Ohh, like the footbal team!

I would like to take this blogging opportunity to send a shout-out to my parents and thank them for naming me Chelsea. It makes meeting people in Europe so much easier. I cannot even count all the times I have met someone, told them my name, and had them exclaim, "ohh, like the football team!" For people that aren't used to hearing and pronouncing Western names, having a reference point like a soccer team makes it hugely easier to remember someone's name. Apparently. I guess I should probably start following European soccer now so I can figure out if this team is any good....

Adventures as a quasi-translator

You'd think that speaking Spanish wouldn't get me very far in a country where the national language is Turkish, but surprisingly I've been able to use my Spanish a lot here. There are tons of tourists from Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries that visit Istanbul. I've noticed that English serves as a median language between many of the people that work in hotels/restaurants and tourists from other non-English speaking countries. Being nosy as usual, I often eavesdrop on conversations whenever I hear Spanish and I've noticed that a lot gets lost in translation switching between spanish and english and turkish, and generally, someone gets super confused and exasperated. So a few times I've stepped in. The first time I was really reluctant because it has definitely been a while since I've spoken in Spanish, but all parties involved in the conversation were pretty relieved for the clarification, and it felt good. Granted, it was non-earth shattering conversation, but I was pretty impressed with myself (it was at a food stand and I happened to remember the words "para llevar" after the guy asked two Spanish tourists in English if they wanted their food to go and they had no idea what he said. I like to think I saved them from a hot, crowded upstairs seating area and that they ate happily somewhere along the Bosphorus, but I doubt it). I've also helped guests find their way around the hotel when they didn't understand the guy at the desk's directions to the terrace restaraunt.

My eavesdropping skills have opened up an entirely new world. It is funny because people often think they are all stealthy because they speak a language different from the most common languages in the area (in this case Turkish/English) but I totally know what they are saying. One time I was studying at a cafe with Kim, and a family from Spain sat down at the table next to us and proceeded to discuss how weird it was that we were studying in public and after much deliberation dismissed it as an American thing. I didn't want to be annoying/rude so I didn't say anything but reveled in the moment. Gotcha!!

Sometimes, it is fun to mess with the annoying vendors trying to get me to shop in their stores. Well, it is always fun, but particularly when I pretend I don't understand English and shoot them an apologetic look and a "lo siento" and keep walking. Sometimes I get in trouble when they switch to Spanish, but generally I am far enough away by that time to have to reply. When you're 5'11" and pretty darn white/American looking, its fun to cling to the one thing that will throw off their perception of you (that's the other thing...I'm taller than a good 90% of the population so I definitely stand out--especially when I hit my head on the abnormally low storefront awnings and try to play it off like nothing happened.) It's funny to watch other people in the group get approached...vendors often assume that the Asian kids in our group are Japanese when none of them really are. Or the vendors just start throwing out names of Asian countries hoping they'll get a response: "Japan!! China!! Korea!! Thailand!! Vietnam!!." Actually, its funny because the vendors group all the English-speaking countries together and they can't tell our accents apart. They generally think we're from Australia, and the United States is their second guess. Needless to say, when I pull out the Spanish, they get really thrown off.

Okay, that was study-break #2 and it is time for bed! Here is yet another picture of me with a kitten...I'm pretty much the Pied Piper of kittens in that wherever I go in Istanbul they appear, though I promise I won't drown them in the Bosphorus. This guy lives under the deck of the restaraunt across the alley from our hotel. We're tight.

Blue Mosque

This week we also went to the Blue Mosque. It is a massive mosque across from the Hagia Sophia, and it was really pretty. The majority of the inside is painted with blue designs, as well as hundreds of blue tiles on the ground floor. It is by far one of the most popular mosques for tourists to visit because of its size and its location across from the Hagia Sophia, so unfortunately for us, there were a ton of tourists and it was hard to take good pictures without getting a random person in it. This is the outside of the mosque:

The inside:


The girls in our group:

Me outside the Hagia Sophia:


Okay...there went study break number one! more to come later!

