March 18: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Haman!

Today Rene and I woke up at 9:00am after being out until after 3:00am and ran around the whole city! We were exhausted by the end but whole day was so amazing it was totally worth it!

Entrance to the Hagia Sophia

First we went to the Hagia Sophia or Ayasofia (Turkish spelling). It is the perfect example of the cross between the Eastern and Western world. Actually it’s a perfect monument to represent Istanbul; this city has such an interesting blend of Asian and European cultures cultivated through all aspects of life. I mean you can sit at a French chocolate café and hear the call to prayer in the background, interesting fusion. Anyway the Hagia Sophia was a church during Byzantine times and once the empire fell to the Ottomans they turned the church into a mosque. It has little quirks about it like the prayer area doesn’t face Mecca because it was originally designed to be a church and the materials are a fusion of the original ones used to build the church and more traditional Ottoman building materials. With current restorations half of the material covering the walls and ceilings has been ripped down to show how the Islamic art was just painted over the Christian art. It’s a really cool place to see.

Getting from the lower to upper gallery is done via ramps. Rene and I thought it was cool...until the 8th or 9th ramp!


"Judgement Day" Displayed in the Upper Gallery. It was covered after this building was converted to a mosque.



Inside View

The Blue Mosque was really cool but I guess I don’t know enough about Islamic architecture to recognize subtle differences. The mosque was huge and I’m glad that I got to see it but honestly I can’t really see much of a difference between the Blue and New mosques. Haha Rene will probably kill me for saying that! Regardless it’s a beautiful mosque.

Rene outside the Blue Mosque!

The Turkish bath was INCREDIBLE we went to the Çemberlitaş bath. It’s the historic bath which was used by Ottoman elite during the 1800s. It was literally the best bath/spa experience I’ve ever had. Rene and I got the Luxury package which was 99 lira or around $60. Kinda steep for things in Turkey but for what it included (regular Turkish bath service, scrub down and hot oil massage) it is a steal! First you are taken to a luxury locker room where you change out of all of your clothes other than a black pair of bikini bottoms and a thin traditional Turkish towel. You lock your clothes and belongings in a locker and grab a pair of shower shoes to walk down to the traditional bath area. This area is a huge room covered from floor to ceiling in marble. The room is basically a sauna but with less heat than the traditional one. In the middle of the room there’s a three foot high marble counter which has 20 sides and one person lies on each side. So men and women are separated, the men’s bath looks exactly the same but it’s on the other side of the building. But everyone in the bath is topless. I thought it would be a big deal and embarrassing but it really wasn’t. It was just a bunch of normal women hanging out no one really looked at anyone else and it was a very comfortable environment.

Anyway once you lay on the counter for a while an older woman with saggy boobs wearing a black bra and undies comes to bathe you. Again, this was something I thought was going to be very weird but nope not at all. It’s so humid and there’s water everywhere, if they were clothed their outfits would just be soaked. But they pour warm water on you and then scrub your entire body with a special scrubber which gets all the dead skin off of you. It’s kinda gross you can actually see the dead skin rubbing off of your body in little black rolls. I promise I shower regularly and exfoliate well! It just goes to show how much dirt we all carry around, too bad I can’t afford a Turkish bath every day! Anyway the massage you for a while after the scrub down and then take you to an enclave off the main dome area to shampoo your hair and massage your scalp. After that you go to cool down in a room temperature pool/ Jacuzzi. This is the end of the traditional Turkish bath, that service would have been 65 lira but I wanted the whole 9 yards! So I waited in a warm room to be taken to my hot oil massage. It was amazing. There are no words. Like it was so relaxing I fell asleep towards the end! Even here there is no real privacy which just felt normal. You are lying on a table with your own masseuse in a room with ten or twelve tables. Being here and having it be normal to be not so paranoid about being naked or obsessed with privacy makes it seem unnatural to be so modest and private for massages at home. Anyway after all that I took a quick warm shower to wash the oil off and blow dried my hair and Rene and I headed back. Both of us were so relaxed we almost fell asleep on the bus! Overall a great day, I’m so glad I got to do all these things with Rene!

View from the outside of the bath. For obvious reasons you can't take pictures inside. You can see two identical domes, one is for men and the other is for women.

