Well, Spring Break has officially started for me here in Istanbul. I am taking a trip to Eastern Turkey for the next 12 days. I will not be bringing my computer for the trip! I wanted to post a tentative itinerary of where I am going incase you wanted to look up the places to get a sense of where I am and what I will be doing. Of course an extensive blog will follow my adventures!
DAY 1 - Malatya & Nemrut Dagi, Thursday April 23rd: Fly into Malatya, 6:50 am – 8:30 am.
Day 2 – Friday April 24th: Sanliurfa
Day 3 – Mardin
Day 4 – Diyarbakir
Day 5 – Van
Day 6 - Van
Day 7 – Dogubayazit and Ararat.
Day 8 – Kars
Day 9 – Ani
Day 10 – Trabzon/Sumela Monastery
Day 11 – Trabzon
Day 12 – Yusufeli/Trabzon and fly home!
I will be going through Kurdistan and Turkey!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Along the City Walls
The next two weeks were especially difficult for me because of exams (following this post I had 2 exams worth 30% and 35% of my grade). This is a significant chunk considering finals at Emory are usually worth either this much or slightly more. At Boğaziçi there are fewer exams that count more. I don’t know how I like that. It certainly gives you less leeway to mess up. At any rate, the first time I had a reading quiz in my POLS 309 class, I spent 3 solid days reading for that class. I didn’t do anything fun for the entire weekend. I decided after that I will make a commitment to see at least one new part of the city every weekend. Otherwise, I will have spent all of my time indoors studying. I could just do that at Emory. There would be no point of even coming (except that they don’t offer the classes I am taking at Emory).
So this weekend with two exams the following week (weekend of March 28), I decided to go out on Saturday to see the city walls and the other cool stuff around it. The city walls are located all the way across town in Merter. I got off the subway and there they were, just as I expected. I had to choose which way to go (there were cool things to see in both directions) and I decided that I would go towards the Sea of Marmara and shoot for the Yediküle Fortress and the Pege Zoochious (sp?) (I will correct this post when I go look at my Istanbul guidebook…or maybe I will be too lazy and forget to look). After going to the wrong place, at least twice and spending two hours looking for it, I found this church (Balik kilise) or the Pege Zoochious. This site was neat because it was a church built around a spring that was supposed to have mystical powers. It was famous in Greek times as one of Artemis’ springs. Later, it was somehow associated with the Virgin Mary. The most famous legend about it is that before the invasion of Istanbul, a monk said that an invasion was as likely as this fish was to jump off of the frying pan and into the water. According to the story, right after he said that, the fish jumped into the water. The spring itself had fish in it and was literally inside the church. It was pretty neat. The church itself was also pretty. It had all kinds of decorations in the small sanctuary. It was definitely worth the visit.
Then, I kept walking along the city walls, which were also pretty neat. In the old moat, there are people who are now farming. Many of the towers and infrastructure for it are still intact. The fortress is actually built into the city walls, as it was a part of the security system. This fortress was also the main receiving area for people into Istanbul during parts of its history. A sultan was also executed inside its walls, so there was a lot of history inside it. However, just like with many fortresses, there isn’t much left. I got to see the dungeon, but otherwise climbed to the top to enjoy the view of both the Marmara Sea and the city. Then, I came back home and studied for the rest of the weekend. At least I got out to see things though!
So this weekend with two exams the following week (weekend of March 28), I decided to go out on Saturday to see the city walls and the other cool stuff around it. The city walls are located all the way across town in Merter. I got off the subway and there they were, just as I expected. I had to choose which way to go (there were cool things to see in both directions) and I decided that I would go towards the Sea of Marmara and shoot for the Yediküle Fortress and the Pege Zoochious (sp?) (I will correct this post when I go look at my Istanbul guidebook…or maybe I will be too lazy and forget to look). After going to the wrong place, at least twice and spending two hours looking for it, I found this church (Balik kilise) or the Pege Zoochious. This site was neat because it was a church built around a spring that was supposed to have mystical powers. It was famous in Greek times as one of Artemis’ springs. Later, it was somehow associated with the Virgin Mary. The most famous legend about it is that before the invasion of Istanbul, a monk said that an invasion was as likely as this fish was to jump off of the frying pan and into the water. According to the story, right after he said that, the fish jumped into the water. The spring itself had fish in it and was literally inside the church. It was pretty neat. The church itself was also pretty. It had all kinds of decorations in the small sanctuary. It was definitely worth the visit.
Then, I kept walking along the city walls, which were also pretty neat. In the old moat, there are people who are now farming. Many of the towers and infrastructure for it are still intact. The fortress is actually built into the city walls, as it was a part of the security system. This fortress was also the main receiving area for people into Istanbul during parts of its history. A sultan was also executed inside its walls, so there was a lot of history inside it. However, just like with many fortresses, there isn’t much left. I got to see the dungeon, but otherwise climbed to the top to enjoy the view of both the Marmara Sea and the city. Then, I came back home and studied for the rest of the weekend. At least I got out to see things though!
Exploring Istanbul: A trip to Eyüp
Because I had exams the following week, I decided not to go out of town. Instead, I thought the time would be better spent exploring Istanbul (as there are just so many places to see). On Saturday, March 28, Jess and I decided to go check out Eyüp, a section of town right towards the end of the Golden Horn. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect because I didn’t know much about the place. The only thing I knew was that there seemed to be a few neat things to see according to my trusty Istanbul guidebook (thanks Eric and Stanton!). We took the bus to Kabataş first because I needed to buy the metal part of my student akbil for it to work. I love the student akbil by the way! It makes transport around Istanbul incredibly cheap! My first bus, ferry, or metro ride only costs 0.85 Lira and each transfer (up to 5 within a 2 hour period) only costs 0.21 Lira. What an incredible deal!
