November 7, 2007

            We got to Turkey, and ported in the Bosphorus straight between the continents of Asia and Europe. Istanbul connects both worlds, and I was so excited to see all of it. I heard so much from other people and from the Diplomatic Briefing that there is so much to see in Istanbul. The diplomatic briefing was informative and told us about what to see, and how to act culturally appropriate, and talked about the current political situations in Turkey. They said it is safe to be in Turkey as an American, but just don’t go where the Kurd problem is (which no one was planning to) and to not flaunt you are an American or to talk politics. My friends and I, along with many other I heard, decided to tell everyone we were Canadian to avoid any conflict, and it worked for me. My friend, Molly, told someone at the Bazaar she was American, and was treated badly (her items were thrown into a bag and was told to pay right then by a man who was very friendly up to that point).  I was planning on wandering around to see the most famous sites—but Kelly and I both got free tickets to the city orientation, so we went on that. We drove to a mosque and on the way I noticed how European the country looked. First of all, everything had cobblestone streets, and I noticed how calm everything seemed. There was not honking constantly, like every other country I have been in the last month, and the traffic was not out of control. The weather was also fallfish. It was about 50 degrees, and the leaves were turning. I was so excited that the weather was changing (or more like changed 50 degrees over 2 days from Egypt to Turkey). We got off at our first Mosque, which was gorgeous. On the way we saw some shopping streets and people selling Turkish pretzels on the street. Istanbul has over 1,000 mosques—just in the city alone. We took off our shoes, went inside, and just looked at the carpets and the architecture and the detail. Every mosque is fairly similar—just like churches and temples—if you’ve seen one of them you’ve seen them all. We then went across the courtyard to an old restaurant which had a nice little garden in it and a huge tree that you could walk inside of. We then drove to the Blue Mosque, which is the most famous one in Istanbul. We walked through the Hippodrome, which means “horse grounds” in Turkish, which was the center of Byzantium’s life for 1,000 years and of the Ottoman life for another 400 years. It is now a park with a few columns and obelisks. . The blue mosque is called so because of the Iznik tiles which line the walls. We learned about the mosque, its architecture. It is the only mosque in Turkey with six minarets. We got a really awesome view from the outside, then put out shoes in plastic bags, and enjoyed the view from the inside.  We then walked across the street to Hagia Sophia, “Hagia” means “Divine” in Greek and “Sophia” means “wisdom”. It is attributed to Jesus. It served as a church at first, then in 1453 turned into a mosque for Islam, and all the mosaics were covered, and then 1935 it was turned into a museum. There are bigger domes and buildings, but this one has no modern construction materials to reinforce it.  We first sat outside in a café because lots of people were cold, so people drank tea and had cookies, and then we went inside. It looked really different because it was older and less restored. The paint was coming off, as well as some of the walls. Everything seemed much older and there were even mosaics that still existed. We walked up to the top through a cobblestone ramp, and learned about the materials used in construction, as well as the mosaics of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint John the Baptist. They were fixing the inside dome of the building, so a scaffold was filling most of the inside, but there were marks on the ground that showed you how big the dome is, so people from our group stood on each mark, so we could really visualize how grant eh dome was (because when its so far up its really hard to tell). There was also this whole in a column that people put their finger and twist it around, which is believed will give them good luck and their wishes to come true. We then went across the street to the cistern basilica. I didn’t know what a cistern was until then, but it was so interesting. It’s a place where water was stored. It is one of several underground cisterns. The cistern was supplied with water by aqueducts from the Belgrade Forest, and it turned into a water supply for the Great Palace and later Topkapi.We went down a few steps, and saw this big underground area with about 2 feet of water in it. There were columns and paths you could walk on. It reminded me of “The Phantom of the Opera”. Music was playing, and it was really dark, but there were some dim lights, and there were these old columns and fish in the water. It was eerie and creepy but also really gorgeous. There were also two faces of Medusa at the end—one was upside down and one was sideways, and no one really knows why. We then headed back to the ship, where I changed my flip flops for sneakers because my toes were frozen, and then I went out, saw more mosques, and then crossed the Galata Bridge to get to the Spice Bazaar. The sun was setting, and it was gorgeous over the city. The bridge was full of people fishing, and the smell filled the air. I then tried to cross the street to the Spice Market, and I didn’t realize that you had to go underground to cross the street. I went way out of my way, and finally got to the other side. I wandered around the spice market—which is full of candy, which you can sample, and apple tea, and spices and teas of all kinds. I then ran into Molly and Brit and Haley, and we walked around together, then back over the bridge at night (it got dark at about 5pm). The city just glows.  We walked back underground, where there are various shops. I noticed that there were a lot of gun shops, which was strange to me, but they must have very lenient gun laws here, and other electronic shops. Someone was selling bunnies as well, which I wanted to buy and sneak on the ship, but didn’t think that was a great idea! We got back to the ship, ate dinner, and then just hung out. Lots of people were going out to clubs and going to internet cafes, but we just hung out on the ship because it was cold and rainy and we had a busy day.