March 15: Nargile, Chocolate, Cisterns, and Nargile

RENE IS HERE! Omg I have never been so happy to see her! Well that’s not really true but I’m so happy that she’s here. Normally we talk every day so it’s weird being seven hours ahead here and only being able to talk over email and skyping once a week.

Reuben was so excited to see her that he started calling her Nin...weird

Anyway she was a big girl and took a cab from the airport by herself so of course as soon as she got here I screamed, ran across the street to squeeze her, and fed her! We got lahmacuns and soup. I was determined to keep her from being jetlagged so I took her to the park overlooking the bridge and we took pictures and walked around the park! After that I took her to her hotel to check her in and then we stopped at this amazing Chocolate Café. Who knew those even existed?? But we got a delicious fondue platter and Turkish çay. I don't know if it's being in Istanbul that makes me so happy or what but that was literally the best chocolate I've ever had!

Fondue platter!!


I <3 chocolate

In the evening Rene got to experience her first of many growing up experiences, nargile!! We took her to Esmer, a hookah café near the apartment and my friends and I spent the whole time trying to teach Rene how to get a head rush! Oh geez what a fail, I don’t think she got it but I’m pretty sure she charred her lungs. Anyway after all that she was exhausted so I took her back to the hotel to crash.

This is real life.

Lucky for Rene she got to sleep in until noon while I on the other hand had to wake up at 7:30 for class ughhhh. Class is going well by the way. My Turkish class as usual is kicking my ass but the other ones are good. International Law is so interesting, even though she kills me with the 75+ pages of reading a week it kinda makes me want to go to law school? Foreign Policy well he’s cancelled so many classes that I’ve only had 2 the entire semester oh and guess what? Class is cancelled next week! Finally, my History of Christianity class is amazing! My professor is a visiting professor from England/Israel/US and he’s so entertaining and smart. I have learned so much and I actually really enjoy his lectures.

In the afternoon Reuben and I took Rene to the Basilica Cistern. It’s an underground structure from the 6th century, it was established and built during the Byzantine Empire and it is one of the coolest things I’ve seen here. My friend Molly described it best, being inside the Cistern is a lot like being in the Chamber of Secrets from Harry Potter! Then of course we took her to the Spice Bazaar where a vendor made her eat a spoonful of curry powder because she’s Indian haahah! I love going there, it still feels like a truly authentic experience and in a world where there is a Starbucks or McDonalds on every corner it’s a nice feeling.

Inside of the Cistern. I felt like I was in the Chamber of Secrets hehe!


In front of Medusa's Chamber.


Of course Rene wanted to take a picture with Medusa

Anyway we took Rene to Taksim to RAGE!!It was St Patty's Day so def a wild night. And of course more nargile afterwards!

March 12: Snow in Istanbul

Yayayay Rohan and Tara are here this week!! I literally could not be more excited to have family visit. Let’s be real, everyone who knows me knows that I am OBSESSED with my cousins. Also it makes me feel so loved that they want to come all the way to Istanbul to see me!! Unfortunately Istanbul decided to be pissy this week and snow?!?!? WTF. Like it’s been cloudy and cold but snow? And I’m not talking dust the ground. I’m talking whirl winds of snow slapping the shit out of you. At least nothing stuck to the ground so getting around was still really easy! The only thing that sucks is that when it’s this cold outside all you want to do is download an episode of Jersey Shore, order in, and stay in bed. But Rohan is only here for three days so we made the best of it!

Rohan, Tara, and Snow??

On Wednesday he met me after class and we went to lunch where I introduced him to the love of my life named lahmacun (pronounced lah-mah-jjun) it’s Turkish flatbread covered with ground beef/lamb and spices. You spray lemon all over it and roll it up like a burrito with lettuce and tomato inside. It is delicious!! And only 2.25 lira, you cannot beat that! Anyway after that we walked around Rumeli Hisarüstü, the neighborhood near South Campus, looking for winter clothes. Unfortunately Rohan’s bag was lost by the airline so all he has for the blizzard in Istanbul is a fleece jacket! No worries though, he’s a trooper and we found a good hat! We walked to the park that usually has gorgeous panoramic views of the city, of course today it was so cloudy you could barely see the Bosphorous eh oh well.


Usually the view is much better. But oh well cousins pic anyway!

