It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we decided to do one of the ferry trips. There are trips you can take along the Bosphorus and out to the Princes' Islands. Since the Bosphorus one seems to leave at only 10:35 each morning during the winter, we aimed for the Princes' Islands ferry at noon (to come back at 3pm after a few hours there). Anna and I headed out with a Finnish girl in our dorm (yay for new friends in other countries!) and took the train/metro over to the ferry port. Even though it was a really nice day, it was super windy, and the ferries were cancelled :( I guess we will have to try again another day. Since we were in that area, the three of us decided to stay over there and walk around.
A scene from The Birds?
I mean, how perfect is this picture?!
Six hours later we had thoroughly explored the eastern part of the European half of Istanbul. We saw the outside of Dolmabahce Palace and were near the Museum of Modern Art but both were closed because of New Year's. We will have to go back to that area and do both of those! Instead, we walked around...a lot.
Anna and I on the Camondo Stairs - built by a wealthy Jewish family in Istanbul.
And, a nearby synagogue. Definitely wasn't expecting to see any of these in Turkey!
A few more things I didn't expect. Can you see the name of the shop? Paris, Texas - do you think they know that there really is a Paris, Texas???
And, an ode to Emma Goldman. Surprising.
We went to the Galata Tower but did not go up because it cost about $6.50 per person. We just took pictures all around it instead. On the way there, we stumbled on the first mosque built on that side of Istanbul - in the 1400s. It was super tiny and cute and was utterly surrounded by "city." Two little old men let us inside, and it was just as cute inside. Felt a lot more intimate and almost churchy than most of the huge mosques here. One of the men wanted a picture of himself and gave me his address, so now I have to remember to do that. I wonder how the mail service is from Romania to Turkey?!
Too cute. Now, I just need to put the darm thing in the mail.
The Galata Tower.
Because I felt like the blog needed another cat picture....
After that, we went up to Istikal Street. This is like the Oxford Street of Istanbul. Lots of stores and completely packed with people. Insanity! We had lunch at a place featured in the lonely planet guide (konnak, I think), and it was very good. Then, I marked a few of the stores also recommended by the guide book for that area, and we looked at some of them (but no purchases). It was fun to browse a little in proper shops and not be attacked by men touting their wares. It can be pretty ridiculous here. More than just pushing us to go into their stores or restaurants, we have had offers of marriage and even sex!? Yep, it is just weird. And, what is even stranger is that there are hardly any women around. Definitely unusual to see one in a shop selling things. Who knows where all the women are hidden away, but it certainly is a different kind of culture. It makes me think that places in the Middle East that are much more Islamic must feel very, very different.
Istikal Street - it gets much busier than this!
A synagogue, mosque, and now a Catholic church. All in one morning!
The historic tram that runs up and down this street.
Part of our lunch (that is our Finnish friend Ane in the background). It might look like a delicious milkshake, but it really was some kind of salty, sour yogurt thing. Strange, to say the least.
Picture from Anna.
Planning our next move....
Picture from Anna.
From Istikal, we decided to walk to the bridge (the galata bridge) since we thought it would be beautiful to see the view at sunset. And, we were right. That also is where they have the fish market and sell fresh fish sandwiches. We were not hungry for a sandwich then but will have to go back another time before we leave!
View from the other side of the bridge.
The fisherman who line the bridge.
Picture from Anna.
Me and Anna on the bridge.
The fish market. This guy is delivering tea to everyone who works there. I can't imagine that happening at a place like this in the U.S.!
You have to have some close-up shots of fish, too :)
On the other side, there is a huge mosque, and we decided to go in. It was absolutely beautiful inside - lots of blue and white tiles. Only after leaving did we realize it was the New Mosque. Even though the guide book calls it "gloomy" and says the tiles are of "poor quality," we still really liked it. Maybe it is gloomier during the day, but it was very nice in the evening!
The New Mosque from the outside.
And, inside.