November 8, 2007

  Today I traveled with Meg, Christina, Brit, and Eida. I usually don’t like traveling with big groups, and I still don’t, just because with big groups too many people want to do too many different things, but the day ended up working out. We first walked to the Galata Tower. On the way we walked up some cute streets, with Christmas lights and fall leaves. Some of this area reminded me of Paris, or any other European city I have been to. The streets, shops, architecture, and the classy way people tend to dress all remind me of France. We went to Istiklal Cadessi, where there are lots of shops. We walked along there for a while. There was a mixture of expensive clothes stores, as well as food shops, cafes, and cheaper clothes stores down the side streets.  Everyone was shopping a lot, so I wandered off for a while and saw the big Lycee (school) which was in a plaza with a strange statue of something that looked like missiles that said 1923-1972. There were lots of payphones there, but you had to buy some card to use them. In a lot of countries you just can’t pay cash or use your calling card, you need to get a special card to use the phone at all. I then walked into a church which had a statue of Pope John Paul outside. I went in, and enjoyed the candles burning, which are always mesmerizing to me, and I just enjoyed the stained glass, and the quiet. I then met the group, and walked to Taksim Square, where there are some statues and open space for people to walk, as well as some buildings and hotels. They were all hungry, so they ate, and I wandered around for an hour. I saw a few parks, with great views. There was one with a ski lift that went about ¼ miles to the other side, but I decided not to go on. Instead I walked along the path under the ski lift, and wandered into the Ritz Carlton. I was hoping I could get a good view of the city from there. I went in, went through security, then went up to a high floor, but there were no windows in the hall. I then went back down, and outside, and found a staircase up to a pool/ overlook level, which had a great expansive view of the city. It’s so amazing to see all the mosques and houses and old buildings and towers and water, and 2 continents in one view. It’s so strange to be in Europe finally, and to not see poverty everywhere, and to see beautiful surroundings, even though I think there is a distinct beauty in every country I have been to. I then walked back to the restaurant, and saw people playing music on the way. There were young kids (about 12 years old) playing the accordion. That’s an instrument that I have always wanted to learn, or think would be really awesome to be able to play. I watched them and people walk buy, and people selling roasted chestnuts (which is huge here) for a while, then went into the restaurant everyone was eating at. They were just finishing up, so I just sat down and enjoyed the warmth, tried some apple tea (which everyone should try, because it tastes like hot apple cider), and enjoyed the view in the restaurant. It was old fashioned, and the walls and paintings on the walls were gorgeous. We then walked back down the street, went into the tower. Meg and I went in, but it was busy and 10 YTL to get in, so we decided to skip it, since we saw amazing views that day already. We walked past a school with children getting out, and then saw another church courtyard with graves in it in Italian. We crossed over the bridge, and then went to the train station, where we looked at the museum about trains, and then walked to a castle. It was closing, but we got on the grounds, and sat outside with amazing views of the whole area. Some of us ordered Turkish coffee, which came in a tiny cup and was the strongest coffee ever supposedly (I didn’t have any because I don’t drink coffee, but it’s the thickest coffee I have ever seen.)  We enjoyed the view, and the sunset, and then walked back down from the Palace through cute cobblestone trails. We then headed to the Spice Market again, had some more samples, and I saw a little bit of the other shops outside of the market, selling everything from jewelry to carpets to meat (which disgusted me because there were whole cow’s heads for sale). We walked back, taking the underground walkways. In the city a lot of times you have to go underground to cross the street, and there are numerous networks of underground passageways. This makes the traffic less congested, and the incidence of people getting hitless. People make use of the space underground (which is warm and safe from the weather as well) and they sell everything from guns (I don’t think they have much of a gun law here) to bunnies.

