A Wish Come True

We started off Sunday morning with more exploration of an ancient city. I think this one was Pergamon. They're all starting to run together. I love seeing all the wildflowers--red and yellow and purple and white--growing through and around the ruins. While we were there, Ahmet showed us something that was basically a wishing well. You make your wish on a coin, and then try to make the coin land on this pedestal in the middle of what looks like it used to be a well. Rachel was able to land her coin.

About an hour later at next stop to see an ancient hospital, Rachel's wish came true. It hadn't rained in this town for 2 years, so she wished for a shower. We definitely got a downpour. Luckily we hadn't ventured too far when the rain started, and we were able to take shelter in the back room of a tourist shop--playing checkers, hanging out, and trying to avoid the leaks in the roof. The rain was turrential, but it stopped after about 45 minutes and we were able to continue the tour.

Then it was back on the bus for a couple more hours of driving.

Finally, we got to what I hoped would be the highlight of my trip. The beach. It wasn't quite what I had imagined, but the water was pretty and you could see Greek islands in the distance so I was happy. The water was too cold for me to get in, but I enjoyed laying out on the pier for a few hours with my feet in the water. (I couldn't lay out in the sand, because there was no sand--just rocks)

Our next excursion was to an olive oil museum/shop. They have a display of both modern and traditional equipment and processes that are used to extract the oil. The olive tree originated in the region that is now Turkey and later spread around the Mediterranean. They also had free samples in the shop :)

The hotels continue to get better with every stop along the way. This hotel was in the top of a mountain, and looked like it was straight out of a magazine. There was open air oven where you could see and smell dinner being cooked as you walked through. There was a wonderful balcony from my room that overlooked the village. And the beds were amazing. It would have been my best night's sleep thus far if roosters hadn't woken me up at the crack of dawn.

Back in the 'bul

After a long day on the road, we're finally back in Istanbul to finish up the trip.
On our way back, we stopped at Troy. We saw the remnants of 9 cities built on top of each other, and a recreation of the huge horse that the Greek soldiers hid in during the Trojan war.

Our hotel here is much nicer than the previous one we had in Istanbul, and I like the area of the city much better as well. We went for a walk to tonight to find some food, and came across tons of nice restaurants, shops, and gardens along the way. The roof of the hotel also has a wonderful view of the city.

Our last few days here have a lot of flex time, with the main goal being to knock out most of our project. And go shopping. And exploring. ;)

A Day in Cappadocia

Agenda for Friday, May 23:

-Tour an undergound city

-Explore multiple cities that were carved out of mountains of stone

-Learn how to make pottery

-Learn how to weave a carpet

-Ride a camel

-Watch whirling dervishes

SunExpress direct to Izmir

After our second night in Cappadocia, we boarded the bus at 7 am and headed for the airport. Our tour guide Ahmet told us before we left Istanbul that there was no weight limit for our domestic flight to Izmir, but that there was a limit of one bag per person. As soon as we arrived at the tiny little airport we noticed the crowd. From the first line outside the doors until we boarded the plane, everyone was shoulder to shoulder. Once we made it inside the airport, the real problems started to arise.

We were flying with SunExpress, an airline that is fairly new and that Ahmet has never used before. The first issue was weight. There was a weight limit--which almost everyone severely exceeded--and the cost was 4 lira per kilogram over the limit. But when they took my passport and weighed my bag, instead of giving me a bill and sending me to the next counter like everyone else, they put my bag to the side and told me to wait. After everyone else had been taken care of and moved to the next station I was still waiting, and at this point had no idea where my passport was. Reluctantly I followed Ahmet to another counter, and when we got there my passport magically materialized. The problem was that they couldn't "find" my boarding pass, and had no record of me in the system.

This is when I started to lose it. The people working there had been shady from the start, and given the crowd in the airport I thought the flight was full. So it appeared that I was going to be left behind, waiting alone for another flight in this overcrowded airport where I couldn't communicate with the attendants who were trying to rip me off. While Ahmet was trying to work something out, my friends offered to stay with me and Dr. Richey had made the decision that if I couldn't get on the plane he would stay and wait with me for the next flight.

