With the end of finals and the beginning of summer brings a bittersweet time for me. On the sweet side, I no longer had to worry about school and classes and could devote all of my energy to exploring Istanbul and spending time with the new friends I had made over the past 5 months. The times were also bitter because it meant that my time in Turkey was nearing an end and that I would have to say goodbye to some of my new friends I had made.
After our last final (on June 10th), a group of us (Alex, Vilena, Gorkem, Ali, Maddy, and myself) went down to Bebek to celebrate. As I have mentioned previously, Turkey is a relatively dry country due to Islamic laws and it is hard to get a decent variety of alcohol at a decent price. Despite these shortcomings, there was a brewery in Bebek that brewed its own alcohol. I think some of the other exchange students had already tried it, but I had not. We decided to go down there and I had the beer sampler, which consisted of 5 different types of beers that were brewed there (enough to give one the chance to try a little of everything to see what they liked).
I may not have talked about this group of people previously. I had only started becoming friends with many of them towards the end of my study abroad experience. Most of them found each other in the Superdorm (where all the exchange kids lived). Since I had not lived there, it was a bit harder for me to make friends with the exchange students (other than the ones I met in my Turkish language class). Maddy and I started sitting next to each other in Turkish Politics class and became friendly that way. I would say she is pretty much how I met most of the others (though I sometimes spoke to Alex outside of Turkish class).
Maddy is actually a very interesting person. Her family is of both British and Turkish origin. She can speak Turkish fluently and is a very smart person with a good sense of humor. I enjoyed spending time with her and getting to know her throughout our classes together. Ali and Gorkem are Turkish students who are enrolled in a dual program at SUNY-Binghamton. They spend 2 years in NY and 2 years in Turkey to get a joint degree from both. I imagine it will give them quite a few more opportunities in Turkey if that's where they decide to end up. Both of them were really nice guys, but also a little nerdy (yes, I realize this is coming from me and many of you would argue that I am kind of nerdy too).
Vilena is also an interesting character. She is Russian but studies in SUNY-Binghamton as well. We had a tendency to butt heads a few times because we were each very staunch in our opinions. I like to believe I am not as stubborn as she is when i am wrong, but what do I know? At any rate, I, unfortunately, don't talk to her much these days because we ended up having a falling out.
You already know about Alex from my description of my trip to Georgia and Armenia. Ohad is another interesting person. He is from Pittsburg, PA. He studied History at Bogazici and LOVED to take pictures. When I say photography was his favorite thing, I mean he would randomly take pictures of people on busses. He was not always popular for his picture-taking. He also was very much into the whole being Jewish and Israel thing. It was surprising to me, given this fact, that he chose to study in Turkey. All in all I thought he had good intentions and what little things he may have done that were odd, I ignored because I knew he was a good guy.
So these were some of the foreign friends I had made during my last month or so at Bogazici. In addition to the outing to the brewery, we also had an evening in Istinye Park (one of Turkey's newest and biggest malls) and found a very delicious Mongolian Grill place. This was surprising because Turkey does not have too many foreign food places (and by this time I was dying for something non-Turkish). It was exactly the same as it is here (except that it was 40 TL for all you can eat where as it might only be 2/3 that in the US). The other bonus of the Mongolian was that in America, you can't have leftovers, while in Turkey you can. I guess that sufficiently corrects for the price difference. :)
I also became friendly with Leesa, a student from Oklahoma. We met and studied together one day in Emirgin Park, which is a beautiful park to the north of Bebek just off the Bosphorus Strait. There was a giant chess board there and tons of landscaping. The highlight of the park was definitely the köşkler (big houses built during Ottoman times). Actually, the names of these houses is the origin for the word kiosk, which we use in English today. I took a lot of pictures of blooming flowers in the park and it was a very picturesque place to study. There was even an icecream place for me to get my favorite karadut ice cream (which apparently translates to black mulberry). I love that stuff and have yet to find a place here in the US that has it (much to my disappointment).
Saying goodbye to most of these friends (with the exception of Alex) was sad. It was nice to have made some new friends from all over the US and the world and I would not forget them soon.
To see some of my pictures from this, see the album entitled Istanbul in May. I also encourage you to check out the Bosphorus cruise photos which featured a lovely afternoon on the strait and produced some awesome pictures.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Family Visit (June 20)
So ideally I would have taken more time to explore and visit new places since I was already in the neighborhood of Eastern Turkey, but I had to get back to Istanbul. The next day (June 20th), my Aunt Heidi and Uncle David would be in town and wanted to see me while I was there. I thought I owed it to them to make sure I was in town for their visit.
Aunt Heidi and Uncle David stayed in a nice hotel in Sultanahmet. In the tourist district there (very near the Aya Sofia and Basilica Cistern), everyone spoke English. I met them for breakfast at a very early 9am (this was early for me because with traffic the trip on the bus took about an hour to get there (and I had only arrived from my long journey just the previous evening)).
It turns out that they had already made some friends of their own. Apparently, the previous evening they met some Turkish guy that took them to a great baklava place (I had not been) and took them to a nice meal. I was glad that the Turkish hospitality was treating them as well as it had treated me.
So basically, I was going to be their tour guide for the day and take them to many of my favorite places in Istanbul. Our first stop was the Basilica Cistern. As I explained in a previous post a ways back, the Basilica Cistern was the holding place for all of Istanbul's water siphened directly from the Belgrade Forest nearby. To keep up the Cistern, it had solid roman columns (and a cool carving of Medusa's head at the end of the corridor). There were also a lot of awesome karp.
Next, I had to take them through Gülhane Park. Although the tulips weren't in bloom anymore, it was still a beautiful walk. It goes right past Topkapi Palace and takes you right up to the sea. We bypassed the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque because they had already seen those the day before (otherwise, I obviously would have taken them there). From there we walked along the Bosphorus (and then the Golden Horn) until we got to Eminönü, which was one of my favorite places to walk. I fell in love with it because it is right along the seaside and has plenty of cool sights to see.
I took them into the Yeni cami (New mosque), which was right next to the street in Eminönü. I would like to point out that the mosque is "new" relative to other buildings in the area. It was actually constructed around 1643, so we use the term lightly. I think this was the first place that I had picked that was a little off the beaten path. I am not sure they would have chosen to come there on their own.
From the New Mosque, we went right to the Mısır Çarşısı (Egyptian Bazaar) built in 1660. The Egyptian Bazaar is actually connected via some commercial streets to the Grand Bazaar, but it is a little bit lesser known. There is a fantastic spice market there. This is where Uncle David did a lot of his souvenir shopping for everyone. He even got me some pomegranate tea! Yum! I was going to try and make sure he didn't get screwed, but the truth of the matter is that the prices are much higher there and I didn't know what the normal price was. At least the art of negotiation was not lost on my Uncle, which is a vital skill to have in these parts. :)
After we got some Turkish delight, tea, and other goodies, we headed to our next destination -- Dolmabahçe Palace. I actually had toured this only a week or so before for the first time, but I thought it was something they needed to see. The palace was enormous (built in the 1870s and famous for its staircase). After the fall of the Sultan, the Grand Mufti lived in it for a while (his granddaughter recently returned from the US and received a private tour because it was her home as a little girl). After the War of Independence it became Ataturk's home. It is like touring any great palace in Europe. It's all very ornate and awe-inspiring that someone got to live there. One ironic aspect is that in Ataturk's bedroom, all of the clocks are turned to 9:12, which was the exact time when he died. The amount of reverence shown to Ataturk throughout Turkey is amazing. They love him there more than we love George Washington here (if you can believe that). The property of the palace is also beautiful. It's located right on the Bosphorus Strait.
After the palace, we took the bus up to Ortakoy, a famous neighborhood in Turkey. This is the neighborhood where Altug was from. While there, we walked around a bit and decided on a place to have a beer (mmmm Efes). After our beer, we sought out another place for lunch. I had not been to these restaurants but they were a bit overpriced, being in this neighborhood and being located right on the water. The waiter there new a little bit of English, but not much. I think he was relieved when he discovered that I could speak Turkish. The menus were only in Turkish and i had to translate the food items for Uncle David and Aunt Heidi. I also made some recommendations based on what was authentically Turkish and what I personally liked while I was there. I think overall the restaurant was good for them and they enjoyed it. The waiter was so funny. When it came time to order, instead of looking at Uncle David or Aunt Heidi, he just looked at me. Clearly, he didn't even want to try to understand English if he didn't have to. I think Aunt Heidi ended up having a kumpir, which is a Turkish stuffed potato with bulgar, sour cream, butter, and lots of other goodies. Actually, Ortakoy is famous for its kumpir (one of the best places to try it).
I decided to take them over to Taksim Square, which is where a lot of people go for shopping, restaurants, and bars. Uncle David was astonished by how many people were there. Istiklal Caddesi is usually wall to wall with people. Uncle David said it was more people than he'd ever seen in such a close area before. It reminded him of New York. It is a pretty darn cool place to see if you've never been! We found a place for drinks (and the restaurant guy was upset because we decided not to eat). I also took them to a place I knew in Taksim with really cheap beer (it was shown to me one time by one of my friends -- can't remember which one).
From there, we took the furnicular down towards Galata. I was hoping to get them to the top of the Galata Tower by sunset. We journeyed up hill on some back streets (which Aunt Heidi thought was a little questionable on my part). Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we got there and one could only go up if they had dinner reservations at the very expensive restaurant located at the top. I wish they would have gotten to see it. It was certainly one of my favorite places to visit in Istanbul (and if I would have know the problems, I would have taken them to Kiz Kulesi on the Asian side). Oh well...I guess we can't win 'em all.
Our final stop for the evening was to Tophane. You see one of my Uncle's favorite things to do is to smoke a cigar. He was also horrified by the fact that my cousin Morgan, his daughter, had brought home a hookah from Israel when she had visited (in the US hookah's are sometimes wrongfully associated with illicit drug paraphernalia because of the people who like to smoke it). Therefore, it was a requirement that I take him to a good hookah place. Of course, I couldn't take them to just any hookah place. I had to take them to the best. I knew the best place would be Tophane because that is where hookah's have been made since the 1600s in the Ottoman Empire.