After all of this, we decided to head back to the dorm and rest a little before dinner. Anna fell asleep for an hour or two, and I finally woke her up around 8:30 so that we could hunt down some dinner. It seems like when we aren't looking for food (cheap food!) it is everywhere, but when we are it cannot be found. This evening was no exception. After rather extensive wandering in the Sultanahmet, we stumbled onto a nice little, quiet side street with a few kebab places. We ended up at one of those, and it was really nice. Just simple. We got a chicken kebab that came with rice and fries for Anna (I had some rice though) and little plates of eggplant, chili paste, and yogurt with dill. This all came with a kind of thin lavash to wrap everything in. It was good and came to 20 lira. Woo-hoo! A nice ending for a nice day.
Saturday, Jan. 2nd
This morning, we had to switch rooms. I only booked the hostel through the morning of the 2nd because I was hoping to find a couch surfing place for the rest of the time for free. But, it seems that everyone here is traveling too! Because of this, I extended our stay at the hostel (agora hostel) for three more nights, but we had to switch from a women's only room to a mixed dorm. We were both a little wary about that, but it is an 8 person instead of a 10 person, and it worked really well last night. So, not too many complaints from me even if one person did snore a little :) And, if you ever come to Istanbul, this place is great. Definitely stay here!
After repacking all of our things (the hostel people were nice enough to switch our stuff for us when the room opened - so nice). We headed out with another girl to the Topkapi Palace. It was expensive but completely worth it. 20 lira for the main part and an additional 15 for the harem. You HAVE to do both!
The whole palace is pretty amazing. It is like a village within the walls – kitchens, mosque, hospital, library, etc. Then, the harem was like an even smaller village all walled in within the palace. That is where all the concubines/female slaves, their children, the sultan, and the sultan’s mother (talk about an important person!) all had their private apartments. It also had its own hospital for the women, schools for the children, baths, etc. Apparently, the only Westerner to get a first-hand view inside the harem was the person who fixed the clocks.
Entrance to the Topkapi Palace area...and a cat!
Anna in the harem. It just feels right.
More harem.
Some of the painted ceilings.
This is pretty neat. Old skylights!
The room where the women in the harem would entertain (sing, dance) for the sultan.
Check out all that neat tile!!!
The rest of the palace was pretty neat, too, but not exactly what I think of when it comes to a palace. It was more lots of buildings, but I couldn’t really tell what their purpose was. We got to see things like the treasury with the spoonmaker’s spoon (supposedly found in the 17th century and traded for 3 spoons) and the Topkapi dagger (crazy jewel-encrusted dagger made as a gift for the king of some country in the middle east). But, they didn’t allow cameras, so you will not get to see any pictures. Sorry! In on the buildings, they also had a variety of sacred objects – like a door from the building in Mecca, hairs from Muhammed’s beard, and supposedly things like Moses’ staff and John’s turban (or someone like that). But, there is just no way I can accept that this turban from the13th century BC has been perfectly preserved – because cloth totally holds up that well…. I will need to do some research on this stuff to see what is going on.
Outside the harem.
Other buildings in the palace.
More amazing tile.
There isn't even room to display all the columns!
Anna with a little kitten in the palace. Super cute.
And, since we entered the palace with a view of a cat, we must leave the same way :)
After several hours in the palace, we were both STARVING!!!! Definitely bring food to snack on if you go. Trust me, you will appreciate this tip. So, then we wandered around looking for food. After wandering for a bit, we eventually ended back at the same place where we had dinner last night. We had about the same thing, but this time they just brought out dishes of things without us asking, and it came to 30 lira this time, so I am not sure what happened there. Definitely more than we were wanting to spend, but I guess at least it was good and filling.
After lunch, we were not so sure what we were going to do and just kind of walked around. We ended up going to one mosque (if I remember correctly) and then tried to go to the Suleyman’s mosque. Unfortunately, it seemed to be closed for restoration. We did get to see the outside, and we were able to see where Suleyman and his wife Roxelana (who apparently was rather mean) were buried.
The tomb area - as close as we got to the mosque.
