Asia in the morning, Europe in the evening

Trip Start Jun 19, 2008

Trip End Sep 04, 2008

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Flag of Turkey Istanbul, Turkey
Sunday, July 20, 2008

The four of us "slept in" until late morning on Saturday and took the tramvay to the last station Kabatash. Kabatash is a public transportation hub, having a port, metro, and tramvay. This is the same place we took a boat to the Princes' Islands. We took the 11:35am boat over to the Asian side of Istanbul. After a 30 minute boat ride, which was much less crowded than the one to the Princes' Islands on the previous Saturday morning, we were in a whole new continent! We thought the Asian side would be more quaint, old, and sparsely populated, but it was not at all! As soon as we got off, we saw a huge mob of people congregated for a really intense election campaign. The sea of red Turkish flags (some with Ataturk on them) swallowed us. I happened to be wearing a red shirt, so I blended in quite well, especially with my newly acquired mini-flag. The police searched our bags and checked us for any weapons before we entered the campaign area. We were taking pictures and waving flags along with everyone else when the passionate and harsh-toned speaker started saying something about "Americans" and "terrorism", and people started booing and jeering

Crazy election campaign

. We exchanged looks and quickly got the hell out of there.

Our goal was to visit 5 mosques: yes, FIVE. We ate some hamburgers with fries in them to recharge for Uskudar, the place with all the major mosques. It happens that there was another port right in front of Uskudar, but of course we were all the way on the south side. We tried to find bus #12 that would take us to Uskudar but in vain, so we took a cab instead. Then we saw the bus driving right in front of the bus. We also saw a bunch of "dolmus"s which seemed like vans that transport locals very cheaply. It's alright though because the cab ride was only 7 liras, split among 4 people. The first two mosques we went to were rectangularly shaped, rather than circular. We saw a lot of people praying, even though it wasn't the official praying time. The third and fourth were closed! We tried to knock on the doors, but when nobody came out, we decided to move on. Compared to the European side, the roads were a lot less crowded, which allowed us to cross without being chickens, and the women were more covered up in general. Another activity we were thinking about was hiking the trail of pines, but we opted not to and took the ferry from the port in front of the mosques.

It was nearing 4pm, and we felt like we should do one more productive thing before going back to the dorm

Turkish pride!

. The sunken palace was the only place on the top 20 must-see sights in Istanbul (besides Tokapi Palace) that we have not visited yet, so we went for a short visit. We took the tramvay from Kabatash to Sultanahmed and a short walk from there. The sunken palace was 10YTL with no student discount. I had gotten such hefty student discounts in Egypt that the lack of foreign student discount in Turkey came as a disappointment. The only official student discount we got so far was at Dolmabache Palace (20ytl adults, 3ytl for students!!). I also misplaced my ISCS card somehow, and I am really, really upset about it. ANYWAY, the sunken palace... wow! My new favorite place in Istanbul!!! I have never seen anything like this! We walked down a few steps, and you could see rows and rows or colossal columns lined up in the dark underground. The demure, red floorlight made the place even more mysterious and majestic. The bottom of the floor was filled with water, and tourists walked along wooden bridge/planks through the forest of columns. The columns were of various styles and circumferences because Justinius collected columns from different places at the time of building this place. The highlight of this place was the two heads of medusa in the corner. My personal highlight was the natural airconditioning that provided a cool relief.

At the dorm, we met up with a few more people who didn't partake in today's adventure and had dinner under the bridge. The bridge near the dorm has a string of seafood restaurants on one side and nargile places on the other side. Choosing a place for dinner is usually a hassle because we are usually tired by this time of the day and Turkish food does not necessarily satisfy our taste buds. Anyway, we went back to the restaurant that gave us a discount and a giant plate of fruits for free the last time. Saturday and Sunday are big going out days in Istanbul, so we met up with some Turkish students in the dorm to hang out. Fun times!