The day Ms Ancy and Ms Bliss left I had a friend come in from Mallorca. We were freshman year roommates at college, and because our college was so small, we stayed friends after that because you always run into each other. Sometimes we'd meet up at her house in rural Maryland to go canoeing, or make Valentine's at each others rooms. She is also living abroad teaching English, but she teaches in a real school so she had time to pop over here because it was her spring break. She really was a good house guest. She wasn't afraid to go out and do things, even though this is a pretty different country than anywhere she has been and she doesn't speak one word of the language (but by the end she could say "one" and "bread"). To give myself credit, I did give explicit directions and ideas of things to do, but she went out and did them! What helped is that a student from our college that we both kind of knew was also here for his spring break (he's studying in Greece for the semester) so the first day they met up, and then the next day we all went on the Bosphorus cruise because I had the day off. That was one of the most fun days I'd had in a while - the weather was PERFECT, the company was great, it was so nice to be on the water with fantastic views and not surrounded by ugly apartments, and we ended the day with a huge baked potato and a hookah.
We found a little place to camp out and eat some breakfast and catch up on Goucher gossip for the 1.5 hour boat ride up to the tip of the Bosphorus. It leaves Eminonu at 10:35, but you should get there earlier because it gets crowded and it could be hard to find a good seat.
That's Anadolu Kavagi, the castle we hiked up to. If you do the Bosphorus cruise, I really recommend you do the hike. Part of the reason for doing this cruise was for Kate and Sam to go to Asia because they had never been before.
Looking to the south you see the Bosphorus...
And to the north is the Black Sea.
Here's a map to kind of help you out (via welt-atlas.de). We started almost at the south of the Bosphorus, and we go up most of the way. I live near the more north of the two bridges.
Here's a tombstone with a hat (or fez?) carved into it. I think my cousin told me that depending on what time of "hat" was carved into it depends on what ranking you were. Before Turkey became a country in 1923, most men wore the fez, but then Ataturk banned it when he became the president in order to modernize the country. He also changed the script from an Arabic/Ottoman script (I really need to check my facts) into a Roman alphabet, but if you look closely on this gravestone you can see it's still in a script. Pretty neat!
I wish I could capture the awesomeness of the castle. Even just what you see is quite vast but as we explored more we saw that it went on and on so I think some archaeologists are needed to excavate it! I've always had a weakness for castles, especially those with nooks and crannies to peek into.
After we returned from the cruise, we headed up to Ortakoy, an area of Istanbul known for it's views and little places to eat and also lots of bars and clubs. This is a often-taken photo, showing the clash of the modern and traditional, something ubiquitous in Istanbul. One thing to do in Istanbul is to eat kumpir, a potato, but a potato like you've never eaten. Trust me...
This is kumpir. First they mix cheese and butter into the actual potato part and then they put everything imaginable onto it. I wish I took a picture of the stand with all of the toppings. I'm so glad only 2 people witnessed me trying to order this in Turkish, it was so confusing because we all wanted different things on our potato. All ended well, we were happy with what we got.
I think on mine I had corn, spicy bulgur, sausages, pickles, garlicy yogurt, mayonnaise and ketchup (there were also mushrooms and olives and cabbage and probably some other things to also put on). Delicious!
Today they went to Asia and back. No big deal.
The next day Kate and I went to a hamam, or a Turkish bath. For about 20 minutes we sit (naked, or kind of wrapped up in a towel) and dump warm water over ourselves. Then a woman scrubbed us down. You wouldn't believe the layers of skin that came off of me. I'm definitely doing to make this a monthly ritual. I really recommend going to Cagaloglu in Sultanahmet, the architecture is amazing, well worth the expensive price, plus you can cross it off in your book, 1001 (or 1000?) places to see before you die.
While it was a busy week, it was really nice to have Kate here, and to spend time with Sam. We covered a lot of territory, and like Ms Ancy and Ms Bliss, they really enjoyed the city which always makes me feel good. Both of them were interested in Istanbul and Turkey and asked questions I couldn't answer, and perhaps there isn't an answer - about Turkey and EU, religion and politics, things about Eastern Turkey, women's issues. It's a fascinating country!
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