I hope you're all nice and comfortable, because this is going to be a long post!
Last Friday marked the beginning of our week and a half of Easter Break. On Saturday another TA friend, Meredith, came for a short visit. It was fun to see her again and catch up on everything that's been happening in Burgenland and her travels. The weather wasn't great, it was incredibly windy, cloudy and chilly, so we just relaxed. We ended up going to another Heurige near my apartment for a tasty dinner and wine. I had a Tiroler Gröstl (I wasn't exactly sure what it was when I ordered it), which turned out to be cubed potatoes and ham pan fried with a fried egg on top- so it was quite good. Sunday was another day of relaxing and chatting.
On Monday Liz (my flatmate) and I flew to Istanbul for a Non-Austrian Adventure. As much as I love Austria, I've been wanting to explore more of the countries around here while I have the chance, and I feel like I haven't been taking full advantage of the easy and cheap(er) travel available here. We booked the trip awhile ago, and I was really looking forward to it. We landed on the Asian side of the city, so it took awhile to get to the other side of the Bosphorus and our hostel. We stayed in the Galata district, which is on the European side of Istanbul, but across an inlet from Sultanahamet (the old city a.k.a. Constantinople). It's a good thing the hostel was cheap (35 Euro for 4 nights), the first night we were in a 6 bed dorm (we had booked a 4) next to the rowdy common room and only 1 floor up from the noisy street. The next day we asked if we could be moved, and we were given a 4 bed dorm on the 4th floor (5th in the US) which was much quieter.
After settling into the hostel we went down to the Bosphorus to check it out. It was dark so we could see the Asian side of the city and also one of the bridges all lit up. We walked along the Bosphorus to the funicular that goes to the top of the hill and Taksim square. Taksim is a little less touristy and a little cheaper than anything on the Sultanahamet district, and we ate most of our dinners there. There's also a pedestrian shopping street there, which was fun to explore. I have to admit, our first night there we had Arby's- which I have never seen outside of the US before. Turkey has a lot of fast food places that I've never seen anywhere but the US; I saw Popeye's Chicken, Little Ceasars, Dominos, Sbarro, etc. After wandering the pedestrian zone for awhile we went back to the hostel and called it a night.
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| Istanbul is the city of cats, they're everywhere, and many are quite friendly (because they get fed by tourists). |
The next morning we headed over to the old city to start exploring. We walked up to the Palace, but it was closed because it was Tuesday, so we walked up to the Hagia Sophia instead. Along the way we happened by the cat in the picture above, posing nicely by the sign. Everywhere we went in Istanbul there were stray cats, our hostel even had a handful of cats. Up the street from our hostel were these huts with holes in them and cats all around, so we guessed it was a cat hotel. One day while walking through a park we saw an old man on a bicycle with some special horn; he seemed to be calling the cats to him from all over the area. We saw about 12 cats around him, and there were more coming- quite a site! Needless to say, Istanbul might not be the place to go if you're allergic to cats. Anyway, back to the Hagia...
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| Outside the Hagia Sophia. |
The Hagia Sophia is huge, and really beautiful inside. It was originally dedicated as a Greek Orthodox cathedral in 532, then turned into a Mosque (with the addition of Minarets) in 1453, and since 1935 it's been considered a museum, not a religious building. I noticed that many historical buildings in Istanbul are in dire need of restoration, but it seems that the Turkish economy cannot give the funds necessary to maintain these ancient buildings. This seems especially true for the buildings which no longer serve a function beyond tourism- the Blue Mosque was in much better shape than the Hagia Sophia, of course it is significantly newer as it was built in 1609.
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| Inside the Hagia Sophia. There's so much light my camera didn't know what to do with it all. |
Certain walls of the Hagia have been cleaned of the plaster and stucco to reveal the Christian mosaics, which were covered for centuries when it served as a Mosque. The mosaics are quite detailed with tiny tiles, but most of them are only partially uncovered because of the cost and possible damage that further restoration work might do.
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| The Sultan Ahmet Mosque lit up at night. |
After we left the Hagia we went to the temple which houses many of the Sultans' graves, we walked by the German fountain (I have a great picture of the mosaic that covers the ceiling there- it'll be on Smugmug sometime next week when I can use the school's internet). Then we went to the Sultan Ahmet (or Blue) Mosque, which is across a large square from the Hagia Sophia. We were a bit rushed there, because it was getting close to one of the times when people come to pray. We got in, took off our shoes (I have to say, the whole place stank of feet), and started taking pictures. Every inch of wall space is tiled, and almost all of the tiles have really intricate detail on them- the fact that the building is tiled and not stucco or painted may also be a reason why it's in better condition than the Hagia.