So I definitely failed at the multiple post thing the other night. But I was really productive and got a ton of reading done, so I guess that makes up for it. In Istanbul it is always a challenge to sit down and study when there are so many places to see and things to do, but with finals coming up next week I've been suuper busy studying and have really neglected to blog. Sorry. So, a summary of what I've been up to:

In terms of seeing the city and checking things off my to-see list, I am definitely getting things done! We went to the Topkapi Palace, the main palace for the Ottoman sultans who ruled the city from 1465 to 1853. It is a gorgeous complex that sits on top of a hill that overlooks the entire city. The palace was impressive, but the most interesting part of our visit was the Harem. This building was the place where the sultan's wives lived, and had more than 100 rooms. Luckily we didn't have to go through all of them, but the few that we did go through were decorated with beautiful tiles. The colors and designs were absolutely stunning. Here are a few examples:


Even the outside of the building was pretty:


Last Sunday (the 19th) we decided to go to Eyup Mosque, which is known as the holiest mosque in Istanbul. It was quite the adventure as it was probably the most conservative area I have visited on the trip, and a really good look at everyday life outside the touristy areas. The area around the mosque was really crowded with women in headscarves and wedding parties visiting the mosque for blessings. I didn't get many pictures because my camera died, but I'm going to steal some from Kim, one of the people that I went with so I should have some soon! Actually, the reason my camera died was because I took so many pictures before we got to the mosque. Near Eyup Mosque is a tea house named Pierre Loti that is named for a French writer who liked to sit there and write about Istanbul. We didn't exactly know where it was, but figured that we could get there easily enough following the street signs we saw, so we decided not to take the Metro. We were fine for the first 10 minutes of walking, but started to get worried when the signs disappeared and the road we were on turned into a massive hill. Friendly locals assured us that we were on the right road, though in retrospect, I probably should have realized what we were in for when they pointed to the sky when they told us to keep going. So, 30 minutes and a hike that made the most strenuous crew workout look like a cakewalk later, we reached Pierreloti and the views were worth it. You can't really tell how big the mountain is from the image below, but imagine the ocean at the very bottom of the picture (I took this picture from the ferry dock before we started the trek). Yeah. The concrete box-like area to the bottom right of the Turkish flag was the metro stop, a like a ski-lift type thing to carry people to the top of the hill. The red roof in the right top corner is the tea house. Oh, and the entire hill is a cemetary. All the white in between the trees are graves cut into the hill...it was pretty amazing. As tired as I was at the time, it was a nice afternoon and provided us with good stories for the three of us that went with good stories to tell the rest of the group.
My fellow explorers Jeff and Kim, with one of the signs. It was pretty exciting to finally spot one. (note the slant of the car parked behind them, that street was KILLER!)

On Monday, we went to the Galata Tower, a massive tower that overlooks the entire Old District of the city. It was a great photo opportunity, though genius me forgot to change the batteries in my camera. I did manage to coax my camera into taking a few pictures before it completely died.
This picture gives a good idea of how densely populated the city is; these are all apartment buildings. I always think its funny to see how many satellite dishes there are--they're everywhere!

This is the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque across the Golden Horn.

Oh man, I have a ton more to write and more pictures to upload, but it is definitely time for bed. More updates soon!

Bir çay, lütfen!

When I first named my blog, I was in the midst of learning Turkish and thought it would be cute to call it "On, iki, üç," or "One, Two, Three" in Turkish. Alas, it appears my Turkish is worse than I thought. Apparently, I named it "Ten, Two, Three." Oops. Let's try "Bir, iki, üç" this time.

Although many people in Istanbul speak English, it is helpful to know a few words of Turkish. The people are very friendly to begin with, but they love it when we try Turkish. Granted, my Turkish extends only to what I need to order food and buy postal stamps, but still. I always get a friendly smile whenever I order tea in Turkish (see title of this post). I've even gotten a few corrections on pronunciation, and though it is embarrassing to know I'm completely slaughtering a word, it is good to know for the next time I use it!