From there we were sort of in a less touristy area and stumbled on some stores that sold coffee and tea things. We ended up getting two of the copper coffee things for 5 lira each, which seemed like a pretty good deal. I doubt we will end up ever using them, but they look neat. A nice and cheap touristy thing to get! And, then, we somehow ended up at the Grand Bazaar again. Trust me, we did not mean to go there, but we did and, of course, we got some things. Oops! We got three of the more traditional scarves (kind of paisley and pashmina-like). It was pretty funny because they were originally 25 lira each, and the decided to offer 50 for all three. But, when we did, the person said no, 45. He had said he would do 15 each earlier, something we apparently missed. Since when does the owner offer a lower price than you did?! It was pretty funny. After that, Anna said that she wanted a ring from here, so we got directions to a part of the bazaar that sold rings we could afford. She got a really nice one, silver and gold plated, in the shape of a snake curling around her finger, and it has a piece of jade in the front. I ended up getting two rings! It was pretty crazy, but they are both so nice. One has three pieces of really nice turquoise, and the other has a piece of tile, a big piece of jade, and some other stone that I cannot remember. We got all three for 100 lira, which seemed like a pretty okay deal to both of us.
From the bazaar, we headed back to the hostel for a little bit and intended to go to a whirling dervish performance that night with a couple of other people. But, the performance wasn’t happening that evening, so instead we headed out to the Galata Bridge to get fresh fish sandwiches for dinner. We went to the fish market there and got the sandwiches at a little restaurant/stand in the market. A cute little kitten came up and ate with us – in our laps. It was pretty dang cute. The owners even brought us a plate of little fried fishes – for free!
Frying up the fish.
The little fried fishes.
Picture from Anna.
The kitten we were feeding.
From there, we walked back to the hostel and stopped for some baklava on the way. The two people we were with hadn’t had it before, so it was our duty to introduce them! Of course, Anna hadn’t had it until just a couple of days ago, but she is now a convert!
We also got some Turkish delight samples. I am trying to avoid being fed....
Picture from Anna.
Sunday, Jan. 3rd
We thought about going on the non-stop Bosphorus cruise today (2-4 pm for 10 lira), but it is raining, so I think we are scrapping that idea and just sticking with the rest of the things we have left to see. Maybe if it is nice tomorrow we can do the Bosphorus or the Princes' Islands stuff tomorrow. We will see....
So, after lunch we went to the Archaeological Museum, near the Topkapi Palace. It was pretty amazing – and huge! It actually was three buildings, one of which previously was the academy of fine arts in town. It now housed a variety of interesting things, including the earliest known political treaty (between the Egyptians and Hittites). How neat is that?
The writing is so tiny - just amazing.
It isn't a tablet, but it is too cute for words. This cat was just sitting perfectly in the statue!
Picture from Anna.
One of the buildings of the archaeology museum.
Another cat at the museum. The perfect pose!
The museum also had a really neat selection of tablets with the crazy little stamp writing on clay. One was a letter from a guy to his mother, one was a medical recipe about poisoning, and a few were short business memos. It was really, really cool to see. Another building was huge and had tons of sculptures – Hellenistc and then Roman periods. It also had some nice displays about the history of the different neighborhoods in Istanbul. After seeing all of this, it makes me think that I really should know sooooo much more about American history because the history of us as a country is so much shorter. In contrast, just here in Istanbul, there are remnants of Greek civilization, the Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and now Turks. It is just crazy.
Where's Anna???
There she is - checking out some of the exhibits!
Some neat tiles with such beautiful color.
A miniature version of the Trojan horse. And, is that Anna's wee little head?!
The last building was called the tile palace, or something like that. It had lots of fairly simply tiling inside and contained a very nice collection of tiles. I took tons of pictures in there and throughout the whole museum of the different tile patterns and designs. I am not sure why, but they really were interesting, and I keep thinking they would make really good designs for clothing and bedding. Maybe draw them out and do the stamps with the designs, like they do in Rajasthan, India.
Entrance to the tile part of the museum.
From another part of the museum. Neat designs!
As usual, we were starving after our morning of museum touring and headed out in search of food. But, this time we were more focused! It had stopped raining, so we decided to do the Sunday Bosphorus tour. We just got food on the way – a kebab sandwich for Anna (they gave us two instead, so she had some left for dinner) and some rice for me. It wasn’t a whole lot for me, so I got a fish sandwich near the ferry. We made it to the ferry just fine and had plenty of time to eat on board before departing. My sandwich was way too fishy – fins and skin still attached – so I wasn’t able to eat very much of it.