So after getting my student card, we walk across the Golden Horn to Eminönü and take a bus to Eyüp. A guy told us exactly where to get off on the bus and we did and we were in the center of that area. We walked through some shops until we reached the Eyüp mosque (it is actually called something else, but the name escapes me at the moment). The Eyüp district is very different from other districts of Istanbul. They are much more traditional because Eyüp is the third holiest site in the Muslim world (which I did not know at the beginning of the day). We walked past the mosque and behind it were some graves. The graves look quite different here than they do in the other places. Instead of having a plain tombstone with just a name, these graves are quite different. The men’s graves have either a fez or a turban on top. The turban is if the person was buried before 1829 (the Turban was banned in this year by the Ottoman Empire) and if the grave has a fez, it was someone who died after 1829. The female graves featured flowers. The number of flowers indicated how many children she had. Additionally, all of the graves were written in Arabic script because Turkish actually utilized Arabic script until Ataturk reformed it after the War of Independence. Interestingly, Arabic script actually was not suitable for Turkish because there were some sounds in the Turkish language that could not be written in the Arabic script.
After seeing the graves, Jess and I went inside the mosque. Surprisingly, the guard told me it was okay to take pictures while the service was going on (see the Eyüp pictures) with the congregation listening to the imam. We then went across the way to a tomb (Eyüp is famous for its tombs) and entered. This tomb was the tomb of Ayyub al-Ansari (standard bearer and companion of the Prophet Muhammad). This particular tomb had been lost during the 600’s AD, but was rediscovered by Mehmet the Conqueror on his way to capturing Istanbul. The Ottomans believed it was a sign that they were destined to conquer Istanbul and built the huge tomb that we observed to house the smaller lost tomb. He was obviously someone important because his tomb was enclosed and people could not get closer than a certain distance. Furthermore, there were actually people praying in front of the tomb. There was also a guy handing out “gifts” to tourists. He asked me if I spoke English and asked me to wait. At first I thought it was some sort of security official and that I was going to get into trouble for something. He came back with a bag and said the word “gift.” I open it up and inside is a 60 or 70 page soft cover book and front says something along the lines of Muhammad the Great. The inside contains information in English about Muhammad and all of his deeds. I haven’t read it yet, but I certainly will! There is a small sticker on the bag that said, “If you are not going to take this back to your home country and put it on your coffee table, give it back now.” It was really funny. I guess it’s a gift with stipulations. Hmm…maybe these people are more closely related to Jews than I thought!
After we visited the tomb, Jess and I decided to climb to the top of the large hill in Eyüp in search of the Pierre Lotti Café. There was supposedly a furnikuler to the top of the hill, but we couldn’t find it so we decided to walk. The hill is a huge graveyard that actually looks like a miniature Arlington National Cemetery. There were rows upon rows of white graves. The reason there were so many graves here was because of the famous tomb in Eyüp. Everyone who could afford it wanted to be buried as close to it as possible because they thought it had some religious significance. The walk to the top took about 30 minutes and it was pretty tough (the hill was about as steep and as some of the hills in San Francisco and much taller). At the top we found our way to the Pierre Loti Café. Anyone who has enough time to visit Eyüp and this area should make sure they see this café. The café is on the top of the Eyüp hill at the end of the Golden Horn. You can see right down the body of water to all of the major landmarks in Eminönü, Karaköy and Sultanahmet. It was very pretty. Jess and I sat there and had çay and enjoyed the view. Jess actually introduced me to elma çay (hot apple tea) here. It tasted VERY similar to apple cider! I was so excited to find it! Istanbul had been cold and I had been looking for hot apple cider, but no one had it. Little did I know that it had been surrounding me the whole time!
After our tea we found the furnikuler (it went right to Pierre Loti Café) and we took the skylift down to the bottom of the hill. We decided that since it was a beautiful night and there were a lot of pretty parks along the Golden Horn that we would walk. After walking for a few minutes, we came across a carnival that was going on. We walked inside and got cotton candy (for only 1.5 Lira)! It was awesome. Then we kept walking and came across the Theodosian Walls. We decided to enter in the opening (which opened up to a nice park) and see where the path took us. It took us to the left and to the exist on the other side. On what would have been the inside of the walls in ancient times, there were stairs leading to the top. Jess and I climbed the stairs and stood on top of the city walls and looked around. It was neat to imagine what Constantinople would have looked like during those times.
When we walked back though the archway through the way we came, we noticed a building with a tomb inside. It was very much out of the way and not touristy, but we were curious. We noticed two guys going in and then asked if we could visit the tomb as well. It was similar to the tomb in Eyüp except that we were able to get much closer and really see the detail. It was covered in a green cloth and the turban at the top was wrapped in a towel, probably to preserve it. Two Turkish Muslims came over to greet us. He clasped my hand with both of his when he introduced himself. When I said “memnum oldum,” which is Turkish for nice to meet you, he said “Mash’allah,” which basically means “God has willed it.” In this instance he was referring to the fact that I responded in Turkish. By the way, he could speak absolutely no English. So we had a very short conversation in broken Turkish, but in his broken English he was able to tell us that this was the tomb of one of Muhammad’s milk brothers. Jess and I didn’t know what a milk brother was, but just assumed that he probably messed up some other word in English. Later, I came to find out that he was in fact correctly translating it and that milk brothers are two men who were breast fed from the same woman. In Muslim culture, it has a high place, making the two individuals like brothers. So this tomb, which was far out of the way and probably had very few tourists visit it (we stumbled upon it by accident) is a very religious place. The Turkish guys were so nice to me that I am not sure if they thought I was Muslim. With my beard and the way I look, I have been told that I do look a bit Muslim…so its possible. After our brief conversation, the Turkish men offered Jess and I some lokum (Turkish delight). We each had one piece and refused their offers for more. It was overall a very warm and friendly interaction; Jess and I were very happy afterward.
We decided to get on the bus towards Eminönü to get something to eat. We walked across the bridge and stopped (after much persuasion from the Turkish guy outside) at one of the restaurants. He told us that we should sit down and have çay with him. Of course we got suckered into staying, but he was a nice guy. Jess wanted to get a “Balik Ekmek” (fish sandwich) because it was the cheapest item on the menu. The waiter refused to let her and told her that he would take care of her. I ordered a fish plate for 8 Lira (included salad, bread, and a couple of potato wedges). When Jess got her order, he basically gave her half of what I got and for half the price. It was certainly much classier of than the fish sandwich on the menu. Better yet, it wasn’t even on the menu, so he really took care of her. After we started eating, I remarked to Jess that I wished that they had given me more potato wedges/french fries. Not more than five minutes after I said that (and the waiter was not in earshot of me) he comes out with an order of fries and tells us that they are on the house. AMAZING! So we finished dinner and walked across the bridge and took the bus to Beşkitaş where we met Ohad and his friend for a party he was hosting. The party itself was not all that exciting and we left at 11:30pm, getting home around midnight.
