After the excitement of my Spring Break adventures, I had to somehow return to the routine of Boğaziçi. As I had settled in and grown accustomed to my classes, I had started making new friends, both Turkish and American, and building relationships with them. One such friend was Burcin, a fellow student in my POLS 440 class. Burcin, like me, was kind of an outsider at Boğaziçi because she was actually a student from another university in Istanbul. Her university, instead of teaching all of their classes in English, teach all of their classes in French. She was interested in the class we were taking (EU Relations with Russia and CIS Countries) and received permission from her university to take the course at Boğaziçi. We started talking originally one day in class when she ended up sitting next to me and asking me for some notes but it was only occasional.
One day after class we started walking together. I was walking back to my apartment and she was walking towards the bus stop (they are in the same direction) to go back to her home in Levent. She asked me what I was up to for the rest of the day and I said I didn't really know and then asked me if I wanted to walk with her to Bebek. Bebek is a section of Istanbul that is right on the Bosphorus. Basically, when you looked down towards the Bosphorus from Boğaziçi's campus, you could see a harbor and that was Bebek. I had heard some exchange students talking about it before, but had not ventured down there myself. I hadn't gone down there for two reasons. First, up until a couple of weeks before spring break, it had rained virtually every single day. Second, the hill from Rumeli Hisarüstü was incredibly steep and I was lazy.
It was time to brave the hill and see this place myself. The weather was nice for a walk outside, so that made it easier. We meandered our way down the hill until we got to the main street that runs along the Bosphorus and we took a left to walk along the shorline. Bebek, along with Etiler (located at the top of the hill next to my neighborhood) is one of the wealthiest places in Istanbul. As I walked along the coast, I could easily see this. There were nice restaurants all over the place (including a Starbucks and McDonalds even!). There was also a waffle stand that was infamous for selling the perfect Turkish waffle. We walked north, passing the great Fortress of Europe, until we found the place Burcin wanted to take me. It was a slightly pricy place, like the others in this area, because it was right on the Bosphorus. We decided to sit outside, right on the water and requested a tavla board. The place we were sitting was actually a wooden outcropping from the land, allowing us to feel as if we were on top of the Bosphorus. Looking over the rail, we could enjoy the crystal clear blue water, the light breeze, and the surrounding hills dotting the landscape. It was absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, because the place was so beautiful, there was a premium to enjoying the scenery. Each glass of chai cost 5TL. I know that doesn't seem like a ton of money (considering it's only about $3), but these tea classes were the standard small Turkish glasses. Many other places only charge 0.50 or maybe 1TL for the same tea. It was still nice to get one glass and enjoy the scenery.
I told Burcin that I was pretty good in backgammon (after losing to Umut a lot you do end up learning a few things) and she decided she wanted to give it a crack. She couldn't believe it when I beat her. I don't really remember what we talked about (probably a lot of things) but we had a really nice time sitting out in the sun and hanging out.
After tea, we continued walking towards Bebek once again and decided to find a place to eat. We settled on this nice looking restaurant across from the Starbucks (in the center of Bebek). I was really excited about the place because it was my first real encounter with Turkish fine dining. Did I also mention that the waiter spoke English AND the menu was in English? Çok güzel! Truthfully, the food was probably not authentic Turkish but more of a fusion of a lot of different things. It was still good to have a nice meal and I ended up having a steak. It was really delicious (I do wish I could remember what I had with it. I just remember the meal being good). Burcin and I talked a while (by the end of dinner it was probably 10pm). Afterwards, we took a taxi back to the top of the hill and we parted ways. It was a really nice way to get to know a new friend and a great way to explore a new part of Istanbul!
No comments:
Post a Comment