Thursday 6 Ağostos 2010

written by Patreek (as the Turks call me)

*Here is the view out of my bedroom window*

Since I arrived I noticed a few things immediately about Istanbul:

-The city is covered in minarets. When I looked out the airplane window I saw Istanbul continuing way beyond its center, and everywhere it is punctured by towering minarets. They are very beautiful and testify to the incredible number of mosques in the city.

-There are stray cats and dogs everywhere. The cats are quite literally everywhere; one day we were walking through a park on our way to class and could see two glowing cat-eyes from inside a trashcan. We also hear them fighting at night. There is one dog that lives on our street that we have become quite fond of. The full name we gave him is Rufus Mehmet Tuba Güzel; he/she is a huge fatass and only moves about 20 feet each day. Below is a picture of her:

-Quite a few women wear the burka. It is so strange to see it right next to a woman wearing a miniskirt walking down the street, but it is a daily sight.

Today William (Villyum as the Turks call him) walked to the Galata Tower. To get there we took the Tünel. It is a short subway that goes steeply down the hillside underground. It was built by the French and is the third oldest subway system in the world behind New York City and London. Below is a picture of Villyum and I doing our best to blend in:

Architecture and Planning: One of Istanbul’s immediately identifiable conditions is the juxtaposition of extremely old and extremely new. In some cases the new buildings go even further by incorporating the old into the new structure itself (the picture below shows a building in Istiklal that does this).

The view from the top of the tower is like nothing I have ever seen; the city extends out as far as the horizon in all directions. Across the Golden Horn we could see the enormous mosques of Sultanhamet, and in the other direction the towering skyscrapers of the Levent business district.

At one point on the journey I stopped to take a picture of a painted tile display. As I was getting ready to take the picture a Turkish man ran up to pose for me. It was pretty funny. But now compare this man’s expression to that of Atatürk, the country’s national hero, in this statue we saw minutes later. He is the most respected and revered Turk of all time; his name means “father-Turk.” Clearly there is a certain look to which all Turk’s aspire.

Later that night we ate at a kebap house with Şadi. He spoke to the waiter in Turkish and suddenly plates and plates of food began coming out. The kebaps come on skewers that are 2-3 feet long; you pick them up by the side that isn’t burning hot and then grab the meat in your hand with a pita tortilla. After you pull out the skewer you apply condiments as you see fit: onions, tomato, tsasiki (cucumber sauce), etc. We also drank raki (pronounced rock-uhh), which is a liquor that tastes like black licorice. After dinner we played a few games of backgammon (tavli) where Lee beat me three times. However he also gets the award for the slowest player ever to play the game. I swear he rolls the dice then counts out every possible move with his fingers before going. Even if it is a very straightforward play, count on waiting 5-10 minutes for princess Lee to finally move the damn piece.

Happy Anniversay! Day 7

03/08/2020

On the seventh day we rested. Sort of… Today marks the one-week anniversary of our arriving in Turkey.

We got up early and went to class. A weird thing about this school is that you get a 15min break every hour. The Germans in class don’t understand the need for breaks (which is to be expected), but the even our Spanish member thinks there are too many breaks (hurray for the Spanish work ethic). I personally need the breaks to reorganize my mind.

Pronouncing Turkish is extremely difficult. There are additional characters with sounds that are not typical of spoken English. This makes reading Turkish much easier than speaking/comprehending it. When the teacher is speaking I’m a deer in the headlights, but when it’s on the board I have a chance to recognize words and break down the sentence. I think it will be easier when my pronunciation of each letter becomes second nature, but this will take some time. Vocabulary is difficult; again I can visualize the word in my head better than I can say it out loud. If you could see Lee’s English writing you would understand his difficultly with attempting to learn another language.

After class we went home and rested. Patrick has been feeling under the weather, and everyone has been short of sleep. We all took naps, ate at the apartment, and did our homework.

