I guess two months later is as good a time as ever to finally blog about my trip to Turkey. It was over a week long and we did a lot of stuff, so I'll have to break it up into days.
We left on a Friday afternoon. We flew to Houston first, then took an overnight flight to Istanbul. I had a middle seat on the flight from Indy to Houston, but I was sitting between friends and it was only a few hours, so it was alright.
Then on the flight from Houston to Istanbul I was in the middle again. Not between friends. For 12 hours. Not as good. Our plane did have individual TVs with on-demand programming, which was nice, but it was super hot on the plane and I didn't sleep well. Not a fun time. We finally arrived, and we were greeted by a man who gave us roses. I still don't know whether or not he was part of our party. I felt like I was The Bachelor, but without the handsome man and fancy dresses. Me, Amy, and Kelly.
When we got there, we went straight to our hotel to settle in. I was worried about jet lag, since Istanbul is 7 hours ahead of us. Fortunately, I was pretty tired when we landed so I had no problem going right to sleep. All our hotels were pleasantly nice and comfortable. They'd told us we were going to be in hostels, so I was imagining common rooms with bunk beds and shared bathrooms, but they were really just regular hotel rooms, which was a pleasant surprise. They were comfortable for regular-sized people, I guess. Not necessarily for giants like Luke.
The first day in Istanbul we went to a place called Miniaturk, which is essentially a park full of miniature models of important landmarks throughout Turkey. It was one of the weirdest places I've ever been, but I guess it was a good overview of what we were about to see.
The tulips were out in full force throughout Turkey, which I loved because they're my favorite. There was a tulip festival the next weekend, I believe.
Outside of Miniaturk was a go-cart track where Kelly (Weber), (Luke) Lofland, Daniel Allen, (Katy) Himsel, and (Olivier) Bernadac went on a little race, which sweet shower caps to protect their hair from the helmets. (It's weird working at a school, because you mostly just refer to people by their last names).
From there, we headed over to a cafe called Pierre Lotti, which is atop a hill, so we had to take a gondola up to it. The gondola tokens had the seal of Istanbul on them.
View from the top, overlooking a waterway called The Golden Horn.
Everyone else had tea, but they ordered Sahlep for me, which is some kind of hot milk drink with cinnamon. The best way I can describe it is sugar cream pie in a cup. It was amazing.
That afternoon we headed over to Taksim Square, which is apparently important but I'm not sure why. I think there were some demonstrations there, which would explain the intense police presence.
Our two Turkish group members went to go pray at the nearby mosque so the rest of us hung out. I believe this was right before I got proposed to by a street performer wearing an Argentine Maradona soccer jersey who had won two talent shows and promised that if I married him I would be the most famous woman in Turkey. He had taught water sports on the coast of Italy but was now apparently impressing people in Istanbul. He told me I was the most beautiful woman, that I shone even as the sun went down, that I was his medicine when he was ill, that I would be his queen. "People will ask me who you are and I would say you are my queen." He was strong, as evidenced by the veins sticking out of his neck when he flexed (he insisted on showing me this), and pushed everyone else aside so he could give me a private show, which included him balancing a soccer ball on his head and shoulders while taking his shirt off. It was hard to say no to such a tempting offer, especially since it was the best offer I could receive, according to him (I'm not sure if that was a compliment or an insult).
There were flower vendors on the square who were weaving flower headbands. All the ladies got one except for me because I have an inexplicable aversion to owning things that I feel have no use. Left to right: Mandy (Bernadac's wife), Amy, Kelly, Aichen (Mr. Camalan's niece. I have no idea if I spelled her name right), and Himsel.
We walked down a very busy street which had lots of shops on it, though we didn't stop at a single one. Surprisingly, there were a lot of things that reminded me of Buenos Aires, and this street was one of them. I felt like I was walking down the street in Ramos Mejia.
Lastly, we visited Sapphire Tower, which is the tallest building in Istanbul (I think). It offered a gorgeous view of the city, which straddles two continents: Europe and Asia. Asia is on the other side of the river in the picture below.
Istanbul is such an interesting city, because it's obviously very modernized but then there are random obviously ancient structures. Below is an aqueduct from the Byzantine era, right in the middle of a busy street. I loved the depth of history and culture there.
Our last stop of the day was at a restaurant where we had some delicious kebab. Our trip was incredibly inexpensive - we only paid $950 for everything, including airfare. I found out later that most of our meals, hotels, and excursions were donated. Turkish culture is huge on hospitality, so our school network contacted the restaurants or hotels in advance, explained that they were bringing a group of American teachers to see Turkey, and asked if they'd like to contribute. So everywhere we stayed and almost everything we ate was free. Over and over throughout the trip I was touched by their generosity and kindness. That was my favorite part.
Outside the restaurant, I saw a sign which read "Az laf, cok is." I asked one of our Turkish teachers what it meant, and he was so surprised and confused, asking where I'd seen it. He translated it for me and it means "Work hard, talk less." I loved it so much and used it more than once on my students when we got back to the States.
They have water bottles there, but a lot of our water came in these pudding cup containers. I was always afraid it was going to burst and spill everywhere.
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