Istanbul

Hagia Sophia from the hotel's roof on the first night.

Day 1 - Thursday morning everyone going to Istanbul (about half of the CSBSJU students and about 20 or so from other schools) went to Heathrow for our flight. Before we'd even gotten our boarding passes the flight had a delay. There was another delay while we were waiting for our gate to open up so the flight took off over 90 min behind schedule. The plane was really nice, probably the nicest I’ve ever been on. We arrived late in the evening, maybe around 9pm or so, not quite sure anymore. To buy my visa I needed to use either US currency or Euros which was problematic since I’d been told it had to be US or Lira. I tried using a traveler’s check seeing as I had no US currency or Euros on me but the woman at the booth looked like she’d never even seen one before. Luckily they did accept credit cards and I was able to pay that way. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel we were all herded down to a fairly nice restaurant nearby. It was a nice experience since we were dining on the roof, too bad there wasn’t much of a view from there.

Spiral column from the Hippodrome.

Day 2 - We had to be up early on Friday and Will never woke anyone up after he showered (the hotel didn’t do their 7:30 wake-up call like they said they would either) so the rest of us rushed to get ready and go to the hotel lobby in 7 minutes. We went down to the Hippodrome first (not much to say about it, just 2 obelisks and a spirally pillar), followed by the Blue Mosque which was quite pretty. Though after the first mosque it was a ‘seen one, seen them all’ type of thing. Next we went to the Hagia Sophia which had a number of mosaics that were interesting and the wishing column was something fun. You can see the mosaics and more pictures from the trip on my facebook.

Inside the Blue Mosque.

We topped off the morning with the Basilica Cistern but we were told we only had 10 minutes since we were behind schedule. It was very cool inside but I missed out on most of it since I was hurrying to be at the meeting place at the appointed time. Turns out even the FIE leaders on the trip (the ones who planned everything and designated the times to meet) were at least 10 minutes late so I could have stayed in the cistern for far longer. Next we took a boat ride over to the Asia side of Istanbul for lunch. They had an interesting yogurt and rice soup that wasn’t that good. One guy at our table tried a yogurt based beverage that pretty much tasted like salty cream cheese (most of the table sampled it). But overall the lunch was very good. Most people slept on the boat ride back to the European part of Istanbul and we then had a speaker that failed to hold the attention of most of the students (many more sleepyheads).

Inside the Hagia Sophia.

In the evening a bunch of the guys were going to go for a Turkish bath and go out to a hookah bar (the second of which isn’t really my thing) so I stayed back and wandered around Istanbul looking for a place to eat. I got to know the area around the hotel pretty well during this time. Eventually got some beef goulash, which was good but really expensive for such a meager portion.

Inside the Basilica Cistern.

Day 3 - We had to meet at 8:45am in the lobby again on Saturday but luckily I had time to shower and eat this time. Breakfast was up on the hotel’s roof which provided a nice view of the morning city. We went to the Topkapi Palace for the entirety of the morning. It was huge and a morning really wasn’t enough time to explore it properly. There was a section with holy relics, including the sword of David, that was very cool and the treasury which featured MASSIVE gems and a stunning 86 carat diamond. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed in these areas, so most of my pictures are merely of the buildings. Our tour guide wasted a lot of time saying redundant things and building up the things he was going to show us instead of just showing us. A lot of it wasn’t even telling us the history, it was just telling us how much we would enjoy seeing it.

Topkapi Palace grounds.

After the palace we had time for lunch and I went to a restaurant that I’d been eyeing the night before. It was really good but again the portions were small, that was an ongoing theme with all the food in Turkey. But this place was MUCH cheaper than the other one too, so it balanced out. It was probably my favorite restaurant in Istanbul. Anyways, in the early afternoon we had 1 more mosque visit which was short and uneventful. Then we were set loose on the Egyptian spice market and the Grand Bazaar. The spice market was much smaller than the bazaar but had almost all of the same things. I was really nervous about the haggling/bartering since I’m shy and quiet but it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. I was able to reduce all the prices of things I bought to reasonable amounts, though I noticed that the girls were having greater success getting low prices than the guys were. I really enjoyed shopping in the bazaar and spice market, it was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

In the Grand Bazaar.

That evening Will, AJ, and I were all feeling rather a bit tired and like staying in so we ended up ordering a couple pizzas (with the help of the hotel’s receptionist) and watching Star Wars Episode 2 in Turkish on the TV. I was also missing Rez a bunch so I made a very expensive 5 minute phone call to her that night (£1.50/minute).

A picture from the restaurant that I grew fond of.

Day 4 – On Sunday we were able to sleep in 45 minutes later but I didn’t know that so I was up and showering at 7:30am like usual. After breakfast I went back to bed for a little bit. Our last excursion was to the Dolmabahçe Palace which was much more modern and luxurious than the Topkapi. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the palace. The sheer amount of gold in the palace (much of it on the ceilings) is mind boggling and the chandeliers inside were breath-taking. I took the extended harem tour (private living areas) simply to kill time before we were supposed to meet up at the hotel at 5pm to go to the airport.

Dolmabahçe Palace, it's a shame we couldn't take pictures inside.

After the harem tour and lunch I wandered around a bit and found what seemed to have been a mini auto show featuring several 60’s Impalas however as I arrived all of them were starting to leave. I managed to snap a few pics though. I headed back to the hotel about 90 minutes early or so and found a lot of other students already waiting there. The airport went smoothly but the flight back was nowhere near as nice as the flight to Istanbul. I was hoping to knock out 2 movies on the way back but each seat didn’t have its own screen and remote like my previous 2 flights had. The seats were pretty uncomfortable too. Luckily I was tired enough to fall asleep for most of the flight. I was woken up somewhere over France to fill out the UK border patrol card. The airport went smoothly and we got a shuttle bus back to our flats since the second tube strike since we’ve been here began earlier that day.

An unexpected 64 Impala.