We did hookah the traditional way. We sat on bean bags (just like when we went there during orientation) and ordered a hookah. We even got the backgammon board to go along with it (and played a few games). I think Uncle David and Aunt Heidi really enjoyed it! By the end, Uncle David was hoping that I would bring him home a hookah! I considered that a big success. It was nice to sit there and chat with them about Istanbul and my life and to have a little taste of home after being gone so long.
After hookah, we walked down to the water (near the bus stop) so I could show them a pretty view of the Bosphorus Bridge. The cool thing about this bridge (which I am sure I mentioned in the past) is that it is lit up with colored lights and those lights change colors every 5 minutes or so. We met a Turkish kid (close to my age) and we briefly chatted with him (in Turkish). I was happy for the opportunity because I wanted to show off to Aunt Heidi and Uncle David. I think they were impressed. I walked them to the station and we said our goodbyes.
Overall, I the visit was a nice one and I was really glad they came. I enjoyed playing tour guide and sharing with them some of my favorite places and things to do in Istanbul. By this time, I felt like Istanbul was my home and was happy for the opportunity to share that home with people I cared about.
Aunt Heidi and Uncle David stayed in a nice hotel in Sultanahmet. In the tourist district there (very near the Aya Sofia and Basilica Cistern), everyone spoke English. I met them for breakfast at a very early 9am (this was early for me because with traffic the trip on the bus took about an hour to get there (and I had only arrived from my long journey just the previous evening)).
It turns out that they had already made some friends of their own. Apparently, the previous evening they met some Turkish guy that took them to a great baklava place (I had not been) and took them to a nice meal. I was glad that the Turkish hospitality was treating them as well as it had treated me.
So basically, I was going to be their tour guide for the day and take them to many of my favorite places in Istanbul. Our first stop was the Basilica Cistern. As I explained in a previous post a ways back, the Basilica Cistern was the holding place for all of Istanbul's water siphened directly from the Belgrade Forest nearby. To keep up the Cistern, it had solid roman columns (and a cool carving of Medusa's head at the end of the corridor). There were also a lot of awesome karp.
Next, I had to take them through Gülhane Park. Although the tulips weren't in bloom anymore, it was still a beautiful walk. It goes right past Topkapi Palace and takes you right up to the sea. We bypassed the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque because they had already seen those the day before (otherwise, I obviously would have taken them there). From there we walked along the Bosphorus (and then the Golden Horn) until we got to Eminönü, which was one of my favorite places to walk. I fell in love with it because it is right along the seaside and has plenty of cool sights to see.
I took them into the Yeni cami (New mosque), which was right next to the street in Eminönü. I would like to point out that the mosque is "new" relative to other buildings in the area. It was actually constructed around 1643, so we use the term lightly. I think this was the first place that I had picked that was a little off the beaten path. I am not sure they would have chosen to come there on their own.
From the New Mosque, we went right to the Mısır Çarşısı (Egyptian Bazaar) built in 1660. The Egyptian Bazaar is actually connected via some commercial streets to the Grand Bazaar, but it is a little bit lesser known. There is a fantastic spice market there. This is where Uncle David did a lot of his souvenir shopping for everyone. He even got me some pomegranate tea! Yum! I was going to try and make sure he didn't get screwed, but the truth of the matter is that the prices are much higher there and I didn't know what the normal price was. At least the art of negotiation was not lost on my Uncle, which is a vital skill to have in these parts. :)
After we got some Turkish delight, tea, and other goodies, we headed to our next destination -- Dolmabahçe Palace. I actually had toured this only a week or so before for the first time, but I thought it was something they needed to see. The palace was enormous (built in the 1870s and famous for its staircase). After the fall of the Sultan, the Grand Mufti lived in it for a while (his granddaughter recently returned from the US and received a private tour because it was her home as a little girl). After the War of Independence it became Ataturk's home. It is like touring any great palace in Europe. It's all very ornate and awe-inspiring that someone got to live there. One ironic aspect is that in Ataturk's bedroom, all of the clocks are turned to 9:12, which was the exact time when he died. The amount of reverence shown to Ataturk throughout Turkey is amazing. They love him there more than we love George Washington here (if you can believe that). The property of the palace is also beautiful. It's located right on the Bosphorus Strait.
After the palace, we took the bus up to Ortakoy, a famous neighborhood in Turkey. This is the neighborhood where Altug was from. While there, we walked around a bit and decided on a place to have a beer (mmmm Efes). After our beer, we sought out another place for lunch. I had not been to these restaurants but they were a bit overpriced, being in this neighborhood and being located right on the water. The waiter there new a little bit of English, but not much. I think he was relieved when he discovered that I could speak Turkish. The menus were only in Turkish and i had to translate the food items for Uncle David and Aunt Heidi. I also made some recommendations based on what was authentically Turkish and what I personally liked while I was there. I think overall the restaurant was good for them and they enjoyed it. The waiter was so funny. When it came time to order, instead of looking at Uncle David or Aunt Heidi, he just looked at me. Clearly, he didn't even want to try to understand English if he didn't have to. I think Aunt Heidi ended up having a kumpir, which is a Turkish stuffed potato with bulgar, sour cream, butter, and lots of other goodies. Actually, Ortakoy is famous for its kumpir (one of the best places to try it).
I decided to take them over to Taksim Square, which is where a lot of people go for shopping, restaurants, and bars. Uncle David was astonished by how many people were there. Istiklal Caddesi is usually wall to wall with people. Uncle David said it was more people than he'd ever seen in such a close area before. It reminded him of New York. It is a pretty darn cool place to see if you've never been! We found a place for drinks (and the restaurant guy was upset because we decided not to eat). I also took them to a place I knew in Taksim with really cheap beer (it was shown to me one time by one of my friends -- can't remember which one).
From there, we took the furnicular down towards Galata. I was hoping to get them to the top of the Galata Tower by sunset. We journeyed up hill on some back streets (which Aunt Heidi thought was a little questionable on my part). Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we got there and one could only go up if they had dinner reservations at the very expensive restaurant located at the top. I wish they would have gotten to see it. It was certainly one of my favorite places to visit in Istanbul (and if I would have know the problems, I would have taken them to Kiz Kulesi on the Asian side). Oh well...I guess we can't win 'em all.
Our final stop for the evening was to Tophane. You see one of my Uncle's favorite things to do is to smoke a cigar. He was also horrified by the fact that my cousin Morgan, his daughter, had brought home a hookah from Israel when she had visited (in the US hookah's are sometimes wrongfully associated with illicit drug paraphernalia because of the people who like to smoke it). Therefore, it was a requirement that I take him to a good hookah place. Of course, I couldn't take them to just any hookah place. I had to take them to the best. I knew the best place would be Tophane because that is where hookah's have been made since the 1600s in the Ottoman Empire.
We did hookah the traditional way. We sat on bean bags (just like when we went there during orientation) and ordered a hookah. We even got the backgammon board to go along with it (and played a few games). I think Uncle David and Aunt Heidi really enjoyed it! By the end, Uncle David was hoping that I would bring him home a hookah! I considered that a big success. It was nice to sit there and chat with them about Istanbul and my life and to have a little taste of home after being gone so long.
After hookah, we walked down to the water (near the bus stop) so I could show them a pretty view of the Bosphorus Bridge. The cool thing about this bridge (which I am sure I mentioned in the past) is that it is lit up with colored lights and those lights change colors every 5 minutes or so. We met a Turkish kid (close to my age) and we briefly chatted with him (in Turkish). I was happy for the opportunity because I wanted to show off to Aunt Heidi and Uncle David. I think they were impressed. I walked them to the station and we said our goodbyes.
Overall, I the visit was a nice one and I was really glad they came. I enjoyed playing tour guide and sharing with them some of my favorite places and things to do in Istanbul. By this time, I felt like Istanbul was my home and was happy for the opportunity to share that home with people I cared about.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Trabzon Again (June 18, 2009)
The second day of my stay in Trabzon was a really good day. Hüsniye had actually gotten the day off from work from her boss, allowing us to spend the day together. Many of the sights that Alex wanted to see, we had already done during Spring Break. So Alex went off by himself to go see the Sumela Monestary. This also allowed Hüsniye and me to spend some quality time together alone, which was definitely fun.
As I explained in the previous post, Trabzon didn't have a whole lot going on in the city itself and I had already done most of it. So what could we do? The tourist office guy (he actually remembered me from before and thought it was strange that I was back) recommended some caves not too far away. They were called the çal mağarası and were located in Düzköy (an ironic name for the village because düz literally means flat or straight and the town was on the side of a mountain). No matter, this is what we decided on for our days destination. I was excited actually. I've always wanted to go in a cave and other than the little archeological tour we had in Israel, I had never really had the chance to do that before.
We found a dolmuş to the village and discovered that it would take about 30 minutes to get there. Although the dolmuş only was supposed to go to the village itself, the caves were a little bit out of the way. The driver agreed to take us there after he had dropped off the passengers. The scenery on the way up was magnificent. In all of my time in Turkey, I think one of the most picturesque things I saw (as far as nature is concerned) was the drive south from the Black Sea coast into the Kaçkar Mountains. As soon as we left Trabzon, we began winding into the mountains. They were very green due to the high amount of rainfall received in the region as a result of its proximity to the Black Sea. The Black Sea also meant that just about every valley had a natural mountain spring, bringing water to the coast from high into the mountains. One of my favorite things was a mosque tucked away on the side of a mountain with beautiful greenery around it. When one thinks of a mosque, generally sites of flat, arid desert come to mind. To see a mosque here in Turkey with the exact opposite landscape was really neat.
