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Published: July 12th 2005
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Tucker and I left for Turkey on Tuesday, June 28, flying through London, with a short overnight stay at a hostel by the airport in London. When we arrived in London, it was about midnight, which is in the afternoon in KS, so we were exhausted from the flight but not exactly tired enough to sleep, or I wasn’t anyway. After waiting about an hour to get a cab (which ended up costing about $40 US for about 5 miles), we arrived at the hostel, which was clean but very basic… Perfect for our purposes I suppose. The woman at the front desk literally had one tooth, and even it wasn’t looking so hot. I couldn’t sleep at all, partly because it was not night time in the states but mostly because I was so anxious to get into Turkey. After a restless night in the hostel, we arrived in Istanbul on Wednesday tired but really excited.
Once we caught a cab to the hostel where we would stay for four nights until our program started, we pretty much were in shock that we are actually in Istanbul… for a month! Not to mention our shock at the way these
London Heathrow
Tucker is tuckered out in London before our final flight... people drive… I literally was scared for my life in the cab ride to the hostel. Traffic lights, speed limits and stops are just a suggestion in Istanbul, and not a very well heeded suggestion. They are constantly riding people’s ass and honking and swerving and running lights. They would not hesitate to run over a pedestrian either! Honestly, they put drivers in Mexico to shame. But we did make it there in one piece, which I am convinced is pure luck.
We stayed in a really touristy area of town. So the neighborhood was lively and there was plenty to do… But first things first - we climbed up to our hostel’s rooftop bar to try the local beer. It’s called Efes, and while waiting in line for a cab in London, a guy told us that it is made with formaldehyde so it gives you a mean hangover. I don’t know about the formaldehyde claim, but I can definitely confirm the hangover claim. It’s affirmative - after drinking two or three beers the night before, I had a mean headache. I have switched to Efes Light, which is much easier on the head. The bar/ restaurant on
Sultan Hostel
the view from the roof of our hostel the roof has an AMAZING view of the Bosphorous, and is just beautiful. I never could have imagined that Istanbul would be so gorgeous and exotic looking and different. It also seems to be quite modern actually. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was definitely surprised.
The next morning, we had a typical tourist morning… went to the famous Blue Mosque and the St. Sophia, which are both really historical beautiful buildings and other than that, basically just wandered around exploring. We went to the Grand Bazaar, which is a HUGE marketplace filled with literally thousands of vendors selling anything from hookah pipes to ceramics to textiles to expensive jewelry… but most of all, Turkish rugs. All of the vendors in Istanbul are really aggressive, especially the rug salesmen. They are like used car salesmen! You can’t walk by any store or booth without being harassed by the salesmen to come in and look… Phrases like… “I have been waiting all day for you pretty lady to come so I can sell you the most beautiful thing I have…” and “cheaper than yesterday - best price for you…” It is pretty overwhelming at first, but it
The Blue Mosque
Haha -- They made me cover my head when we went inside the mosque. is just part of their culture and once you get used to it, it’s pretty funny. They are absolutely relentless!
The next day, we took a two and a half hour cruise of the Bosphorus… It started off a little shaky, because it was a pretty small boat and the water was rough, but turned out to be really fun. The Bosphorus divides the city between Europe and Asia - where the East meets the West and the boat dropped us off on the Asia side of the city for lunch. We were a little bit shocked that, whereas in the touristy side of the city where everyone spoke pretty good English, in this part of town almost nobody did. We had to rely on Tucker’s limited knowledge of the language to get by. And the Turkish language is super hard. I can’t even pronounce most words, let alone remember them. The words are super long too… so that was an adventure. In Turkey almost everything has meat in it - in fact, the word for meat is interchangeable with the word for meal. But all the places we have been so far have been accommodating of vegetarians. I
St. Sophia
Tucker in front of the Aya Sophia... am not starving yet, but I have mainly stuck to safe foods like bread and rice and fruit. The fruit here is amazing and they have HUGE farmers markets with every type of fruit you can imagine. And it is super cheap!
While on the boat, we met a family from Philadelphia, and after chatting with them for a while found out that the father is Mark Aronchick, who was the lawyer representing the Democratic Party in the butterfly ballot case in the 2000 election. He is also great personal friends with Howard Dean and also his attorney, and is also friends with Ed Rendell, the current governor of Pennsylvania and then Chair of the DNC. So we talked with him for a while. He had some really interesting stories and perspectives on the matter - not to mention, I agree with him!
That night there was a belly dancing show at the bar in our hotel, so we went to watch that which was cool… the best part was when the dancer grabbed Tucker and brought him onto the dance floor with her and made him dance with her. Don’t worry - I got it on video!
Zaza
Tucker with Zaza, who runs the nightclub at our hostel... he used to be a Turkish model, so we felt very special. It was really funny. The people that work at our hostel are really awesome and friendly, and everyone that we have met seems to be very accepting of Americans.
On Sunday, our program starts and we will be heading to another part of town to stay in a nice hotel and start our classes… Getting excited about meeting Justice Scalia and all of the other people that will be in our program!
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Holly Hummel
non-member comment
Amazing!
Amanda, Thanks for sharing with us! I can't believe how world-traveled people in Kansas are. Thanks for the wonderful descriptions, I felt like I was there with you. I hope you have a wonderful experience, and I can't wait to read all about it. Please come visit us when you return! Take care! Holly Hummel