So today was my family’s last day here ☹ It makes me really sad. I knew that I had to go back to my apartment, sleep, and wake up early for my History of Christianity midterm tomorrow but I really just wanted to go back with them and chill for the rest of the week. Unfortunately I didn’t have that luxury. But I bullshitted and studied at Starbucks because surprise surprise my two morning classes were cancelled without any notice. This is becoming a trend that I’m not a huge fan of. Anyway I decided since I had so much free time and was already on South Campus I might as well walk all the way down the hill to Bebek to take advantage of what an absolutely gorgeous day it was. It actually worked out really well I ‘studied’ for about a half hour before Dad text me and said they were headed my way.
I took them to Bebek Waffle where Mom, Dad, and I split absolutely delicious waffles filled with chocolate, strawberries, banana, kiwi, and hazelnut paste and Uncle Kam had a huge kumpir (Turkish baked potato with a million toppings). After that I took them to the café that Reuben’s ta took us to the first week, I actually still don’t remember the name of it but it’s the last café in Bebek before you hit the park? Anyway I left them there to enjoy their tea while I headed to my midterm.
So the midterm was easy like Professor Katz had promised but my family was here and my grades are pass/fail so the incentive to study wasn’t that great! I still knew the answers to all but two questions so I’m not complaining.
Afterwards all of us headed to Ortaköy to catch a Bosphorus cruise but unfortunately they only run every few hours on weekdays. So we just caught a cab to Eminönü for times sake and took the cruise from there. It was a really nice water cruise and takes you from Sultanahmet all the way to Rumeli Hisar near school, unfortunately it doesn’t point out any landmarks or give you any history along the way.
Then we all just chilled out, I did a little prep for a State Dept interview I have tomorrow and everyone else packed ☹ I can’t believe their trip is over already, 10 days seemed like such long trip but I really feel like it wasn’t enough time. Regardless I’m grateful that so many members of my family made it all the way to Istanbul to come see me. I wish all of them would just move here so I wouldn’t have to leave!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
April 27: Turkish Night
Last night after the Turkish Bath we had dinner at Wonderland Café this delicious amazing place in Rumeli Hisarüstü. Everyone was pretty tired and Mom and Titia’s stomachs were still iffy because of their sickness so a place with American, Chinese, Italian, Indian, French, and Turkish food would be perfect. Wonderland is designed after Alice in Wonderland; it’s a cool concept, sort of this place where you can have whatever you want from all over the world! The inside of course is very Turkish, in that it has huge couches and lush seats!
Today I took them to Ağac Ev (Tree house in Turkish), a great restaurant on Hisar Campus of my university. It’s cheap, has delicious food, the best cappuccinos outside of Italy and small portions, pretty much exactly what we needed. After lunch I showed Dad around my dorm. He’s so cute with his little video camera he took videos of everything. I’m sure that I’m going to be so happy that those videos exist in two months when I’m missing Istanbul like crazy and wishing I could be back in these moments.
In the evening we headed to the Southern part of the city to visit Istanbul University and the Galata Tower. Istanbul University is one of the oldest in the country other than that I don’t know much about it. But we walked around the main part of campus and took pictures in front of the beautiful Ottoman gate they have.
The Turkish Night show at the Galata Tower was just absolutely incredible. First of all the views from up there are INSANE. I thought I loved Istanbul before, but on a clear night from the tower, this city is just completely mesmerizing. I took a thousand pictures and I still don’t think the beauty of this city was covered.
After we walked around the outer terrace we headed to our table and were greeted with not only unlimited local alcoholic drinks (!!!!!!) but a HUGE plate of meze, which are Turkish tapas. After that we were brought a huge green salad, more drinks, and the show started with instrumental pieces from all over Turkey. Then we were brought our entrees, we all ordered mixed grille plates oh and more drinks. So it came with a piece of grilled chicken, steak, beef patty, and a lamb chop. Jesus I have never eaten and drank more in my entire life. This was when the real show started. A Sultan came and sat on stage with his two ladies. They were all dressed very Ottoman like and he kept feeding the ladies fruit on these ridiculously long toothpicks, really a sight to see! Of course like any good dinner show they started dragging audience members on state to participate and of course they picked Mom to go on stage to be a lady for the Sultan!! Ahaha he fed her tons of fruit while a 90lbs belly dancer strut her stuff on stage. We were all speechless, especially Reuben!
Then of course they grabbed Mom to belly dance, she didn’t disappoint, those Manipuri days are still paying off! After that they had male dancers come on who were awesome, they threw daggers, did backflips, jumped around, oh and called Reuben and Cevdet on stage!! Reuben, as you all know is a born show-man! He was a great sport and even tried to upstage the dancer…what a fool! Cevdet go the short end of the stick and had to lie on the ground while they covered his ‘man area’ with a wooden board so they could throw daggers at it ahh! After that they gave the audience a break so we could eat our huge dessert towers and drink more. Ah the food here, we got a huge tower included: fresh fruit, nuts, dried fruit, cream, and traditional Turkish desserts. Needless to say it was incredible!