We finally made it to the top of the mountain and to the outside of the cave. We discovered that the caves weren't really open to tourists, but a young boy offered to show them to us. They asked for a small fee to pay for the cost of turning the lights on in the cave for our tour, which we gladly agreed to pay. We spent about an hour or two being shown many different parts of the cave (it was actually quite large and deep into the mountain). We also got to see an underwater stream,which helped form the cave. The outside was dry whereas, the further in you went, the wetter the air got. See some of the pictures I took of the stalactites to the left in my photo album. It was a really cool thing to see in person and I was certainly not disappointed.
When it was time to leave, we called the number given to us by the driver who promised to come back. It turns out that this guy was not such a nice guy at all. To drive us down to connect with the bus, he was going to charge us 10 Lira each. There is no way it cost 5 Lira in gas extra for him to do that. What a dick. Hüsniye was more angry than i was about it and felt like he was taking advantage of the situation. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do about it so we had to pay the guy to take us back. I guess not all Turks are so hospitable.
We arrived back in Trabzon and were not sure of what to do. Hüsniye decided to drop by her office and say hello to her co-workers who were working (as well as introduce me). I can't say I know many people who would go to their office on their day off. Apparently, Hüsniye is one of them. I met everyone and they were really nice. No one could speak a word of English but they were friendly and interested in me. I am not sure if some of them (especially Nurcan and Aşiye had ever met an American before. We even played a bit (Hüsniye took a picture of me in her dental chair!).
After we went to her office, we went across the street to her favorite ice cream shop (this was the real reason we were in the neighborhood in the first place). After ice cream we walked along the shoreline of the Black Sea taking in the nice weather and the view. We met Alex for dinner in the Forum. The Forum is the mall in Trabzon (Turkish people love their malls). I think there are more malls in smaller places here than in the US. The mall about 20 mins from my apartment in Istanbul (which I did go inside several times) was at one point the largest mall in Europe (5 stories, but it was also deep, bowling alley, ice skating, roller coaster, etc). The mall was a good place for dinner as it had some traditional Turkish places as well as some standard American ones (McDonalds, Sbarro, etc). I ended up having Sbarro's (ok, go ahead and judge me).
Alex told us that he had a good time at Sumela and made new friends. He also told me (much to my chagrin) that he ran into a certain fellow exchange student that I did not get along with. I was mortified and prayed that he did not invite her to dinner or to visit later (luckily he did not). The thought of her laugh makes me shiver...even a year later.
After dinner, Husniye and Bahar offered to help me pick out new shoes. I desperately needed a new pair but I was sorry I ever agreed to let them help. Moral of the story: Whether Turkish or American, never ever go shopping with girls. It is always a painful process that takes way longer than necessary for you to get what you want. I was totally fine with the shoes I saw at the first store. Instead of buying those, I was informed that we needed to go to a second shoe store and then a third. Then, we had to go back to the first one again. It was exhausting! Eventually, I did get my new pair of shoes but not without a good amount of torture in the process.
After our little shopping extravaganza, Bahar, Hüsniye, Alex, and I went up to Böztepe. For those of you who forgot about Böztepe from my last trip to Trabzon, it was the large hill at the start of the Kaçkar Mountains allowing you to see the entire city and the Black Sea. The view was phenomenal. Since it was night, we could see the city lights there and along the coast for miles. At the top, they also serve tea (çay). This çay is particularly good because all of Turkey's tea comes from Rize, located just 90km away. The tea served here comes with hot water allowing one to make the tea more concentrated or less concentrated (something I haven't seen in too many other places around Turkey). Also the ambience is really nice (and kind of romantic if you're up there with just your significant other). It was good for me to get to see the place again and good for Alex to see it for the first time. So ends our second day in Trabzon.
June 19:
We didn't really do much on the 19th before my flight back to Istanbul. Alex decided to leave and go visit Uzungol on his week long trip through the Eastern part of Turkey before summer classes started. Husniye and I went down to the coast and spent some time there. Actually, we almost missed my flight (I had to run back to their house and out the door and only got to the airport with 45 minutes before my flight took off). Luckily, the Trabzon airport is very small and it took about 5 minutes to get through airport security.
As I explained in the previous post, Trabzon didn't have a whole lot going on in the city itself and I had already done most of it. So what could we do? The tourist office guy (he actually remembered me from before and thought it was strange that I was back) recommended some caves not too far away. They were called the çal mağarası and were located in Düzköy (an ironic name for the village because düz literally means flat or straight and the town was on the side of a mountain). No matter, this is what we decided on for our days destination. I was excited actually. I've always wanted to go in a cave and other than the little archeological tour we had in Israel, I had never really had the chance to do that before.
We found a dolmuş to the village and discovered that it would take about 30 minutes to get there. Although the dolmuş only was supposed to go to the village itself, the caves were a little bit out of the way. The driver agreed to take us there after he had dropped off the passengers. The scenery on the way up was magnificent. In all of my time in Turkey, I think one of the most picturesque things I saw (as far as nature is concerned) was the drive south from the Black Sea coast into the Kaçkar Mountains. As soon as we left Trabzon, we began winding into the mountains. They were very green due to the high amount of rainfall received in the region as a result of its proximity to the Black Sea. The Black Sea also meant that just about every valley had a natural mountain spring, bringing water to the coast from high into the mountains. One of my favorite things was a mosque tucked away on the side of a mountain with beautiful greenery around it. When one thinks of a mosque, generally sites of flat, arid desert come to mind. To see a mosque here in Turkey with the exact opposite landscape was really neat.
We finally made it to the top of the mountain and to the outside of the cave. We discovered that the caves weren't really open to tourists, but a young boy offered to show them to us. They asked for a small fee to pay for the cost of turning the lights on in the cave for our tour, which we gladly agreed to pay. We spent about an hour or two being shown many different parts of the cave (it was actually quite large and deep into the mountain). We also got to see an underwater stream,which helped form the cave. The outside was dry whereas, the further in you went, the wetter the air got. See some of the pictures I took of the stalactites to the left in my photo album. It was a really cool thing to see in person and I was certainly not disappointed.
When it was time to leave, we called the number given to us by the driver who promised to come back. It turns out that this guy was not such a nice guy at all. To drive us down to connect with the bus, he was going to charge us 10 Lira each. There is no way it cost 5 Lira in gas extra for him to do that. What a dick. Hüsniye was more angry than i was about it and felt like he was taking advantage of the situation. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do about it so we had to pay the guy to take us back. I guess not all Turks are so hospitable.
We arrived back in Trabzon and were not sure of what to do. Hüsniye decided to drop by her office and say hello to her co-workers who were working (as well as introduce me). I can't say I know many people who would go to their office on their day off. Apparently, Hüsniye is one of them. I met everyone and they were really nice. No one could speak a word of English but they were friendly and interested in me. I am not sure if some of them (especially Nurcan and Aşiye had ever met an American before. We even played a bit (Hüsniye took a picture of me in her dental chair!).
After we went to her office, we went across the street to her favorite ice cream shop (this was the real reason we were in the neighborhood in the first place). After ice cream we walked along the shoreline of the Black Sea taking in the nice weather and the view. We met Alex for dinner in the Forum. The Forum is the mall in Trabzon (Turkish people love their malls). I think there are more malls in smaller places here than in the US. The mall about 20 mins from my apartment in Istanbul (which I did go inside several times) was at one point the largest mall in Europe (5 stories, but it was also deep, bowling alley, ice skating, roller coaster, etc). The mall was a good place for dinner as it had some traditional Turkish places as well as some standard American ones (McDonalds, Sbarro, etc). I ended up having Sbarro's (ok, go ahead and judge me).
Alex told us that he had a good time at Sumela and made new friends. He also told me (much to my chagrin) that he ran into a certain fellow exchange student that I did not get along with. I was mortified and prayed that he did not invite her to dinner or to visit later (luckily he did not). The thought of her laugh makes me shiver...even a year later.
After dinner, Husniye and Bahar offered to help me pick out new shoes. I desperately needed a new pair but I was sorry I ever agreed to let them help. Moral of the story: Whether Turkish or American, never ever go shopping with girls. It is always a painful process that takes way longer than necessary for you to get what you want. I was totally fine with the shoes I saw at the first store. Instead of buying those, I was informed that we needed to go to a second shoe store and then a third. Then, we had to go back to the first one again. It was exhausting! Eventually, I did get my new pair of shoes but not without a good amount of torture in the process.
After our little shopping extravaganza, Bahar, Hüsniye, Alex, and I went up to Böztepe. For those of you who forgot about Böztepe from my last trip to Trabzon, it was the large hill at the start of the Kaçkar Mountains allowing you to see the entire city and the Black Sea. The view was phenomenal. Since it was night, we could see the city lights there and along the coast for miles. At the top, they also serve tea (çay). This çay is particularly good because all of Turkey's tea comes from Rize, located just 90km away. The tea served here comes with hot water allowing one to make the tea more concentrated or less concentrated (something I haven't seen in too many other places around Turkey). Also the ambience is really nice (and kind of romantic if you're up there with just your significant other). It was good for me to get to see the place again and good for Alex to see it for the first time. So ends our second day in Trabzon.
June 19:
We didn't really do much on the 19th before my flight back to Istanbul. Alex decided to leave and go visit Uzungol on his week long trip through the Eastern part of Turkey before summer classes started. Husniye and I went down to the coast and spent some time there. Actually, we almost missed my flight (I had to run back to their house and out the door and only got to the airport with 45 minutes before my flight took off). Luckily, the Trabzon airport is very small and it took about 5 minutes to get through airport security.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Trebizond (June 17)
I suppose it is appropriate that my 50th blog posting would be about Trabzon, considering how much time I ultimately ended up spending there. The title of the blog comes from the name of the name of the ancient Greek colony that was founded here. At any rate, our bus arrived at the bus station early in the morning of the 17th. We took the transportation that was provided to the city center and met Hüsniye in the main square in front of the McDonalds.
