90 יום

Ok, get ready for another long one. I've got Istanbul to tell you about, plus the last two weeks. I think it's gonna involve more pics than words though for Istanbul. Really, my words cannot possibly describe the incredibly beautiful city I went to. To see all my pictures, check out my FB. (Unfortunately, once again, the internet sucks so I'm gonna have to wait to put up the pictures) (Yay! It works now :)

So, we caught a 4 am flight from Tel Aviv and got to Istanbul around 7. Israeli security is apparently more fun leaving the country than entering (I know, weird, right?). Anyways, we caught our shuttle to the Agora Hostel which is right in the historic part of the city a few blocks from Haghia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Blue Mosque. It was raining hard all day and it was around 50 degrees, so needless to say, we were not prepared considering Tel Aviv weather. I went with Abby, Jaya, Nitya, and Sruti. The girls decided they wanted to go to the Turkish bath due to the rain, but I felt like seeing the city, so I spent the day walking around by myself in the rain (I know, I'm growing up :). I walked along the tram way and eventually into the Grand Bazaar.

Haghia Sophia

Blue Mosque

Random Street

Kebab Mmmmmm

Grand Bazaar

We had set up a meet up time, so around 4 I headed back to the hostel. They ended up coming at around 5 so in the meantime I met some of the people at the hostel. I met a Spaniard and an Italian, so I got to practice my languages (Yay for actually being able to understand a foreign language!) and I also met Australians, Brits, and Japanese. Eventually, they got back, we took a nap and we headed out for dinner and a Nargileh (Hookah) bar.

The next day, we had arranged for a tour of all the major sites. A gentleman by the name of Abdullah Er (who we dubbed Abduller) took us around. His English was rather entertaining. Every time we we going to see something new, we were discovering it and everything was "very interesting by the way" and when we went off on our own, he asked us to "keep in touch". We had a lot of fun adopting his phrases. We went to the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia, Lunch at a Turkish kebab place, the Topkapi Palace, and to a carpet sales pitch.

Inside the Blue Mosque

Inside Haghia Sophia

View of the city from Topkapi Palace

When we got back that night, we headed to the end of the tram way to see the fireworks for Republic Day, the anniversary of Ataturk's declaration of Turkey as a democratic republic. SO AWESOME!

After that, we looked for a restaurant, which took a while because we needed somewhere with vegetarian options for Abby and Sruti. Turkey's not so good about that. The place we picked ended up being really shitty and the waiters didn't really speak English, but I guess it's a funny story now.

The next day we spent with a guy named Enrique (Chileno) who we met in the hostel and was in the city by himself. The Colombian-Belgian couple I met introduced me to him. We went to the spice market, took a Bosphorus cruise, went to this amazing (famous) baklava place called Guloglu and then went out to Taksim, which is the nightlife area. It's also the square that was bombed about 6 hours after we left. Gooooooood times.

Tea and souvenir vendor at the Spice Market

"This shop is recommended by Obama"

The city from the boat

Connecting Europe and Asia

Baklava and Salep!

I felt kind of bad for Enrique because I wasn't sure how much of our English he caught, but either way, he seamed to have fun with us, so. Enrique was too tired to come out to Taksim with us, but we went out with the Italian, Japanese, and Dutch to Taksim. Best conversation ever:

Japanese girl: I'm from Japan
Us: O cool, where in Japan?
Japanese girl: I think you'll know know it. It's right near Hiroshima.
Us: O . . . (awkward silence) . . . yea, sorry about that.
Luckily, she held no grudges and of course, everything goes away over a drink :)

It was really fun that night. the area was crazy crowded. It took us a while to find a place that wasn't full. Eventually, (thanks to my bladder) I went into this place that by coincidence had a rooftop bar from which you could see the entire city. OMG, so incredible!

Next day, we started at the Basilica cistern (huge and really cool) and then we walked along the Golden Horn to a neighborhood called Balat. The walk was beautiful. It was finally a gorgeous, sunny day (after day one, it stopped raining, but it was still cloudy and cold). The city looked so different. Along the way, we left the tourist traps and walked with the Turkish people. Fisherman, families taking walks, mothers pushing strollers, kids playing on the playground. It's the part of a city that's most exciting - the real part. Balat, is not wealthy, but it is incredibly charming, the views were breathtaking, and the people were so welcoming and happy to have us in their shops (we ate a little of just about everything we saw) even though we couldn't say anything more than thank you to them. Such a great day.

Enrique, Abby, and Jaya in the Basilica Cistern

My girls - Jaya, Abby, Sruti, Nitya along the Golden Horn

Playground, almost at Balat (Note the cotton candy salesman!)