So finally Ahmet was able to just buy another ticket (about the time we were supposed to be taking off) and get me on the plane. I almost felt bad that he used his own cash to buy the ticket, but hopefully the travel agency will reimburse him.

It's a part of the culture here to take advantage of American tourists (or tourists in general), and after a week of haggling and being hassled I'm reaching my limit.

But on a brighter note...

Ephesus is an absolutely wonderful, quaint, Mediterranean, little city. The terrain is extremely mountainous, so we had a great view as we started our tour with a drive up to the last residence of the Virgin Mary. It was an amazing experience to actually be in the same place where she has lived.

Our next stop was exploring the ruins of an ancient Roman city, started in about 300 BC. Incredible. We saw the ruins of administrative buildings like town hall, the library--which is comparatively in excellent condition, the public baths, Mosaic tile streets lining the area of the ancient stores, and the amphitheater where gladiators used to fight.

We also went to see the temple of Artemis (there's not much left,) and the Basilica of St. John.

Our hotel here is by far my favorite thus far, and I wish we were here for more than one night. It has a nice cottage feel, but there has been a lot of recently finished renovation so there are modern comforts as well. There is a beautiful garden outside leading to the pool, and everything--inside and out--is perfectly decorated. And the wi-fi is superb ;)

Word Vomit

This morning we changed things up a bit with a 2 hour drive to the Toyota manufacturing plant and logistics center. The brother of our Turkish professor works here and he gave us a tour. It was actually pretty interesting because we are able to see a lot of concepts in action that we discussed in my operations management class last semester.

We were back in Istanbul by late afternoon, and had a few hours of free time before dinner. Lauren and I decided to go shopping. The salespeople here must have a huge chunk of income tied to commission because they're extremely pushy and won't leave you alone. So anyway, while Lauren was trying on some clothes I walked down to another shop. I had made it all the way to the back and hadn't found anything, so the guy informed me that there was more upstairs.

As I'm browsing up there, he asks me, "Are you from Germany?"

"No, I'm from America (that's the only thing they understand here, they don't call it the U.S. or the states)"

"Oh really? I'm from Iraq."

Obviously not thinking about where I am, my automatic response to that word comes out. "My brother's in Iraq."

"What's he doing there?"

Now I've realized what I just said, what country I'm in, and that me and this Iraqi are alone on the second floor. As I'm making my way back to the stairs, I go ahead and state the obvious. "He's in the army."

"I want to go to America. But I don't have a visa. Can you help me get a visa?" And then I walk out of the store without looking back. So that was an interesting experience. . .

We had yet another, traditional Turkish dinner. By now we're beginning to get tired of having 5 courses of the same things every night for dinner. This restuarant was in great location though, off a main road and down the "flower passage." Hopefully we'll have a little more variety (and a little less food) once we start travelling around the country.

Let's sail to Asia today. . .

This morning we got to sleep in! Then we were off to Koc Univ. for a guest lecture by one of their professors on legal issues related to international trade, which was surprisingly interesting. After our Chai tea break we were dropped off at the hotel and had the afternoon to do as we pleased.

I went up and enjoyed our rooftop terrace for a little while before heading out onto the streets for a little exploring. I found 2 Catholic churches, which was exciting. Other than that, there were no major discoveries but it was fun to walk around and take everything in.

After a quick nap, I was back on the bus again getting ready for a cruise and dinner. We had a fairly large boat all to ourselves as we were carted around the Bosphorous with our tour guide Ahmet narrating. The water is a bright shade of blue with my favorite kind of waves. There are never white caps, but just constant, giant, rolling waves. We saw a lot of Istanbul landmarks from the water that we had already seen from the road, and we also saw tons of beautiful homes on the other side of the Bosphorous. The boat dropped us off at our restaurant on the Asian side of Istanbul and we had a Turkish seafood dinner. This was only the second time, but I already feel like I'm a pro at beheading and filleting the fish myself. We had a nice view of the bridge, and before we left we got to see a fireworks display in honor of Ataturk's birthday.

"Fireworks! Turkish fireworks?......No. Those would be bombs."

To explain the title, this was our joke of the day, during a conversation about a Turkish celebration in honor of Ataturk's birthday which is May 19.

