Last days in Istanbul

I am currently at the hotel in Konya where we take a day trip to on Fridays to do things around town. Anyway, here is a backlog on what I did my last day in Istanbul.

Due to being out so late the night before, I got up sometime in the early afternoon on Saturday. I met up again with Patrick who is also going to the site with me and some other people from the hostel. There was a bbq that night that we all went to after we had gone out for some turkish coffee. We were hanging out with a french guy and another american at the hostel. After dinner we went out to a bar before then heading out to an open air hooka bar. It was very nice and you can have tea and coffee while you smoke too. We got apple flavored and mint flavored ones to share. The atmosphere was great with all the lights and lamps. We ended up staying out late again - another fun night.

The next morning Patrick and I had to catch a taxi to catch the ferry to catch the bus that would take us to Konya to catch the van to finally get us to our final destination for the month - Çatalhöyük. At the bus station I had the opportunity to use my first squat toilet - and had to pay 75 kuros to use it (their form of cents). I'm surprised I didn't pee on myself... The 10 hour bus ride was not too bad, just a little confusion when we tried to get the tickets because of the language barrier. The buses are air conditioned and have service. The attendants serve water, soda, coffee, tea, and little snacks every couple hours. There was a tv too - even if it was in turkish - still nice. Way better than Greyhound back home. We eventually made it to Konya where we ended up meeting the other part of our West Mound team from Cambridge, 2 undergraduate students. We had to wait for a few others for their bus to show up and then pick someone else up from the airport. We got in around 1am or so to the living quarters on site. On site you have the option to stay in the dorm style rooms or pitch a tent in the little tent village in back of the building. I am staying inside and am lucky to be next to the european style toilets. There are about 60 people living here at the moment, they are either excavators or lab specialists. This is a small number compared to previous years, as this season is a study season where not much excavation is taking place on the East Mound (the main point of interest at the site). Last year there were 135 people here, and it sounds like it was a stressful living situation.

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Part of trip: Turkey

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