So after getting my student card, we walk across the Golden Horn to Eminönü and take a bus to Eyüp. A guy told us exactly where to get off on the bus and we did and we were in the center of that area. We walked through some shops until we reached the Eyüp mosque (it is actually called something else, but the name escapes me at the moment). The Eyüp district is very different from other districts of Istanbul. They are much more traditional because Eyüp is the third holiest site in the Muslim world (which I did not know at the beginning of the day). We walked past the mosque and behind it were some graves. The graves look quite different here than they do in the other places. Instead of having a plain tombstone with just a name, these graves are quite different. The men’s graves have either a fez or a turban on top. The turban is if the person was buried before 1829 (the Turban was banned in this year by the Ottoman Empire) and if the grave has a fez, it was someone who died after 1829. The female graves featured flowers. The number of flowers indicated how many children she had. Additionally, all of the graves were written in Arabic script because Turkish actually utilized Arabic script until Ataturk reformed it after the War of Independence. Interestingly, Arabic script actually was not suitable for Turkish because there were some sounds in the Turkish language that could not be written in the Arabic script.
After seeing the graves, Jess and I went inside the mosque. Surprisingly, the guard told me it was okay to take pictures while the service was going on (see the Eyüp pictures) with the congregation listening to the imam. We then went across the way to a tomb (Eyüp is famous for its tombs) and entered. This tomb was the tomb of Ayyub al-Ansari (standard bearer and companion of the Prophet Muhammad). This particular tomb had been lost during the 600’s AD, but was rediscovered by Mehmet the Conqueror on his way to capturing Istanbul. The Ottomans believed it was a sign that they were destined to conquer Istanbul and built the huge tomb that we observed to house the smaller lost tomb. He was obviously someone important because his tomb was enclosed and people could not get closer than a certain distance. Furthermore, there were actually people praying in front of the tomb. There was also a guy handing out “gifts” to tourists. He asked me if I spoke English and asked me to wait. At first I thought it was some sort of security official and that I was going to get into trouble for something. He came back with a bag and said the word “gift.” I open it up and inside is a 60 or 70 page soft cover book and front says something along the lines of Muhammad the Great. The inside contains information in English about Muhammad and all of his deeds. I haven’t read it yet, but I certainly will! There is a small sticker on the bag that said, “If you are not going to take this back to your home country and put it on your coffee table, give it back now.” It was really funny. I guess it’s a gift with stipulations. Hmm…maybe these people are more closely related to Jews than I thought!
After we visited the tomb, Jess and I decided to climb to the top of the large hill in Eyüp in search of the Pierre Lotti Café. There was supposedly a furnikuler to the top of the hill, but we couldn’t find it so we decided to walk. The hill is a huge graveyard that actually looks like a miniature Arlington National Cemetery. There were rows upon rows of white graves. The reason there were so many graves here was because of the famous tomb in Eyüp. Everyone who could afford it wanted to be buried as close to it as possible because they thought it had some religious significance. The walk to the top took about 30 minutes and it was pretty tough (the hill was about as steep and as some of the hills in San Francisco and much taller). At the top we found our way to the Pierre Loti Café. Anyone who has enough time to visit Eyüp and this area should make sure they see this café. The café is on the top of the Eyüp hill at the end of the Golden Horn. You can see right down the body of water to all of the major landmarks in Eminönü, Karaköy and Sultanahmet. It was very pretty. Jess and I sat there and had çay and enjoyed the view. Jess actually introduced me to elma çay (hot apple tea) here. It tasted VERY similar to apple cider! I was so excited to find it! Istanbul had been cold and I had been looking for hot apple cider, but no one had it. Little did I know that it had been surrounding me the whole time!
After our tea we found the furnikuler (it went right to Pierre Loti Café) and we took the skylift down to the bottom of the hill. We decided that since it was a beautiful night and there were a lot of pretty parks along the Golden Horn that we would walk. After walking for a few minutes, we came across a carnival that was going on. We walked inside and got cotton candy (for only 1.5 Lira)! It was awesome. Then we kept walking and came across the Theodosian Walls. We decided to enter in the opening (which opened up to a nice park) and see where the path took us. It took us to the left and to the exist on the other side. On what would have been the inside of the walls in ancient times, there were stairs leading to the top. Jess and I climbed the stairs and stood on top of the city walls and looked around. It was neat to imagine what Constantinople would have looked like during those times.
When we walked back though the archway through the way we came, we noticed a building with a tomb inside. It was very much out of the way and not touristy, but we were curious. We noticed two guys going in and then asked if we could visit the tomb as well. It was similar to the tomb in Eyüp except that we were able to get much closer and really see the detail. It was covered in a green cloth and the turban at the top was wrapped in a towel, probably to preserve it. Two Turkish Muslims came over to greet us. He clasped my hand with both of his when he introduced himself. When I said “memnum oldum,” which is Turkish for nice to meet you, he said “Mash’allah,” which basically means “God has willed it.” In this instance he was referring to the fact that I responded in Turkish. By the way, he could speak absolutely no English. So we had a very short conversation in broken Turkish, but in his broken English he was able to tell us that this was the tomb of one of Muhammad’s milk brothers. Jess and I didn’t know what a milk brother was, but just assumed that he probably messed up some other word in English. Later, I came to find out that he was in fact correctly translating it and that milk brothers are two men who were breast fed from the same woman. In Muslim culture, it has a high place, making the two individuals like brothers. So this tomb, which was far out of the way and probably had very few tourists visit it (we stumbled upon it by accident) is a very religious place. The Turkish guys were so nice to me that I am not sure if they thought I was Muslim. With my beard and the way I look, I have been told that I do look a bit Muslim…so its possible. After our brief conversation, the Turkish men offered Jess and I some lokum (Turkish delight). We each had one piece and refused their offers for more. It was overall a very warm and friendly interaction; Jess and I were very happy afterward.
