Mere Habba!

July 20
Happy Birthday Papaw!!!!!

Fun Facts about Istanbul and Turkey:
Istanbul is considered the “center of the world” and has 15 million people. The entire country of Greece only had 12 million!
Turkey is the cultural capital of the world right now in 2010 so it’s a great time to visit the country because many efforts have been made to beautify the city of Istanbul even more and most all constructions has been taken down and stopped for this year! How perfect is that?
Turkey is the world headquarters of Media (which is awesome for me being in Istanbul because I absolutely love media).
Istanbul is the business center of Turkey and around the 16th best economy in the world.
Turkey is the #1 yacht-maker!
Ataturk’s picture is in every restaurant, school, store, etc. He is seen as the father of Turkey and I’m sure we will be seeing a lot of him these next few days!
A few years ago, someone put up a bad video about Ataturk and so Turkey banned YouTube. Crazy!
Currently, $1.00 US is equal to YTL 1.54 (New Turkish Lira)

Today FLEW by. It was incredible. This is the cultural change I’ve been thinking of. (Spain and the other countries try to be like America in some of their ways, but definitely not here in Turkey!)
This morning we had a diplomat come on board and speak to us about relations between countries surrounding us, our country, and a lot of interesting information about the world around Turkey right now. This happens the morning of every arrival in every country and it’s so cool! We get filled in on all of the political and diplomatic effects. It makes it really cool that we have this before each port because it applies to what we are about to step out into!
For my FDP for intercultural communications, Ozlem Sandikci (professor of Marketing and Advertising at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey), came to speak to us about media in Turkey and marketing/advertising. It was really fascinating! She was pale with very dark , curly hair and ice blue eyes. It was cool seeing a real Turkish-looking woman because I never really knew what to picture in my mind. She was very nice and shared a lot of interesting information about Turkey, fashion, and ads/marketing.
We left the ship around noon and walked down the town to get to the tramway. Istanbul is so amazing! It’s hard to explain because it kind of looks like everywhere else we have been, but more modern and bigger, so maybe it doesn’t. The crowd is way different too! Everyone is dark with blue and green eyes, it’s so pretty and distinctive! There are palace steeples everywhere, modern stores, Burger Kings and Starbucks, and amazing baklava/tea and Turkish delight bakeries too. It was one Lira to get to Taksim Square on the underground tram and it was only one stop away! It was on the edge of the Bosporus and took about 10 minutes to get there, but we walked slowly and looked around so it took a bit longer! The tram ride was 5 minutes. A cat that looked like Abby greeted me as I got off. I took a picture of the stray and I swear it’s Abby’s twin! When we got off at the top of the hill, it began to sprinkle a little and was windy. There were men everywhere selling clear umbrellas for 5 Lira so everyone bought them. I had my big camera and leather purse so I felt the need to get an umbrella too! It was worth it because it rained for a few hours, but I still had a fabulous day!
When we started walking around, I noticed rugs stores, tea cafes, hookah bars, leather stores, jewelry, alleys with musicians at restaurants, and so much more! It was such an amazing sight. There were women with headscarves, but not nearly as many as I thought. People were dressed conservatively and we were too, but no one really stood out as looking very Islamic, which surprised me! Our tour guide showed us several restaurants and good places to find great tea. We stopped at one of the 3rd restaurants she showed us and it was tucked away in a little alley! When you walked in, it was huge, nice, and full of well dressed business men! We were the only girls in there but they didn’t really stare or act differently. It was interesting. Shea and I ordered this rice dish which had pistachio slices, pine nuts, pieces of pork we think, and other nuts. It was warm and made your lips greasy with a very distinctive, yet delicious, taste! It came with yellow bread that tasted exactly like cornbread. I took some yummy pictures :) After that, we were walking around when this loud humming came on, filling the entire street, making you almost want to cover your ears. Then we realized it was a call to prayer! I didn’t see anyone around ay down and start praying, maybe because of the wet ground from the rain, but it was definitely loud singing through speakers throughout the square. We made our way down to a Turkish delight place with many treats that our tour guide recommended. I got a lemon Turkish delight and Shea got a random one that tasted the same as mine but with a fancy name, haha. THEN we had the most amazing thing ever that I hope to bring back home- dried figs stuffed with roasted walnuts. TO DIE FOR. And all of this was about YTL2.75 = $1.86! How perfect! We will be going there countless times this week. We sat at a table next to the café and then saw the sign that had numbers on it, meaning we had to pay to sit... We decided to order tea since we already sat down, and it would go well with our treats! I asked the waiter (who was hovering over me), “Where can I find some tea?” He said, “Ok,” and disappeared! 