Istanbul!

Hello again family & friends,

Well, after a lovely two week semester break, things are back to normal and I am back in school. The highlight of my holiday was the Rotary trip to Istanbul. It was orignially supposed to to be the first week of the break, but because of the bad weather in Istanbul (snow and ice) we pushed it back a week.

We left Tuesday night from the bus terminal in İzmir. 20 minutes outside the city, and it started to snow! I felt just like I was in Wisconsin. It was pretty slow-going the whole way, but we didn't arrive any later than we should have. The bus ride took roughly... 8 hours? Without any sleep. Not as bad as the Kapadokya bus ride, and I had a lot more energy the next day. We took a ferry in the middle of the night and had fun being in the snow, but we were glad when it had stopped by Wednesday afternoon. (We were cold!)

Our first day in the city, we checked into our hotel and then we went to the famous Grand Bazaar (in the words of our tour guide, "The Grand Bazaar: it's very grand.") and the Spice Market. The Grand Bazaar has thousands of shops, and it's definitely a fun place to see, although it's a little (a lot! Haha) touristy. You get to haggle with the shopkeepers there, which is a fun time. The spice market was enjoyable, too; all the vendors give you samples and let you smell their spices and teas. (Thanks to exchange student Abby for this picture; I took it from her Facebook page.)

The next day, Thursday, we went to see many more of the famous city sights: Topkapı Palace, the Aya Sofya, The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque), and the Hippodrome. This was one of my favorite days of the trip. Istanbul has so much history, it's definitely a place I think everyone should see at least once in their life. (Again, thanks to Abby for the Blue Mosque photo.)

On our third day we saw Dolmabahçe Palace, which is the palace built after Topkapı Palace, it looks more like a typical European palace. If you know what the palace of Versailles looks like, it looks similar to that inside. The palace is gorgeous, and has a great view-- it's located right on the Bosphorous. After the palace we went to the Maiden's Tower, a tower located on a tiny island in the Bosphorous. (Again, Abby.)

On Saturday we went to Miniatürk, a very odd little museum! It's like a mini-golf course without the golf-- all the famous sights of Turkey are built in miniature and diplayed in a park. Next we went to the Rahmi Koç Museum, a huge technology with all kinds of different displays-- from old cars, to trains, to boats, to computers, to washing machines. Rahmi Koç is one of the richest men in Turkey, and this museum is a huge display of his collections.

Our final day in Istanbul we took a boat tour of the Bosphorous. We had hoped to go on a longer boat tour that would take us all the way to the Black Sea, but the rainy weather didn't allow us to, so we took the shorter tour instead. We were still able to see all the famous sights from the Strait though, and it was an enjoyable ride. Afterwards, we had some time to kill before boarding our bus, so we went to Cevahir Mall, the 2nd largest mall in Europe (or so our guide told us.)

We boarded the bus to go back to İzmir around 10PM and arrived home at 6 the next morning, exhausted. It was a great trip, and I really hope I am able to visit Istanbul again someday! Although I am happy I'm not spending my year there-- it's too huge, the traffic is bad, and just seeing all the buses makes me afraid I would get lost.

Well that's a summary of the trip! I started to add pictures to this post, but it won't let me anymore. Check out my Facebook page if you want to see more photos. (Thanks Alex, for this Aya Sofya picture.)

Like I said, things are back to normal. I am supposed to be switching host families tomorrow (just for a change, to see Turkey from a different perspective), so wish me luck with that! The next trip coming up is one to Bursa/Uludağ in March, but I will try to write before then. :)

Until next time, take care,

Lydia