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.
Monday, June 13, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, June 10, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
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.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Arrive in Istanbul
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