Gobble Gobble Gobble: Istanbul, Turkey!

Hey errbody!

So we have moved on to the excitement that is (was) Turkey. This all happened about a week ago, so bear with me if the memories are already a little fuzzy. There has been a lot going on recently, but I'll try to keep it all straight. Let us hope.

Katie and I had an earlier flight than the rest of the group so, as she put it, we were up "at the ass-crack of dawn." That is almost poetic. And quite accurate. So after our four-hours-of-sleep night, we braved the metro to get to the airport to sit to take a plane to eat plane food and to finally land in Turkey. Excellent. Unfortunately, we needed to take the tram to our hostel and walk a decent ways. The tram wasn't as close to the airport as we thought, so we searched for a bit until we found it.

A brief reminder: I am currently lugging around a suitcase that is quite possibly larger than me. This has been the bane of my existence.

Our journey included going down some stairs, going up some stairs, walking and then going up a bridge thing with more stairs and then down until we reached the tram. Lots and lots of the Up and Down which is quite miserable with all of my stuff. Fortunately, I look pathetic, so people have really stepped it up and helped me carry it on occasion. Thank you, good people of the earth!

We hopped off the tram and started walking toward the two massive mosques in the city: the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque (Creative, right?). We weren't entirely sure which was which and our directions were based off that, so it took a little while to find the way to go, but the sights were beautiful in the meantime. Obviously the streets were cobblestone-esque which was difficult on me and my poor luggage. I fear it will be a little beat up by the end of the trip.

We made it to our hostel safe and sound, but because it was just Katie and I, it seemed like every man was asking us if we knew where to go or if we needed help in a vaguely creepy sort of way.

Life Tip: Don't make eye-contact and just keep swimming walking.

I hadn't been aware of it before-hand, but we ended up in a 21 person room in the basement. It was lovingly referred to as The Dungeon for the rest of the trip, even though it was relatively nice and there was no sign of chains or bars or other dungeon-y items. We got settled in and made a game plan for enjoying the rest of the afternoon.

We planned on going to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia because they were so close to our hostel and pretty obvious attractions. Because the Blue Mosque is a functioning mosque, we checked the hours it was open and realized we had time to kill. This meant a brief photo shoot before looking for sustenance, which came in the form of a Nutella bagel (Spaniards don't believe in bagels, so it was the first one I had abroad). Delicious. We sat down to eat between the mosque and the Sofia when a a small boy approached us.

This boy was probably only four or five and rather grubby. He had some bread in his hand, but hid it behind his back and sat on the bench across from us and stared Katie and I down. He then proceeded to point to my bagel because Nutella is delicious. He continued to do this so I took matters into my own hands and pointed at the not-so-hidden bread he had...and he took off. Ha! Take that young child! I win again.

After such exciting excitement, we were able to go into the Mosque. Because of Muslim culture, Katie and I both had to wear scarves over our heads and take off our shoes to enter. That falls under a bit of culture shock. But the inside was rather spectacular so we enjoyed the view and sat down by a pillar to take it in. Tourists could only go in part of it, so we weren't there for very long before we headed outside again.

The Hagia Sofia wasn't open for too much longer in the day, so we decided to forgo it until the next day and instead meandered, finding a luscious park instead. My preconceptions of Istanbul were way off base because I assumed it was deserty and sandy due to it's location. Nope. There was a ton of green in the park and it was quite surprisingly beautiful.

More Randomness: While Katie and I were walking, a group of kids (a school group?) were passing through the park and I made a passing remark about how cute the little childrens were. The man leading them immediately turned around asked where I was from and, after hearing my response, pulled my in front of his class. I was introduced as the "American teacher" and was told to raise my hands while the kids sang or chanted or what have you. Katie was directed to film the process and after he told me he was a famous taxi driver (He's been on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. I checked.) and thanked me for my time (and asked all the kids to do the same). We were also introduced to his daughter who apparently wanted to learn English before he wandered back to the group. I don't know how these situations happen to me. 

After the confusion, we left the park and spent a good deal of time trying to find a bridge across from Europe to Asia because Istanbul is the only city in the world in two continents. We walked alongside the water for a while before giving it up and going back to the hostel. A brief hostel visit made way for dinner time.

Yay for food! We went to a close restaurant and ate outdoors on a relatively quiet street. The food was delicious but my favorite part was a sampler Katie and I split that had a ton of different sauces and vegetables to eat with bread. A yogurty one, couscous, a smoky one, and a few others were all absolutely great. Katie ordered a Turkish coffee and the waitress brought me one as well, for free.