The closing act of the night was a cute little old Turkish singer. To preface this, Turkish night at the Galata Tower is usually something done by tourists, so at each table they put the flags of the people sitting at the table. Our multicultural table got: USA, India, Nigeria, and Turkey!! So this incredibly talented man sang a song for every language in the room. How does one learn to sing in that many languages?? Other than anything African that is. Horribly offensive and incredibly funny at the same time; when he came to our table he sang in English and Hindi (Turkish he did at another table) we reminded him of Nigeria and so he put his hands on the small of his back and flapped his arms. Actually that’s pretty accurate; most women in Uganda did dance like that. But the bad part was that instead of just playing African sounding music, he literally opened his mouth and said “Aye- yai-yai-aye!!” Oh geez. Haha all in good humor though, and we’re great sports. At the end of course he pulled all the couples on stage and we all got out little solo dances. Overall it was a great night. I went home with a full belly, great pictures, and oh yeah I was pretty drunk after all that unlimited alcohol!
Today I took them to Ağac Ev (Tree house in Turkish), a great restaurant on Hisar Campus of my university. It’s cheap, has delicious food, the best cappuccinos outside of Italy and small portions, pretty much exactly what we needed. After lunch I showed Dad around my dorm. He’s so cute with his little video camera he took videos of everything. I’m sure that I’m going to be so happy that those videos exist in two months when I’m missing Istanbul like crazy and wishing I could be back in these moments.
In the evening we headed to the Southern part of the city to visit Istanbul University and the Galata Tower. Istanbul University is one of the oldest in the country other than that I don’t know much about it. But we walked around the main part of campus and took pictures in front of the beautiful Ottoman gate they have.
The Turkish Night show at the Galata Tower was just absolutely incredible. First of all the views from up there are INSANE. I thought I loved Istanbul before, but on a clear night from the tower, this city is just completely mesmerizing. I took a thousand pictures and I still don’t think the beauty of this city was covered.
After we walked around the outer terrace we headed to our table and were greeted with not only unlimited local alcoholic drinks (!!!!!!) but a HUGE plate of meze, which are Turkish tapas. After that we were brought a huge green salad, more drinks, and the show started with instrumental pieces from all over Turkey. Then we were brought our entrees, we all ordered mixed grille plates oh and more drinks. So it came with a piece of grilled chicken, steak, beef patty, and a lamb chop. Jesus I have never eaten and drank more in my entire life. This was when the real show started. A Sultan came and sat on stage with his two ladies. They were all dressed very Ottoman like and he kept feeding the ladies fruit on these ridiculously long toothpicks, really a sight to see! Of course like any good dinner show they started dragging audience members on state to participate and of course they picked Mom to go on stage to be a lady for the Sultan!! Ahaha he fed her tons of fruit while a 90lbs belly dancer strut her stuff on stage. We were all speechless, especially Reuben!
Then of course they grabbed Mom to belly dance, she didn’t disappoint, those Manipuri days are still paying off! After that they had male dancers come on who were awesome, they threw daggers, did backflips, jumped around, oh and called Reuben and Cevdet on stage!! Reuben, as you all know is a born show-man! He was a great sport and even tried to upstage the dancer…what a fool! Cevdet go the short end of the stick and had to lie on the ground while they covered his ‘man area’ with a wooden board so they could throw daggers at it ahh! After that they gave the audience a break so we could eat our huge dessert towers and drink more. Ah the food here, we got a huge tower included: fresh fruit, nuts, dried fruit, cream, and traditional Turkish desserts. Needless to say it was incredible!
The closing act of the night was a cute little old Turkish singer. To preface this, Turkish night at the Galata Tower is usually something done by tourists, so at each table they put the flags of the people sitting at the table. Our multicultural table got: USA, India, Nigeria, and Turkey!! So this incredibly talented man sang a song for every language in the room. How does one learn to sing in that many languages?? Other than anything African that is. Horribly offensive and incredibly funny at the same time; when he came to our table he sang in English and Hindi (Turkish he did at another table) we reminded him of Nigeria and so he put his hands on the small of his back and flapped his arms. Actually that’s pretty accurate; most women in Uganda did dance like that. But the bad part was that instead of just playing African sounding music, he literally opened his mouth and said “Aye- yai-yai-aye!!” Oh geez. Haha all in good humor though, and we’re great sports. At the end of course he pulled all the couples on stage and we all got out little solo dances. Overall it was a great night. I went home with a full belly, great pictures, and oh yeah I was pretty drunk after all that unlimited alcohol!
April 25-26: Topkapi and Cemberlitas with the Fam!
Monday
Even though we were exhausted after getting back from our epic Bodrum weekend, we just took a few hours to rest and then headed back out! The weather was absolutely awful. Why Istanbul?? Why do you always insist on having the shittiest weather when my family is in town? Oh well we made the best of it and headed to
Topkapı Place.
I had never been there before I was waiting to have my family here to see it. I know it’s weird but even though this has been such an independent experience it’s still so weird for me to see things like this without my family. I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world with my family from a very young age so usually seeing palaces, museums, and beaches have always been with them. Anyway long story short I wanted to wait for them to see Topkapı.
