You know in movies when it is raining out in the city and a giant truck drives by and splashes an unsuspecting character? Yeah, that happened to me right after I showered today. Not quite full body, just up to the waist, but I definitely took a slice of the Istanbul street home with me... yummy.
Everyone out there pray for better weather because I just found out you can go to the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara for the day and ride bikes. I love bicycles!
In a completely irrational and thoroughly exciting move on Thursday, Sarah, a friend Adam, and I bought tickets to Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick's day. It was awesome.
We had a great time -- stayed with friend of Adam's from home, enjoyed some Guinness in it's homeland, ate all the things we missed from the western world (mainly sandwiches and bagels and bacon), and wandered all over Dublin. We met some really cool kids who were studying/working in Spain -- actually doing some Structural Engineering work, so I was excited to meet them. Without much of a plan, besides just to be in Ireland for the holiday, we saw a packed-to-the-brim Dublin (mainly tourists) lots of green and lots of Guinness.
We had a ton of fun, but it definitely made me appreciate Istanbul a lot -- #1: Western Europe is not for anyone lacking financially. Every time I bought something that costs more Euro in Dublin than it would Lira in Istanbul, I had to cringe. 2 Euro for a bottle of water! That is usually less than a Lira in Istanbul, so like less than 1/2 a Euro. Crazy! And #2: In Istanbul taxis practically beg to get it. If you walk to slow on the road taxis will honk at you to get in. Its less than 2 Lira to get in, and you can get quite a distance on 10 Lira during the day (remember 10 Lira = 5 Euro). In Dublin it was 6 Euro just to get IN the cab, not
to mention a steadily increasing fare. Just to get back from town it cost as much as it does to get from the airport to my doorstep in Istanbul! And it took 2.5 hours to hail a cab! After fruitless attempts at flagging down the numerous empty cabs, we found the only place they were stopping was at this cab stand that had a mile long line of drunk and freezing people. Not the nicest crowd, let me tell you. And after waiting for all this time, the 5 of us hop in the cab only to be told "5 people weren't covered in his insurance." I don't even know if there is such a thing as insurance in Istanbul, but we've definitely had 6+ people in a speeding, crazy taxi before.
It was really strange to be in an English speaking country, Sarah, Adam and I all found ourselves stupidly miming every thing we wanted. The people would be like "Oh, you want this?" and halfway through the act of putting an imaginary hat on your head, you remember, ah yes, they can understand me with my words. We were really glad to find pork, and brought back a big bag of meat and cooked a big dinner last night with our friends. And we finally found medicine for Sarah's lactose-intolerance (a non-existent disease in Turkey apparently).
Randomness ensues: I'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland. See my next entry for a full account of this sure-to-be-amazing adventure :)
In honor of my constantly bursting stomach, I think its time I wrote about the food here in Turkey. Well what I eat in my budgeted and busy life.
There is this adorable little cafe right near campus called Arkadas (which means friend in Turkish) that I eat in at least 4 days a week. The guy who owns it loves us. We come in to be greeted with a huge hug, climb up some rickety spiral stairs and eat that day's special. Its usually some kind of meaty stew, served with rice and a ton of bread. Cok nefis (very delicious!) I also love the Pastry shop near the Superdorm -- they have super fresh pastries in the morning, cheesy/potatoey pogaca. And my newest discovery is the Hisar bakery -- heaven. There are tons of pastries, including baklava, that are so cheap. Yesterday I bought this huge cookie that was actually like 2 cookies stacked, and it was only 1 Lira.
There is so much meat and yogurt here, I feel like I never eat vegetables or fruit. Several times a week I wonder at the possibility of getting scurvy due to my crumbling food pyramid. Then I eat a salad and an orange and dive right back in. The first night I was here I ordered Iskender, which is literally just a giant plate piled with meat. With yogurt on the side. So much meat and dairy....It's all so good though!
So now I am seriously considering paying the 5 Lira entrance fee to the gym. Sadly, when I say 5 Lira, I can see 5 cookies dancing in front of my face. Anyways, that was a terrible description of Turkish food, but know its good, its making me fat, and I love it!
