steps by the church. This is where I meet who the students on the trip will henceforth refer to as my Turkish boyfriend.  We are just sitting and talking and Linh says "Ellie that guy is checking you out" so I turn and he is definitely looking at me.  I turn back to the conversation and Linh keeps telling me that he is looking at me. So, we keep sitting (what else are we going to do). Suddenly these two little boys walk over to us and one has a violin and he starts playing for us. Linh says "OH MY GOD I just saw that guy talking to these boys and he pointed at you. He sent them to play for you!" So I look back over at the guy, sure enough he is smiling, still looking at me and looking very proud of his plan.  That's pretty much all that happened with that.
We left and took the bus back to the hotel (there are bridges that connect the Old City to the New City just in case you were wondering how that worked if we took a ferry over). We drop off our bags from the Egyptian Bazaar in our rooms and head over to the Grand Bazaar.
The Grand Bazaar is walking distance from our hotel (it's literally like 3 1/2 blocks). The Grand Bazaar is like the Spice Bazaar's older brother on steroids. It is huge and they sell everything from jackets and purses to trinkets to food. Our guide warns us before we go in that the Turkish people have a saying "Nothing is real in the Grand Bazaar." I think there is something like over 4,000 shops in the Grand Bazaar.  You have to haggle here. Plus if one guy doesn't give you the price you want there are plenty more shops with the same stuff. Downside, this place is like a maze if you walk away from one shop, you will probably never find it again.  Here are some of the things that shop owners said to the six of us as we walked by: "Hey Spice Girls"(no I have no idea why) "Please angel come back""Let me help you spend your money today""Best price almost nothing at all." Here is what you will here once you have chosen to look in a store:"Morning price just for you"(Yeah we got to the Bazaar at about 1 or 2 in the afternoon)"Because you are a student and I know you have no money *names a price*""What do you want to pay . . . No I can not do that" "Because then I make no money" "Just because I want to make you happy *names price*" (if you wanted to make me happy you would give the price I asked for) "Just for you. Don't tell anyone I gave you this price" "Its just 5(10) lira more its like 2/3(7) American dollars" "Your friends can give you money . . . you have nice friends they will help you." It is truly an experience.  I didn't buy anything because there wasn't anything that I wanted.
And that was Thursday.

unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the buildings or at the archaeological museum, so here are my pictures from the palace

Topkapi Palace and Archaeological Museum

After lunch we met back up with our guide and the teachers and walked over to this giant complex that holds the palace and the museum.  When we walked into the palace I thought about how giant it was.  the kitchens alone were probably a little longer than a football field.  Since the guides aren't allowed to speak inside the buildings (the palace is a group of buildings in a complex with gardens between buildings). He explained what each building held and a little history about the people that lived there.  He left us on a terrace that overlooks the Bosphorus (the strait that separates Europe and Asia).  Naturally the first place that Lihn, Kara, and I wanted to go was the treasury.  Among some of the lavish contents there were gold bassinets, crowns, jeweled daggers, and the spoon makers diamond. This diamond gets its name because it was found in the trash by a spoon maker. I wonder how this 86 carat diamond ended up in the trash. After the treasury we went over to where the sacred relics are held.  We saw things like David's (as in David and Goliath from the Bible) sword, Moses' staff, the prophet's teeth and beard, and swords that belonged to rulers of Islam.  After that we went to the library, receiving room, and the place that housed the concubines. There really wasn't much to these rooms just basically couches and standing room (and of course books in the library). Also at the palace was a traveling exhibit of portraits that European artists had done of the different sultans. We left the palace and walked over to the Archaeological Museum. There we saw pieces from all of the different ages of Turkey. You really don't realize how long a country has been around until you see just how old some of the artifacts are.  In fact, recently discovered in Turkey was the oldest archaeological site in the world.  My favorite part of the museum though were the pieces recovered from Troy. I am reading the Iliad and it helped to bring the story to life.  Also at the museum we tried Turkish coffee.  The custom is to drink a sip of the coffee and then a sip of water. I didn't much care for the coffee but then I don't like any coffee so I am not the best judge.  That is pretty much all for our tours today.
Later after dinner, Kara, Ben, and I went for a walk and we found a concert that was going on in a park near our hotel. Even though I had no idea what the songs were about they were really pretty.  There was about 5 singers and a giant band with everything from trombones to keyboards.  We went back to the hotel after because we needed to get some work done.

pictures

the Hagia Sophia

the Blue Mosque

inside the Blue Mosque

inside the Hagia Sophia

Mosques and Lunch

This morning we were all awoken at around 4:30 by the call to prayer from the near by Blue Mosque.  I was up anyway because of jet-lag. We had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel (this is the same place that we had dinner the night before but I don't think I mentioned it in my last post), the restaurant is on the top of the building so you can see everything for miles. You can even see into the Asian side of Turkey and into the new part of the city of Istanbul.  We walked down to the Blue Mosque and saw my first mosque. The inside is filled with blue tiles, hence the name.  The floor has a carpet with turquoise tulips (Turkey's flower and color).  The mosque is beautiful and something that I am glad that I was exposed to.  Next we walked over to the Hagia Sofia. This building was originally built as a church but was converted to a mosque.  In Mosque there are no images, they are not allowed. However, because the building was a church there are still mosaics of Christ up around the building. It was really interesting to see the too religious juxtaposed.  We had lunch after the Hagia Sofia. Our tour guide just gave us an hour to eat and we found this little place on a main street near by.  As soon as we walked into the restaurant the people that worked there they changed the music to American pop.  After lunch one of the guys in our group wanted to introduce us to turkish delight. We got a plain flavor, a mint flavor, a rose flavor, and a pistachio flavor along with some baklava.  The plain was my favorite.  More about my day later.

Arrive in Istanbul

 The above picture is my hotel room and the ones below are what I can see from my window

After 9 hours to Amsterdam about an hour in between flights and another 3 hours to Istanbul WE FINALLY MADE IT! I have definitely had my fill of airports. Istanbul is beautiful.  When we first left the airport I thought it looked like Quito (the capital city of Ecuador) but then as our bus maneuvered through the streets and we were able to see remnants of ancient times, I was reminded of Rome. Our hotel is in the old city and the view from my room is amazing. It has been a very long day but I am so excited to be here.  And double yay the hotel has free wifi!