Hüsniye led us into a dolmuş and we rode to her apartment. Hüsniye and I had not seen each other since we had met in May but continued to speak online and had developed a good friendship. When I saw her, it was not strange it all. It was as if I was meeting an old friend again. I sort of felt bad for Alex because all he could do is sit there and watch us talk.
After a short ride we got off and cut through a paved parking lot to the street on which Hüsniye lived. When I met her last time, we had always met in the city center, so I had never been to her apartment before. We took our luggage up the stairs to the second floor. The apartment was nice I thought (definitely nicer than my accommodations in Istanbul but not as nice as Altuğ's apartment). The really interesting thing to me was the bathroom situation. The water heater was powered by gas fuel. You could even see the flames warming the outside of the container (they were small flames like one of those old gas burners). The other interesting part of the bathroom was that there were two toilets (in two separate rooms). One toilet was the normal western style toilet and the other was one of the traditional turkish toilets. (See my earlier rant about those).
We put our things down and Hüsniye needed to go to work. Her mother offered to prepare breakfast for us (she lives in the apartment with both of her parents). At age 25 as a working professional, it would be strange here in the US for someone to be living with their parents unless their parents were will or needed to be cared for. In Turkey, the situation is much different. Families usually live together until they get married (and sometimes afterward too). Based on my observations, the concept of family is much closer here than it is in the US. Of course you see these relationships much less in westernized Istanbul, but out here in the Eastern part of Turkey, traditional attitudes are the norm.
Hüsniye mother was a very sweet and mother lady. Even though she couldn't speak a word of English, you could tell that she had a warm heart. She also went out of her way to ensure that Alex and I were comfortable. She made us sucuk ve yumurta (sausage and eggs), which is a traditional Turkish breakfast. This was accompanied with bread (freshly baked that morning), cheese, and jam. Yum!
Alex and I were very tired from our trip (neither of us slept well on the bus) and we both wanted to take a nap. I would be sleeping the guest room for our two day visit and Alex would sleep on the couch. Not such a great deal for Alex but from what I could tell the couch was relatively comfortable.
We woke up from our nap refreshed and ready to eat lunch. Alex and I ventured out into the city in order to find lunch. We found a nice fish place on the coast. Alex had a fish sandwich (grilled fish) and I had a grilled fish plate (the amazing thing was that this plate was only something like 6 or 8 liras). Where can you find grilled fish in the US for that price? :) While at this one local restaurant, the owner was very interested in Alex and me. It was probably because they don’t see many Americans in Trabzon considering that most prefer the Eastern Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts. He brought out his son to serve us though, and we could tell by his posture that he wanted to practice English but he was a little shy in doing so. With that in mind, Alex and I decided to torture/help the boy by only speaking English to him. He loosened up and started speaking to us in English. The conversation was simple dealing with primarily school, subjects of choice, age, whether or not we enjoyed Turkey, etc.
Following lunch and tea, we set out to explore Trabzon. Since I had already been before, I acted as Alex's tour guide for the day. We saw the Aya Sofia (not the one in Istanbul), and walked along the coast. Truthfully, Trabzon doesn't have that many sites to see in the city itself. Most of the cool stuff is located around the city nearby.
At the end of the day I decided to get Hüsniye a present to say thanks for letting us stay there - a backgammon board (surprisingly she didn't already have one in her home). We walked along the city walls and back towards the center square. We met Hüsniye and Bahar at the city center (I am pretty good at finding this central square after all of this). Bahar and Hüsniye decided to take us to this place called Sera Golu (Sera Lake). It was a few kilometers to the west of Trabzon and at the beginning of the mountains. We got out and saw a pretty mountain lake nestled between the mountains. I must admit that I thought Uzun gol was better, but for something close it was definitely not a bad substitute. We walked around the lake and talked for a while.
Hüsniye and Bahar decided to take us to dinner at the famous Akçaabat köfte Lokantası. This is the very same restaurant I ate at when we visited Trabzon during Spring Break. There is no need for me to describe the meal again as it was the same and still delicious. Bahar was nice enough to pay for our meal (yay Turkish hospitality). Actually, one thing I did want to mention that I find odd about the Turkish hospitality is that when you bring your friends and are with another friend, the other friend (not the friend of friends) seems to pay. For example, Bahar paid even though technically I came because I knew Hüsniye and was friends with her. Similarly, when we came for Spring Break, Zafer paid even though Sonya, Em, and I were there because of Sonya's connection with Halis. I am not sure if this is a Black Sea tradition or a Turkish tradition, but it struck me as really odd. Since all of these people knew Hüsniye, it could also just be something they do amongst their friends. I am not really sure.
After dinner we decided to walk along the Black Sea (the restaurant is located right on the sea). The evening was comfortable (the cool water keeps the temperatures along the Black Sea pretty mild during the winter. After about 5 minutes of walking a policeman stopped us and asked us if we were tourist. He could tell immediately by the fact that we were conversing in English. We said that we were and he asked why we were in Trabzon. I explained that I was visiting my friend Hüsniye. He then asked us if we met on the internet. We both laughed and said no. Its a funny thought though. I wondered how many couples he met in Trabzon where they met over the internet. He then said that in addition to his day job as a policeman, he runs rafting trips to his home town in Yusufeli (Artvin province). He gave us his number and told him to give him a call if we were in town (in July I did end up returning and would end up going rafting with him...which was awesome).
Hüsniye led us into a dolmuş and we rode to her apartment. Hüsniye and I had not seen each other since we had met in May but continued to speak online and had developed a good friendship. When I saw her, it was not strange it all. It was as if I was meeting an old friend again. I sort of felt bad for Alex because all he could do is sit there and watch us talk.
After a short ride we got off and cut through a paved parking lot to the street on which Hüsniye lived. When I met her last time, we had always met in the city center, so I had never been to her apartment before. We took our luggage up the stairs to the second floor. The apartment was nice I thought (definitely nicer than my accommodations in Istanbul but not as nice as Altuğ's apartment). The really interesting thing to me was the bathroom situation. The water heater was powered by gas fuel. You could even see the flames warming the outside of the container (they were small flames like one of those old gas burners). The other interesting part of the bathroom was that there were two toilets (in two separate rooms). One toilet was the normal western style toilet and the other was one of the traditional turkish toilets. (See my earlier rant about those).
We put our things down and Hüsniye needed to go to work. Her mother offered to prepare breakfast for us (she lives in the apartment with both of her parents). At age 25 as a working professional, it would be strange here in the US for someone to be living with their parents unless their parents were will or needed to be cared for. In Turkey, the situation is much different. Families usually live together until they get married (and sometimes afterward too). Based on my observations, the concept of family is much closer here than it is in the US. Of course you see these relationships much less in westernized Istanbul, but out here in the Eastern part of Turkey, traditional attitudes are the norm.
Hüsniye mother was a very sweet and mother lady. Even though she couldn't speak a word of English, you could tell that she had a warm heart. She also went out of her way to ensure that Alex and I were comfortable. She made us sucuk ve yumurta (sausage and eggs), which is a traditional Turkish breakfast. This was accompanied with bread (freshly baked that morning), cheese, and jam. Yum!
Alex and I were very tired from our trip (neither of us slept well on the bus) and we both wanted to take a nap. I would be sleeping the guest room for our two day visit and Alex would sleep on the couch. Not such a great deal for Alex but from what I could tell the couch was relatively comfortable.
We woke up from our nap refreshed and ready to eat lunch. Alex and I ventured out into the city in order to find lunch. We found a nice fish place on the coast. Alex had a fish sandwich (grilled fish) and I had a grilled fish plate (the amazing thing was that this plate was only something like 6 or 8 liras). Where can you find grilled fish in the US for that price? :) While at this one local restaurant, the owner was very interested in Alex and me. It was probably because they don’t see many Americans in Trabzon considering that most prefer the Eastern Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts. He brought out his son to serve us though, and we could tell by his posture that he wanted to practice English but he was a little shy in doing so. With that in mind, Alex and I decided to torture/help the boy by only speaking English to him. He loosened up and started speaking to us in English. The conversation was simple dealing with primarily school, subjects of choice, age, whether or not we enjoyed Turkey, etc.
Following lunch and tea, we set out to explore Trabzon. Since I had already been before, I acted as Alex's tour guide for the day. We saw the Aya Sofia (not the one in Istanbul), and walked along the coast. Truthfully, Trabzon doesn't have that many sites to see in the city itself. Most of the cool stuff is located around the city nearby.
At the end of the day I decided to get Hüsniye a present to say thanks for letting us stay there - a backgammon board (surprisingly she didn't already have one in her home). We walked along the city walls and back towards the center square. We met Hüsniye and Bahar at the city center (I am pretty good at finding this central square after all of this). Bahar and Hüsniye decided to take us to this place called Sera Golu (Sera Lake). It was a few kilometers to the west of Trabzon and at the beginning of the mountains. We got out and saw a pretty mountain lake nestled between the mountains. I must admit that I thought Uzun gol was better, but for something close it was definitely not a bad substitute. We walked around the lake and talked for a while.
Hüsniye and Bahar decided to take us to dinner at the famous Akçaabat köfte Lokantası. This is the very same restaurant I ate at when we visited Trabzon during Spring Break. There is no need for me to describe the meal again as it was the same and still delicious. Bahar was nice enough to pay for our meal (yay Turkish hospitality). Actually, one thing I did want to mention that I find odd about the Turkish hospitality is that when you bring your friends and are with another friend, the other friend (not the friend of friends) seems to pay. For example, Bahar paid even though technically I came because I knew Hüsniye and was friends with her. Similarly, when we came for Spring Break, Zafer paid even though Sonya, Em, and I were there because of Sonya's connection with Halis. I am not sure if this is a Black Sea tradition or a Turkish tradition, but it struck me as really odd. Since all of these people knew Hüsniye, it could also just be something they do amongst their friends. I am not really sure.
