It is now Sunday May 31st and tomorrow will be my first official week in Istanbul. Crazy. I haven't done anything exciting since going to Sultanahmet which is why I haven't written anything. It's the weekend so I got to hang out with my roomie a bit and get to know him. Very cool dude. We talked politics over coffee yesterday. He had some very interesting things to say about good ol' Turkey. Yeah I'm gonna leave you hanging. Then his girlfriend made me a bowl of fruit and yogurt. It was delicious. Oh and one of the local teams won the Turkish Premier Leaguge Cup so there was A LOT of noise and fireworks last night. It was recommended for me not to go outside so I watched from my room.
Today I'm going to go to the bazar here that's every sunday and hopefully buy a lot of cheap stuff to eat. that's the best kind. The weather actually looks like it might be a rainy day which is going to be cool cause it's been 70 and sunny every day I've been here. That's about it. I've been practicing my Turkish and have been doing all my shopping and ordering in just Turkish. Which may sound impressive but pointing and saying "Bir köfte lütfen" is NOT impressive.
Thanks for listening! Later.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sultanahmet!
So yesterday was quite a day. I went to an Amnesty annual press conference in a very fancy hotel and proceeded to not understand anything. It's gonna be on Turkish news though. So I guess I can pretend I'm famous here already. After that, ate, bought a map, went home and prepared for a day excursion. I don't know if this will work, but here's my route: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112557521566662635719.00046b0517a30a8032132&ll=41.023168,28.981333&spn=0.060092,0.154495&z=13
I walked from my apartment to Galata Tower first. It's this huge power built by Justinius I and you can get a ridiculous 360 deg. view of a lot of Istanbul, including all the big famous mosques. 10 lira to go up. Compare this to the $10 it took to go up on the walls in Dubrovnik. It might have been more actually. After that, a man beckoned me into a hookah shop (this is a theme for the excursion) and tried to sell me hookahs for RIDICULOUS PRICES. upwards of 350 lira ($1 = 1.5 lira). I laughed and left. Walked over the Bosphorous then only to learn that people here fish for snappers! Just like in Norwalk. Small world. They're way tinier here though, and I don't know if they ever become full grown bluefish. After that, I walked to the Egyptian bazaar, got convinced to buy half a kilo of orange tea for 15 lira (originally 20; what a bargainer I am...), but it does smell delicious so whatevs. Proceeded to walk by a shop selling amazing hookahs about every 10 feet. It was so bad. I'll resist the temptation as long as I can. Plus they aren't exactly cheap. About $50 and upwards. I think they're worth it though. They feel solid and might actually be all brass. All Syrians though, very few Egyptians. No matter, I could use a Syrian hookah. After that I walked across the street to the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) and chilled there for a bit. Then I walked to the old Oriental Express train station (Sirkeci Gar), went to the Topkapı palace only to realize it was way too big to explore that day. Then I went in front of the Hagia Sophia to find it closed for the day and have a guy who knows some Bosnian talk to me:
"Where you from?"
"Bosna. Bosnia."
"Ah. Dobar dan.
"Dobar dan."
"Kako si?"
"Dobro, ti?"
"Christian or Musliman?"
"What? no. Musliman."
"Ah. Alhamdulillah."
"Alhamdulillah."
Then he tried to walk me over to the factory where they make leather coats so I can see how good and cheap they are and buy one. Do I look like I wear leather? No sir. After that little convo I went to the Blue Mosque and pretended not to speak English; man do people leave you alone quick! This one dude seriously looked like what I assume the devil in human form looks like: slicked back black hair, slightly tan, ridiculously white teeth, impecibly clean and tidy suit with a red tie and speaking English with an accent. I still have no idea what he was trying to sell. But yeah, stayed at the Blue Mosque a bit then started to walk home. Last thing I did was smoke hookah under the Hagia Sophia. What a day! I took like 300 pictures but I'm not gonna upload them for a bit cause I'm a tease.
Till next time. Peace.
I walked from my apartment to Galata Tower first. It's this huge power built by Justinius I and you can get a ridiculous 360 deg. view of a lot of Istanbul, including all the big famous mosques. 10 lira to go up. Compare this to the $10 it took to go up on the walls in Dubrovnik. It might have been more actually. After that, a man beckoned me into a hookah shop (this is a theme for the excursion) and tried to sell me hookahs for RIDICULOUS PRICES. upwards of 350 lira ($1 = 1.5 lira). I laughed and left. Walked over the Bosphorous then only to learn that people here fish for snappers! Just like in Norwalk. Small world. They're way tinier here though, and I don't know if they ever become full grown bluefish. After that, I walked to the Egyptian bazaar, got convinced to buy half a kilo of orange tea for 15 lira (originally 20; what a bargainer I am...), but it does smell delicious so whatevs. Proceeded to walk by a shop selling amazing hookahs about every 10 feet. It was so bad. I'll resist the temptation as long as I can. Plus they aren't exactly cheap. About $50 and upwards. I think they're worth it though. They feel solid and might actually be all brass. All Syrians though, very few Egyptians. No matter, I could use a Syrian hookah. After that I walked across the street to the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) and chilled there for a bit. Then I walked to the old Oriental Express train station (Sirkeci Gar), went to the Topkapı palace only to realize it was way too big to explore that day. Then I went in front of the Hagia Sophia to find it closed for the day and have a guy who knows some Bosnian talk to me:
"Where you from?"
"Bosna. Bosnia."
"Ah. Dobar dan.
"Dobar dan."
"Kako si?"
"Dobro, ti?"
"Christian or Musliman?"
"What? no. Musliman."