Apartment Confessional: Did laundry for the first time today. This was my first time using powdered detergent, it was a learning experience. I initially poured it into the softener hole and had to scoop it out by hand (huge pain). Clothes came out soaking wet, but here’s the catch: NO DRYING MACHINE! NO CLOTHES LINE! After checking to see if we could hang the clothes in the dining room and the billiards hall, we decided instead to place them in the kitchen, which is also the everything else room. Now Pat and Will get the pleasure (and it is a pleasure) of cooking, cleaning, and living in sight of my Hawaiian Girl boxers.

It should be noted that although we complain about the apartment because the place is a real trip (and real small), we really love it too. Biz odada seviyoruz. Our location is great. We’re close to everything yet enough off the beaten path that there are no other foreigners for a 5-10min walk. No one speaks English near us and our neighborhood is working class. Everyone seems to own a small grocery, fruit stand along our block. Our surroundings do have parts that would remind one of an Upton Sinclair novel, but they are few and the main street of our neighborhood (Babil Street) is lined with nice little shops, bakeries, restaurants for locals, cafes, and tea lounges. We really like being here instead of the dorms. It’s a beautiful little neighborhood and it makes us love our apartment.

Our adventure of the day is to visit the Kız Kulesi lighthouse (Maiden's Tower, Leander's Tower) near the Asian side of the Bosphorus near dusk. The lighthouse supposedly predates the Ottoman’s conquest of the city in 1453. It was featured in a James Bond movie (of course they located it in Georgia and had a Russian nuclear submarine pull in underneath).

Unfortunately, Pat was unable to adventure with us, his stomach and the food don’t quite agree yet. The ferry across the Bosphorus was beautiful. The lights of the city make for an incredible backdrop. Spot lit mosques sit along side high rise towers all under the blanket of the largest bridge I’ve ever seen. Think the Golden Gate Bridge with color changing Christmas lights. Our plan was to go up in the light house and have a cup of çay ( pronounced chai), there is a small restaurant at the top of the tower. Alas, the tower requires reservations at night. We settled for some medya dolmesi (stuffed muscles) on the banks of the Bosphorus. The tower was gorgeous! Hopefully we will make it back sometime soon and get to see the view from the top.


03/08/2020

-Lee (finally Pat edits something, with some help from Will. We are currently considering Lee’s status as main blog writer. The editing is that painful.)

Europeans Think OUR Accent is Funny!

2 Agostos 2010

Early wake up today and for the next four weeks. Today was the first day of language classes at a school (ukul) named Dilmer.

We signed up for the 9am classes so that we’d be forced out of bed to do stuff after class. Really smart strategy, painful implementation.

Our teacher Meltam Bölek is really nice and funny. Turkish is a hard language to start up; you pronounce every single letter sound and many of the vowel sounds don’t exist in English. Will is definitely the best language person and already has many of the pronunciations down, plus he can remember vocab. Pat is good also. Lee is Dyslexic which translates in all languages to füç%@’d at languages.

Our class has 15 people from around the world. A couple Germans (so serious and helpful), a Spanish guy who already knows five languages, a Serbian, a woman from Cypress (do not call her a Greek! Just because she speaks Greek does not mean she IS Greek), Japanese businessman (Matso, really funny guy… not sure if he’s trying to be), and one other American from Charrollete, NC.

We worked on the alphabet today and learn some basic language. We were able to improve in one day, but the language is extremely difficult and is proving difficult to pronounce and speak correctly; missing one letter throws an entire word off.

We left and got lunch in Taksim and got on the T (Bostonian for subway) to go to ITU’s main campus to the north. The subway system is not extensive, but its well maintained and is not too crowded. In both directions we practiced Turkish as people sitting around us laughed. Imagine hearing “please, please, please, good morning, good morning, good morning, cold water, cold water…..” I’m sure we sounded ridiculous.

ITU’s campus is quite nice, and the individual buildings could be on an American campus. We met with the feorgin exchange people who help us out, and told us to come back in a week to register with a director. They gave us a lot of information like ITU has an American Football (aka Real Football) team that they supposedly spent a ton of money on. They also have a fairly good basketball team and rugby team.