After dinner we decided to walk along the Black Sea (the restaurant is located right on the sea). The evening was comfortable (the cool water keeps the temperatures along the Black Sea pretty mild during the winter. After about 5 minutes of walking a policeman stopped us and asked us if we were tourist. He could tell immediately by the fact that we were conversing in English. We said that we were and he asked why we were in Trabzon. I explained that I was visiting my friend Hüsniye. He then asked us if we met on the internet. We both laughed and said no. Its a funny thought though. I wondered how many couples he met in Trabzon where they met over the internet. He then said that in addition to his day job as a policeman, he runs rafting trips to his home town in Yusufeli (Artvin province). He gave us his number and told him to give him a call if we were in town (in July I did end up returning and would end up going rafting with him...which was awesome).
Monday, August 9, 2010
Georgia Day 2 (June 16)
We woke up and left the hotel for the bus station. Before we did any sightseeing we needed to determine whether we wanted to stay another day and figure out the logistics as far as when buses leave, etc. We had severe issues finding the bus terminal (the Turkish bus terminal was different from the main terminal). Although we had just been there 2 days ago, it was dark and night time so we didn't have the ability to see exactly where we were. After walking a while and getting lost several times, we decided to hire a cab driver to take us there. The driver tried to rip us off but Alex and I were stern about the price we agreed to at the beginning of the ride. For some reason, cab drivers in Georgia seem like they are worse than cab drivers in other countries.
We eventually found the place and were immediately harassed by people from different bus companies telling us that their bus was the only one that went back to Turkey. Of course I knew that wasn't true and I certainly wasn't going to impulse buy without comparing prices. There was one guy who literally would not leave us alone. All I wanted to do was think about the times and our options but this guy was an asshole. He was abrasive and when I thanked him and asked him to leave me alone, he refused (even when I asked in Turkish it didn't matter). Eventually he gave up and started swearing about us in Turkish (little did he know that I understood every word of what he said and at that moment committed not to buy anything from him). I also told him to go fuck himself in Turkish, but I am not sure if he actually heard me.
We walked out of the area and decided to purchase a ticket later to keep our options open. We went to this Georgian place for more traditional food. We knew the place was authentic because no one spoke any English whatsoever. In order for us to order, we needed to call someone on the phone that spoke English. They served us a traditional Georgian dish (I don't know the name of it) but it was kind of cheesy and you mixed it with this other darker food. It wasn't exactly cheesy but it wasn't exactly doughy either. It's very hard to describe but it tasted good and was probably one of the most unique meals I had on our entire trip through Georgia and Armenia. We even had a demonstration on how exactly we were supposed to eat it!
Because the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the terrain in the city itself is quite diverse. According to wikipedia, the terrain limits the development of Tblisi. Therefore, less land causes the developed land to be more densely populated while other parts of Tblisi are virtually undeveloped. At the top of one of the more jagged hills lies the Narikala fortress. To get there, we literally had to climb up this small mountain. We passed a hamam at the bottom, which was adjacent to a Persian mosque. We briefly looked at the outside (the design was similar to the mosque in Yerevan but quite different from the mosques of Turkey). Then we hiked to the top of the fortress. The view was beautiful and there was even a neat little waterfall along the way. I think we had wandered a bit into the Tblisi Botanical Gardens.
When we got to the top of the fortress, we ran into several Georgian couples who were using the view and secluded area as a romantic getaway. Alex and I were pretty sure we even saw one couple having sex (clearly we were not in conservative Turkey anymore). At any rate, we soon discovered that we had gone around the back way to get inside the enclosed part of the fortress and had to do some creative wall climbing to get on the right side of things. It was more difficult for me than for Alex because he is taller and has longer legs. The fortress had two walled sections still intact. The Narikala Fortress was built in the 4th Century and was considerably expanded by the Umayyads in the 7th Century. As cool as it was to walk on and see this piece of history, the best part was by far the view. The hill that contained the fortress was one of the highest in Tblisi (and was located within a couple of blocks of the river) allowing for a spectacular view of the river and the main part of the city.
The top of the hill (which is more of a long pathway than a single point) also has the Kartlis Deda. The Kartlis Deda is a large statue of a Georgian woman in Georgian dress with a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. This symbolizes Georgia's character of welcoming friends and a warning to foes. It was erected in 1958 to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the city of Tblisi. On the lower portion of the fortress was the St. Nicholas church, which was nice to walk inside. The best part were the bells outside the church.
After we climbed down from the fortress, we headed across town to see the Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba). As we were walking over there, the weather took a turn for the worst and while we were inside, a torrential downpour and thunderstorm occurred. The Cathedral was constructed between 1995 and 2004 and is the largest religious building in Georgia and in the South Caucasus. It was enormous (and kind of what I expected to see in Echmiadzin). It was basically a super-sized Armenian/Georgian church (the large space on the inside kind of resembled the inside of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to me). The inside was ornately decorated with Christian figures. One thing that struck me as odd amongst the decorations, marble columns, and marble floors was that there were no places to sit down (aside from benches near the entrance for tourists). The height of the cathedral, which can hold up to 15,000 people is 85m and towers over the entire city. This is without a doubt a doubt one of the largest structures in all of Georgia.
We ran back to the hotel in the rain. On the way, we both decided however that we both missed Turkey and that we both didn't want to spend money for one more night in a hotel. So we got our stuff at the hotel at around 6:30pm, called a cab that came at 6:55 to take us to bus terminal for a bus that was leaving at 7:00. Although we agreed on a price of 5 Lari for the cab driver, he tried to up the price to 7 upon arriving at the bus terminal. Although normally I would have argued on principle, it wasn't that much money to us and we were in a rush to make sure we made it on the bus in time. Alex was a lot more pissed about it than I was.
We got on the bus and began the overnight ride back into Turkey. At one of the stops on the way to Trabzon I ended up getting into a conversation with a Georgian guy who spoke Turkish and gave him my number to call if he ever came to the US (fully knowing that he probably would never call). We also were joking around with the bus driver a bit (I can't remember what was said exactly). All in all it was a pleasant and fairly uneventful trip back. We crossed back over the Turkish border in the middle of the night (making the process go much quicker) and I was able to purchase a new tourist visa for my remaining time there.
We eventually found the place and were immediately harassed by people from different bus companies telling us that their bus was the only one that went back to Turkey. Of course I knew that wasn't true and I certainly wasn't going to impulse buy without comparing prices. There was one guy who literally would not leave us alone. All I wanted to do was think about the times and our options but this guy was an asshole. He was abrasive and when I thanked him and asked him to leave me alone, he refused (even when I asked in Turkish it didn't matter). Eventually he gave up and started swearing about us in Turkish (little did he know that I understood every word of what he said and at that moment committed not to buy anything from him). I also told him to go fuck himself in Turkish, but I am not sure if he actually heard me.
We walked out of the area and decided to purchase a ticket later to keep our options open. We went to this Georgian place for more traditional food. We knew the place was authentic because no one spoke any English whatsoever. In order for us to order, we needed to call someone on the phone that spoke English. They served us a traditional Georgian dish (I don't know the name of it) but it was kind of cheesy and you mixed it with this other darker food. It wasn't exactly cheesy but it wasn't exactly doughy either. It's very hard to describe but it tasted good and was probably one of the most unique meals I had on our entire trip through Georgia and Armenia. We even had a demonstration on how exactly we were supposed to eat it!
Because the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the terrain in the city itself is quite diverse. According to wikipedia, the terrain limits the development of Tblisi. Therefore, less land causes the developed land to be more densely populated while other parts of Tblisi are virtually undeveloped. At the top of one of the more jagged hills lies the Narikala fortress. To get there, we literally had to climb up this small mountain. We passed a hamam at the bottom, which was adjacent to a Persian mosque. We briefly looked at the outside (the design was similar to the mosque in Yerevan but quite different from the mosques of Turkey). Then we hiked to the top of the fortress. The view was beautiful and there was even a neat little waterfall along the way. I think we had wandered a bit into the Tblisi Botanical Gardens.
When we got to the top of the fortress, we ran into several Georgian couples who were using the view and secluded area as a romantic getaway. Alex and I were pretty sure we even saw one couple having sex (clearly we were not in conservative Turkey anymore). At any rate, we soon discovered that we had gone around the back way to get inside the enclosed part of the fortress and had to do some creative wall climbing to get on the right side of things. It was more difficult for me than for Alex because he is taller and has longer legs. The fortress had two walled sections still intact. The Narikala Fortress was built in the 4th Century and was considerably expanded by the Umayyads in the 7th Century. As cool as it was to walk on and see this piece of history, the best part was by far the view. The hill that contained the fortress was one of the highest in Tblisi (and was located within a couple of blocks of the river) allowing for a spectacular view of the river and the main part of the city.
The top of the hill (which is more of a long pathway than a single point) also has the Kartlis Deda. The Kartlis Deda is a large statue of a Georgian woman in Georgian dress with a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. This symbolizes Georgia's character of welcoming friends and a warning to foes. It was erected in 1958 to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the city of Tblisi. On the lower portion of the fortress was the St. Nicholas church, which was nice to walk inside. The best part were the bells outside the church.
After we climbed down from the fortress, we headed across town to see the Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba). As we were walking over there, the weather took a turn for the worst and while we were inside, a torrential downpour and thunderstorm occurred. The Cathedral was constructed between 1995 and 2004 and is the largest religious building in Georgia and in the South Caucasus. It was enormous (and kind of what I expected to see in Echmiadzin). It was basically a super-sized Armenian/Georgian church (the large space on the inside kind of resembled the inside of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to me). The inside was ornately decorated with Christian figures. One thing that struck me as odd amongst the decorations, marble columns, and marble floors was that there were no places to sit down (aside from benches near the entrance for tourists). The height of the cathedral, which can hold up to 15,000 people is 85m and towers over the entire city. This is without a doubt a doubt one of the largest structures in all of Georgia.
