Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 441

not a lot to really update on today as i have been spending most of the last couple of days trying to get over the jetlag. yesterday i laid down for a short nap around 130 and woke up some 7-8 hours later. i really enjoyed that. i found the mall today and it was something else. it would make our malls in okc look like flea markets. we are talking four floors of designer shops with security and doormen. i really felt like someone was going to come up to me and tell me i didn't belong because i wasn't wearing gucci or diesel. i also toured around the campus a bit, trying to get a feel for the place and see what it had to offer. some parts of it are really quite pretty ... read more

day two is much like day one, quite an adventure. after almost no sleep because of jetlag, mosque prayer calls, roosters, and atleast 2 snoring roomates in the hostel, adam and i began our journey from sultunamet uptown to the university. if i thought getting from the airport to the hostel was hard, i was wrong. we decided it wouldn't be that hard to catch the tram and bus so we ruled out a taxi and began the trek to the tram station. it wasn't that far in real terms but carrying 100 pounds of luggage each uphill makes it seem a lot farther. we easily caught the tram and got off a few stops later to catch the bus which would take us to our school. we were like the guys in trains, plains, and ... read more

MERHABA! Y os preguntareis....Que es eso del Kurban bayram??? Pues es la fiesta de la matanza del cordero, que empezo el dia 10 y acaba el 13, o sea manana. Hasta que esta fiesta no acabe no abriran el consulado de Iran, y hasta que no abran no podemos ir a tramitar el visado....que sin visado no se entra!! Asi que aqui estamos matando el tiempo, hace bastante frio y no para de llover aunque es soportable. De momento poco puedo contaros que sea de interes, pero ya llegara el momento. En principio saldremos de Estambul el miercoles 18, en tren hasta Iran, un viaje de aproximadamente 55 horas que promete ser interesante y agotador, pero es la forma mas facil y economica de llegar a Iran (por cierto Ivan, si veo a la gallina caponata ... read more

Making headway with the blogs - slowly, but surely As mentioned in the Istanbul blog, we decided to take a 2 day tour of western Turkey that included The Gallipoli penninsula (site of a massive battle between ANZAC and Turkish forces in WWI) and the historical site of Troy (inhabited and rebuilt over centuries by many different powers, from Greek to Roman, etc.....). The night before leaving on our trip it began to snow in Turkey - the first snow we've encountered since Queenstwon, NZ. We didn't realize how wintry the terrain would become after leaving Istanbul for the Wetern edge of the country. So, early in the morning we jumped in a minivan packed with sightseers on our trip. Not long afterwards we encountered quite a bit of snow on the ground. Halfway through the ... read more

Just went to Istanbul last weekend. Walking through the rainy city for two days, we got to see the basic tourists attractions: We started at the Galata Tower, where some say that you get a good view over the Bosphorus (at least when the weather is not as bad as it was). We decided that we don't pay 5 $ for seeing clowds. In general, prizes for students are quite high (all major sights 12 Turkish Lira, ca. 8 $ with no chance to get discount). Leaving Beyoglu, we crossed the bridge over the Golden Horn. On the bridge you can find dozens of fishermen at any time and weather. They take out their fishing rods every minute and get up to five fishes, which you can eat in the restaurants below the bridge. Later we ... read more