At two on the dot, the boat pulled away from the dock. We spent the first 20-30 minutes of the tour outside taking pictures. It was a neat view, but overcast and kind of drizzly, so it wasn’t the greatest. Still, I am glad we had a chance to do it before we left!
Getting ready for the ride.
It was cold, but we were doing okay at first.
It was a dark, grey, wet day.
The Dolmabhace Palace - we weren't able to see it, sadly.
To prove we were really on a boat!
The big bridge between the European and Asian sides.
View of the Asian side (I think).
And, the end of the trip (okay, we only spent 20 minutes outside and then went inside for the warmth!).
On the way back, I realized that some of our plans for Monday were not going to work. The modern art museum, pera museum, and dolmabhace palace all are closed on Mondays, darn. The modern art museum was open until 6pm, so we decided to go right there after the boat tour, but it meant that we would miss the other two. I am a little sad because the palace is supposed to be a lot like Versailles and actually is blamed for part of the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. It was built in the late 19th century, and the government had to get loans from other countries to pay for it.
Only a modern art museum has an entrance like this!
If I remember correctly, it used to be a storage place for shipping containers (right on the Bosphorus).
Even if we are going to miss that other stuff, I am really glad that we were able to do the modern art museum. It was one of the best modern art museums that I have been to. I am not sure if it is because a lot of the stuff was different (not the same paintings, styles, and artists that we always see at modern art museums) or if it is because it was smaller – so you didn’t have to see 40 cubist paintings and get sick of them.
The only picture I was able to sneak in. This was a pretty cool exhibit - everyone could leave something - so it was always changing.
Just as I wrote down the names of some of the Romanian artists in the museum in Bucharest, I noted some of the artists at this museum. Here are some that I liked (in case you want to check out some Turkish artists!): Erdag Aksel (Suzan II), Burhan Uygar, Cihat Burak, Fahrelnissa Zeid (Cehennemim, 1951), Selma Gurbuz (Silik Kostum / Faded Costume and Self Portrait, both from 2004), Ekrem Yalcindag (2313 Malrot, 2008), Mithat Sen (Figurative Abstract Composition / Figuratif Soyut Kompozisyon, 1989), Sukriye Dikmen (Girl with an Orange Dress / Turuncu Elbiseli Kiz), Canan Tolon (untitled, 1989), Osman Dinc (geometrical stuff), Erol Akyavas (Hallac-I Mansur, 1987), Avin Arbas (Tekneler / Boats, 1955), Nedim Gunsur (Sokak / Street, 1980).
Here is a piece by Sukriye Dikmen.
From there, we took the tram back to the hostel and hung out until it was time for the whirling dervishes performance. We went to one in the Press Museum, and it was 25 lira/person for student prices. It started with a brief explanation (hard to understand) and then a musical performance. After about 20 minutes, the dervishes joined the musicians and started whirling. And, yes, that is what they do – twirl for about 10 minutes at a time. It is pretty crazy. Anna and I were sitting in the very front, on the floor, so we got a very up-close view.
At the end of the show, we went back to the hostel and basically collapsed into bed. All of this walking has just been soooo exhausting! And, I am starting to get sick which isn’t good at all.
Monday, Jan. 4th
Today was a pretty lazy day, which I think both of us really needed. I feel like I am starting to get a cold, and we both were just worn out from all the travelling and walking. After breakfast, we actually came back to the room, did some stuff on the computer, and even took short naps. Anna was really interested in getting a rug, so when we finally were ready to go (about 1pm or so), we headed over to a rug store owned by the same person as the hostel. We both ended up getting one, but they were both pretty cheap. I think it is something that we will really enjoying having, particularly since this is THE place for rugs! She got an older one, and I got a kilim (which is flat weaving), and they are both really nice. Even better, they both fold up into a really tiny package that only takes up half the space in Anna’s carry-on bag!
Anna with one of the people at the carpet shop (and a rug we didn't buy!).
Stacks of carpets - pretty cool looking!