Because we only had four hours of sleep the night before, we were exhausted and wanted a good night's sleep. Unfortunately (fortunately?) this didn't happen because we got to talking to the guys in the bed across from us and realized the world is crazy. The were studying in Sevilla, Spain and one was from Eagan, Minnesota and we all knew mutual people (from either our program or school). So that was actually quite exciting. But we did manage to go to sleep still relatively early after our bonding moments.

When we woke up for day two, the rest of our group had already made it to our hostel. We climbed up to the top of the building, for a free breakfast consisting of olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, a hard-boiled egg, cheese, bread and instant coffee. Strange, but not unpleasant.

We headed out to the Hagia Sofia, a former church-then-mosque that was converted into a museum. I can't describe it so I won't try particularly hard. It was built in the 6th century and is absolutely massive and beautiful, an array of art and colorful tiles and stones. There you go, description. Pictures to come!

From the Sofia, we went to the Grand Bazaar. This was overwhelmingly huge and, because of this, everything started to look exactly the same. We headed into the bazaar, a massive conglomeration of shops and stands housed under one roof. All six of us started shopping but it soon became clear our group was too large for the places we were going into. Because of this, we decided to split into two groups and meet up at an ATM outside later in the afternoon. Now, one might assume that it would be possible to barter in Turkey and, to an extent, it is. But then you come across times when a shop owner wants 600 lira (about 300 euros) for a cashmere and/or silk scarf and won’t budge on the price. It was actually hard to get most of the places to come down on their prices at all.

Even with the non-bartering, it was extremely fun because all of the people are saying whatever it takes to get you to look at their things. And they can be more or less successful in their approach. The best ‘compliment’ was one Kat, a girl in my group, got:

“You look like…. My favorite girl.”

That is sure to attract all the ladies. Keep up the good work.

We all ended up making small purchases, although we ended up being late to the ATM because we A) Got lost and B) Were busy making friends for lower prices. Mostly we emphasized the fact we got lost, to not annoy the other half of the group. And in most respects it was true. There are a million places inside the bazaar and eventually they all start to look the same. The colors and people and goods just become overwhelming, so being lost was certainly true.

Because we were famished from our extensive search (no exaggerations from me), we started looking for a restaurant. The one we eventually chose was relatively inexpensive and ended up being pretty good even though there ended up being a lot of peas in my dish, which is against my principles. Anyway, real talk now.

Our waiter became slightly smitten with Kat and by slightly I mean he went next door and bought a bracelet for her, gave everyone at the table free tea, and still gave her a discount when she let him down easy. To say it was awkward after that would be an understatement, so we hightailed it out of there as soon as our bill was paid.

After the brief relaxation of lunch, we went to the Topkapi Palace which we had been told by the Sevilla guys was “the Alhambra on steroids.” Our expectations became a little too high after that. That isn’t to say it wasn’t beautiful, but we were rather tuckered out so we weren’t in the best place mentally to enjoy it as much as we could have. That said, it had some incredibly beautiful rooms and gardens. We strolled through and even found a few good views across the water to Asia. Pictures will follow this because I am currently boycotting too many descriptions. There. Take that, world!

Focus. Okay, after our exploration we split into two groups again. A few of us stayed to see the Harem in the Palace and the rest headed back to the hostel. They missed out because the harem was probably my favorite part and I now want to be a concubine. Wait. Nope. No, I actually don’t. (Can you tell I’m tired? Travel, am I right?)

After we became even more tuckered out, it was time to return to the Dungeon. I had been planning on finishing a blog post then (We can all see that didn’t happen), but Mark and Luke invited us to have a beer with them on the roof of our hostel. There is a restaurant up there where we had a great view and were able to enjoy some time hanging out with new people. A drink led to us roaming through the streets for a restaurant and eating dinner together too; I am officially a fan of the cuisine in Turkey. We hung out together for the rest of the night until we realized it was time for bed because Katie and I had a flight to catch the next day.
 
WARNING: There will be bad words in this section because normal words can't cover all the keerap that occurred for this portion of the journey. There won't be that many, but just a heads up (It has been edited to remove the real bad ones). If you are under 13 or like thinking of me as a completely non-swearing individual, avert your eyes. (It won't be that bad, Mom, I promise. I just need to properly convey everything). Ready? Okay.

I wrote all of this down in a notebook so I could preserve the everything that this day entailed. That's the level of crazy it got. Again, you have been warned.