Okay, I have a ton of reading to do so I will go study for now, but I am definitely not done posting! It is 7:45 pm here and the night is young....I'm feeling a multiple study break, multiple blog post evening coming on. I will leave you a picture of the new friend I made when we visited the Greek Patriarchate.


He literally jumped up on the wall next to me, then sauntered on into my lap and proceeded to fall asleep. Don't worry...I used up a whole bottle of hand sanitizer after that. Annd I washed my clothes with the hottest water possible. The little guy was cute, but not exactly the cleanest cat I've seen. After this encounter, I decided that if rats were this cute and cuddly, the Bubonic Plague would have been a whoooleeee lot worse.

From borek to balik ekmek...a guide to Turkish cuisine

Last post described what I've been up to; now I think it's time to describe what I've been eating. So:

Breakfast is a massive buffet provided by our hotel. They have your typical eggs, sausage, toast, cereal, pastries and yogurt, but also olives, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, and börek (a flaky pastry with layers of cheese inside). Another food in Istanbul a lot of people eat for breakfast (but not part of our hotel breakfast buffet) are simit, round bagel-like rings of bread covered in sesame seeds. They are sold by street vendors everywhere in the city and are eaten throughout the day as a snack. I've just about gone through every combination of food from the hotel buffet and am starting to get tired of it, so if i can find a simit vendor around the hotel that might be my new favorite breakfast.

Lunch--we generally have two hours or so for lunch during the week, so that gives us time to explore a bit and try different places every day. There are tons of restaraunts around our hotel, but they're a bit more touristy and sit-down slow than we'd like (plus we fell into that trap the first week and realized that none of the restaraunts were that good). Instead, there are corner shops everywhere that have döner kebaps...basically massive hunks of lamb (kuzu) or chicken (tavuk) on a horizontal rotating spit that they carve meat off as you order (much like shawerma in some Mediterranean restaraunts at home). This goes on either pita, a roll, or a flat tortilla like bread (dürüm). Basically, I haven't figured out how to specify which type of bread I want in Turkish yet, so I take what they hand me, and it's all been good, though I think my favorite is the dürüm. Maybe that's just because i'm starting to miss burritos and that's as close as I can get--not sure. Actually the pita is interesting because they put french fries in it, which sounds gross at first, but its actually good.

Pide and börek are other lunch foods that are good alternatives to the meat-heavy döner kebaps. They are generally sold at the same bakery-like stores, so sometimes its hard to choose between the two! Pide are like football-shaped pizza with the edges folded up, and they come with all different types of toppings, like cheese (the most common/popular/delicious), meat, egg, and peppers. I already mentioned börek from what they serve at breakfast, but the stuff in the legit börek stores is muuuchhh better and there is more variety. I also like lahmacun, (pronounced lah-mah-jun) which are pieces of dürüm spread with a mixture of tomato, meat and spices, then topped with shredded lettuce and rolled. It's similar to things I've had at home from Trader Joe's, which is probably why I am one of the only people in the group that likes it. Everything lunch-wise is pretty cheap, and I generally don't pay more than 5 lira (about $3) for my whole meal.

Dinner--Just like for lunch, there are many different options for dinner, ranging from nice sit-down places to street vendors to döner places. We generally don't go to nice sit-down places, but we have had some group dinners so we've experienced the full Turkish meal. It generally starts with mezes, or cold appetizers. These are generally different dips and spreads that vary from restaurant to restaurant. I don't know any of the names of the dishes (working on it...) but there's always a salsa-like dip with parsley, tomato, and green onion, and a cucumber, tomato, olive oil salad. They serve these with pita. Some places we've been have served a bean salad type thing that is also really good--working on the name of that too. Some places also serve lentil soup (mercimek çorbası, pronounced mare-ji-mek chor-bassi). The main course is generally some type of meat, often pices of meat that have been cooked on a kebab served with rice and bread. They also serve ayran, drink made with plain, watery yogurt and a pinch of salt. It is supposed to be really refreshing and delicious, but I haven't quite gotten used to it yet. Of the traditional Turkish drinks, I prefer the Turkish tea. It is served after every meal, and often places don't charge for it. The first time I had it, I thought I'd drink it like the locals and not put sugar in it, until I took a sip and it was so strong I though I was drinking coffee. Literally. It was like espresso, and putting sugar in it hardly put a dent in how strong it was. A good 4 sugar cubes later, it was drinkable, and I felt like less of a baby after I saw the waiter drinking Turkish tea in the kitchen and adding 5 sugar cubes. They also serve apple tea (elma çay...pronounced like chai) which is like apple cider and not as authenic as legit Turkish tea, but still good.