We ran back to the hotel in the rain. On the way, we both decided however that we both missed Turkey and that we both didn't want to spend money for one more night in a hotel. So we got our stuff at the hotel at around 6:30pm, called a cab that came at 6:55 to take us to bus terminal for a bus that was leaving at 7:00. Although we agreed on a price of 5 Lari for the cab driver, he tried to up the price to 7 upon arriving at the bus terminal. Although normally I would have argued on principle, it wasn't that much money to us and we were in a rush to make sure we made it on the bus in time. Alex was a lot more pissed about it than I was.
We got on the bus and began the overnight ride back into Turkey. At one of the stops on the way to Trabzon I ended up getting into a conversation with a Georgian guy who spoke Turkish and gave him my number to call if he ever came to the US (fully knowing that he probably would never call). We also were joking around with the bus driver a bit (I can't remember what was said exactly). All in all it was a pleasant and fairly uneventful trip back. We crossed back over the Turkish border in the middle of the night (making the process go much quicker) and I was able to purchase a new tourist visa for my remaining time there.
Georgia on my mind (June 15)
So we woke up and waited for the minibus driver (who was conveniently staying at the same hotel). We were to journey back north through the mountains to Tblisi. The journey north took almost half the amount of time the journey south did. Not only did we hardly stop (yay for no smoking Armenian-Russians), but our driver drove like a bat out of hell. The trip that took us approximately 7 hours on the way down took only 4 (and this even includes the time change that we didn't know existed). When I say this guy drove crazy, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. He took turns in the mountains so sharply that one of the Russians riding with us actually had to make the driver stop the car so she could throw up. Truthfully, even I was feeling a little queasy during part of the ride.
Luckily, we made it back to Georgia safe and sound. We exited the bus and asked for directions to the old city from the metro station. It was very difficult to find someone who spoke English. We thought that asking younger people (close to our age) would yield the highest likelihood of people who speak English. We finally found Beka, who spoke English and decided to guide us personally to the Old City since he was on the way to the same place. He was studying Economics at a university there. He lead us to the area where he thought we should stay and told us a little about the city and which places we should visit while we were there. He also showed us a really pretty overlook that not many people know about where you can gaze down at the Kura River which runs through the center of Tblisi.
We found a nicer hotel district across the river. After the less than luxurious accommodations over the last few days (and the whole spending 30 something hours on the bus), Alex and I both agreed that we could splurge for a nicer hotel. Even this "nice" hotel only cost something in the neighborhood of 20 or 30 dollars per night. However, with a warm shower, clean room, air conditioner, and soft bed it was a huge upgrade from the places we had been staying.
We put down our stuff and headed out to explore the great city of Tblisi. Our first objective was to get something to eat because we did not eat much on the trip from Yerevan. We asked the man at the desk, who spoke English (another benefit of being in a nicer hotel), where the best place to eat Georgian food would be. He wrote out a list of Georgian food for us to try and recommended a restaurant that was of high quality and reasonable price for us to try the foods. We crossed the river and ventured towards the restaurant. The Old City was revitalized and did not have the same sort of Soviet architecture found in many post-Soviet states (though there were still places in Tblisi to find this architecture). The streets in this area were cobblestone with French influence. It was definitely a chic part of town.
The restaurant was fantastic. We ate Mcvadi (very cheesy bread that went well with sauce), Khachapuri (a cream and meat stuffed bread), and a meat main course (I think Alex had trout). We complemented our meal by splitting a bottle of chilled Georgian white wine. The entire meal came to about 25 Lari (15 dollars), which was awesome considering what we ate. Georgian food was definitely much cheaper than Armenian food. Towards the end of our meal, a woman named Maggie approached us from another table. She was an American who was working as a traveling journalist for magazines like Backpacker. She hadn't spoken to Americans in a while and so wanted to chat with us. She asked us about our impressions of Tblisi, our trip to Armenia, other traveling experiences, and other stuff. We sat and talked with her for a while before paying our bill and leaving.
We continued to walk along the street and came across a Georgian synagogue. I pestered Alex to go inside. We walked in and walked around the synagogue. I think it might have been a sephardic one because the bima (altar) was in the center of the synagogue instead of at the front of the sanctuary. The bima also resembled a ship. It was oddly shaped. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard synagogue with an upstairs for sunday school. I gave a donation to thank them for allowing me to come inside and check it out. Seeing the synagogue there was a pretty amazing feeling. One does not typically associate Georgia with a large Jewish population. However, it exists. I am amazed that the synagogue survived all of the Russian pogroms (which is how my family ended up in the United States) and survived the anti-religious Soviet regime. The Jewish community there has seen so much adversity and yet it still continues to live and thrive. It just amazed me.
We continued to walk around and walked back towards the old city along the river. Some Georgian girls caught Alex's eyes and smiled at him. I am pretty sure that women are his biggest weakness. It's so strange to me because it's for these women that he meets one time and never sees again! :) Anyways, so he starts making eyes at some girls. They wave to each other and the girls start giggling. They spoke in Russian or Georgian (we honestly weren't sure which) and we couldn't really understand them. As we walked a way, a guy tapped us on the shoulder and in what little English he could speak, asked us to follow him. They tried with what little English they know to speak to us. They asked us where we were from, and we stated America (because everyone likes America now). They asked us what we were doing in Tbilisi and we told them that we were visiting. We all were trying to speak a combination of languages to each other. They tried speaking in English and Russian, and we tried English and Turkish. Eventually it came down to drawing pictures and hand gestures. The two girls along with their lone male friend motioned us to follow them.
I was pretty resistant and thought Alex was being an idiot but it seemed like I didn't have much of a choice. They took us around the backward, hidden alleyways of Tbilisi until they arrived at a building. I followed Alex through the dark passageways inside the building up to the place where his new friend Mariam worked. Alex was lest worried about all of this than I was.
It turns out though that they worked at a craft school for jewelry making. They called someone on their cell phone who spoke English and he translated for us what they were saying and he translated what we were saying. Basically the school is also a place for female refugees from South Ossetia to pick up another trade. It was interesting to hear about the damage the Russians have done to Georgia but it was even more interesting to hear about how much these girls loved America. They were also especially curious about Alex because I showed that I was much more interested in this conversation than me. Actually, its not that I wasn't interested, it's just that the language barrier and drawing of sign motions became exhausting for me. After they finished chatting with Alex, they accompanied us out and said goodbye.
We noticed that there were a lot of churches in Georgia. They were built in the same style as the Armenian ones, but their religion was slightly different. Being so close to each other, I am sure the Georgian christians were heavily influenced by the Armenians.
As the sun set, the city lights shone brightly. There was one part of the city where city walls stood with different colored lights illuminating them. It was a pretty sight to see. We didn't really have an agenda that night. We just walked around to see different random things. We also saw Freedom Square lit up at night where the Central Bank was located as well as the building for the local government in Tblisi. A short walk away, we came across the Parliament building. In front of it, a sign in both Georgian and English read: "People for Saakashvili's Resignation." I had learned all about Saakashvili in my EU Relations with Russia and CIS Countries class. The people of Georgia do not like Saakashvili nowadays and believe he provoked Russia into attacking South Ossetia in 2008. They also believe he has not handled things well for Georgia after the Rose Revolution that brought him to power. At any rate it was exciting for me to see and my nerdy political science self took a picture in front of the banner!
We walked up to the base of a tall hill. At the top was an Eiffel Tower looking structure which was actually the Tblisi Broadcasting Tower. There was a way to go up it but by the time we got there it was already closed. I thought this was really unfortunate because I bet the view would have been amazing. There was a shop nearby and we ended up chatting with the owner. I wish I could remember more about what we discussed, but I don't. I remember it being a nice conversation and him inviting us to come back and visit him again sometime. We walked down the hill to the river, crossed it, and made our way back to our hotel. After all that walking, my feet were quite sore but I was ready for another day in Tblisi!
Luckily, we made it back to Georgia safe and sound. We exited the bus and asked for directions to the old city from the metro station. It was very difficult to find someone who spoke English. We thought that asking younger people (close to our age) would yield the highest likelihood of people who speak English. We finally found Beka, who spoke English and decided to guide us personally to the Old City since he was on the way to the same place. He was studying Economics at a university there. He lead us to the area where he thought we should stay and told us a little about the city and which places we should visit while we were there. He also showed us a really pretty overlook that not many people know about where you can gaze down at the Kura River which runs through the center of Tblisi.
We found a nicer hotel district across the river. After the less than luxurious accommodations over the last few days (and the whole spending 30 something hours on the bus), Alex and I both agreed that we could splurge for a nicer hotel. Even this "nice" hotel only cost something in the neighborhood of 20 or 30 dollars per night. However, with a warm shower, clean room, air conditioner, and soft bed it was a huge upgrade from the places we had been staying.
We put down our stuff and headed out to explore the great city of Tblisi. Our first objective was to get something to eat because we did not eat much on the trip from Yerevan. We asked the man at the desk, who spoke English (another benefit of being in a nicer hotel), where the best place to eat Georgian food would be. He wrote out a list of Georgian food for us to try and recommended a restaurant that was of high quality and reasonable price for us to try the foods. We crossed the river and ventured towards the restaurant. The Old City was revitalized and did not have the same sort of Soviet architecture found in many post-Soviet states (though there were still places in Tblisi to find this architecture). The streets in this area were cobblestone with French influence. It was definitely a chic part of town.
The restaurant was fantastic. We ate Mcvadi (very cheesy bread that went well with sauce), Khachapuri (a cream and meat stuffed bread), and a meat main course (I think Alex had trout). We complemented our meal by splitting a bottle of chilled Georgian white wine. The entire meal came to about 25 Lari (15 dollars), which was awesome considering what we ate. Georgian food was definitely much cheaper than Armenian food. Towards the end of our meal, a woman named Maggie approached us from another table. She was an American who was working as a traveling journalist for magazines like Backpacker. She hadn't spoken to Americans in a while and so wanted to chat with us. She asked us about our impressions of Tblisi, our trip to Armenia, other traveling experiences, and other stuff. We sat and talked with her for a while before paying our bill and leaving.