An Excerpt from Emily's Rant Book*

Today went form good to shitty real fast and we have arrived at the Live & Learn part of the day. I woke up at 7:48 AM intending to take a shower but laze ensued so I slept until 8:09 AM to chuck all my stuff in a bag and get "ready." In actuality, I am on Day Three of no showering, so that's the point my life has reached. (I am pissed off right now, so everything seems slightly miserable.) I ate, for the second time, a bizarre breakfast of olives, cucumber, tomato, bread, jam and cheese. Also surprisingly good instant coffee. Katie and I ate with the guys studying in Sevilla and they were a good time, making even the chilly Istanbul morning bright. After, I went down the the dungeon basement to grab a curduroy jacket. Rookie mistake, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Every good story has a beginning, middle and end but I keep skipping to the end in my mind. And that is a hellhole, so back to the briefly happy beginning.

Katie and I knew the archeological museum was somewhere between the Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sofia, so we meandered until we stumbled upon the Most Beautiful Street which led to both the park and our museum. We hadn't really known much about the place, but I enjoyed the peacefulness because there weren't really many tourists, especially so early in the morning.

The artifacts, once again got me thinking about time. This is probably the most fascinating idea ever to me because (tangent) time means oblivion. Which is both terrifying and comforting. Like I am having a helluva shitty day today, but it won't matter in eight bajillion years. But neither will I so...yeah. Not that I'm saying "Life is Short" and all forms of Encouragements, but it makes you think about what is considered significant (to humanity or on a smaller scale)...

Anyway. We saw things like the Tomb of Alexander the Great and jars coming form the 12th Century BC (Time, right?!?) among other things. All in all, a pleasant morning that did little to foreshadow the terribility of the afternoon.

We have come to the middle of the story: The hero must make decisions that will define her and bring conflict. And hopefully resolution.

Our defining moment came in our decision to traverse across the continent into Asia. Even though we had very little notion of what was on the other side, it seemed cool to be able to say, "Oh, yeah. I went to Asia this morning. No big deal." Casual.

Our flight had been delayed a little, so we thought we had a little leeway and we were idiots. The ferry ride was nice enough, although it got rather hazy and wasn't super beautiful This theme continues.

My feet in Asia!

We had no plans for the time we spent in another continent and ended up staying really close to the port. We noticed the clouds thickening like smoke, and assumed it had come from the boats coming in (Stupid, stupid). Our time elapsed quickly and after a few short goodbyes we returned to the ship docking area to depart.

All hell broke loose.

We bought tokens for our return journey before learning it had been delayed due to the smog and lack of visibility. The workers didn't speak English well so we went across the street to get directions on how to get back to Europe, because our flight.

We were told to take the 110 bus and get off at B7jsjuqw5hxhuq-something, walk ten minutes and take the tram to Almost-our-hostel. This journey was supposed to take one hour total, cutting close to our deadline but also not impossible. The first sign of Shit Hitting the Fan occurred when we glimpsed the line for our bus, which was a billion times longer than for any other bus. We shoved through and bought our overpriced ticket and waited on the godforsaken bus. It was packed tighter than the Campus Connector in wintertime and was boiling hot. My jacket didn't help with the sweat situation but I didn't have room to take it off.

The traffic ended up being insane because obviously it would be insane but eventually we made reached our stop. Unfortunately, it appeared no one knew where the hell the tram was, so we mimed and pointed and hoped until we got some directions from non-English speaking policemen.

This began the Running of the Emily, where we ran through the streets, looking for our faithful tram. We eventually found it (not a ten minute walk) and got in line behind two people who couldn't, for the life of them, figure out how to use the machine to buy tickets. The tram pulled up just as we bought ours, so we sprinted to catch it.

Now things weren't going well, but we were getting there, right?

We stood on the also overcrowded tram in the overly-warmness of all the people in Turkey before we finally got off. And more with the sprinting. And losing of the flip-flops. I became the person who runs barefoot through the streets of Turkey, because Life.

New ticket to Rome. Don't ever look like this.

Katie raced ahead to talk to a taxi-driver and I ran to grab my too-much-shit so we could get out quick. I had the strength of a mother pulling her baby out of a burning building when carrying my damn suitcase up the spiral stairs. A short wait for the taxi and a tense drive found us at the airport, caught between hopeful and anxious. We ended up paying our driver in both lira and US dollars because we couldn't come up with the money otherwise.

A massive line awaited us inside the doors because security here is pretty intense. After getting through the line fairly quickly we sprinted through the airport to come up....

Not victorious.

I have officially missed a flight and dropped 240 euros to get to Rome. Asia is against all of my principles now. So I am bitterly writing this to get out all the anger because that leads to the Dark Side. Also, I refuse to Romanticize the situation because I won't be extra grateful to be in Rome because it was hard to get there.

*Rant Book: Similar to a journal, where one rants due to feelings, generally of anger or frustration

Wow. Emotions, right? This story isn't over, we just need to relocate the setting to Rome. You can look forward to the second half of Emily's Journey to Rome in the next blog.

Until then!