Anyway the palace is absolutely beautiful and the largest grounds I think I have ever seen. I love going to places like that just to imagine how life was like when Sultans and their families walked around here. I’m such a geek but I bought the book Harem by Aslı Sancar (website), and even though it’s set in Dolmabahçe Palace it’s still cool to have the stories of Princesses and Sultans running through my mind while walking around. The only thing that sucked was that it was so absolutely cold that the palace pretty much turned into a refrigerator. It was still gorgeous the whole palace is filled with old Sultan’s clothing, gifts and jewelry from other empires, and rooms perfectly preserved from Ottoman times. Islamic art and architecture is just so beautiful, I was in awe most of my time there. The only thing we didn’t get to see was the Harem, we got there at 3:30 and by the time the palace closed at 5:00 we had barely seen all of the palace oh well I’m sure I’ll be back soon!
Tuesday
Unfortunately, I had to go to class today so I stayed in my apartment overnight and met my family in Sultanahmet. Everyone saw the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and the Cisterns in the morning and thankfully my directions were sufficient to get them around! I met up with them and after having a quick lunch the boys and girls split! Dad and Uncle Kam headed to the Grand Bazaar. Admittedly I’m not a huge fan, it’s very touristy, crowded, and the vendors are pushy. Like I’ve said before I think the Spice Bazaar is a million times better. That being said it’s still worth seeing, plus it’s like 550 years old so why not! Mom, Titia, and I headed to the Turkish Bath, çemberlitaş, of course.
I enjoyed it just as much if not more than last time! But being there with my Mom and my Aunt made me realize how different modesty is across not only culture but ages. People my age, well 20ish year old girls aren’t always thrilled about being topless in front of other women but mostly we’re kinda eh about it. My sister has seen me naked, so have a few cousins, friends, and pretty much anyone who has stayed at my apartment after a drunken night out. I sleep naked when I’m drunk ok? But Mom and Titia are so different about it. They have been sister-in-laws and best friends for more than 25 years but they’ve never seen each other naked? I know it’s not like a normal thing to regularly see family members naked but please I’ve seen Rene and Tara when we’re all changing or going to the pool? I guess modesty went out the window with my generation? In any case they had a great time and since the two of them were so sick and stuffy the sauna made them both feel a lot better!
Even though we were exhausted after getting back from our epic Bodrum weekend, we just took a few hours to rest and then headed back out! The weather was absolutely awful. Why Istanbul?? Why do you always insist on having the shittiest weather when my family is in town? Oh well we made the best of it and headed to
Topkapı Place.
I had never been there before I was waiting to have my family here to see it. I know it’s weird but even though this has been such an independent experience it’s still so weird for me to see things like this without my family. I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world with my family from a very young age so usually seeing palaces, museums, and beaches have always been with them. Anyway long story short I wanted to wait for them to see Topkapı.
Anyway the palace is absolutely beautiful and the largest grounds I think I have ever seen. I love going to places like that just to imagine how life was like when Sultans and their families walked around here. I’m such a geek but I bought the book Harem by Aslı Sancar (website), and even though it’s set in Dolmabahçe Palace it’s still cool to have the stories of Princesses and Sultans running through my mind while walking around. The only thing that sucked was that it was so absolutely cold that the palace pretty much turned into a refrigerator. It was still gorgeous the whole palace is filled with old Sultan’s clothing, gifts and jewelry from other empires, and rooms perfectly preserved from Ottoman times. Islamic art and architecture is just so beautiful, I was in awe most of my time there. The only thing we didn’t get to see was the Harem, we got there at 3:30 and by the time the palace closed at 5:00 we had barely seen all of the palace oh well I’m sure I’ll be back soon!
Tuesday
Unfortunately, I had to go to class today so I stayed in my apartment overnight and met my family in Sultanahmet. Everyone saw the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and the Cisterns in the morning and thankfully my directions were sufficient to get them around! I met up with them and after having a quick lunch the boys and girls split! Dad and Uncle Kam headed to the Grand Bazaar. Admittedly I’m not a huge fan, it’s very touristy, crowded, and the vendors are pushy. Like I’ve said before I think the Spice Bazaar is a million times better. That being said it’s still worth seeing, plus it’s like 550 years old so why not! Mom, Titia, and I headed to the Turkish Bath, çemberlitaş, of course.
I enjoyed it just as much if not more than last time! But being there with my Mom and my Aunt made me realize how different modesty is across not only culture but ages. People my age, well 20ish year old girls aren’t always thrilled about being topless in front of other women but mostly we’re kinda eh about it. My sister has seen me naked, so have a few cousins, friends, and pretty much anyone who has stayed at my apartment after a drunken night out. I sleep naked when I’m drunk ok? But Mom and Titia are so different about it. They have been sister-in-laws and best friends for more than 25 years but they’ve never seen each other naked? I know it’s not like a normal thing to regularly see family members naked but please I’ve seen Rene and Tara when we’re all changing or going to the pool? I guess modesty went out the window with my generation? In any case they had a great time and since the two of them were so sick and stuffy the sauna made them both feel a lot better!
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