We did what everyone does in the Middle East when you’re unsure of what to do next…NARGILE!!! We found a cool café in Bebek where Tara and Marium met us for drinks and Nargile.

When in doubt, just grab an Efes and smoke some nargile!


Tara and Marium needed lots of Turkish Coffee to stay warm :)

Of course I had to take Rohan to Cevahir. I know I know, malls aren't everyone's thing. But he needed to buy winter clothes so why not go to the biggest mall in Europe?

My favorite place in the whole world...Cevahir!


Yup that's a full sized roller coaster in the mall.

My friend Molly took Rohan to see Taksim (the downtown area) and the Spice Bazaar when I was trapped in class all day Thursday and for the rest of his trip we just chilled. He got to meet all of my great friends here and eat a TON of Turkish food. So while I’m disappointed he didn’t get to see the Istanbul I know and love (sunny and warm-ish) or the Hagia Sophia or Blue Mosque, I know Rohan doesn’t care! He probably would have been bored if I dragged him to all the Mosques and Palaces here anyway. In any case I’m thrilled he visited and I miss him tons and tons already wahhhh.

I didn’t get to see as much of Tara as I wanted wahhh (not her fault her hotel was super far :( ). But when I did see her we had a great time! The beginning of her week the weather was a little better so I was able to take her to my favorite restaurant, introduce her to my friends that work in the laundry room, and show her around campus! We even made it to the biggest mall in Europe! (Of course we did!) On her last night her, my friend Molly and I met her and Marium’s family in Taksim. Surprisingly they have a French Quarter here. I know random right? But it’s gorgeous, like the rest of Istanbul it’s on a huge downhill. The street looks exactly like a street from Paris, time warp much?? I felt like I had been teleported to Western Europe! We found an adorable French restaurant and enjoyed some AMAZING French food literally in the middle of Istanbul! Haha it was really nice, I can’t wait to go back when Mom and Dad come :D I’m so sad that my cousins are gone but now I have three days to catch up on sleep and get as much work done as possible before RENE GETS HERE OMG I MIGHT JUST DIE!!!

(3/3) February 27: Rain in Rome

Final post about my incredible weekend in Rome...

Today we woke up bright and early. At six am! I knew that we had to get to the Vatican before 9:00 or there would be no hope of getting in/seeing as much as I wanted to. Even though we got there at 8:30 in the morning the line was around the building. We waited for 2 hours in the freezing weather! Yes, all of a sudden Rome got cold and cloudy...grr Istanbul you couldn't let us enjoy the warmth for just another day? Anyway once we got inside we needed a coffee break because Reuben's feet were frozen and asleep and I'm ADDICTED to cappucino!

We ended up not getting a tour guide and just buying the audio guide. I liked that much better the descriptions were short and sweet and you got to pick what you wanted to stop and learn about. The nice thing about coming on the last Sunday of the month is that it is free but it closes at 1:30pm so you don't really get that much time there. And to see all of the Vatican truly is an all day thing. We made our way through most of the museum and saw some incredible rooms designed by Rafaelo. I forgot how much I liked Italian art. Truthfully I didn't remember much from my trip here in high school.


Ancient Roman Statues




I <3 Rafaelo.

Of course the final stop in the tour was the Sistine Chapel and like I remembered it was breathtaking. It doesn't even matter that you're not allowed to take pictures there just because no picture could capture the beauty and grandeur of that room. There are just no words.

We left the Vatican as the were closing and headed back to the Flaminio metro station and got an obscene amount of food for lunch! It was all incredible though, thank god I'm not studying abroad in Italy. I would be middle school 145 lb Rhea again!

The food in Italy is ridiculously good.

We were pretty tired for the rest of the day and it started raining really really hard so of course I still dragged Reuben to the Spanish steps to take a picture there :)


Thanks for being such a good sport Reuben!

But we just got a nice quiet dinner at the restaurant near our hotel, which like all the other food in Italy was delicious. We gorged ourselves. AH I will miss the food here. Anyway tomorrow morning we wake up and leave Rome :( but we got back to Istanbul! Geez could the study abroad life get any better?