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| Looking up at the domes inside the Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque. |
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| Wearing a head scarf in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. |
We were also encouraged to cover our hair while visiting the Mosque, so both Liz and I wrapped our scarves around our heads. I have to say I think we did a better job than many tourists who only managed to cover about 1/2 their head and couldn't keep the scarf in place- not that I'll frequently be wearing my scarves in this manner. Liz made a lot of jokes that now my chances of being President in the US are pretty much shot since I have a picture of me wearing a head scarf, I also now have a pair of earrings with the sign of the sultan on them, and also a scarf with the same sign. After leaving the Mosque we went to lunch at a place one of my Kindle guide books recommended called Doy Doy. We sat up on one of their roof terraces (their upper terrace wasn't open yet), where I had a great view of the Blue Mosque. That was where we heard our first call to prayer. I quite like hearing it, the call lasts about 5 minutes, but it's not constant- I have a video which I'll post later so you all can hear it. We also had some really great shish kebabs there; living in Austria there's not a huge variety in spices and flavors in food here, so it was amazing to have food with spice and flavor again.
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| Entering the Grand Bazar. |
After lunch we went to the Grand Bazar to see what it was all about. It's a huge maze of a market place that has some sort of organization to which shops are where, but not much. There's sort of a jewelry area, a textile area, a leather area, a glass and ceramic area, but really in each "area" you can find shops selling other things as well. Walking through the halls can be a bit confusing, and overwhelming as there are salesmen everywhere trying to talk to you. It seems like most people there speak English (or there's at least one English speaker at each shop), and once they find out where you're from they tell you how much they love it- really they're a bunch of suck-ups. When salesmen found out I was from the US they'd always want to know where, "New York, LA, Flordia?" And I'd reply Wisconsin- so many blank looks and they'd stop asking questions. We ended up going to the Bazar twice, and while we were there I bought scarves and jewelry and had a great time "bargaining" (which I put in quotes because I'm certainly no expert at it, but at least I got a better price than first offered). The second time we went I bought a necklace and earrings from a guy who's studying to be an Arabic teacher, and since he's a teacher, I'm a teacher and Liz is a teacher he kept knocking Lira (the Turkish currency) off the price. He also got us some tart apple tea, which is part of the bargaining and shopping process in the Bazar, and I got him to knock a further 10 Lira (5 Euro) off his final price by telling him he could be Liz's boyfriend the next time she goes to Istanbul. It was good fun!
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| Shops in the Grand Bazar. |
After the Grand Bazar we went to the Spice Bazar and took a bunch of pictures, but didn't buy anything. The sights and smells were mouthwatering, and I wish that I had tried more of the Turkish sweets besides Baklava.
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| Tea and spices in the Spice Bazar. |
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| All different Turkish sweets and some beautiful ceramic bowls in the Spice Bazar. |
The Spice Bazar is next to the New Mosque- I'm not really sure how new it is, but it's quite beautiful, and the courtyard made for a great place to rest. It was prayer time, so we weren't able to go in. After checking out the ferry docks to find a cruise to take the next day we went back to the hostel to rest and read for a while before going up to Taksim to find some dinner. We ended up having a four course wandering dinner. First we stopped at this burger stand that my guide book recommended for a small but saucy and flavorful Turkish hamberger (called an Islak Bugerler in Turkish). Next we went to a traditional Turkish restaurant down the pedestrian street for salad and a filled Turkish pancake.
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| The ladies in the window making, baking and filling Turkish pancakes. |
There were a few restaurants with these Turkish pancakes, and in all of them the two women making the pancakes are in the window so everyone walking by can see them. The dough is certainly dryer than our pancake batter, they roll it out on those wooden tables, cook it on that black table between them, then fill it with the order (in our case it was a cheese sort of like Feta, but not as sharp), and grill it again. The pancake (and this was true of most bread we had) was chewy and quite good. Then we went further down the street to a window where a young man was selling ice cream. Liz had told me how Turkish ice cream is really grippy/sticky so the guys serving it often do tricks with it. The guy that we went to also did some tricks- he gave me the ice cream cone (sans ice cream), and then when he went to put the ice cream in the cone he ended up yanking the whole thing out of my hand. The reason why their ice cream is this way is that they put Orchid root extract in it to change the texture. It makes the ice cream not want to come apart, so if you lick it you'll end up with a string of ice cream hanging from your tongue, and if you bite it the ice cream has a thicker harder texture. I didn't notice a different flavor at all, my ice cream tasted like rich chocolaty ice cream!