Dessert--I've figured out that there are three types of dessert in Turkey: those sold in specialty stores (baclava/Turkish delight), those sold in bakeries, and ice cream).

Baclava is everywhere in Istanbul. For some reason though, I'm not the hugest fan of baclava--sad for me but lucky for my waistline, I guess. Turkish delight (lokum) is another dessert I'm trying to give a second chance to. It ranges from sticky squares of chewy, sugary, firm-ish gelatin-like stuff rolled in shredded coconut/powdered sugar (not the best description, I know, but see the picture) to fluffy marshmallow-like sheets with various flavors rolled in, almost like a jelly-roll (again, see the picture...). I guess it tastes okay, but it isn't exactly the most amazing dessert I have ever had. For that, I turn to the stuff they sell in bakeries and specialty dessert stores: rice pudding (sütlaç), semolina helva (irmek helvası) and supangle (super intense chocolate pudding).


The rice pudding here is like tiramisu in Italy--different at every restaraunt, and I like trying all the different variations. Semolina helva is like a cross between a cake and a cookie, and really sweet. It is served with honey on top, which makes it even sweeter, so if I order it, I generally share with a friend. Pistachios are huge in Turkey, so basically every dessert is covered with some form of pistachio. There are plenty of pistachio desserts too, but they're not my favorite.

I should also mention the ice cream (dondurma) as it is on every corner and thanks to the intense heat I have had to cave in and buy ice cream a few times now (a terrible predicament to be in, I know). Ice cream sellers are everywhere, and they give quite a show. They stand behind rolling freezers with mountains of ice cream cones on either side of them, and some type of bell above the stand. Whenever they see potential customers coming, they grab a long metal pole, stir the ice cream around, then they lift the entire frozen hunk of ice cream out of the freezer (I guess to show off the consistency, because the entire hunk ice cream just stays there). Their other trick is to stick an empty cone on the end of the pole and shove it in your face as you walk by, lifting it at the last second and hitting the bells above them. It definitely gets annoying after about the 10th ice cream cone shoved in your face. I'm not a huge fan of this street ice cream, but there are a couple places that only sell ice cream, and theirs is gooooddddddd. After analyzing it though, I've come to the conclusion that it is less ice creamy and more frozen yogurty, because it has a slight yogurt tang. Still, definitely delicious.

Street food--Okay, I know this sounds sketchy. And I know that the descriptions posted here will cause readers to cringe as they question the health standards of Turkish street vendors. I definitely did too. But fear not, dear reader. I waited a whole week and a half to try this stuff, and watched as other people in my group bought it and raved about how good it was, and they didn't get sick. So I caved. The first thing I tried was roasted corn, which was not so delicious. The second thing, however, was amazing. We were walking along the Bosphorus and found a stand that sold grilled fish sandwiches. It was literally in front of the boat that the fish had been caught on, and they kept hauling the fish from the boat to the stand. There was a massive crowd, and people were buying 4 or 5 sandwiches at a time, so I figured it was good if the locals liked it. And it was maybe one of the best meals I've had on this trip. From now on, whenever I see signs for balik ekmek (fish on bread), I am there. They also sell mussels, but I'm still a little wary of those. There are also a doughnut-like fried rings of dough that ooze honey when you bite into them...I'm not generally a honey fan, but for these I make an exception. They are really sweet though, so I always share them with people. Probably the most impressive of the street vendors are the fruit sellers. They have massive wooden carts that they move around the city loaded up with huge super-red fresh cherries, giant peaches, and apricots. They smell so good...I can often tell when a guy is coming because I can smell the fruit before I can see the vendor. I haven't bought anything from these guys yet; my Turkish isn't good enough, and in Turkey, it is weird to just buy one or two of something...they just give it to you as a friendship gesture. We figured this out when my friends tried to buy just one peach, and the vendor just gave it to them and refused to take any money. They felt bad because it looked like he needed the money, but he waved them on with a friendly laugh after all their thank-yous. These guys sell by the kilo, and I'm not sure I can get a half-kilo. Even sharing with people, I'm not sure I can handle 2.2 lbs of fruit before it all goes bad, though its only like 4 lira for a kilo, so it may be worth it...I plan on investigating futher.