We decided to get on the bus towards Eminönü to get something to eat. We walked across the bridge and stopped (after much persuasion from the Turkish guy outside) at one of the restaurants. He told us that we should sit down and have çay with him. Of course we got suckered into staying, but he was a nice guy. Jess wanted to get a “Balik Ekmek” (fish sandwich) because it was the cheapest item on the menu. The waiter refused to let her and told her that he would take care of her. I ordered a fish plate for 8 Lira (included salad, bread, and a couple of potato wedges). When Jess got her order, he basically gave her half of what I got and for half the price. It was certainly much classier of than the fish sandwich on the menu. Better yet, it wasn’t even on the menu, so he really took care of her. After we started eating, I remarked to Jess that I wished that they had given me more potato wedges/french fries. Not more than five minutes after I said that (and the waiter was not in earshot of me) he comes out with an order of fries and tells us that they are on the house. AMAZING! So we finished dinner and walked across the bridge and took the bus to Beşkitaş where we met Ohad and his friend for a party he was hosting. The party itself was not all that exciting and we left at 11:30pm, getting home around midnight.
A Pizza Hut Adventure
On Friday, March 27, I went out for a little Pizza Hut adventure. At this point I had been in Turkey for almost two months. Surprisingly, after two months away, you begin to miss certain aspects of the United States. One of those is the variety of food we have. The food here in Turkey, with the exception of specialty restaurants has a lot of similarities. Its usually meaty and seasoned with similar spices. It’s actually quite delicious, but after too long you begin to miss things in life like Chinese food or sushi or in this case, pizza.
I actually didn’t realize I had missed American food at all until the day before. I was sitting in my EU Relations with Russia and CIS countries next to Merve, a Turkish girl who I had spoken with a couple of times but only rarely. Professor Serra, our visiting professor from Spain, decided to show us a clip of a far right Russian political commentator about the rising power of Russia and how dangerous it is. It was recorded during the Georgia Conflict in August 2008. Before the clip started, an advertisement (from the previous commercial break) ran about Pizza Hut. After I saw that I was done. I exclaimed, “oh I miss pizza.” Ironically, I did so at the same time as Emine, Merve’s friend who was sitting on the other side of her. Merve laughed and then decided that they were going to go get pizza hut and decided to invite me to come along.
I am so glad that I did. We rode the bus to Pizza Hut which is located in Beşkitaş in what I liked to call “Little America.” Before I knew my way around Istanbul, I always knew I was near Örtaköy and Taksım Meydanı (Taksim Square) because of this small little section. It is a collection of four stores in a row on the main street featuring a Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, and Starbucks. Definitely the place to go if you’re craving Americanism! We go inside the Pizza Hut and sit down. My first observation was that it is amazing how much nicer American fast food chains are in foreign countries! McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc are seen as more elite dining places (similar to our equivalent of Chili’s or Bennigan’s or something like that in the US). Actually, on a side note, there is a Chili’s in Etiler and it’s one of the most expensive restaurants on the strip. It’s very funny for me to see a Chili’s with a very classy look and valet parking. Once we sit down, we all order a coke, which costs 3 Lira (about $1.75) and no refills. Pizza Hut can afford to sell coke more expensively because it is a “nicer restaurant.” It was funny to me that Pizza Hut was even serving Coca Cola, as it is a subsidiary of Pepsi. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have actually seen a presence from Pepsi at all in Turkey other than their food. We could have gotten the all you can eat pizza buffet for 10 Lira (about $6.00) but decided that since we go to Pizza Hut on such a rare occasion, we should go all out. We ordered two large pizzas to share (the large pizzas are much smaller here) with stuffed crust pizza! Yum. I was a bit disappointed in both the size of the pizzas (and their price for what you got) and also the dearth of cheese that was put inside the stuffed crust. I suppose beggars can’t be choosers. We had a pepperoni, mushroom, and cheese pizza and some other kind of pizza, which I don’t remember (I might be able to remember if I looked at the menu). The pizza combinations were slightly different here and tasted a little different. It was still pizza hut but…different. It certainly doesn’t measure up to Moon River Pizza in Fernandina Beach and value is not nearly as good as Rocco’s in Atlanta, but you take what you can get. I was happy with what I got.
The best part of the evening was the company though. It was really nice eating out with Emine and Merve. We talked about a few things to get to know each other and then talked a bit about Turkish and American politics (it’s only natural since we are all Political Science majors!) I don’t remember exactly what we talked about (I really should try to update these blogs sooner than three weeks after an event happens). Hopefully it will be easier now that finals were over. After dinner, we took the bus back to Hisarüstü where we had çay in the new Hisar café that just opened. The new café is open 24 hours and is insanely cheap (küçük çay only 75 kuruş). As many of you know, I am definitely not a fan of tea or hot drinks (the only hot drinks I would drink until recently were hot apple cider and hot chocolate). Drinking çay is essential to Turkish culture and I have started to acquire a taste for it. I actually really like how Turks invite each other out to tea all of the time. I wish we would do it more often in the US (except for Stanton…he drinks too much hot tea as it is). We talked some more over tea and then I went home.
I actually didn’t realize I had missed American food at all until the day before. I was sitting in my EU Relations with Russia and CIS countries next to Merve, a Turkish girl who I had spoken with a couple of times but only rarely. Professor Serra, our visiting professor from Spain, decided to show us a clip of a far right Russian political commentator about the rising power of Russia and how dangerous it is. It was recorded during the Georgia Conflict in August 2008. Before the clip started, an advertisement (from the previous commercial break) ran about Pizza Hut. After I saw that I was done. I exclaimed, “oh I miss pizza.” Ironically, I did so at the same time as Emine, Merve’s friend who was sitting on the other side of her. Merve laughed and then decided that they were going to go get pizza hut and decided to invite me to come along.