We continued to walk along the street and came across a Georgian synagogue. I pestered Alex to go inside. We walked in and walked around the synagogue. I think it might have been a sephardic one because the bima (altar) was in the center of the synagogue instead of at the front of the sanctuary. The bima also resembled a ship. It was oddly shaped. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard synagogue with an upstairs for sunday school. I gave a donation to thank them for allowing me to come inside and check it out. Seeing the synagogue there was a pretty amazing feeling. One does not typically associate Georgia with a large Jewish population. However, it exists. I am amazed that the synagogue survived all of the Russian pogroms (which is how my family ended up in the United States) and survived the anti-religious Soviet regime. The Jewish community there has seen so much adversity and yet it still continues to live and thrive. It just amazed me.
We continued to walk around and walked back towards the old city along the river. Some Georgian girls caught Alex's eyes and smiled at him. I am pretty sure that women are his biggest weakness. It's so strange to me because it's for these women that he meets one time and never sees again! :) Anyways, so he starts making eyes at some girls. They wave to each other and the girls start giggling. They spoke in Russian or Georgian (we honestly weren't sure which) and we couldn't really understand them. As we walked a way, a guy tapped us on the shoulder and in what little English he could speak, asked us to follow him. They tried with what little English they know to speak to us. They asked us where we were from, and we stated America (because everyone likes America now). They asked us what we were doing in Tbilisi and we told them that we were visiting. We all were trying to speak a combination of languages to each other. They tried speaking in English and Russian, and we tried English and Turkish. Eventually it came down to drawing pictures and hand gestures. The two girls along with their lone male friend motioned us to follow them.
I was pretty resistant and thought Alex was being an idiot but it seemed like I didn't have much of a choice. They took us around the backward, hidden alleyways of Tbilisi until they arrived at a building. I followed Alex through the dark passageways inside the building up to the place where his new friend Mariam worked. Alex was lest worried about all of this than I was.
It turns out though that they worked at a craft school for jewelry making. They called someone on their cell phone who spoke English and he translated for us what they were saying and he translated what we were saying. Basically the school is also a place for female refugees from South Ossetia to pick up another trade. It was interesting to hear about the damage the Russians have done to Georgia but it was even more interesting to hear about how much these girls loved America. They were also especially curious about Alex because I showed that I was much more interested in this conversation than me. Actually, its not that I wasn't interested, it's just that the language barrier and drawing of sign motions became exhausting for me. After they finished chatting with Alex, they accompanied us out and said goodbye.
We noticed that there were a lot of churches in Georgia. They were built in the same style as the Armenian ones, but their religion was slightly different. Being so close to each other, I am sure the Georgian christians were heavily influenced by the Armenians.
As the sun set, the city lights shone brightly. There was one part of the city where city walls stood with different colored lights illuminating them. It was a pretty sight to see. We didn't really have an agenda that night. We just walked around to see different random things. We also saw Freedom Square lit up at night where the Central Bank was located as well as the building for the local government in Tblisi. A short walk away, we came across the Parliament building. In front of it, a sign in both Georgian and English read: "People for Saakashvili's Resignation." I had learned all about Saakashvili in my EU Relations with Russia and CIS Countries class. The people of Georgia do not like Saakashvili nowadays and believe he provoked Russia into attacking South Ossetia in 2008. They also believe he has not handled things well for Georgia after the Rose Revolution that brought him to power. At any rate it was exciting for me to see and my nerdy political science self took a picture in front of the banner!
We walked up to the base of a tall hill. At the top was an Eiffel Tower looking structure which was actually the Tblisi Broadcasting Tower. There was a way to go up it but by the time we got there it was already closed. I thought this was really unfortunate because I bet the view would have been amazing. There was a shop nearby and we ended up chatting with the owner. I wish I could remember more about what we discussed, but I don't. I remember it being a nice conversation and him inviting us to come back and visit him again sometime. We walked down the hill to the river, crossed it, and made our way back to our hotel. After all that walking, my feet were quite sore but I was ready for another day in Tblisi!
Friday, August 6, 2010
A Day in Yerevan (June 14th)
A knock at the door came very early. Although we thought we had agreed upon 9am, our host knocked on our door and awakened us at a very early 8am. We gathered our things and took our stuff to the hotel. I was very thankful that the new hotel had a shower, as it had been a couple of days since I had taken one. The water was even warm. Alex and I decided that we would probably have time to see a couple of places outside of Armenia: Echmiadzin and Garni.
We decided to go to Echmiadzin first. I researched the appropriate bus numbers from the French people's guidebook and we were on our way. We decided to stop off at a place near the city center to get something to eat. We chose a relatively nice restaurant, which had the benefit of the waitress speaking English and free wifi. :) We also stopped and snapped a couple of pictures of statues on the way to the center of the city. Then we walked through Republican Square, which was a beautiful circle in the exact center of Yerevan. The buildings had been re-gentrified with new architecture. The architechture was a combination of Russian and Armenian influence from what I can tell. It seems that the new city center was indicative of the new direction of Armenia after the fall of the Soviet Union. I imagine that if I returned in 30 years, I wouldn't recognize it (and I hope I have the opportunity to do so!).
So after our walk through the city center and our breakfast/lunch, we took the bus to Echmiadzin, which was a short ride away. Echmiadzin is essentially the Vatican City for the Armenian church. The holiest Armenian church is located here and we thought it would be a pretty neat place to check out. We weren't disappointed.
In the first church we entered, which was the St. Gayane Monestary built in 630AD and restored in 1652AD, we stumbled upon an Armenian wedding. The church is typically open to tourists and there was no sign indicating that it was closed for a wedding ceremony. Alex was uneasy about going inside, but I thought it was no big deal and might actually be cool to see! The couple was no older than 18 and the wedding ceremony was beautiful. The setting of this church added to the beauty. From what I could tell and what Alex said, the ceremony had similarities to both other Christian sects and Islamic weddings. The church itself was filled with paintings and symbolism. Outside of the wedding, there was a cage full of white doves to be released upon the completion of the ceremony. I think I would like white doves at my wedding.
Anyways, just before the wedding had finished, we decided to wander outside of the church to the main portion of the church area. The largest of the churches was the Echmiadzin Cathedral. This cathedral was built in between the years 301 and 303 AD by St. Gregory the Illuminator. It is one of the oldest churches in the world and the oldest that was built by a state. The building featured the traditional round dome of Armenian architecture with stone and marble on the inside. It also had a large collection of beautiful artwork. It was both similar and different to the many churches one would find in Europe.
When one leaves a church in Armenia (also in Georgia), it is considered disrespectful to turn your back towards the alter. So traditionally one must walk out of the church backwards and illustrate a cross in front of your torso (kind of like the catholic cross before eating). In front of the church was a nice green courtyard with greenery and fountains. Although Lonely Planet advised us not to drink the water, we did anyway.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTs9Y8o_IW7TOSozpL5j3S8tXHOPxFk0TM2elhcRyHc_8kMoItiV_0G1g5S7ONtYGZXaSSS3DphokoYNdm4wZhcTXPowt6E12OBg-20Prhp8ybo9fJ-vLVo20EWGIyo370XvSxdctkLns/s1600-h/IMG_0293.JPG
I snapped some pictures of the area and then saw a photo of an Armenian soldier being taken in front of the Gate of St. Tiridates. I wanted to take his photo myself so I did. The family there decided that since we were taking their photo, they should take ours. We ended up having a group photo together.
Before we went back we stopped in a convenience store and met these two Armenian women who were very friendly and wanted us to take their picture (so I did). Even though they couldn't speak our language, I felt like all of the Armenian people were very friendly towards us. It's good to know that that Turkish hospitality spreads into the Caucasus as well.
After our trip to Echmiadzin we went back to the city center in Yerevan. I purchased a tourist map to see what we could do there before heading to Garni. There was a mosque on one side of the city that had been preserved. We went inside the complex to find that it was not just a mosque, but a whole center of Islamic civilization when it was in use. There was even a dentist office inside the complex! Although, we could not go inside we could look inside the rooms and take pictures of the courtyard. I found the schooling area especially interesting. Above the classroom sits a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini! At the entrance of the building, it says that donations for the mosques upkeep are made by the Iranian government! This was just another sign that we were in a completely different part of the world and of how close we really were to Iran.
We caught a bus towards Garni and then looked for the bus that we needed to change onto. However, for some reason it did not come at the right time. We found someone who could speak English and asked them about it and told them the time we wanted to catch the bus. He laughed and told us we were an hour too late and that we would not be able to make it to Gori that day. I then realized that there was a time change between Tblisi and Yerevan! Even though we actually travelled south west from Tblisis, we were one hour forward (so as to be on the same time as Moscow) when we crossed into Armenia! The entire time we were in Armenia, neither Alex nor I had any idea that we had gone forward an hour! It suddenly made sense to me why the Armenian guy woke us up so early! He had awakened us on time but we just didn't realize it. Also, it is odd to me that, since Turkey borders Armenia, there is a 2 hour jump forward in crossing the border. I wonder if there is any other place in the world where a time zone is essentially skipped.
Oh well. We missed out on that opportunity and decided to see the area where the bus dropped us off. There were some stone statues to look at (and we got to see more of those lovely Soviet apartment buildings). Actually, getting a closer look of those buildings made me sad. They really looked like they were about to fall apart. I would hate to see what the inside of one of those things look like. The area we saw depicted some kind of battle on stone, but we weren't sure what it was or from when it was. Nearby there was a little park with a trail and Alex and I decided to walk along it.
At the end of the trail there was a clearing and we couldn't believe our eyes! It was Hogwarts Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry!!
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We saw the colors of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and of course Slytherin. The place looked like some sort of place to bring children. This was here I think before the Harry Potter world was opened at Disneyworld. Anyways, Alex and I decided we absolutely HAD to go inside. The inside was stone and themed as much like a castle as possible. It appeared that it was some sort of restaurant with entertainment (full bar included) so that adults could bring their children to play while they ate. We decided to sit outside, as the weather was not too hot (it is an amazing feeling to sit outside in the month of June and not die of heat exhaustion). We each ordered a beer and were served by a very nice waitress. She wanted us to come visit her again but we told her that we were probably leaving the country the next day. It was unfortunate because she was nice and definitely took an interest in Alex and me.