10 minutes later he brought us out 2 little glass cups on little decorated saucers, a small metal plate on top covering the tea, and 2 sugar cubes with a tiny spoon. I have no clue what flavor the tea was, but it was amazing!! Typically, you put a sugar cube in your mouth and sip the tea, which we tried, and it’s by far the best way to drink it! It seemed like a small cup of tea, but it ended up being the perfect amount and we didn’t want more, even though it was so good. Maybe it’s secretly filling? I don’t know, but I’ll be getting tea very often here! After resting there for a little bit, we made our way to the Blue Mosque to meet up with some girls. It took about 30 minutes to get there because we had no clue what to do! We asked store workers and they helped us out by telling us where to get on the tram and where to get off. Once we made it over the bridge by the mosque, we all met out front. There was a beautiful park in front of the mosque (mosques are everywhere), and there were flowers and fountains, along with families and many tourists! We went into the courtyard of the mosque and stood in a line to go in. We noticed that the line was all Turkish people but we stood in it anyways. Once we got to the front, they said we had to use a different entrance. I think that line was the line to go pray inside. We walked around the courtyard and out the back, and there was a small line with men handing out scarves to cover your head and shoulders. We took off our shoes. When we went in, the carpet was nice and soft, with beautiful red designs. Everyone was whisperings, there were candle chandeliers everywhere, and everyone was taking pictures. It was pretty cool inside (compared to the hot humidity outside) so we sat down on the carpet and just looked around for a while. The ceilings were huge and domed, filled with blue and white patterned tiles. All of the mosque kind of look the same inside regarding tiles, colors, and the carpet.
After that, we walked down the busy walkways to get to some palace. We were walking along an old big brick wall, which was super tall, and then we found the entrance. On one side of this wall was the busy, loud street. Once we went into it, it was very quiet and it was a forest! There were huge walkways through many statues and big old trees. Couples were everywhere and dogs were too! We walked all around in this park. It was shady from the trees and there was a breeze. We then walked into a museum and saw a ton of marble sculptures and tombs. It was pretty cool! After that, we walked outside of the walls an sat at a little café. We ordered tea and I just ate sugar cubes the whole time! We hoped on the tram for YTL1 and headed back to the ship. We all decided to meet in front of the gangway (where you exit the ship) around 10:15 for the night’s activities. We took the tram to Taksim Square and decided we’d be staying there for the night. When we came up from underground, we were in the main square! There was a huge war memorial in the middle, cars everywhere, and people flowing. We walked across to the other side and went down the main drag. it was about 5 lanes wide, full of people and street performers. There were Christmas lights acting as a roof the whole way down, it was so pretty! There are people selling roasted chestnuts, oysters, grilled corn, and pretzel things. There was an old man who had a table with a big bunny and a little baby one on it! We walked over to see this precious bunny and it picks up paper that tells you your fortune! I didn’t do it but I think before I leave I’m going to get a bunny to pick my fortune, just for fun! After walking around, we found an Irish Pub, but it was empty. We kept walking down side streets that were full of bars and karaoke places. We stopped at a club called Quba, a bar with walls, but no ceiling and trees coming out of it! It played really good music that we’ve been hearing all throughout Europe so we stayed for a while. Then, we went down the street to another one that was basically the same idea, with more people! After dancing for a long time, we went to a sit down patio bar and had fruit kabobs and just hung out. We were heading home by taxi (tram stopped at midnight) so we started walking towards the taxi part of the square. Right before we were about to leave, we saw this brightly lit place called Bambi! It was Turkish fast food. Some locals told us that it's really good and that it’s not bad for you or gross. I ended up getting a Panini- bacon and cheese. It was SO good, and we’ll be back there again. Bambi is on every street corner and it always busy. When we went back out to get a cab, the locals (who we met in Spain) bargained with a few drivers and we ended up getting home for 7YTL (around $5) altogether! On the way home, the driver sang to us in some Turkish way and it was really entertaining! I took a video to remember how cool it sounded and to show everyone! Turkish is hard to speak but I’ve actually learned more than I thought and it’s only been a day or two.
Mere habba- hello
Nassal Sinnes- how are you
Chokuzel- great
Higher sal- no thanks
Shedehfe- cheers
Hehsum- check please
Iyi geceler (pronounced strangely)- goodnight
Oh I forgot- I went into a baklava place and they were closing so they gave me a lot of free baklava. After, I found out that it was one of the nicest and most expensive baklava places in Istanbul!
What a fun first night in Istanbul!
PS In Spain, a few of the people we met have only been to Miami in the USA. In Croatia, a few guys go to school in Miami. Here in Turkey, several people said they have been to Miami or want to go! Strange!

I’m slow on blogging because there’s hardly any time to catch up!