And, since another big thing to get in Turkey is pottery/tiles, I went back to the craft center we stopped at a few days before to get three small, rectangular tiles. I have been eyeing them since the first day and am really excited about them. I guess even if this means I have to live very frugally or come home earlier than expected, I am really glad that we made this trip and that I have made these purchases. No buyer’s regret from me!
We didn’t really do much after the shopping. It was really cold out and even snowed a bit on and off. We got calamari sandwiches for lunch and then grabbed a few baklavas to go and headed to Starbucks (yes, they are in turkey too) to hang out for a little bit. It is pretty funny because they are exactly the same in every country! It actually is kind of comforting in a way.
So, what is different about these Starbucks flyers??
When we had milked that location for all it was worth, we picked up a few things for dinner (kebab for Anna, Turkish pancake for me, and rice pudding for after) and went back to the dorm. Since then we have just been hanging out, packing, and catching up on things like this blog! Okay, the next post will be from Romania. I am excited to get back even though it is pretty dang cold there. Yikes….
Tuesday, Jan. 5th
Today started off just fine. Even though I slept really badly, my alarm went off without a problem, and we both bounced right up at 6:40am, got ready, and caught the shuttle to the airport. This time we fly out of Ataturk airport, which is closer to town and took much less time to get to. It was a very strange place – we had to go through a basic security (no shoes off or liquids out but computers had to be out and jackets off) just to get into the airport, and then each individual gate had its own security line. Seems like a phenomenal waste of money and resources to me….
So, we got there without a problem and took off just fine. I basically slept the whole time, which was good. I am still not feeling well, and that combined with some unpleasant news that I received last night has made me rather grumpy. Unfortunately, the grumpiness was compounded when we landed in Bucharest because (1) it was super cold outside, (2) the national museums of art and history were closed – what museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays?? – and we had been planning to go to both of those, and (3) then we had a really rude waiter at lunch who gave himself a 4 lei tip by keeping all the change! After all of that, we just decided to take the bus back to the airport instead of wobbling around on the snow and ice with the wheel-y bag. We have been at the airport for about two or three hours, and even though there isn’t anything to do here, I have gotten some of my own work done. First, I managed to write out all of our expenses in London and Istanbul. We did fairly well, but I still owe my parents a ton of money that I definitely don’t have right now! I am going to have to do some serious number crunching when I get home to figure out how to pay them back and afford to stay here/travel for the month of June. Think good thoughts my way…. I also was able to proofread and edit my cover letter for a job application due today. I will just have time to email it in when I get back to Cluj tonight.
Only one picture from today. Anna waiting in the airport…awwww….
Patiently waiting in Bucharest.
Anna snuck a picture of me! Typing up all our receipts and spending from the trip - scary stuff!!
Now we are on to the Romanian portion of our trip. I hope it is fun. I have been feeling kind of down lately. Even though this probably isn’t the right thing to say on a blog that will be posted on the Fulbright website, I will just go ahead and say what I am sure we are all feeling sometimes. So, here goes. It is a little hard to believe that I have only been here for 3 months and that I still have 5-6 months to go. That is a little scary. I just really hope that it all goes well. Honestly, I kind of feel like I could just go home now and feel okay about the whole experience. I think I am feeling a little scared about the class next semester since this one was a bit of a struggle, and I also am getting increasingly concerned about what will happen when I finish here!!! Job, no job? Goats and lavender, or none? Those who are in the loop know what I mean by this.
Let me explain a little about the wee diatribe above. I am feeling a bit (umm, a bit more than a bit) underwhelmed by academia these days because yesterday I received an email from the Graduate College at ASU, which said that my application for graduation in the fall of 2009 was denied. I submitted that thing in late August or early September and really thought I had taken care of everything. Even though my POS said it was approved, I think I have a few mistakes on there (like not having included the 1 credit from this fall). I admit that it is my fault, but it is just ridiculous that the university let me know AFTER graduation (like a month after), leaving me no time to fix things. I have no idea what will happen and am terrified that this means that I will have to enroll in another credit in the spring and not graduate until May even though I successfully defended my dissertation on September 10th. That would cost me $1,000 for a single out-of-state credit! I just can’t even think about it because I definitely do not have that money (even less so after this Christmas trip with my sister).
Hopefully it will just be cheerier news to report after this….
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