(2/3) February 26: Running Around in Roma…no I won’t stop with the alliterations ☺

The plan was to wake up at 8:00am today and make the most of our first full day here. But I didn’t realized that our phones were still set to Turkish time (an hour ahead) so we ended up getting up at 7:00! I was thrilled, Reuben not so much :/ but we headed down to an amazing breakfast spread! And the cappuccino! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! Breakfast is the one meal in Turkey that isn’t that great, I mean unless you’re going to get a börek, but those are too unhealthy to be a daily thing.

Peace, Love and Cappuccino.

Grappa and Trevi

Anyway we quickly headed to the Trevi Fountain! Again my second time here but it was even more beautiful and breath taking than I remembered. I guess the wish thing is true…does that mean I have one more trip to Rome in store?? This trip was especially memorable because today was the day of the Italy-Wales rugby match and for some reason all the Wales fans dress up in crazy Halloween costumes for the game! We saw some at breakfast but didn’t realize who they were until we got to the Trevi Fountain and saw like twenty of them! The fountain was even more beautiful than I remembered it. I have to keep pinching myself, I feel so lucky to be able to see all of these things and do all of this unbelievable stuff in such a short period of time!

Bellisima!


We had to take the cheesy throwing the coin in picture!


<3

Coloseo, Palantino and Forum Romana

This is where our Roma pass really came in handy. If I haven’t said this already that was probably the best 25 euro I spent while I was here. It includes free and unlimited public transportation for 3 days, and free entry into two museums or archaeological sites. Lucky for me the Coloseo, Palantino and Forum Romana were all grouped into one so they only counted as one entry. I’m not too sure why or how that worked but hey, I’m not complaining! So the pass allowed us to skip the ridiculous line! I guess because it was a Saturday it was even worse but the line just to buy tickets was two hours long…with the Roma pass we got in the coliseum in about 5 minutes.



It was incredible, even bigger than I remembered! Reuben really liked it too, of course the most he got out of all the history was that gladiators used to fight to the death. Now he’s obsessed with Russell Crowe.


Reuben's new goal = Become a Gladiator

Afterwards we were stopped by some “gladiators” who were dying to have their picture taken with us! They were really funny and Reuben got some great shots…even though they haggled us for 5 euro afterwards ☹


"Princess you have juicy melons. Let the prince enjoy!"

The Palantino was cool but without a tour guide/audio guide it was hard to enjoy. All of the ruins were literally 5-6 feet tall so you couldn’t really tell what anything was. But seeing the ruins of Augustus Caesar’s house was really cool!

The Roman Forum was AMAZING! I might even like it more than the coliseum but then again I’m a huge poli nerd ☺ It’s just so incredible to see a place that has withstood thousands of years. Before we got to Rome I was reading a blog about the Roman Forum and the guy who wrote it talked about walking around there wondering if Caesar walked on the same bricks and I couldn’t help but thinking the same thing. It’s one thing to see these places in movies and learn about them in school but being there and witnessing everything on your own is so different.

View from the new level ground. It blows my mind how the entire city was build above all this.




My attempt at being artsy. Look at little Reuben in the corner!

Cristo Salvatore
After those sights we were exhausted and really just wanted to wander into a non-touristy part of town and get some cappuccino. We ended up hopping on a random bus and getting off a random stop hoping for the best and when we got off the bus we were in front of a HUGE church. And it had massive statues of all the apostles on top of it. I hadn’t read anything about this church but I figured it was worth checking out. So we wandered in and found out that this church was given to Rome in the 1300s from Constantinople (Yeah Turks!) and is considered the mother of all other churches in Rome…why? Well I’m not exactly sure but that’s what the inscription says in Latin. The coolest part of this church was all the statues they had inside and a gold plated sculpture of the Last Supper. It was absolutely beautiful!


Outside view of the Church


This has to be one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen


Hallway with marble statues of all the Apostles and some Saints

Pizza and Bira

After seeing the church we were exhausted. Like for real. So we headed back to Flaminio to go to the hotel to nap. Little did we know (silly Americans!) the time we were trying to get on the tram was the same time that the Rugby match let out eeeek! The tram was packed packed packed, so we decided to walk, simple solution right? But no. The street was packed too I got checked so many times we decided to wait it out for a while and stumbled upon a small restaurant that had a 5 euro deal for a massive slice of pizza and a huge Italian beer yum! Well after that we were pretty much out of commission for the rest of the night and just went to the hotel and chilled/ went to bed early! Long day ahead at the Vatican tomorrow anyway ☺