The northern ITU campus is all engineering and the school of 25,000 has no liberal arts “departments.” The campus was across a highway from a bunch of new tall buildings so we decided to investigate. This area proved quite revealing; old factories, warehouses, and apartments were being torn down to build new skyscrapers of 20-30 stories for both commercial and residential. Each building was like a gated fortress as the area around is still not great. The buildings themselves were quite nice, and one in particular that used a full glass façade system was quite intriguing, but the planning was non-existant. Each building was like a monument to themselves; a developing country’s downtown Houston. One complex of massive identical apartment buildings was in a walled-off neighborhood, and every office tower had a guard to block people from entering the front circle.

The recent development is both exciting and sad. What I’ve loved about Taksim, Old Town, and most of the rest of the city is the strong urban context that allowed for beautiful building, but it was as much about the collection of buildings as any single structure. The new construction is destroying the context of close-living and community that is present in Old Istanbul and yet you could feel the excitement and energy of the new. This area was miles from the center and in the end felt like an uncoordinated office park.

We got back on the metro and headed home for nap time (huge part of our day). Getting off the train it was like we just visited a whole other world, with different building rules and goals. I can’t fault anyone for the towers and their intransient smell of modernization, but I can say that anyone that believes in the special dynamic that a true urban environment creates would prefer to be in the older Taksim area.

After naptime we ate quickly (we bought a huge watermelon and two loaves of bread for 4tl or $3… not bad) and went to meet Caner. Caner is my aunt Birtan’s 29yr old nephew from Istanbul. He met us in the Levent (financial district) that has the tallest buildings in the city and the newest malls.

We went down the hill to the Bosperous and had a couple drinks. The bars are really nice (and more expensive than those in Taksim). The Bosporus was gorgeous and the restaurants and bar have incredible views. Seeing the Asian side of the city lit up at night behind the glimmering water and passing boats is an amazing view and worth sitting by with a beer. We then went to a café that served us çay (tea) and nagile (hookah). Caner taught us how to play the all-important backgammon.

Throughout Istanbul there are these small cafes that are full of middle aged and older men drinking tea and playing backgammon. Every one almost looks identical; a non descript room with folding tables and banquet room chairs, filled with men who play backgammon all day. One of our goals by the year’s end is to actually have the “gall” to enter one of these establishments and drink tea while holding a conversation. I imagine that day in mind as something like the VFW hall scene in Gran Torino (if you haven’t seen it, see it, great movie, Clint Eastwood is who I want to be in 60 years).

Went home, did our homework, made some food, and are going to bed. Gotta get up at 8am tomorrow. (Did we miss summer or something?)

What a bizzare bazaar! Day 5

2/8/2010

Today was our first day that the whole “Team” was together. We decided to make our first trip into the “Older Town” to see the Hagia Sofia, Topkopi Palace, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazzar, and more.

Our goal was to see as many things as possible, but not focus too much on exploring each one yet, knowing that we’d definitely be back. It’s only a 15 minute metro ride from our appt.
We took a very modern tram over the Galata Bridge and got off one stop over the bridge at the European Train Station.

The European Train Station was once the Terminus of the Oriental Express and the building was beautiful with ornate Ottoman tiling and glass. The station was worn down and the trains couldn’t have been younger then 50years.

We then began to walk up a hill following a massive stone wall. We finally realized that this was the wall for Topkopi Palace. The wall was maybe 25-30ft tall, made of sandstone with strips of red brick layered into it. Large portions of the wall had been removed in between towers and replaced with small local stores.

We then walked through the massive gates of Topkopi. The grounds of the palace are as beautiful as any park you’ll ever step foot in. Humongous smooth skinned trees lined the paths, brown wooden pavilions, and statues of regal lions and musing Ataturk were scattered around the park. On one side of the park are the massive walls of the actual palace that must be at least 50ft tall. The terrain is extremely hilly but from the top of the park is a spectacular view of the Bosphorus and the European side of the city.