I am so glad that I did. We rode the bus to Pizza Hut which is located in Beşkitaş in what I liked to call “Little America.” Before I knew my way around Istanbul, I always knew I was near Örtaköy and Taksım Meydanı (Taksim Square) because of this small little section. It is a collection of four stores in a row on the main street featuring a Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, and Starbucks. Definitely the place to go if you’re craving Americanism! We go inside the Pizza Hut and sit down. My first observation was that it is amazing how much nicer American fast food chains are in foreign countries! McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc are seen as more elite dining places (similar to our equivalent of Chili’s or Bennigan’s or something like that in the US). Actually, on a side note, there is a Chili’s in Etiler and it’s one of the most expensive restaurants on the strip. It’s very funny for me to see a Chili’s with a very classy look and valet parking. Once we sit down, we all order a coke, which costs 3 Lira (about $1.75) and no refills. Pizza Hut can afford to sell coke more expensively because it is a “nicer restaurant.” It was funny to me that Pizza Hut was even serving Coca Cola, as it is a subsidiary of Pepsi. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have actually seen a presence from Pepsi at all in Turkey other than their food. We could have gotten the all you can eat pizza buffet for 10 Lira (about $6.00) but decided that since we go to Pizza Hut on such a rare occasion, we should go all out. We ordered two large pizzas to share (the large pizzas are much smaller here) with stuffed crust pizza! Yum. I was a bit disappointed in both the size of the pizzas (and their price for what you got) and also the dearth of cheese that was put inside the stuffed crust. I suppose beggars can’t be choosers. We had a pepperoni, mushroom, and cheese pizza and some other kind of pizza, which I don’t remember (I might be able to remember if I looked at the menu). The pizza combinations were slightly different here and tasted a little different. It was still pizza hut but…different. It certainly doesn’t measure up to Moon River Pizza in Fernandina Beach and value is not nearly as good as Rocco’s in Atlanta, but you take what you can get. I was happy with what I got.
The best part of the evening was the company though. It was really nice eating out with Emine and Merve. We talked about a few things to get to know each other and then talked a bit about Turkish and American politics (it’s only natural since we are all Political Science majors!) I don’t remember exactly what we talked about (I really should try to update these blogs sooner than three weeks after an event happens). Hopefully it will be easier now that finals were over. After dinner, we took the bus back to Hisarüstü where we had çay in the new Hisar café that just opened. The new café is open 24 hours and is insanely cheap (küçük çay only 75 kuruş). As many of you know, I am definitely not a fan of tea or hot drinks (the only hot drinks I would drink until recently were hot apple cider and hot chocolate). Drinking çay is essential to Turkish culture and I have started to acquire a taste for it. I actually really like how Turks invite each other out to tea all of the time. I wish we would do it more often in the US (except for Stanton…he drinks too much hot tea as it is). We talked some more over tea and then I went home.
Turkish Conversation Club
I am continuing my efforts to catch up on the blog because I have arrived at the airport and my gate way earlier than expected (this will be explained in a later post).
Following my big weekend in çanakkale, I returned back to the hustle and bustle of the big city. Now that I have been here for about a month I have started making some new Turkish friends of my own (rather than just the ones my roommate introduced me to).
I don’t participate in many extracurricular activities here, which is actually in some ways kind of nice. Instead of getting home at 6, 7, or 8pm, I usually get home by 5 o’clock (though depending on the day sometimes earlier). One extracurricular activity that I do end up doing is Turkish Conversation Club. I like Turkish conversation club for several reasons. Firstly, my actual Turkish class is worthless. I literally learn more in the one hour of Turkish conversation club than the four hours a week I have of Turkish class. It’s actually pretty ridiculous. Secondly, it is a good chance for me to meet the exchange students. Because I don’t live in the dorm, I have limited exposure to the Americans (pretty much only seeing them in Turkish class or Turkish Conversation Club). The third reason is because it also is an extra outlet for meeting new Turkish students. Usually the Turkish students who come to the conversation club actually want to meet Americans and speak English. Many other Turkish people around campus do not like speaking English and find doing so to be a burden. For them, the fact that Boğaziçi is conducted in English is a burden and they are only there because it is the best university in Turkey. For this reason, they only speak English in the class and avoid speaking English outside of class at all costs. It’s really interesting to me. Personally, I would want to speak the language outside of class to learn it more.
So three weeks ago now, on March 24 I ended up with Öğüz. It seems that his name has as many Turkish letters as possible, making it especially difficult for me to write it in this blog. Öğüz is from Adana, which is a town in Eastern Anatolia near the Mediterranean Sea and Syrian border. After conversation club, we went to dinner at the on campus cafeteria. The cafeteria is open for lunch and dinner daily and serves Ayran (a type of liquid yogurt drink), soup, a side, a meat of some type, and a piece of fruit. The cost of one pass through the cafeteria line is only 2.75 Lira (about $1.70 now but when the US Dollar was doing better it was as low as $1.53). The variation in price also is good to show how much value the dollar has lost in the last month. It’s quite remarkable! At any rate, we went to the cafeteria and talked for a while and then decided to go to Bu Café.
The Bu Café is a popular hangout place for Boğaziçi öğrenler (students). One of my favorite aspects of Turkish culture (as I have probably explained before) is how they go to cafés and play board games. So of course when in Turkey do as the Turks do. We decided to play tavla (backgammon). Öğüz beat me pretty handily. I think the ending score was 5 games to 1 game. Clearly, I need a lot more practice to improve those tavla skills. During the game, we had and interesting conversation. I asked him what came to his mind when he thought of Americans. He seemed to think that all we did was party all of the time (because the Hollywood movies are so pervasive here). He also told me that he got the impression that there were a lot of stupid people in American (an assessment that I don’t think is too far off the actual mark). I also asked him about his hometown and about Turkey in general. He was actually the first one to inform me about the Ergenekon scandal, which has been so pervasive in the news over the past few weeks (especially during the elections). The Ergenekon Scandal basically refers to the illegal existence of Ergenekon, a secret anti-AKP government organization that included high-ranking members of the military and was pervasive in many places in Turkish politic. One of the discoveries of the Ergenekon Scandal was that high ranking military officers were planning a military coup against the AKP. Interestingly, Ergenekon even penetrated North Cypriot politics! I am not that great at explaining it because I am still trying to learn about it myself. If you’re interested, I suggested looking up the Wikipedia article. They have a good article detailing exactly what it was and which actors were involved. After tavla I went home to slave away at my Political Econ readings. A good evening was had by all.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Troy
For our third and final day on the Aegean coast, we decided to head over to the ancient city of Troy. We took a dolmuş over to Troy. Oddly enough, the domuş driver also doubled as a newspaper delivery man and and a mailman. He picked up and dropped off various items in small towns on the way. I suppose this is how the route is economically viable (especially in the winter when there are few tourists). At any rate, the detour was neat because it allowed us to see some of the smaller villages of the Aegean coast from the van.