Moving on, yesterday was quite an eventful day with sightseeing and some entirely new experiences. After class we went to see the Hippodrome and the Blue Mosque. There is not much left of the Hippodrome, but when it was still a stadium, it was the city's focus for more than 1,000 years. Istanbul really is unique and interesting with the way ancient and modern civilizations and structures merge and coexist. The Blue Mosque was built in the early 1600's by some the same stone masons who later helped construct the Taj Mahal in India. They do a pretty good job ;) It was beautiful and has intricate patterns and details from top to bottom.

After sightseeing, we went to check out the Turkish Baths. Not really knowing what to expect, we were in for quite a surprise. Basically, this is the Turkish version of going to spa and is meant to be relaxing and cleansing--with a European twist. So everything is communal (but with different sections for men and women), with no shame and full exposure. In the changing area you stow your clothes in a locker and you are given a towel, which you then lay on once you enter the bathing area. This section is a huge steam room with marble floors and a raised marble platform in the center, where you lie down until some old Turkish woman says its your turn. She then uses a coarse, soapy mitt to give you an exfoliating body scrub, and then leads you to a smaller, connected room to wash your hair. After that you can rinse off and lay back down on the marble slab for as long as you like. I didn't really see the need for any more lounging around ;) Almost of all of the other girls in the group really enjoyed it and want to go back. My skin did feel nice afterwards, but maybe I'll just have the facial scrub next time ;)






Our plans for the night were dinner and a show at the Galata Tower. The tower was built in 1348. After a few days here I should be getting used to how old things are but it's still hard for me to believe. We had another traditional Turkish dinner and then a dance show. It started off with belly dancing, during which two girls from our group were called on stage and sat with the sultan, and then belly danced as well. There were a lot of different acts, one with male dancers who use their faces to throw knives at a wooden slab. That wooden slab that happened to be covering a vital area of someone lying on the ground. And after an initial demonstration that someone was a guy from group. A little scary (especially when the knives got close to the end of the slab), but very entertaining! It was also pretty neat that our company for the show was fairly representative of the world, and at a flag was placed at the end of every table to indicate where the people were from. There were people from Australia, Spain, Portugal, China, Congo, Nigeria, Egypt, Jamaica.....

Sightseeing, Turkish Baths, belly dancing.....a long but very memorable day. . .

What you eat that make you so sweet? Normal 50. For you? 30!

So today started again with breakfast at the hotel and a nice drive to the university for class. It's only day two but I'm already looking forward to our regularly scheduled mid-morning breaks for Chai tea. With enough creamer and sugar, I can down a couple cups and have plenty of energy.

Mert (Matt) Tokman is one of the professors on the trip with us, and he lives in America now but he is from Turkey. After tea he gave gave us a brief overview of the history and culture of Turkey. It was actually really interesting to discuss the different groups of people in Turkey (i.e. those that love the U.S., those that are indifferent, and those that hate us), the different lifestyles of those groups, and how the sizes of each have waxed and waned over the past few decades.

After a quick lunch on campus, we drove back into the city for a long afternoon of sightseeing. We started at the Haghia Sophia, which is massive and beautiful. There is tons of history and lot of stories wrapped up in the building because so many different civilizations have taken reign and made modficiations.

Our next stop was the Basilica Cistern. This is a display of Byzantine engineering and was built in the 6th century! It's an underground area with hundreds of marble columns that was designed to hold water. It was only discovered fairly recently, and was drained and cleaned so that people could access it.

Our final sight to see this afternoon was the Grand Bazaar. I loved it. Can't wait to go back on our free day right before we leave for the states so I can buy what I want and not have to carry it all over Turkey. This was my first real experience with haggling, and it was quite interesting. After a couple of shops we got the hang of it and were able to buy a few things for good prices, but it definitely helps to have the buddy system so that someone can come to your rescue. The guys running the stands are extremely pushy and persistent. They are amazed to see Americans, and absolutely in awe to see the 2 black girls in our group. The bazaar has everything from jewelry to rugs to souveniers to clothes and plenty of things in between. After going shopping I'm beginning to like the city even more. . . :)

Dinner tonight was another wondeful, multi-course meal with a great view of the Bosphorous, the city, and a mosque. By now we're fairly acquainted with Turkish cuisine, but we did have something new tonight that was basically like a hushpuppy with a meatball inside instead of bread. It was pretty good.