"Ah. Alhamdulillah."
"Alhamdulillah."
Then he tried to walk me over to the factory where they make leather coats so I can see how good and cheap they are and buy one. Do I look like I wear leather? No sir. After that little convo I went to the Blue Mosque and pretended not to speak English; man do people leave you alone quick! This one dude seriously looked like what I assume the devil in human form looks like: slicked back black hair, slightly tan, ridiculously white teeth, impecibly clean and tidy suit with a red tie and speaking English with an accent. I still have no idea what he was trying to sell. But yeah, stayed at the Blue Mosque a bit then started to walk home. Last thing I did was smoke hookah under the Hagia Sophia. What a day! I took like 300 pictures but I'm not gonna upload them for a bit cause I'm a tease.
Till next time. Peace.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Day I Passed Out
Today was my first day of work. I spent most of the time researching charitable associations and putting addresses on Amnesty postcards. Also a little bit of time was devoted to tfln.com. Don't judge I needed a break. Work was good, but I hope I'll get into a more steady rythm and actually have a task to accomplish each day rather than aimlessly googling the names of rich white dudes followed by "Foundation" e.g Rutherford B. Chestingsworth IV Foundation (not a real foundation). Also, I learned that domestic homicide is the one category of homicide where women outnumber men. Huh. But yeah, work wasn't TOO eventful but it was nice. I started to have a conversation with one of the other Turkish interns there about US immigration policies but then he kinda just dissappeared. Whatevs. So i was there from 10:30 to 5 and then went and had chicken shish kebabs for dinner. They were delicious.
After dinner I kinda just wandered around. I strayed off of Istiklal for the first time and there's a lot of cool restaurants and bars and stuff. I went into one and watched some football. The REAL kind. Also, my roomate is pretty stoked that Barcelona won. So that's fun. Ummm what else. That's about it. I think the highlight of my day was walking into my apartment and saying, "ah finally home" and catching myself that I had called it home. That was cute. I do feel very comfortable here though.
Tomorrow is another day. No work but I'm going to an Amnesty press conference in the morning. I should try to get to Sultanahmet tomorrow maybz?
Till then. Peace.
After dinner I kinda just wandered around. I strayed off of Istiklal for the first time and there's a lot of cool restaurants and bars and stuff. I went into one and watched some football. The REAL kind. Also, my roomate is pretty stoked that Barcelona won. So that's fun. Ummm what else. That's about it. I think the highlight of my day was walking into my apartment and saying, "ah finally home" and catching myself that I had called it home. That was cute. I do feel very comfortable here though.
Tomorrow is another day. No work but I'm going to an Amnesty press conference in the morning. I should try to get to Sultanahmet tomorrow maybz?
Till then. Peace.
Monday, May 25, 2009
First Blog!
I started off my 2nd day in Istanbul by getting up at 6 am local time and taking a walk. NO ONE WAS UP. I expected a bit of hustle and bustle but there were like 6 people waiting for a bus and some old dudes washing the street. It was very nice though. I like cities in the morning the best I've decided. So yeah, went out for a walk, went down İstiklal street, which is mainly a footpath and it's got all the fancy designer stores like Lacoste and Diesel and trendy restaurants and cafes and what not. very Čaršija-ish or Broadway/Times Square-ish. Actually, those two references aren't even remotely the same. Whatever. google it. It's made nice. Anyways, I'm walkin' down the street, lookin at the shops and what not and then I see something that made my day (i know, it's still early): Sarajevski Cevap! Yup. Bosnian restaruant 10 minutes away from my apartment. sa-weet. It was closed but I'm going there for lunch.
I went into the Amnesty office yesterday to meet everyone and just get introduced and stuff and everyone seems very nice. It was weird because the office feels EXACTLY like the CPGC cafe. I found that pretty ironic. My job will be to research NGOs and other grant-giving bodies and find out if they're a group that would give to AI Turkey. There's a girl from Germany who's also interning and I'll probs be working with her the most. She's stupid organized. I was impressed. I'm actually very excited to start work cause I think i'll be good at it - it's basically just sitting and googling things and making data charts. I excell at Excel! ha. I have the day off today cause boss lady isn't in today but I start tomorrow. At the crack of 11 am...mos def ain't complaining about that though.
I have a lot of thoughts in my head right now but they're not coherent. Main ideas: it's pretty awesome here so far. I just REALLY need to meet people cause it's been a day and I'm already kinda lonely. Exploring a city by yourself SUCKS. So yeah, if you find yourself in the area COME VISIT ME!! I'm serious.
That's it. will write more later. Peace. or as they say here...hoşçakal
I went into the Amnesty office yesterday to meet everyone and just get introduced and stuff and everyone seems very nice. It was weird because the office feels EXACTLY like the CPGC cafe. I found that pretty ironic. My job will be to research NGOs and other grant-giving bodies and find out if they're a group that would give to AI Turkey. There's a girl from Germany who's also interning and I'll probs be working with her the most. She's stupid organized. I was impressed. I'm actually very excited to start work cause I think i'll be good at it - it's basically just sitting and googling things and making data charts. I excell at Excel! ha. I have the day off today cause boss lady isn't in today but I start tomorrow. At the crack of 11 am...mos def ain't complaining about that though.
I have a lot of thoughts in my head right now but they're not coherent. Main ideas: it's pretty awesome here so far. I just REALLY need to meet people cause it's been a day and I'm already kinda lonely. Exploring a city by yourself SUCKS. So yeah, if you find yourself in the area COME VISIT ME!! I'm serious.
That's it. will write more later. Peace. or as they say here...hoşçakal
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