We finally arrived at Troy where I was able to get a permanent Muze Kart instead of the temporary one that I had been carrying around from the exchange commission. The best part about this is that the cards usually cost 10 Lira but since I had a temporary one (which was given to me by the exchange commission for free), I was able to get my muze kart for free as well.
Once inside Troy, the first thing you can see is the model horse that was created in the 1970s. You can even climb inside it! It was fun to climb on. Troy was surprisingly quiet while we were there. I saw only two other tour groups and small other groups of people. I am not sure if it was because of the economic crisis, the fact that it is far away, the fact that it is winter or some other reason. When we came into the actual city, the first thing you can see are the remnants of the city walls. They are actually quite tall still, approximately 10 feet in the interior and 20 feet towards the side facing the coast. It was neat for me to gaze onto the coastal plain and imagine what it must have been like as a Trojan to see a Greek army standing out there trying to conquer your city! I love it when history comes alive for me like this! After the city walls, you can see the inner walls that were excavated from the earliest settlement of Troy. These walls are actually made of mud bricks rather than rock. You can also see the original foundation of Troy at this site. Another neat aspect is the layering. The archeologist have dug out part of a hill where you can see the dirt layer for each distinct time period of Troy's existence. We also saw the tunnel (one of the first man made in human history) that carried water into the city. There was also a Trojan amphitheater where music and shows were performed. All in all, I thought seeing Troy was a really neat experience as it is such a famous site in the ancient world. Our trip to Çanakkale would not have been complete without it!
Upon returning to Çanakkale, Ohad and I found a bus back to Istanbul for 30 Lira (10 Lira cheaper than the one on the way there) and made the long journey home.
One interesting thing about the bus travel here is that it is actually pretty nice. When you get on the bus, not only do they have a satellite TV on, they also serve you a drink and a snack (much like the airlines do). The bus seats are pretty relaxing and its a pretty good experience. It seems a lot nicer than Greyhound actually! However, bus travel really helps me understand the lack of infrastructure, even in the developed west. The trip took 5 hours and the distance was only 211 miles. Furthermore, the roads in some of the rural areas were very bumpy and a bit rough. It was good to get out of Istanbul for a weekend and even better to think that I may have seen some of the "real" Turkey.
We finally arrived at Troy where I was able to get a permanent Muze Kart instead of the temporary one that I had been carrying around from the exchange commission. The best part about this is that the cards usually cost 10 Lira but since I had a temporary one (which was given to me by the exchange commission for free), I was able to get my muze kart for free as well.
Once inside Troy, the first thing you can see is the model horse that was created in the 1970s. You can even climb inside it! It was fun to climb on. Troy was surprisingly quiet while we were there. I saw only two other tour groups and small other groups of people. I am not sure if it was because of the economic crisis, the fact that it is far away, the fact that it is winter or some other reason. When we came into the actual city, the first thing you can see are the remnants of the city walls. They are actually quite tall still, approximately 10 feet in the interior and 20 feet towards the side facing the coast. It was neat for me to gaze onto the coastal plain and imagine what it must have been like as a Trojan to see a Greek army standing out there trying to conquer your city! I love it when history comes alive for me like this! After the city walls, you can see the inner walls that were excavated from the earliest settlement of Troy. These walls are actually made of mud bricks rather than rock. You can also see the original foundation of Troy at this site. Another neat aspect is the layering. The archeologist have dug out part of a hill where you can see the dirt layer for each distinct time period of Troy's existence. We also saw the tunnel (one of the first man made in human history) that carried water into the city. There was also a Trojan amphitheater where music and shows were performed. All in all, I thought seeing Troy was a really neat experience as it is such a famous site in the ancient world. Our trip to Çanakkale would not have been complete without it!
Upon returning to Çanakkale, Ohad and I found a bus back to Istanbul for 30 Lira (10 Lira cheaper than the one on the way there) and made the long journey home.
One interesting thing about the bus travel here is that it is actually pretty nice. When you get on the bus, not only do they have a satellite TV on, they also serve you a drink and a snack (much like the airlines do). The bus seats are pretty relaxing and its a pretty good experience. It seems a lot nicer than Greyhound actually! However, bus travel really helps me understand the lack of infrastructure, even in the developed west. The trip took 5 hours and the distance was only 211 miles. Furthermore, the roads in some of the rural areas were very bumpy and a bit rough. It was good to get out of Istanbul for a weekend and even better to think that I may have seen some of the "real" Turkey.
Çanakkale - Gallipoli Peninsula
On the second day of our trip we decided to take a tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the site of the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. The tour didn't start until 11am, so we used this extra time to walk along the seaside. First we visited the Trojan horse in the harbor. As you can see from my pictures, this is the exact same horse that was used in the movie Troy in 2004. After the movie was made, they brought the horse to be displayed as a permanent fixture of the harbor in Çanakkale. After checking that out, we went to an artillery museum of Ottoman military equipment. They had cannons and other artillery on display that was used during WWI. The site of the museum also included a fortress that was on the Dardanelles to control the passage of ships through the region. It was a very strategic point during WWI.
At 11am, we returned to the hotel and boarded the ferry for a trip to the European side of the Dardanelles to commence our tour of the ANZAC coast. First we got lunch (which was included in the price of the tour) and then we boarded the bus to start the tour. Our first site was a museum, which was nothing special but I suppose a requirement of the tour. Then we went to the ANZAC cove, the place where the Australians and New Zealanders actually landed on the peninsula (an unexpected current drifted their boats up to this point which was less strategic and advantageous for landing). As a result, the landing turned out to be quite costly for the Allies. We then visited the area of Chunuk Bair, the higher ground that the Turks held during the campaign. We visited various memorials on the way to the center of the peninsula as well (various homages to ANZAC and Turkish fighters). When we reached the top, we got to see the trenches from WWI. There were some places where the trenches were only 15 feet apart! It was really neat to stand inside them. I felt like I was a part of the history and imagined what it would be like to be in those trenches during the war. My guess is that it would not be fun. Also, because it was the highest point on the peninsula, there was a gorgeous view of the sea. At the last place, it started to rain a bit, so we got finished with our tour just in time. We returned to the hotel and rested for the rest of the evening (this was probably 8 or 9pm at this point).