NB: Many of the smaller buildings in the Old Town are made of wood and their second floors protrude out over the street. These old Ottoman Town Houses and shops are some of the most striking buildings in the city. They are quite refined and beautiful. Unlike the massive mosques, palaces, and public buildings these wooden structures have an undeniable warmth to them. They are smaller in scale and are covered in a wooden siding. Some are ornate with many decorations, but most are simple with a single pushed out center bay that overlaps the street. These bays are called “Cikma” and they developed from traditional balconies into enclosed indoor space. There is a law against demolishing these buildings now and many of them have been restored and are quite spectacular. In all wood is becoming quite popular is the contemporary architecture in Istanbul, giving the city a break from drab polished concrete with a more a material that is more dissolved in the applied form and more to the human scale. Most government and public buildings were built as large scale monuments to the power, strength, and prestige of the emperors, sultans, and other rulers of the time. While impressive these buildings are often hard to maintain due to the scale and material and frequently fall into disrepair.

A few of the many places we pasted by but didn’t take the time to fully explore today, we’ll be back, included the Archeological Museum, the Spice Bazaar, the Calligraphy Museum, and the Basilica Cistern. Keep an eye out for future posts.

Next we walked past a couple big mosques (they seem to be everywhere in the city), who were in the middle of prayer calls. To hear a prayer call, click this link. Bear in mind these happen 5 times per day 7 days per week. We can hear them from our appt. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskapine/2402178742/

The area of Old Town near the palace and the Blue Mosque is nice but very touristy. For the first time we began to hear many English conversations. We turned a corner and saw the Blue Mosque.

Side note: I really needed to use the bathroom and got to go by sneaking into the ruins of an old building. We were not sure what it was, but it was eerily similar to Aladdin’s hideout: big and ornate, with no roof. Definitely the coolest place I’ve ever gone to the bathroom.

The Blue Mosque (real name Sultan Ahmet Camii) is huge but its size is broken down by the multiple terraced levels around it. Even with all the pieced together levels around the center dome you can still understand the building as one monolithic structure. The bigger mosques originally contained complexes, that held shops to pay for the temples upkeep and support hospitals and schools the mosque provided. Its six minarets are controversial as it is one of only two Mosques outside of Mecca to have six (the Ottoman’s supposedly did it to show their superiority to the rest of Islam).

We then turned around and looking right back at us was the Hagia Sofia (real name Aya Sofia), directly across from the Blue Mosque. Between the three of us we debated which one was more captivating. Backless benches allowed you turn back in forth to take in the two famous structures.

The Hagia Sofia is centuries older than the Blue Mosque. The Hagia Sofia was dedicated in 360 AD and the Blue Mosque was completed in 1616. Hagia Sofia served as the cathedral of Constantinople until 1453 when the Ottomans converted it to a mosque. In 1935 it became a museum under the rule of Ataturk. It has four minarets that are not original to the building and appear to have been built in three stages, only two out of the four match. Unlike the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia seems to envelope many surrounding buildings of different styles creating one giant temple, in contrast, the Blue Mosque slowly builds up from smaller, similarly designed pieces towards the dome at the center. The Hagia Sofia’s Dome hovers above the complex allowing the red painted stone supports and shiny dome to stick out amongst the gray stone. The Blue Mosque seems to sit in it complex while the Hagia Sofia seems to loom over its front plaza. We entered neither of them as the Hagia Sofia is closed on Mondays and we get a steep admissions discount when we get our student ID’s (we start language school tomorrow).

NB: we got Turkish ice cream while walking, Will: “an elastic, almost chewy combination of American ice cream, gelato, and taffy.” Turkish ice cream is served by Fez wearing men who always mess with you when you order. Check out the video to see what we mean. Our guy messed with us each for about 3 minutes, much more extensive than the video below but it gives you an idea. We’ll be sure to take a video next time.
http://vimeo.com/7422047

We then wandered over the Grand Bazaar. The bazaar is a city onto itself. It is supposedly the largest and oldest “covered” bazaar in the world (1461). It employs over 30,000 people in more than 4,000 shops and stalls. Inside the bazaar was not what I expected. It was huge and was maze, but it was very clean and well maintained. Shops were not rickety lean-tos that we had expected and many had glass store fronts. Each was set into an even brick arched space. The covering was stone domes that had decretive mosaics inside each one. Walk through the bazaar speaking English and you’ll never feel unloved. They had anything you could imagine inside: antique pots, pans, weapons, rugs, jewelry, tea sets, modern clothes from the most popular futbol jerseys to lacoste polo’s, tons of trinkets and souvenirs. I’d go on but it would fill the entire bog.