November 9, 2007

            Today we were going to take a boat up the Bosphorus and to the black sea, so we walked over the bridge to find it, but it was really crowded and we found out it was a 6 hour trip, with great scenery, but you only got off at an island for about 2-3 hours, and we wanted to walk around more and not just sit on a boat because we do a lot of that on the ship. We took the tram back over the bridge, and decided to go to the Prince’s Islands off of Istanbul instead. It is still considered Istanbul, so we didn’t need a visa, and it sounded like a great trip with more freedom to walk around. Because of all this confusion, we missed the ferry by 10 minutes, so we had about an hour to wait, so we walked over to a palace right next door, the Dolmabahce Palace which was built for Sultan Abdulmecid and is where Ataturk lived. He died at 9:05 am on November 10, and all the clocks in the castle are stopped at that time. There were lots of pictures of his funeral lining the pathway to the main gate where there are guards similar to the guards at the Buckingham Palace. They wouldn’t move and everyone took pictures with them. We didn’t have time to go inside the palace, which looked more gorgeous, that Versailles so we just look in the gate and saw some of the gardens. We sat along the river, had some pretzels and bread from a street vender, which tastes like normal bread (not sweet at all which I wasn’t expecting). We then got the boat to the islands. It was a nice ferry with an upstairs and downstairs, and wooden seats, and even seats outside. We stopped at 5 islands and saw tons of beautiful scenery on the way. The water was so clear, and the islands reminded me of the coast of Italy—and Capri especially. There were gingerbread houses lining the islands, and lots of trees and nature and cute streets. I was outside most of the time taking pictures of the view, and then we got of at what we thought was the last, and biggest island, but it was really the 4^th one. It was really cute, and didn’t have many tourists on it, which is what I like. We all got off, and everyone stopped to eat, and I just decided to wander for an hour. There were many stray dogs and cats, which is always the case in Istanbul, and 3 decided to follow me and be my friend. I saw lots of cute cafes and horse carriages (their taxis, since there are no cars on the island), and I walked up past some dilapidated buildings to a park. I was surprised to see so many old buildings. I couldn’t tell if poorer people lived on the island or not. There were some nice houses, but most of them were run down or completely abandoned. I would love to live on this island instead of the city, but I feel like a lot of poorer people can’t afford Istanbul, and the island is their only other option. I walked past a lot of fishing boats, and then wandered around the park which had the most amazing panoramic views. I walked down to the beach, and through trees, and up a tower which had a very rickety staircase. I just couldn’t believe the views. Sometimes I see something that I could just stare forever at. I try to open my eyes as wide as I can and take it all in, but it seems impossible. That’s what this was like. I wandered back, since it was getting close to the time I was supposed to meet everyone, and I saw 2 horses, one white and one black, on my way. I then met everyone, and we tried to find the clock tower (the first stop on my walking tour of the big island—which we thought we were on). We couldn’t find it, for obvious reasons now, so we just wandered and saw more amazing views, and then took a steep path up the island past a cemetery. We saw a large white building, which was school, and all the school children were getting out for the day.  The whole island basically looked the same—nature, cute, quaint houses, no traffic. It seemed like I stepped back in time.  We found an acorn and decided to try it, and it was really gross. It made my mouth instantly numb, but I always want to try everything! It was getting a little darker now, so we walked down the one main road with cafes, and walked into an amazing smelling bakery to try some Turkish cookies. We walked into a church, then watched the sunset from the dock, and had apple tea in the café where everyone ate lunch, but somehow the price of tea quadrupled since they had been there before.  We got the ferry back to the mainland (where we found out we were in fact on the “wrong” island the whole day). I sat Indian style on the seats, and a worker came up to me and told me to put them down. I sometimes forget how relaxed American society is about things like that. I remember in France once I put my feet on the back of a subway seat and they yelled at me and said “this is not NYC”. This person wasn’t as mean about it, but it reminded me how strict they are when it comes to that.  I just watched the lights of the city on the way back and relaxed. 