At 11am, we returned to the hotel and boarded the ferry for a trip to the European side of the Dardanelles to commence our tour of the ANZAC coast. First we got lunch (which was included in the price of the tour) and then we boarded the bus to start the tour. Our first site was a museum, which was nothing special but I suppose a requirement of the tour. Then we went to the ANZAC cove, the place where the Australians and New Zealanders actually landed on the peninsula (an unexpected current drifted their boats up to this point which was less strategic and advantageous for landing). As a result, the landing turned out to be quite costly for the Allies. We then visited the area of Chunuk Bair, the higher ground that the Turks held during the campaign. We visited various memorials on the way to the center of the peninsula as well (various homages to ANZAC and Turkish fighters). When we reached the top, we got to see the trenches from WWI. There were some places where the trenches were only 15 feet apart! It was really neat to stand inside them. I felt like I was a part of the history and imagined what it would be like to be in those trenches during the war. My guess is that it would not be fun. Also, because it was the highest point on the peninsula, there was a gorgeous view of the sea. At the last place, it started to rain a bit, so we got finished with our tour just in time. We returned to the hotel and rested for the rest of the evening (this was probably 8 or 9pm at this point).
Friday, April 10, 2009
Çanakkale Weekend
Wow! First of all let me apologize to you loyal blog followers about the lack of updates over the last three weeks. It has been exam time, which has not been particularly fun.
So about 3 weeks ago (weekend of March 20-22), Ohad and I went to Çanakkale. For those of you that don't know exactly where that is, it is a Turkish town situated on the Dardanelles near the Aegean Sea.
The trip started with Ohad and I making our way to the otogar (bus terminal). When we got there, thre were over 150 different bus companies between which we could choose! It was crazy. After wandering around and being harassed by various salesmen, we finally settled on one (surprisingly this company operates busses to Çanakkale every hour despite the fact that its a 5 hour trip to get there! So we get on the bus and there is some sort of Turkish soap opera playing. They serve us snacks/drinks and we begin the long haul. Turkish busses are definitely nicer than Greyhound in the US. I would definitely recommend it as a form of travel. The roads were great around Istanbul, but deteriorated once we left the city area. By the time we got to the Gallipoli peninsula the roads were a bit bumpy and narrow, causing the bus to go much slower.
At about 2am we arrived in the town across from Çanakkale. The final leg of the trip is a 30 minute ferry ride across the Dardanelles, which was very nice. The air was quite chilly! When we arrived in Çanakkale, we were told to find a hostile, the ANZAC hostel to be exact. At the harbor we saw signs pointing towards the ANZAC and went inside. When we got there, we requested a room and the receptionist told us the room would be 60 YTL (30 per person per night or about $20). We then realized that we had stumbled upon the ANZAC hotel and NOT the ANZAC hostile. We decided we would stay and booked the room. This hotel room was the best $20 room I could have imagined. There were three single beds that were relatively comfortable, controlled heating and air, our own clean bathroom, and most importantly satellite television. Additionally, it included an all you can eat breakfast buffet every morning. For 20 bucks, I would say that it was one hell of a deal.
The next morning (Friday morning) we got up at about 8:30am to start the day. We enjoyed the breakfast that was included in the hotel that contained some regular breakfast stuff with some added bonuses that were special to the region (Aegean tomatoes, Ezine cheese, etc). It was a pretty good breakfast. Then we were off to get a dolmuş to Assos (an old Greek city on top of an extinct volcano where Aristotle once lived). The domuş only cost about 15 YTL ($8) for about a 2 hour ride. Not too shabby. The dolmuş didn't actually take us to Assos, but to Ayvacik instead. In Ayvacik, we had to wait 2 hours for the next shuttle to Assos...so we decided to walk around a bit. We stumbled upon a huge open air market (Friday is bazaar day in Turkey) and strolled around there for a bit...taking in the sites of the market, the town mosque and the surrounding beautiful mountain scenery. We returned to the bus station and enjoyed lunch. I had lamb and rice...(kuzu ve pilvav) and it was quite delicious.
We then got on the bus and headed south for Assos. The roads became small and curvy as we went further into the mountains. The scenery was magnificent and there was actually small patches of snow on the ground from Thursday's snow even though the temperature was in the mid 50's (about 12C). After a 30 minute dolmuş ride we finally made it to the outer limits of Assos. The driver first took us to the bottom by the sea because I misunderstood his Turkish. Luckily, I was able to use my broken Turkish to indicate where I wanted to go. However, the ride down allowed us to experience the road that winds around the mountain down to the harbor. The road itself has no railing on the side and its a cliff straight to the Aegean Sea. Its wide enough for about 1 and a half cars and supposedly accomodates two way traffic. It was quite a scary drive.
The driver then drove us to the top of the mountain again and let us out. One of the neatest things about Assos is that it is one of the only cities in the world where the people still live in the same place as the ruins. As you stroll through the town there are remnants of ancient Assos integrated into the town itself. The top of the mountain, however is left strictly to the ruins. Ohad and I walked up and entered. One excellent thing about Turkey is that they do not charge students for entry into ancient sites and museums as long as you have your Muze Kart. We go inside and at the top of the mountain is the ruins from the Temple of Athena. There are still columns standing and its actually pretty cool. We walked around up there and took some pictures and then climbed down a bit and around the upper parts of the mountain. When you look down from the top, towards the sea there are many more ruins (an old ampitheater, city walls, etc), but no way to get there. The gate at the bottom of the hill was closed with no one inside. We did however notice that close to the entrance (but about half way down the mountain, there was a break in the fence). We noticed that if you were to sneak in through the fence you could hike down to the other ruins and get a closer look! Whether or not we were actually allowed to do that, I couldn't tell you, but we did anyway.
