Turkey Time begins!

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My trip to Turkey couldn’t have come at a better time. For the two weeks prior to Fall Break, the usually cheerful academic center became a miserable place full of grumpy, stressed out people. The day of our flight to Istanbul, I had a test, a paper, a presentation, and no clean underwear or socks. Following a crazed hour of packing, Jess, Gina, Mike, Ben, and I caught the metro to the airport. Our vacation officially began when we got to the airport and Jess pulled out the US Weekly and In Touch that her mom had sent her from home. Our excitement could not be contained. After weeks without access to American celebrity news, we were first finding out about Nick and Jessica break up, Jennifer Aniston’s jealousy of Angelina, and Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney’s divorce. (I was in complete disbelief about Renee and Kenny!)

Our flight on Turkish Airlines was fantastic. I have never seen as much leg room on an airplane, and they served a delicious meal during our one hour flight. Hooray for Turkish Air!

We got into Istanbul at around 11:00 pm and began making our way on the tram towards Sultanahmet, the old part of Istanbul where most tourists stay. I was surprised as we walked the streets of Istanbul and saw only men, not a single woman. I was glad then that we had two boys with us. When we got to Sultanahmet, we saw a Happy Ramadan sign (in Turkish, of course) lit up on the massive Blue Mosque. In honor of Ramadan, there was a carnival with vendors selling popcorn, cotton candy, “Turkish delight” (more to come on that later), kebabs, candy apples, and waffles with Nutella. In addition, there were impromptu cafes set up where people were smoking the water pipe (i.e. hookah) and drinking tea (pronounced “chai” in Turkish). We were happy to find that our hostel was so close to all of the action.

When we first arrived at Istanbul Hostel, we met an American from Seattle named Adam who had been travelling in Turkey for a few weeks and kindly walked us to a nearby kebab stand. This kebab stand would become our favorite kebab stand in Istanbul (see photo). Adam explained that he would only be in Istanbul for one more night because he was heading to eastern Turkey to see the international championships for motorcycle racing. We were all very confused by that. Did he mean motorcross? Why would you go to eastern Turkey to watch a motorcycle race? But, as we would come to find out, motorcycle racing was both more popular and more exciting than we had imagined. There is no equivalent to it in the U.S., although it is loosely comparable to Nascar. Basically, souped up motorcycles race at speeds as fast as that of Nascar on real roads, not tracks. Among Europeans, motorcycle racing is a major event, and the motorcycle racing championships were playing on every TV in Istanbul.

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Photos

Wide Load
As we waited for the metro to the airport.

Turkey Time
the official symbol of our trip.

Pomegranate/Orange Juice
in front of the Blue Mosque, with men in traditional dress (Ali and Ahmet) who sell pomegranate/orange juice from the large silver vessels on their back.

fish sandwhiches
jess ordering a fish sandwhich on the shore of the Bosphorus, by the Galatta Bridge.

trying it on for size
A pushy Turkish saleswoman wraps a traditional Turkish headcovering (on Mike).