Baklava Shopkeeper, such a kind gent

Sweet lady who owns a bakery we went to

Balat

Balat, the Golden Horn, and Beyond

That night we caught dinner one last time together and had one last nargileh before the girls caught their plane back to Tel Aviv. I stayed an extra day. Very glad I did. I spent that night hanging out with this British girl Jackie just talking over a few beers. The next day, she came with me to see the roman walls that once protected the city. then we split up and I went to Dolmabahce Palace (which turned out to be closed) and then walked up the Bosphorus to a neighborhood called Orakoy, just off the Istanbul map. Very different from Balat. Pretty and much wealthier. I climbed up some of their hills and got great views. I ended up getting lost on the way back, so I had to take a cab and I went back to Taksim Square to walk down Istiklal Street, which is the big boulevard with tons of designer and nice shops and cafes. Then I passed the Galata Tower and headed back to Guloglu for one last baklava. I also got another fish sandwich. There are guys selling then for 4 lira ($2.75) right next to the river. Delicious and very fresh. From there, I took my turn at the Turkish bath. Not exactly relaxing as you'd imagine, but it was definitely an experience. A fat, middle aged man scrubs you down and likes to pop your joints and contort your body. If nothing else, it was definitely a story. After all this, I headed back to grab my luggage, but first, just sat in between Haghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque staring at their incredibleness (without a doubt, the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen) while having one last salep (this creamy milk drink with vanilla and cinnamon). Finally, I said good bye and caught my shuttle back to the airport.

The Roman Walls

Dolmabahce Palace

Orakoy

Security is definitely funner leaving countries. Turkey questioned me leaving, but Israel didn't say anything when I got back. My flight was at midnight and when I got to the train station, I had just missed the 2 am train back to Tel Aviv. I waited an hour for the next train, then missed my stop in Tel Aviv (I got a little confused), and then had to wait another hour in Netania for the next train going back to tel Aviv. By the time a got home, it was 6:30 and I had Arabic at 8:30. Fun stuff.

The last two weeks, I've spent in cafes working, catching up from 5 days of doing no work. It's actually kind of stressful when you've got 2 languages to learn and one of the worlds most complicated conflicts to understand. I'm finally back on track, but I really need to work hard on Hebrew because the professor from NYU will be here in a week and I need to prove to her that I'm at a level that I can jump into her class even though I taught myself. Arabic is moving really fast now because we moved really slow through the alifbaa (alphabet) so to stay in pace with NY, we're moving quick. I hope I manage to absorb everything. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is really interesting still, but I kind of feel like we're getting too much of the Palestinian side. Part of me coming to Israel was to understand the point of view of the people here. I've started to get some from the people I've met, but I also want to read in class about what the government's thinking has been. Instead, I think we're mainly exposed to Palestinian society along with the history and explanations for why they don't accept compromise and how Israel has screwed them over. It's not that those things aren't true, but it's only part of the story. I'm sure of this since we finally saw a segment showing Yasser Arafat preaching jihad and imams telling their followers to kill the Jews wherever they find them. Of course, we didn't really talk about it and I don't know how much credence the class gave it. Anyways, I'm going to watch the  rest of that documentary on Youtube and we'll see if things get more even handed (they won't).

Archaeology took us on a field trip last Sunday. We when to a prehistoric settlement, Megiddo (biblical site that supposedly will host Armageddon), and Ceaserea (built by King Herod). The last one was incredibly beautiful.

Pre-historic site, cave people and all

Megiddo

The area below is where the king of the east and the king of the west are supposed to meet for Armageddon

Ceaserea

Last Friday, I went back to Josh's. He hosted another dinner and then we went to another friend's birthday party, Roni. It was fun and I ended up talking to Josh and a new friend Dante, who graduated from NYU and now lives in Jaffa, about Israeli society until like 6 am. I'm really starting to feel like a part of this group now, which I'm really happy about.

Last Thursday, I found out my uncle Rick had fallen into a coma and had severe brain damage. He passed away the next day at the age of 36, leaving his four children between ages 5 and 14 and my aunt. It was so sudden and when I think about my family and what they're going through, I almost cry. It's kind of brought made me a bit somber this week, but I've tried to keep it from showing because I didn't really feel like a bunch of condolences. I really didn't know him well enough. That happens when you live 2000 miles apart. But he had this incredible smile (I'm a sucker for a good smile) and he always made you feel happy and could lighten situations. Such a goof ball. He liked to call me Josue and I would teach him random words in Spanish. He really wanted to learn. It was so funny to see him put together sentences with the few words he knew. I remember when we went camping one year and he was talking about going fishing at 6 am. So I woke up at 6 am so I could go with him and my uncle Ryan. They didn't wake up at 6. It was more funny than it was disappointing somehow. Here I ago, feeling like crying again in public . . .

Sorry to put in that downer.

This Thursday, I went with my friends Emily and Laura to meet up with Josh and a friend of his in Neve Tzedek for a bottle of wine. It was the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv and has a small alleyways charm that the rest of the city doesn't. It was really nice. It's November and I'm still going out in shorts! We then went to Josh's sister Uriah's apartment in Florentin and hung out with people and then went back to Perla for the first time in a while.

Yesterday, I went with Guy to this bar that was having a music festival. 12 hours, 12 bands, 12 shekels ($3.50). Great music and the people could have been transplanted to the East Village or Williamsburg with no problem. Kind of funny. After, we went to the cafe in front of it and got the macaroni and cheese. O. My. G-d. So incredible. I then proceeded to go back to Bnei Dan, have some dinner there and then met Josh again for sushi (let's face it, sushi isn't filling. I needed the appetizers). I haven't had sushi since leaving, but now that my big expensive trips are over, I'm relaxing a bit with money. So glad I am. I've been missing out. We then went back to Uriah's where she then served my a salad with Roquefort cheese, chestnuts, and balsamic vinegar and a plate of carpaccio. I'm so spoiled. Officially my new favorite people.

Ok, so I think that's everything interesting about the last two weeks. I'm so failing at this writing more often thing . . .