As we entered the fence, there was a dog and he kinda started walking in front of us. Oddly enough, he was showing us the correct path to get to the ruins! He sort of became our guide dog. It was pretty neat. After a bit of a hike we reached the ampitheater and other ruins and walked around and took some pictures. Unfortunately, (probably because we weren't supposed to be there) there were very few signs telling us what everything was in ancient Assos so we had to use our imagination. Then we hiked back up to the old city walls and checked those out (along with some sarcophogi outside the wall) and hiked back up to the upper part of town. We then got on a van back to Ayvacik and got back just in time to catch the last bus to Çanakkale. Talk about good luck (which I think I deserve a little bit of after the way my trip started!)
On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed some dinner and I decided it was time to try a new Turkish dish. Lahmacun is known here as Turkish pizza. It's not quite the same. The bread is a bit more crunchy and they put all sorts of things on it depending on what you want. I actually wasn't a huge fan, but the point was that I tried it. After a very long day of traveling and sightseeing, Ohad and I retired back to the hotel.
So about 3 weeks ago (weekend of March 20-22), Ohad and I went to Çanakkale. For those of you that don't know exactly where that is, it is a Turkish town situated on the Dardanelles near the Aegean Sea.
The trip started with Ohad and I making our way to the otogar (bus terminal). When we got there, thre were over 150 different bus companies between which we could choose! It was crazy. After wandering around and being harassed by various salesmen, we finally settled on one (surprisingly this company operates busses to Çanakkale every hour despite the fact that its a 5 hour trip to get there! So we get on the bus and there is some sort of Turkish soap opera playing. They serve us snacks/drinks and we begin the long haul. Turkish busses are definitely nicer than Greyhound in the US. I would definitely recommend it as a form of travel. The roads were great around Istanbul, but deteriorated once we left the city area. By the time we got to the Gallipoli peninsula the roads were a bit bumpy and narrow, causing the bus to go much slower.
At about 2am we arrived in the town across from Çanakkale. The final leg of the trip is a 30 minute ferry ride across the Dardanelles, which was very nice. The air was quite chilly! When we arrived in Çanakkale, we were told to find a hostile, the ANZAC hostel to be exact. At the harbor we saw signs pointing towards the ANZAC and went inside. When we got there, we requested a room and the receptionist told us the room would be 60 YTL (30 per person per night or about $20). We then realized that we had stumbled upon the ANZAC hotel and NOT the ANZAC hostile. We decided we would stay and booked the room. This hotel room was the best $20 room I could have imagined. There were three single beds that were relatively comfortable, controlled heating and air, our own clean bathroom, and most importantly satellite television. Additionally, it included an all you can eat breakfast buffet every morning. For 20 bucks, I would say that it was one hell of a deal.
The next morning (Friday morning) we got up at about 8:30am to start the day. We enjoyed the breakfast that was included in the hotel that contained some regular breakfast stuff with some added bonuses that were special to the region (Aegean tomatoes, Ezine cheese, etc). It was a pretty good breakfast. Then we were off to get a dolmuş to Assos (an old Greek city on top of an extinct volcano where Aristotle once lived). The domuş only cost about 15 YTL ($8) for about a 2 hour ride. Not too shabby. The dolmuş didn't actually take us to Assos, but to Ayvacik instead. In Ayvacik, we had to wait 2 hours for the next shuttle to Assos...so we decided to walk around a bit. We stumbled upon a huge open air market (Friday is bazaar day in Turkey) and strolled around there for a bit...taking in the sites of the market, the town mosque and the surrounding beautiful mountain scenery. We returned to the bus station and enjoyed lunch. I had lamb and rice...(kuzu ve pilvav) and it was quite delicious.
We then got on the bus and headed south for Assos. The roads became small and curvy as we went further into the mountains. The scenery was magnificent and there was actually small patches of snow on the ground from Thursday's snow even though the temperature was in the mid 50's (about 12C). After a 30 minute dolmuş ride we finally made it to the outer limits of Assos. The driver first took us to the bottom by the sea because I misunderstood his Turkish. Luckily, I was able to use my broken Turkish to indicate where I wanted to go. However, the ride down allowed us to experience the road that winds around the mountain down to the harbor. The road itself has no railing on the side and its a cliff straight to the Aegean Sea. Its wide enough for about 1 and a half cars and supposedly accomodates two way traffic. It was quite a scary drive.
The driver then drove us to the top of the mountain again and let us out. One of the neatest things about Assos is that it is one of the only cities in the world where the people still live in the same place as the ruins. As you stroll through the town there are remnants of ancient Assos integrated into the town itself. The top of the mountain, however is left strictly to the ruins. Ohad and I walked up and entered. One excellent thing about Turkey is that they do not charge students for entry into ancient sites and museums as long as you have your Muze Kart. We go inside and at the top of the mountain is the ruins from the Temple of Athena. There are still columns standing and its actually pretty cool. We walked around up there and took some pictures and then climbed down a bit and around the upper parts of the mountain. When you look down from the top, towards the sea there are many more ruins (an old ampitheater, city walls, etc), but no way to get there. The gate at the bottom of the hill was closed with no one inside. We did however notice that close to the entrance (but about half way down the mountain, there was a break in the fence). We noticed that if you were to sneak in through the fence you could hike down to the other ruins and get a closer look! Whether or not we were actually allowed to do that, I couldn't tell you, but we did anyway.
As we entered the fence, there was a dog and he kinda started walking in front of us. Oddly enough, he was showing us the correct path to get to the ruins! He sort of became our guide dog. It was pretty neat. After a bit of a hike we reached the ampitheater and other ruins and walked around and took some pictures. Unfortunately, (probably because we weren't supposed to be there) there were very few signs telling us what everything was in ancient Assos so we had to use our imagination. Then we hiked back up to the old city walls and checked those out (along with some sarcophogi outside the wall) and hiked back up to the upper part of town. We then got on a van back to Ayvacik and got back just in time to catch the last bus to Çanakkale. Talk about good luck (which I think I deserve a little bit of after the way my trip started!)
On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed some dinner and I decided it was time to try a new Turkish dish. Lahmacun is known here as Turkish pizza. It's not quite the same. The bread is a bit more crunchy and they put all sorts of things on it depending on what you want. I actually wasn't a huge fan, but the point was that I tried it. After a very long day of traveling and sightseeing, Ohad and I retired back to the hotel.
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