We left and got back onto the tram to take us home (we got on going the wrong way at first; it only took us 4 stops to figure it out).

Food Editorial: We got off the train after crossing the Galata Bridge and got a fish sandwich from a little old man. The fish was grilling on his small charcoal girl along the banks of the Golden Horn. The fillets were pretty good size and for 4tl ($3) you got on fresh bread with fresh vegetables and lemon and great sandwich that absolutely hit the spot.

Earlier in the day we had eaten a massive lunch in a small café with no menus. We were led into the back of a small store front into a lady’s kitchen who pointed at food, and served us a “home cooked” meal with more food then we could eat. All ordering was done with pointing and smiles, really our kind of place. At the end of the meal we had tea and Turkish Coffee, which is a small cup of thick, really, really, (x5) coffee that is drank straight and slowly to allow for the maximum caffeine effect.

We arrived home, after picking up some grocery’s at a small local store (really cheap, 50 Turkish cents for a load of bread) and went home. Tomorrow we begin language class at 9am so we have to be rest and prepared.

-Lee (yhup guess who fixed most, nobody is perfect, spelling mistakes, Will)
*all apologies for the generic pictures I promise to get our originals uploaded soon*

Team Turkey ... Assemble!!! Day 4

1/8/2010

Today was a big day. Today was the first day we went to Asia.

N.B. (not everyone in Asia speaks Mandarin… that Chinese for you uncultured folk)

We met Şadi “the magnificent” at the metro station in Taksim. The metro that takes you to Kabataş (the ferry station) runs at a 45 degree angle downhill. This means that all the cars are terraced down to accommodate the slope. There is about a 4 foot difference between the front of the car and the back of the car.

NB: ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act): If you are wheel chair bound in Turkey you’re screwed. Seriously everything is steep and has stairs. The fire escapes are spiral stair cases that are probably more dangerous than the fire. They look cool though.

We arrived at the ferry and went to the Asian side. At first we went by old universities that had buildings so massive that they left the viewer mesmerized and then saddened at their deteriorating conditions. But further into the Asian side we found that a lot of the area was extremely new and modern. It would remind one of a western European country, or urban form of LA with broad boulevards and tall spread out buildings. The Asian side has areas that are poorer and more religious, but many people prefer the amenities and life style that newer areas give. We drove back over the “first bridge” a massive suspension bridge that crosses the Bospherous to pick up “Team” member #3, Patrick Franke.

We picked pat up and drove back to the apartment and Sadi left.

NB: Sadi was the greatest person Will and I could ask for. He helped us so much in the last couple days we can’t even fit it all into print. Without his help we would still be stuck at the airport.

We then decided to go out for some dinner. We got Kebaps, Doner, and Pide, at a small restaurant. We also decided to get some “Ayran”. Ayran is a yogurt based local favorite. Ayran is the first thing Turkish that hasn’t been incredible. Between the three of us we took three sips. Will: “it tasted like salted, curdled, goats milk, frothed, and sipped though straw in chilled mug.” Supposedly, it is an acquired taste; we’ll try again in a month or so and report back.

We then went out to show Pat the town and discovered a few of many rooftop and upper floor bars that the city has to offer. These are usually cheaper, younger, less touristy, and play better music. Many have incredible views of the city. Getting up to these bars can be a bit tricky: old stair cases, back alleys, and in one case an elevator we didn’t know how to exit. We then sampled some Rakı to end the night.

NB: Rakı (pronounced ra-ku) is a black liquorish tasting spirit that you mix with water, similar to the Greek Ouzo. We all thoroughly enjoyed this fine Turkish custom.

-Lee (edited by the ever patient Will)

*special note concerning pictures* We have been having a few camera difficulties, dead batteries, full memory card ... etc. Be patient and we will soon have a flikr up with more pictures than you could ever want to see!

Day three, still amazed by the city

Woke up this morning. Always a good thing. Definitely feeling the remnants of the night before.