Nov 10, 2007

            Happy Birthday Christina! Today I went on a hike about an hour and a half outside Istanbul called the Ballikaya Hike. It was led by 2 expedited local hikers as well as our tour guide, who translated. It was supposed to be really intense, so I was a little nervous, but I knew I could do anything. We drove through a lot of the outskirts of the city, where there was mostly industry and gas stations and the area looked really run down. It was nice to see that part of Turkey because a lot of times when you just stay in the city you really don’t get a good view of the rest of the area, and just assume the whole country looks like the city you are in. we stopped at a monastery to go to the bathroom, and then we began to hike. It was raining on and off, but that made it all the more fun. We started walking up a steep dirt road, then through little paths, and then a paved road, and then we continued on paths. There are numerous paths all around, so our guide could choose which ones he wanted as we went. At first it was all through fields, where we saw orchards and sheep herders with their bells, and we saw lots of green and fall leaves. I slipped, and was our first casualty, because it was muddy, but by the end of the day everyone was filthy anyways! The terrain began to change, after we saw a mistletoe tree. We ascended down, and then there began to be rivers and streams, so we walked through rocks and then up to a waterfall and a water basin for lunch. Everyone ate, and I climbed the rock and just looked out at the view. The terrain changed so quickly, and it was all so beautiful. We all assumed we were just going to turn around and go back because the area after the waterfall looked treacherous, but we continued straight. It took about 30 minutes for our group of about 30 to pass the first set of rocks because they were slippery and steep and narrow. Everyone went slowly, and people landed hands, and we all made it. We had a dog that followed us, and he was having a hard time, and fell and got stuck, but we all rescued him. He was a trooper. We then continued for a couple more hours to walk in this canyon. We were in the bottom near the river bed and all you could see when you looked up were canyon walls. There were a lot of experienced hikers on our trip, and they all said no one in the U.S. would ever allow this to happen, because it is pretty dangerous, which made it more exciting for me. I felt safe because I knew these people knew what they were doing, and there was a little litter and cigarette butts on the trail, so I knew people had been there, and survived before. We ascended these huge cliffs and then descended them again. There was one point, after climbing a very steep rock that we were on the top of the canyon, and looked down onto another waterfall and it was so gorgeous. I felt so powerful for being able to scale the rocks and to see where we came from, but I felt tiny at the same time. It was getting a little late, it was around 2:30pm and we were supposed to be done at 1:30pm, so people began to get a little nervous because we were still in the middle of the canyon, and the adult leader on our trip was nervous and saying how this trail cannot be the normal route, which is seemed like, but in hindsight it was, and they knew what they were doing, and we ended up being fine. One girl fell in the water and broke her camera, but she didn’t mind because she was having so much fun. The attitude was just great and everyone bonded because we were all in the same position, and you bond faster when you are doing something physical like that, or scary. Sometimes our outsider’s views just aren’t correct. We just kept climbing and walking and all of a sudden the canyon tapered off and we reached the end—where there was a little café and bathrooms, and a lake with geese in it. It felt so good to be back and we all celebrated and congratulated our dog for making it. There were some point when we were in the canyon climbing these rocks that we had no idea how the dog would make it, and we were all nervous he would get stuck or be lost, but he ended up making it. We then got the bus back in the pouring rain, and we decided to head over to the Grand Bazaar because we were told not to miss it and it’s not open on Sundays, so it was our last chance to see it. We were going to take a tram there, but a man in a BMW inside the port who worked for a hotel and was bringing people back and forth from another cruise ship ported next to us, offered us a ride there because he was going in that direction. I tend not to trust anyone, but Meg and Kelly did, so we hopped in. Kelly’s roommate got a knife pulled on her last night when she was coming back in a taxi late at night with another guy from SAS, and she was robbed of her money. I don’t take taxis ever, because I like to walk and I feel like it’s easier to walk and you see more, and a lot of the time it’s quicker to walk because the traffic is so bad. Our driver was nice, and was talking about how he visited CA and NYC once, and told us about his life a little. I was nervous because it was cold and rainy, and the drivers aren’t the best in Istanbul and very impatient, and do things like drive on the tram tracks to bypass traffic, but we made it to the bazaar safe and sound. The bazaar is this huge underground area of every shop you can imagine. They started as individual outdoor shops, and then they put a roof over them so it is now enclosed. It is so easy to get lost as there are many paths, and all the stores look the same after a while. I didn’t need anything, so I just went with Kelly and Corey and Sheena and enjoyed window shopping. There was everything from leather jackets to jewelry to copper to carpets to gold. We walked around until it was about to close, then walked back through the streets to the spice bazaar. Everything outside was closing down. So the streets were deserted and there was lots of garbage anywhere, and it reminded me of India again, but then when we got onto a street that was still open with shops it looked totally different—busy, clean, cozy. We went in the Spice Bazaar (for the third time), tried more Turkish delight, and then walked back to the ship. When we were walking back a SAS girl got hit by a tram, which was scary, but she was okay. Kelly ran on the ship to get out nurse, but the girl walked away fine.  I walked across the street to a cozy café which had wireless, and spent sometime on there updating pictures and talking to people, but then the wireless cut out.