And finally, there's good ole McDonalds. We went on the 4th of July and got burgers and shakes, and it is open late, so we go there on late-night study breaks. I always like going to McDonalds in foreign countries to see how the menu is different, and in Turkey, it definitely is. Probably the most amazing thing (and something I thought the US would have for all of its super-sizedness) is the Mega Mac, a Big Mac with four patties. For dessert, they have chocolate doughnuts, as well as those apple pie things served with ice cream. My favorite Turkish McDonalds menu item, however, has to be the McTurco. It's not necessarily the most delicious thing ever, but McDonalds certainly wins points for creativity at fast-fooditizing the traditional doner kebab. It comes in its own special cardboard package, complete with a tear-off tab that separates the top of the container from the bottom so you don't get your fingers dirty (see picture below). Serious time went into the development of this thing, yet I'm not sure who in their right mind (well, besides me, the crazy McDonalds-starved American tourist) would order it. I mean, it has barbecue sauce on it!! (which I loved by the way, but only because I have literally been having dreams about barbecued ribs, and this was as close as I could get) I'm not sure anyone in Turkey has ever had barbecue sauce or knows what it even is. I was definitely the only person to order the McTurco, and it took like 10 minutes for them to make it, probably because they haven't sold one in months. All in all, it was good, though I probably wouldn't order it again.



Oh man, describing all this has mad me hungry! I'd better go get lunch....borek sounds pretty darn good right now. See you later!

Merhaba from Istanbul

I can't believe I've already been here for a week! I have been so busy with class and seeing the city that time has flown by. Today I was going through all the pictures I've taken so far (350ish...oops) and I thought it was time to finally sit down and record what I've been up to. As I write this, I am sitting on the rooftop of our hotel drinking a cup of Turkish tea and watching ships in the Bosphorus. The sun is setting and the call to prayer from the nearest mosque is sounding...this rooftop is definitely one of my favorite places in the city.

So...a summary of the past week:

Monday--My flight from Paris was good...though I tried to do my Pre-Departure reading for my classes and fell asleep with my head and arms sprawled awkwardly over the tray table and my book. I jerked awake when the captain turned on the fasten seat belt sign and realized that I had also fallen asleep on my highlighter. A check in the mirror revealed that not only did I have a massive bright yellow line down my left cheek, but print from the book on my forehead as well. It was good stuff. At first, I wished I had someone with me to take a picture, but then I realized how ridiculous I looked and was quite happy that I didn't know anyone on the plane. Thank goodness I got it all off before the plane landed!

As the plane was landing, it was amazing to see all the mosques on the ground below. Minarets stick out everywhere...I even tried to count them but lost track somewhere around 75. It was amazing.

Got to my hotel, and we had a group dinner at a restaurant looking out at the Bosphorus and the Galata Bridge, and took my first stabs at ordering in Turkish (not too pretty--I keep confusing Spanish and Turkish, and often say equis, the letter X in Spanish instead of iki, the number 2 in Turkish).