After our Harry Potter experience, we got on the bus and headed back towards the city center of Yerevan. We took a walk in Republican Square to enjoy the summer evening. We were surprised to see a large group of people gathered around the fountain in the middle of the square and decided to investigate. Within a few minutes of us arriving there (this was at about 9pm or 9:30) music began to play and the fountains became alive. Colored lights shined on the fountains as water sprayed rhythmically with the music. It was beautiful actually. We just happened to walk up as the show started. I even took a video of "Time to Say Goodbye" when it played (most of the songs played were actually songs with English lyrics). By the time the fountain show was over it was around 10:30. One amazing thing I noticed was that at 10pm, it was still not dark outside due to the weirdness of the time zone and how far north we were. Can you imagine twilight at 10 or 10:15pm?! It was crazy!
After the fountain show, we decided to take a walk down to the part where the Armenians had shown us last night. We saw the new street where apartments would be opened above the stores soon. We also saw the Armenian Opera house. One thing we did not see that I really wanted to see was the memorial to the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide. It would have been interesting, after learning how charged the issue is in Turkey, to see it from the Armenian perspective. Perhaps that will be something for another visit. On the way back, I took a few more pictures of Republican Square and took a picture of the map of Armenia on the side of a museum. The street layout is of that of a circle, which seems odd to me as most of our American cities are rectangles and squares. I later learned that the circular city is actually a specific type of Soviet planning. Cool.
We decided that due to time constraints and the desire to see Georgia that this would be our last night in Armenia. Although we were here a couple of days, I felt like we were able to get a lot out of it and I enjoyed the trip. It is definitely a place I would like to visit again.
The next day before we left, Alex had an interesting conversation with the girl who had helped us and knew English. If you are interested in learning more about it and getting a perspective on Armenia from the people, I recommend reading his blog entry found here: http://adventuresinasiaminor.blogspot.com/2009/07/armenian-conversation.html
We decided to go to Echmiadzin first. I researched the appropriate bus numbers from the French people's guidebook and we were on our way. We decided to stop off at a place near the city center to get something to eat. We chose a relatively nice restaurant, which had the benefit of the waitress speaking English and free wifi. :) We also stopped and snapped a couple of pictures of statues on the way to the center of the city. Then we walked through Republican Square, which was a beautiful circle in the exact center of Yerevan. The buildings had been re-gentrified with new architecture. The architechture was a combination of Russian and Armenian influence from what I can tell. It seems that the new city center was indicative of the new direction of Armenia after the fall of the Soviet Union. I imagine that if I returned in 30 years, I wouldn't recognize it (and I hope I have the opportunity to do so!).
So after our walk through the city center and our breakfast/lunch, we took the bus to Echmiadzin, which was a short ride away. Echmiadzin is essentially the Vatican City for the Armenian church. The holiest Armenian church is located here and we thought it would be a pretty neat place to check out. We weren't disappointed.
In the first church we entered, which was the St. Gayane Monestary built in 630AD and restored in 1652AD, we stumbled upon an Armenian wedding. The church is typically open to tourists and there was no sign indicating that it was closed for a wedding ceremony. Alex was uneasy about going inside, but I thought it was no big deal and might actually be cool to see! The couple was no older than 18 and the wedding ceremony was beautiful. The setting of this church added to the beauty. From what I could tell and what Alex said, the ceremony had similarities to both other Christian sects and Islamic weddings. The church itself was filled with paintings and symbolism. Outside of the wedding, there was a cage full of white doves to be released upon the completion of the ceremony. I think I would like white doves at my wedding.
Anyways, just before the wedding had finished, we decided to wander outside of the church to the main portion of the church area. The largest of the churches was the Echmiadzin Cathedral. This cathedral was built in between the years 301 and 303 AD by St. Gregory the Illuminator. It is one of the oldest churches in the world and the oldest that was built by a state. The building featured the traditional round dome of Armenian architecture with stone and marble on the inside. It also had a large collection of beautiful artwork. It was both similar and different to the many churches one would find in Europe.
When one leaves a church in Armenia (also in Georgia), it is considered disrespectful to turn your back towards the alter. So traditionally one must walk out of the church backwards and illustrate a cross in front of your torso (kind of like the catholic cross before eating). In front of the church was a nice green courtyard with greenery and fountains. Although Lonely Planet advised us not to drink the water, we did anyway.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTs9Y8o_IW7TOSozpL5j3S8tXHOPxFk0TM2elhcRyHc_8kMoItiV_0G1g5S7ONtYGZXaSSS3DphokoYNdm4wZhcTXPowt6E12OBg-20Prhp8ybo9fJ-vLVo20EWGIyo370XvSxdctkLns/s1600-h/IMG_0293.JPG
I snapped some pictures of the area and then saw a photo of an Armenian soldier being taken in front of the Gate of St. Tiridates. I wanted to take his photo myself so I did. The family there decided that since we were taking their photo, they should take ours. We ended up having a group photo together.
Before we went back we stopped in a convenience store and met these two Armenian women who were very friendly and wanted us to take their picture (so I did). Even though they couldn't speak our language, I felt like all of the Armenian people were very friendly towards us. It's good to know that that Turkish hospitality spreads into the Caucasus as well.
After our trip to Echmiadzin we went back to the city center in Yerevan. I purchased a tourist map to see what we could do there before heading to Garni. There was a mosque on one side of the city that had been preserved. We went inside the complex to find that it was not just a mosque, but a whole center of Islamic civilization when it was in use. There was even a dentist office inside the complex! Although, we could not go inside we could look inside the rooms and take pictures of the courtyard. I found the schooling area especially interesting. Above the classroom sits a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini! At the entrance of the building, it says that donations for the mosques upkeep are made by the Iranian government! This was just another sign that we were in a completely different part of the world and of how close we really were to Iran.
We caught a bus towards Garni and then looked for the bus that we needed to change onto. However, for some reason it did not come at the right time. We found someone who could speak English and asked them about it and told them the time we wanted to catch the bus. He laughed and told us we were an hour too late and that we would not be able to make it to Gori that day. I then realized that there was a time change between Tblisi and Yerevan! Even though we actually travelled south west from Tblisis, we were one hour forward (so as to be on the same time as Moscow) when we crossed into Armenia! The entire time we were in Armenia, neither Alex nor I had any idea that we had gone forward an hour! It suddenly made sense to me why the Armenian guy woke us up so early! He had awakened us on time but we just didn't realize it. Also, it is odd to me that, since Turkey borders Armenia, there is a 2 hour jump forward in crossing the border. I wonder if there is any other place in the world where a time zone is essentially skipped.
Oh well. We missed out on that opportunity and decided to see the area where the bus dropped us off. There were some stone statues to look at (and we got to see more of those lovely Soviet apartment buildings). Actually, getting a closer look of those buildings made me sad. They really looked like they were about to fall apart. I would hate to see what the inside of one of those things look like. The area we saw depicted some kind of battle on stone, but we weren't sure what it was or from when it was. Nearby there was a little park with a trail and Alex and I decided to walk along it.
At the end of the trail there was a clearing and we couldn't believe our eyes! It was Hogwarts Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry!!
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We saw the colors of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and of course Slytherin. The place looked like some sort of place to bring children. This was here I think before the Harry Potter world was opened at Disneyworld. Anyways, Alex and I decided we absolutely HAD to go inside. The inside was stone and themed as much like a castle as possible. It appeared that it was some sort of restaurant with entertainment (full bar included) so that adults could bring their children to play while they ate. We decided to sit outside, as the weather was not too hot (it is an amazing feeling to sit outside in the month of June and not die of heat exhaustion). We each ordered a beer and were served by a very nice waitress. She wanted us to come visit her again but we told her that we were probably leaving the country the next day. It was unfortunate because she was nice and definitely took an interest in Alex and me.
After our Harry Potter experience, we got on the bus and headed back towards the city center of Yerevan. We took a walk in Republican Square to enjoy the summer evening. We were surprised to see a large group of people gathered around the fountain in the middle of the square and decided to investigate. Within a few minutes of us arriving there (this was at about 9pm or 9:30) music began to play and the fountains became alive. Colored lights shined on the fountains as water sprayed rhythmically with the music. It was beautiful actually. We just happened to walk up as the show started. I even took a video of "Time to Say Goodbye" when it played (most of the songs played were actually songs with English lyrics). By the time the fountain show was over it was around 10:30. One amazing thing I noticed was that at 10pm, it was still not dark outside due to the weirdness of the time zone and how far north we were. Can you imagine twilight at 10 or 10:15pm?! It was crazy!
After the fountain show, we decided to take a walk down to the part where the Armenians had shown us last night. We saw the new street where apartments would be opened above the stores soon. We also saw the Armenian Opera house. One thing we did not see that I really wanted to see was the memorial to the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide. It would have been interesting, after learning how charged the issue is in Turkey, to see it from the Armenian perspective. Perhaps that will be something for another visit. On the way back, I took a few more pictures of Republican Square and took a picture of the map of Armenia on the side of a museum. The street layout is of that of a circle, which seems odd to me as most of our American cities are rectangles and squares. I later learned that the circular city is actually a specific type of Soviet planning. Cool.
We decided that due to time constraints and the desire to see Georgia that this would be our last night in Armenia. Although we were here a couple of days, I felt like we were able to get a lot out of it and I enjoyed the trip. It is definitely a place I would like to visit again.
The next day before we left, Alex had an interesting conversation with the girl who had helped us and knew English. If you are interested in learning more about it and getting a perspective on Armenia from the people, I recommend reading his blog entry found here: http://adventuresinasiaminor.blogspot.com/2009/07/armenian-conversation.html
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