To Asia and back

One of the unique features of Istanbul is that it spans two continents. I'm staying on European side but on Sunday we ventured into Asian before heading north to the Black Sea. We went with six other exchange students so it was fun to hear about their experiences in Istanbul so far. It was a long and bumpy bus ride there so we didn't do much else that day except for hanging out at a student music festival at Boğaziçi University.

On Monday everyone had to go to class so Danny and I took a ferry to the Princes' islands. There are four or five islands that make up the Princes' islands and we stopped at the largest, Büyükada. We rented some barely working bikes for the day and started off without looking at a map. We just biked up and up and up. Like Istanbul, the island was very hilly. We had a lot fun biking around the island and getting lunch there. On the ferry ride back I could get a better grasp at how expansive the city really is.

Upon returning to land Danny and I began searching for a guide book called Lycian Way. After talking to one of the exchange students who had hiked a segment of the lycian way, I decided to give it a go. It's a 510 km coastal hike in southwestern Turkey from Fathiye to Antalya. The trail was finished in 1999 and is Turkey's first long distance trek. Only downside is that there is only one guide book and it was impossible to find in Istanbul. I only discovered this after I purchased my plane ticket. However I met somebody who is borrowing the book and has agreed to let me photocopy it. Hopefully this works out because I fly tomorrow morning! I'm thinking about flying directly to Cyprus from there but I haven't decided yet. Somehow the prices dont increase drastically even if you are buying two days in advance. As for the trek, I'm hoping to do about 200km of it.
The photo uploader for blogspot with an iPad stinks so I can't put captions or increase the size. Maybe if I get my hands on a computer I can fix it.

Sleep is for the weak

After working on finals up until the deadline and packing like a maniac with no time to sleep, suddenly I'm on a plane heading to Istanbul with really no clue what I'm doing. The airline, KLM, had a language game and that comprised my training in Turkish. Now I know like two Turkish words. To make matters more interesting I arrived in Istanbul with much less than I departed with. I decided to check my backpack and precisely zero of the bags from the flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul made it successfully due to a mixup at the Amsterdam airport.

So with nothing but an iPad, an empty water bottle, and a passport, my adventure began with the first goal to get to Taksim. The only instruction I received from Abeer ( my friend studying abroad whom I'm staying with ) was to get to Taksim to meet Danny, another friend visiting Istanbul.  It ended up being quite trivial to hop on a bus to Taksim and it was a great way to see some of the city.

Istanbul is incredibly hilly and everyone drives extremely aggressively. If you want to cross the street, waiting will accomplish nothing. You just have to go for it. I also quickly noticed that the city is very homogenous. Diversity is minimal and everyone looks similar, or rather, Turkish.

After meeting up with Danny and taking another bus to meet up with Abeer at his flat, we wasted no time before going out to dinner and deciding on going clubbing that night. Let me quickly summarize my first experience with real Turkish food: delicious. We then ventured back to Taksim with two girls Abeer sort of knew. The night ended up being alot fun at this club on a roof. I met a lot of people and even ran into a guy Danny and I met on the bus earlier that evening.

Six of us piled into a taxi at around 3:30am. Taxi ride from hell. We raced through city going extremely fast but to nowhere.  The driver wasn't going the right way at all. Pretty sure the driver was trying to scam us but he didn't account for one us being Turkish. We didn't get back to one of the girl's flat until 4:30 or so. At this point the last time I slept in a bed, or really slept at all, was Wednesday night for 3 hours or so. It was now Saturday morning so when I was offered one of the extra beds at the flat, there was no hesitation before accepting. We slept for 4 hours before getting the next day started off with a Turkish breakfast (delicious).

Inside the Aya Sofya

Looking up at the dome

Medusa

We said bye to the girls and met back up with Abeer to visit the Hagia Sofia (real spelling: Aya Sofya) and the Basicila Cistern. I didn't even make it to dinner after the day of walking around. I passed out at 6pm and didn't really wake up until 3am. A rest well deserved on my sleeping mat which had finally arrived with my backpack from the airport. Pictures below.