Istanbul was Constantinople
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2008
1
15
Trip End
Dec 18, 2008
Istanbul, Turkey
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Anyway, the school organized a trip to Turkey for us this weekend. The bus ride there was somewhere between 9 and 12 hours long, i think i stopped keeping track of time after about 2 hours. It was a little bit rough, but we took it though the night so most people just slept. When we got to the border we all had to get out to get our passports stamped and all that fun stuff and it was like -5 Celsius outside which i was NOT prepared for. For those of you who forgot 7th grade science 0 C is freezing temp so it was pretty cold. A few hours later we arrived at our hotel and they took us on a walking tour right away. Not the best idea cause we were all exhausted, but i guess if they let us go to our rooms we would have never came back. Istanbul is really cool. I wouldn't say beautiful cause its pretty dirty, but the Mosques they have are some of the most incredible structures i have ever seen. The Blue Mosque was massive and we kept saying they looked like they were straight out of star wars. Maybe some of the writers were muslim and they designed the set after some of the historical mosques? who knows? We actually got to go inside the Blue Mosque for one of the daily prayers. It's really kinda cool because the call for prayer is heard all over the entire city and people from all over just start filling into the mosque. When we went in we had to take off our shoes and all the women had to cover their heads. There was an open area of carpet where we were not allowed, but we were allowed to stand around it and watch them pray. The men go to the front of the church to the window facing Mecca, and the women have to pray behind a screen in the back of the church. I don't really know why, but thats the way it is over there i guess. We also got to go inside the Aya Sofia which is the most historical landmark in Istanbul. It was build in the Byzantine era and was one of the largest cathedrals ever build for thousands of years. It stood as a church until Constantinople was taken over by the Turks and was ordered to be converted into a Mosque when the city became Istanbul. Little history lesson for you there. It was really cool being there because it was like all of my AP Euro classes coming to life. Thanks Mr. Dent! It is now a museum with the carpets removed and the inside being preserved. After sight seeing, me and my other girlfriends i was with went to a traditional Turkish bath. It was quite an experience and if you are curious about it i will have to tell you on your own time. Lets just say it was interesting, but afterwords i felt like a new person. I have never felt more clean in my life. That all I'm gonna say about that.
The second day in Istanbul we went to the Grand Bazaar. It might have been one of the most ridiculous places ever. It was basically like this GIANT maze with halls and halls of scarfs and jewelry, and carpets, and lanterns and anything else you could possible think of. I was pretty overwhelmed. It is also the bartering capital of the universe. I don't think i have ever been more harassed in my entire life. There we so many places to go and it was so easy to get lost. The people give you cards so you can find your way back to how you got in. We were with a group of at least 70 people and we only ran in to 2 or 3 the entire time we were in there. That is how massive it is. My friend Kathryn and I just walked around, told people we were sisters and we were from New York, or where ever they guessed. Most of them just said "California??" and we just smiled and nodded. That night we went to dinner in the down town shopping district called Taksim. It was also pretty crazy. It was freezing and raining and there were still people EVERYWHERE. It was a really fun weekend. Istanbul is really an interesting city and I just think it is so cool that I can say that I have been there.