So Will and I plunged into the fray last night and decided to go out. The off streets of Istiklal are an unending number of Bars/ Cafés/ Clubs that form a massive maze of people. We bumped around keeping our ears perked for that sweet sound of English. We met a girl from DC, she was not so cool. We then met some Turkish guys who wanted to practice English with us; they went to Istanbul University and were good guys. We bounced around a little more, and then went and got the ever so sweet solus burgers (see previous blog) which were still amazing and walked back (well we made a pit stop at the Hilton Pool, and then went home).

Drinks are not cheap in Istanbul, about 8tl ($5.33) for a pint, not terrible, but not nickel beer either. You pretty much drink Efes all the time, the Turkish national beer.

We woke up early and Murat the landlord came over to fix our internet. We then registered for language classes and Sadi (driver, best friend, only friend) took us driving up the Bosphorus almost to the Black Sea. It was like a whole different Istanbul. Amazingly we’d spent two days in Istanbul and still hadn’t seen the strait. It’s unbelievably blue and clear. The whole scene along the ocean is picturesque. Palaces, hotels, restaurants, and little main streets crowd the shorelines. Each area is a new town, but we drove about hour and we were still in Istanbul and everything was built up, the size of the city is massive.

NB: Rule of thumb for Istanbul, anything that can see the Bosphorus is much nicer and more expensive then areas that can’t. You can see the difference as you approach the top of a hill. The side which faces the water is always nice, the other side is always a little more dicey.

We ate at a sea side Bakil (fish) Restaurant; Sadi told us Turks “eat seafood, looking at the sea.” To make sure it’s fresh. We ate a bunch of different appetizers: eggplant hummus, seaweed noodles, huge kidney beans in tomato sauce, midye dolmasi, grilled calamari, and a bruchetta like salad. The best for me was “Midye Dolmasi” which is a fresh stuffed mussel. Will really enjoyed the seaweed dish. We would have been full after that amount of food, but then we got fish. It was sea bass. And there was no fillet or presentation or seasoning. When you order fish you get a grilled fish with the head, tail and everything. And it’s amazing, you have to pick through the bones but with nothing more than a little lemon, it was incredibly delicious. We have yet to have a bad meal in Turkey or even an average meal. So far the food is one of my favorite things. Will seconds this. It’s really varied and really good. We watched the ships roll in from the Black Sea (NB: The Black Sea is not actually black… little disappointing). It gets its name from the frequent storms and bad weather that have a knack for destroying ships.

We then went back to Taksim for coffee with Sadi and his girlfriend and home for naps.

After a deep nap, we decided to explore starting at 11pm. Things are still crazy till 3am and later. The streets are always packed with people, so it’s a late night city.

We ordered our first sit down meal in Turkey without Sadi, slightly difficult given the language barrier, we got “Pide” which is like Turkish Pizza, its pita like bread with all sorts of stuff on it, like a really good garlic bread shaped like a boat. Again, really good. When then decided to try to walk to the Golden Horn, which is a small river that separates the ancient part of the city from the less ancient part of the city. The roads are at a 60degree angle down and the area Beyoglu is really nice.

We then made it to the Galata Bridge which is a walking bridge with a train in the middle and underneath is restaurants, bars, and clubs. We walked across to the old city to just say we made it and began to walk back. We ended up stopping in a Shisha (hookah) bar for two hours and sipped tea while taking in a view that included the massive suspension bridge across the Bosporus all lit up, the Galata Tower, Topkopi (Ottoman’s Buckingham Palace), and a ton of massive mosques. A lot of people fish off the walking bridge above and although we never saw anyone catch anything, from the restaurants below you can see hundreds of fishing lines.
We then walked back amongst throngs of people.

NB: Who ever thought Muslims don’t party was dead wrong about the Turks. The bars were packed as we walked home. (Ramadan starts in ten days (Aug. 11) for 29 days and some Turks give up drinking instead of daily fasting during that time)

Jet lag is catching up to us.

-Lee (once again edited by Will, the grammar isn’t getting any better)

Day two, even better than the first

Dated 30/7/2010

Today Will and I got up early and showered for the first time in our apartment. Our shower is little more than a hot water hose in the corner of a bathroom stall. We lacked shampoo and towels, but surprisingly bars of soap and t-shirts sufficed.