November 11, 2007

            Today everyone was planning on doing a lot of different things for their last day, so everyone split up. I wanted to go to the 5^th Prince’s Island since I never made it there. I wanted to catch the 9am ferry over, but I only had 15 minutes and I thought that that would be too rushed to walk over to the port, so I waited on the ship until about 10am to catch the 10:30 am. Kelly and Corey came along, but when we got there we found out that the ferries had been cancelled for the day because of high winds. I was wondering what would happen if someone lived on the island and needed to get to the mainland to go to work, but it was Sunday, so I thought maybe they can only cancel them on weekends if they need to, but I still didn’t understand how that worked. We decided to walk down the street further in that direction because we never had explored that area. We didn’t see much besides some more cafes and shops, but we walked the whole length of the Palace and saw 2 more of the guards, but this time they were standing in big plastic boxes because of the wind and rain, and I thought they looked like toys. We headed back the other direction after an hour or so, passing the ferry port again, where we ran into lots of other SAS people waiting around not knowing what to do because their plans had been changed as well. Two of the girls decided to play “would you rather” saying things like “would you rather go to the right or left” and figured out their plans that way. Two of the boys decided to go to burger king, and the other 2 boys decided to come with us. One of them was Graham, Ryan’s roommate, so I have seen him around but never spent any time with him. Him and his other friend don’t travel all that much and aren’t a fan of walking. They took a cab three blocks to the port, so I knew this would be interesting. I told them that I’m a walker, and I knew my way around, which they were very impressed with. I like getting to know my way around and being able to recognize a lot of streets by the time I leave a port. That is always one of my goals. We started walking to the bridge, because they wanted to eat and I told them there was this cool restaurant under the bridge. On the way a shoe shiner “dropped” his brush, and Corey picked it up and gave it back to him. He then walked away, but then came back and offered her a free shoe shine, which she didn’t take. Graham said that has happened a lot to people he knew, and they purposefully drop their brush and then do a “free” shoe shine and make people pay. We walked under the bridge, which took about 45 minutes and Graham said he was enjoying the walk so much and felt like he was really seeing things, which made me proud. We went to a restaurant which had bean bag chairs for chairs. There were tons of chairs outside, but we decided to go inside because it was warmer. We all sat down on these massive cushiony chairs, and the table was very close to the ground. I have always wanted to sit on the ground and eat off of a low table, which I almost did in Africa, but I never got to it. I didn’t feel good ( and still really don’t.. it may be because of all the peanut butter and jelly, so I am just going to drink tea and have fruits and veggies for the next little while—or at least 2 days until Croatia and see if I feel better. I am always really sore from the hike yesterday, but it sure feels good!)  I sat in the restaurant and enjoyed the view from the bridge, and then we left and ran into a few SAS kids fishing off the bridge. Tons of locals do that everyday and Corey and I were actually saying how we wanted to do it. These boys bought some string, a hook, and some shrimp, and were fishing without a pole. We stood there for about 5 minutes and they caught 3 fish, which was impressive! Everyone was cold after 5 feet so we hopped into another place and they all got apple tea. We then got over the bridge (finally) and the boys wanted to shop underground where you cross the road (mostly sneakers and shirts) and Kelly and Corey didn’t feel good, so they went back to the ship. I can’t go back to the ship while in port because I feel like I am wasting so much, so I began to wander. I know the area very well, so I just went down other streets and saw more of the area. I walked past lots of people selling corn on the street, which was really tempting to eat, but we aren’t supposed to eat any food from street venders and I wasn’t