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| Cruising the Bosphorus with Istanbul in the background. |
The next morning we caught a cruise ferry to a town where the Bosphorus opens to the Black Sea. The ferry left from Sultanahamet, and cruised the whole 31 km to the other end of the Bosphorus, which took 1.5 hours. We then had 3 hours to explore the little fishing village, the castle above the town and have lunch. We went up to the castle first, which I was disappointed to see wasn't actually open for us to wander around in- we could only see the outside. From the hilltop we had a good view of where the Bosphorus and Black Sea come together, and it was a gorgeous day (as was every day in Istanbul- sunny and warm!). We walked back down to the first restaurant, which had a big terrace and a great view of the town and the Bosphorus. The food was a bit more expensive than that around Taksim, but it was still cheaper than food here! The spices were also a bit toned down, but the view and the free chewy bread made up for it. On our way back toward the boat we shopped a bit since we had time to kill, and we had some more of that Turkish ice cream. On the boat ride back we saw some little dolphins jumping around in the straight- quite a cool sight!
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| Our view of the Bosphorus from the terrace where we stopped for lunch. |
When we got back from our cruise we went to the other side of the old city to walk along the Marmara Sea (where the other end of the Bosphorus comes out). There are lots of big boats out in the Sea there, and there are also a lot of Seafood restaurants on the coast there. We walked along the coast with the water on one side, and the old city wall on the other.
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| BB Guns and ballons on the Marmara Sea. We saw set ups like this a few times, apparently you can pay to shoot balloons, it seems like a strange thing to me, but whatever floats your boat! |
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| Fishing poles on the Marmara Sea. There are tons of fresh fish restaurants in Istanbul, so there are also a lot of fishermen all along the coasts. |
While we were walking my camera decided it was done, despite the fact that it still said it had 1/2 the battery left. I didn't think to bring my charger since I charged it before we left, and I usually don't charge it more than once a week. That night on our way to find some dinner we ran into our friend Bryce, another TA in Austria, in Taksim square. We had talked about meeting up in Istanbul, but we hadn't counted on our phones not working there... so the fact that we met up at all is pretty much coincidence. We talked for a bit, but he was on his way to meet friends, and we were off to find a place to try Turkish döner. There are tons of Döner Kebab places all over much of Europe, but it's said to be created by a Turk in Germany, so we wanted to see what döner was like in Turkey. As it turns out it's not too different from what I know in Austria. Döner here is usually meat (chicken, lamb, or pork) cooked on a verticle turning spit, cut off and served in a pita-like bread with lettuce, cabbage, tomato, onion and sauce (creamy garlic or spicy or both) and sometimes sheep cheese. Döner there was the plated version, with some salad and rice, but no sauce.
After two pretty intense sight seeing days we decided to relax on Thursday. There wasn't really anything left that we wanted to see that didn't cost more money than we wanted to spend. We went back to the Grand Bazar, and then we headed to the park below the palace. It's a huge park full of flower beds, tall old trees, benches and grassy lawns. There were storks nesting in the trees, which I don't think I've ever seen before, and also some parrot like birds flying around. We sat there and read for awhile, and then we went up to the castle gardens to look around and read there as well, but they weren't as nice and there were a lot more people, so we didn't stay as long. I got a pretty nice tan there, and I've got a nice strong sunglasses tan line. I was hoping that after three warm sunny days the tulips would finally be out- the first week of April is supposed to be the highlight of tulip season in Istanbul, but as it has been a cool spring until now they weren't quite ready. Occasionally we'd see a patch of them in bloom, but it looked to me like next week would be a good tulip week there.
As evening started we wandered through the streets of the old city around the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. We ended up having dinner at a Mexican place, which was much closer to the Mexican food I'm used to than the Mexican food in Austria. It was a bit lacking in spice and sauce, but it was still pretty good. We kept wandering the area until it was dark so we could get some pictures of the Hagia and Mosque lit up. I managed to snap one picture on my camera before it died again. Liz took some pictures for me too.
Flying home yesterday we were made to check our bags, which had been carry-ons on the way to Istanbul, and as a result I lost my apartment keys. They were in a velcro pocket, which apparently didn't stay closed. It's a good thing I was traveling with Liz though, because she had her key! That was the only downer to the trip, and it shouldn't be too hard to get Liz's key copied, so all in all it was a good vacation! If you get the chance, I would highly recommend a trip to Istanbul, it's a beautiful city, it's pretty inexpensive (when you're used to the Euro and Austria), and it's a lot of fun!
In further Austria news- I GOT ACCEPTED FOR A SECOND YEAR HERE! I'll be in one of the same schools, Bad Vöslau-Gainfarn, and then I'll also be at a Gymnasium here in Baden as well. I'm a bit sad that I won't be at Berndorf next year since I feel like I know my students there better, but hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch with some of them and my colleagues there as well. Now I have to find out of I can rent the same apartment, or if I need to find a new place (or a roommate).