Sadi showed up around 11am and we set out to collect the items on a long list of needs. First we went to go get cell phones at TurkCell. We were essentially ripped by a sales man who had us buy a phone not telling us we could use our American phones even when we told them we had American phones. Then they wouldn’t accept returns. Anyways I got a new phone!

We then went to the bank. The bank sent us to go get social security numbers. We went and ate next to the Galata Tower instead. Sadi ordered us his two of his favorite dishes, a sliced beef dish in tomato sauce with peppers and another beef dish with eggplant humus. Delicious! The tower is sweet, hopefully we will make it up to the top soon.

We then went to a soviet-esque DMV type bureaucratic center that was surprisingly pain free. Maybe the early description wasn’t merited, but we prepared for the worse as we went in. It looked like it was going to be bad and bad bureaucracy is legendary, according to Sadi.

Anyways we went back to the bank “AKBank” and set up accounts in which we didn’t have to pay any fees or put money into to open…. Yeah sounds like Lehman Brothers of Turkey.
We bought maps and drove to a mall. This was unlike any mall we have experienced in the US. It was next to the new Trump towers and a couple other new tall buildings.
NB: We’ve noticed with the skyscrapers every tower is a “Dual” tower. They design one building and build it at least twice. This wouldn’t be too noticeable if it was a ten story building, but they only do it on their tallest buildings. It’s like having a mirror next to every tall building in the city. You’ll be inside one and wonder “what could this building possibly look like from the outside?” and then poof right next to it you’ll see the same building.

Back to the mall… It was huge. Six stories tall with huge open air atriums rising the full height. The largest atrium was covered by the biggest clock we’ve ever seen. The glass roof was the face of the clock with huge metal catwalks as the hands. Easily the biggest mall I’ve ever been in, every western, eastern, and other directional store you could imagine. Popeye’s ads were everywhere… everywhere. In the mall we went to a super market, which was good we got a bunch of stuff that we really needed: towels, shampoo, beer, and an orange dolphin shower mat. We then went to “Koctas” a store eerily familiar to a Home Depot, down to the bright orange aprons. Here we got more necessities like power adapters, fans, and lanterns, yes lanterns, apparently the power in our district goes out frequently so we need to be prepared. We then walked mall. It was really impressive, massive.
NB: We discovered that the sales tax in Turkey is a whopping 18%!!! 18%!!! We complain about 9% in NOLA.
We drove home with our bounty. We settled in with our new stuff and were ready to eat.
18%!!! Sorry to harp.

Anyways our new best friend Sadi (whether he wants to be or not) decided to take us to a Taksim Landmark. Kızılkayalarda which sold “solus”(sp?) hamburgers which roughly translates to special sauce hamburgers, think meatball sub, meets sloppy Joe with a little Turkish flare. Amazing. Incredible. And for only 2 Lira, heaven! We then ate “Doner” in a pressed wrap with cheese, also incredible. The shop was a hole in the wall opening directly onto Taksim. Here’s the funny thing the five hole in the wall shops on either side of this one served the exact same things and copied everything on the menu. Will said it right when he said we found our new binge food spot.

We then went on our evening walk to find ITU Mimar (ITU architecture). The building is incredible. It is massive the hallways are at least 25ft tall and are so big they echo when you talk in them. The building is a former army infirmary from the Ottoman era. The center court yard is big and beautiful. The building is sadly crumbling, but walking near it or into it and anyone can understand its majesty. We saw a few boards from an Urban Planning class. Let’s say this, we’re going to have our work cut out for us, the work looked really good, so much for the idea of an easy abroad semester. That’s both good and bad news.

We then found a barbed wire lined passage back to our apartment from the school it’ll be about a 10-15 minute walk.

An extremely productive day. Thanks to Sadi. Such a g-d send or a Chadwick send.
Tonight, Will and I will attempt to go out in a city we don’t know, using a language we don’t know, to a bar that’s location is slightly unknown, this is going to be fun. One of the many reasons we came.

P.s. we’ve ignored jet lag
-Lee (edited by Will, his grammar and spelling is atrocious, not that mine is much better)