feeling good to begin with, so I decided against the idea. I walked along the old walls to a very nice gift shop, then into the Topaki Palace Park. The paths were all cobblestone and the breeze was perfect and all the leaves were falling. Every bench was taken up by a couple, and it was the cutest thing. I sat down and a cat sat on my lap and I just sat there for a while and relaxed. I then walked up the street to the Blue Mosque area, and saw that again from the outside, then went into an old Turkish bath. Turkish baths are baths in which people get bathed by another person. You can either go in and bring your own soap and towel and bathe yourself and pay something like 6 YTL or you can go in, and someone will bathe you and scrub you down, and you lie down on a stone slab and get a massage for about 40 YTL. This building used to be a bath, but is now a carpet store, so I went in and saw the architecture and all the rooms. I then went into a building where there were graves of numerous Sultans, and then walked through the Hippodrome, and then down another street with a gorgeous view of the blue mosque. A man then came up to me and wanted to have a beer with me which I said no to, and he knew I was from SAS because I feel like if 600 people descend on a city for 5 days, everyone knows. He asked where I was from and I said Canada—he said where in Canada, and I said Montreal, the first thing that popped into my head, and then he began speaking French. I thought that was humorous, and then he said “so you don’t go out for beer with people you meet... even cute guys” and I said no, and he got cranky and walked away. I then went across the street and saw another graveyard, and then decided to start back to the ship since it was getting dark. The sunset was amazing once again. I noticed that in Egypt and Turkey every night the sunset was so vivid. I heard it was because of the pollution—aww pretty pollution! I walked back to the ship, seeing lots more mosques on the way. On my way home I was observing lots of things about Turkey, which I usually do at the end of a trip because I want to take in everything. I noticed that “Bay” is “men” and “bayan” is woman for bathrooms (which you have to pay for). I also noticed that they spell a lot of words phonetically like Taksi and Polis. I also realized that gas is 2.59 YTL a liter, which is over $8.00 a gallon, but it seems like a lot of people still drive, even though there are buses and trams. I was going to go on the internet in the café across the street, but I got back on the ship and fell right asleep from 6-9pm, and then got up to have some tea and journal! Two more days until Croatia!

Just a side note—a lot of things have been going on on the ship that makes me question the politics of everything. A while ago, a couple of kids stole alcholol from the captain and some other kids got really drunk to the state that they had to be wheeled back to the ship in wheelchairs. Both of these actions, especially the first one, is defin ite ground for getting kicked of the ship, and they were supposed to leave in Egypt. It was Captain’s orders for the first 2—since he was directly involved, and the Dean’s orders for the other ones. They ended up staying because all of the kids parent’s hired lawyers and threatened to sure. This made me angry because 1. We signed a waiver, but supposedly that wouldn’t matter in court, which is ridiculous and 2. this shows that kids can do what they want and they in fact wont get kicked off the ship, which sends a bad message and 3. this shows that money can do anything. This makes me sad because this shows me that a lot of these kids haven’t learned a single thing on this trip. Don’t get me wrong, most of the people on this ship are amazing people who are here for the right reasons, but a lot of them are just on a booze cruise because their rich parents wanted them to experience the world because they probably realized that their kid is a mess. I don’t understand how these people can do this, and how they go to clubs every night in Turkey after this, and spend $50 on a cover charge and $400, yes $400 on a bottle of Tequila. Did they not go to India? Do they not realize that some people are dying because they cant find a meal… that $1 or a pack of pens can save their lives? I am a believer that you cant go on this voyage and come back the same… but I am losing hope. I wish the world was a little different sometimes.