Today was such a perfect day! Number one -- my only class was canceled, so I had the day to get some stuff done. Sarah and I headed down to Karikoy, to get our student Akbil (the transportation pass used on the buses). It was pretty much madness, especially since we had to hit the bank first to pay the 5 lira fee. Everything closes at midday for lunch, and everyone who needs the bank during lunch stands outside waiting for it to open up again. They apparently haven't found the logic of people working shifts so as to control the pre/post lunch crowd... so we crammed into this tiny bank lobby and pushed our way through to a group of people holding similar looking papers, and paid the fee. Then we head over to an equally crowded transportation office that I'm sure was suffering the post-lunch onslaught of people. There is a line out the door so we awkwardly stood in it for a few minutes, responding to peoples questions with blank, deer in headlights stares. Out of nowhere this cop is like "student?" and waves us through the line into the office. Here we find a crowd of students waving their applications in the air. A different officer herds them off somewhere and we give him our typical awkward giggle/deer in headlights combination. And all of a sudden we find ourselves being led through lines of people holding the same applications as us, brought into an empty, open office with comfy chairs and told to sit. And within 5 minutes our new shiny transportation cards were ours. Simple. When it comes down to it, it's all about being awkward and giggly.
Now that we had our cards, we also needed the physical Akbil part to attach to them. This proved harder to find so we only managed to get one... but, they sell them all over the city, so I don't need to go back to Karikoy again. Which, since this city is so huge, is like an hour away. I also finally tried the infamous fish sandwiches that people are always talking about -- delicious fresh fish fried up and put on a bun. They sell them right by the Golden Horn, so we sat on the edge and ate them, then found our way to the Galata Bridge where we were lured into a restaurant by free tea. We sat inside, doing our homework and getting tons of tea and even more attention from the bored/enthralled wait staff. We were sitting there, just doing work, looking onto the Golden Horn about 10 feet away, Ayasofya, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace all in view, and were like "Wow... I am sitting here, doing homework, in Istanbul. Istanbul!" It's just so crazy to be doing something so mundane and tedious and look up and realize where you are. I can't say it enough, but I am loving it here!
We also went to Taksim tonight to meet for dinner with a girl who is coming to school in Michigan. Her friend found Sarah and I on facebook and set up a dinner tonight so she could ask us about Michigan. She is actually going to Western next winter. It was so weird to be describing Kalamazoo and Western to someone here! I was telling her -- all my friends go there from home! My little brother is going there! That is the closest mall to my hometown! And then we found out she is from the same hometown as Can, my Turkish friend at Michigan. Such a small world! We told her we were planning to go to southern Turkey for spring break and to meet with Can and go to Mersin, his hometown, she got so excited. "Ah, we can go swimming and sunbathing, and you can meet my family too, and maybe we can go to Northern Cyprus!" Yeah, I'm ready for warmth, so that sounds niiiice. Beach time baby!
So this Wednesday I didn't have class and made plans to finally get my student Akbil (transportation card that makes the bus/metro/tram way cheaper), and then to do some sightseeing with Sedat, the police officer we met who is trying to learn English. Of course, with my nonexistent Turkish, administrative matters like getting an Akbil are nearly impossible to complete.
After following the directions given in an email by the school, only to find out they were wrong, I was late to meet Sedat, so I just gave up on the Akbil for the day and headed to the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul. This is where all the major touristy things are -- Ayasofya, Blue Mosque, etc. We went to Topkapi Palace, which is also a museum. Its so beautiful. I can't wait to go back in
the summer when all the gardens are blooming! And I also saw the Basilica Cisterns which is this huge underground cavern that was used in like the Byzantine Empire for people to have access to water. They were so eerie -- nearly pitch black with these huge cavernous ceilings. Every time I visit places like these it amazes me that I am living among all this history! We swung back by the Blue Mosque (see left) after sightseeing so Sedat could change into his civilian clothes. So he sat me on this little stool outside the security and I chilled for a few minutes with the security guards at the mosque gardens. Talk about random situations that I put myself into!
So thats pretty much all that is going on right now. The weather is so-so, not too cold, but definitely not the gorgeous stuff we had when we first got here. It kind of makes me just want to hang out inside, not go outside exploring. I'm saving that for when I won't freeze to death. So we may or may not take a day trip tomorrow. But there's homework I should be doing, and weather I'd rather just avoid (um, I left Michigan for a reason). So we'll see...
Anyways, love from Istanbul. Pray for sunnn so that I stop doing my homework and start getting a tan!
Boğaziçi Üniversitesi
Uçaksavar Kültür ve Spor Tesisleri
Cengiz Topel Caddesi
Etiler 34337, İstanbul
So I don't know if my address actually works, but here it is. Umm send me a postcard and we'll see if it does :)