Tuesday-- The Hagia Sophia!! It is gorgeous, but it is more like a massive construction site these days. There was scaffolding everywhere and the whole thing just looked run-down. It is no longer a mosque and has been turned into a museum, but it is in need of massive renovations. There is currently a huge debate about funding for these renovations, and how exactly the Hagia Sophia should be restored. It was first built as a church, with Christian icons depicted in mosaics everywhere, but when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, they turned it into a mosque and plastered over much of the mosaics. Over time, earthquakes have cracked the walls, plaster is flaking off, and mosaics that survived or were uncovered from under plaster have deteriorated. The problem with restoring it, our guide told us, is that there is a debate over what the Hagia Sofia (or Ayasofya to the Turks) should be restored to. It is a museum today, so choosing to restore it to either a mosque or a church would ignore parts of its history, and that is (I think) what makes the building such an interesting place to see.




In the first picture above you can see a really good example of the mosaic...that ceiling was all one huge mosaic. The second picture above shows the deterioration of the ceiling and the arabic script from when it was a mosque, and the picture on the right shows differences between original mosaic and plaster where it was covered up.

Wednesday--Yedikule. It is a castle built along the Theodosian wall. The Theodosian wall was built to protect the city of Constantinople from land attacks, and is similar to the Great Wall of China (but much shorter).
This my group in the castle's torture chamber. The whole room was creepy...it was entirely rotting wood planks and we were all holding our breaths as the photo was taken and hoping that no one would fall through. It was no suprise that the room was used for torture...there was literally a chute to dump bodies down and various torture instruments.

Thursday--Basilica Cistern
This is a massive underground cistern that was used during the Byzantine empire. It was really cool, but hard to take pictures. It was hard to imagine that the whole cistern was once full of water...today there is just a platform that visitors walk on and it stands over about 3 feet of water with fish in it. It's like walking over a giant pond. I am doing a presentation on the water supply for the city of Constantinople so I spent waaayyy too much time here and took a few too many pictures. The architecture was really cool though...below is a picture of a Medusa head that was the base of one of the columns...it's all mossy because rainwater still drips into the cistern (I got hit in the head a few to many times by those massive drops)













Friday--Bosphorus boat trip. Cool, but not that historically exciting. I did see the Black sea though, and made friends with the entire Turkish Navy. (well a massive Navy boat crammed with men in uniform who were waving frantically at us). It was interesting to see all the massive, mulitmillion dollar mansions on the Bosphorous, and I was amazed at how many there were.






Saturday--Whirling Dervishes
We went to a cultural center to see the Whirling Dervishes. It was cool to be able to say we saw it, but it was really slow and I was a little more than glad when they finally stopped spinning and finally left the room.














Sunday--Prince's Islands

The Prince's Islands are islands off the coast of Turkey accessible by ferry. We thought it would be a nice break to get out of the city for a day and hopefully be able to swim, since there aren't really any beaches around Istanbul and we've only seen men diving off the rocks of the Bosphorus. Of course, after a scorchingly hot ride on the ferry (that felt like the Titanic, by the way, but not because it was sinking but because of all the people packed on it) it started raining the second we got off the boat. We took cover for the worst part of the storm, but it never really stopped raining, and we left without ever getting to a beach.

Monday--Spice Bazaar The spice bazaar is this massively huge building in the middle of the Old Town district of Istanbul. Everywhere I looked, there were mounds of spices, dried fruits, and coffee, and it smelled amazing. There were huge jars of tea too. I spent a lot of time watching watching the vendors as they measured out spices on antique scales and haggled with their customers. It was also fun to learn the names of all the spices in Turkish, though considering I can hardly count to ten in Turkish, I will likely forget the spice names. I definitely want to come back to the Spice Bazaar though. It is connected to the Grand Bazaar, a massive shopping area with over a thousand stores where you can get all kinds of Turkish souvenirs, like tea, rugs, towels, Turkish Delight, postcards, coffee, tea, and pottery.


















Well, that is just about everything...I' d better go do some reading for my classes now. Tomorrow we are going to Asia. As dramatic as that sounds, all it means is that we are taking a ferry to the other side of the Bosphorus and walking around a bit. I am still excited though!

Miss you all at home! Hope everyone is doing well!

Chelsea