I got back from dinner around 9, and decided to call it a night even though this is our only weekend in Istanbul. Hopefully there will be plenty of other opportunities (when I'm not exhausted and having a wake up call at 7 in the morning) to mingle with the Turks and check out their social scene.

Istanbul - Day 1

The wake up call came at 7:00 this morning, and we had breakfast at the hotel before making the 45 minute drive to Koc University, where we'll be having our classes while we're in Istanbul. Koc is located in the top of a hillside, so we had an AMAZING view of the Bosphorous Strait on the ride up. There are two main families here, Koc and Sabanci, and the Koc have funded a private university. We had a presentation from the Dean of the business school, took a campus tour, talked little about our project, and spent the rest of the day hanging out at the school.

This was the last day of class for the students there, and they were having an all-day event of a talent show/festival mix. Different groups would take the stage in this outdoor arena and sing/dance/play music. Between the festival and people-watching I was entertained, but I would rather have been out exploring the city. After a summer of doing whatever I want in Australia, it's a little bit harder to travel strictly following the group itinerary.

Around 4:30 we left Koc and headed to a restaurant on he Aegean Sea for dinner. We ate outside, overlooking the water, and the view was beautiful. The food was good, and once again I took my medicine and tried new things. I even managed the eat the fish they served me even though it's head was still attached.

After dinner we went for a drive through city, but we were all so tired that most of us fell asleep for at least part of the tour. Now we're back at the hotel for a low-key night before starting all over again with class tomorrow morning.

So far there are a lot of things I like about the city--the view of the water, beautiful flowers growing everywhere, European style housing, lots of people who speak English :) (p.s. all the classes at the university are taught in English)--but I really hope we have time tomorrow on our own to look around and explore and get a better sense of what it's like here.

And we're off. . .

After waking up at the crack of dawn to be at the airport in plenty of time for my 6:00 flight, we were on our way to Istanbul! ... and the drama was already beginning. Unfortunately, Jameson--one of the guys from our group--didn't realize what day we were leaving and missed the flight.

We made it to Newark for a 6 hour layover before our next flight, and decided to make the most of our time by catching a train to Manhattan for lunch. We ate at Pizza Supreme, rated one of the top 10 places in the city for pizza, and it was wonderful! We got to see Madison Square Garden, meet some fun Italians, and make a Starbucks trip before taking the train back to the airport.

The 7 and a half our flight to Amsterdam was less than comfortable, but I did have a window seat with a nice view. All of us were tired by this point, but we couldn't fall asleep. We finally landed, and had another 6 hour layover to endure.

Luckily, we found some really comfortable lounge chairs and crashed for a few hours. We also payed way too much (in euros) for some necessary breakfast to have the energy to keep going. We thought our last flight was going to be the worst yet because there were soooo many children crying on the plane before we took off, but we all managed to get some rest before arriving in Istanbul.

We had to get our visas and go through passport control, which added up to about an hour of waiting in various lines. By this point we thought the worst of traveling was over (and for the most part it was) and we found our tour guide and got on our bus.

Traffic. I thought that traffic was bad in Australia. I thought that traffic was bad in Spain. But neither of those even come close to how bad traffic is here. There are lines on the road, but they're purely for decoration. The cars might come with turn signals, but no one knows how to use them. They just use their horns instead. And on top of the cars going everywhere and coming entirely too close to each other, people just roam around. In the middle of the road. Selling flowers, papers, breakfast, whatever.

But we finally made it to our hotel after 30+ hours of traveling, with just enough time to put our luggage down in our rooms and head to dinner.

Fortunately, the food was worth it. We walked down the street to a classy little Turkish restaurant for a 5 course meal. Chicken salad, yogurt, eggplant, stuffed bell pepper, mushrooms, a salad, potato wedges, chicken kabob, rice, baklava, Turkish Delight, and tea.

I went home happy and full, took a shower, and fell into bed--ready to catch up on a little rest before starting my first full day in Istanbul.