Beautiful Day

Jill & I on the pier before walking all day all over Gallipolli.

Pier

Walking on a dock on Gallipolli with our two canine walking companions

Gallipolli Penninsula

Memorial to WWII on Gallipolli at Kapatepe Müzesi

September 22, 2006

Jill walking along a coastal road on the Gallipolli Penninsula looking for more memorials and enjoying the perfect weather.

Sunset

The sun setting over the Sea of Marmara during our 3 hour bus ride from Bandirma to Çanakkale.

Bandirma

Jill at the Ferry Dock in Bandirma on the South side of the Sea of Marmara after the 2 hour ferry ride from Istanbul before catching a dolmus to the Otogar (bus station).

Beginning our Trip!

Honey Nut Cheerios and our travel Torah/Bible - Lonely Planet: Turkey on location in Yenikapi Ferry Dock, Istanbul

Jill and I took a trip together for three days from Istanbul to Çanakkale to visit the battlefields on the Gallipolli Penninsula and the ruins of Troy.

Wednesday Night

L to R: Oytun, Jill, and Fatih at dinner

Oytun was an exchange student at Arizona State University that I met when I was back in the States, and Fatih is his friend who also studied in the US at the University of Washington. We randomly met Oytun on the street and talked, and then later he called and they took us out to dinner at a good, cheap ($2.00 each - normal Turkish price for a meal) place near school.

Nargile

A Greek student majoring in Turkish Studies tries to smoke like a Turk

Tophane

Me, Jill, a Turk and three Greeks

As the second half of our exchange student orientation evening we were bused to Tophane, a strip of Hookah bars in Istanbul filled with couches, bean bags, backgammon boards, tea, hookah, smoke and late-nighters.

Orientation

Jill & me in a nargile bar in Tophane for Orientation

Istinye

A harbor in Istinye outside the restaurant.

For part of orientation, the Exchange Committee of Bogaziçi Univeristy took all of the 100 or so exchange students out to dinner in Istinye on the Bosphorus.

Matfuk

Rice!

My first cooking experience in Turkey cooking on a hot plate in our matfuk (kitchen). I succeeded in cooking enough rice to feed 10 people, only I was the only one there and I got to experience the joy of discovering how the ancient Turkish hot plate worked all by myself.

Erin, Jill and Megan at lunch

We ate a traditional Turkish lunch - bottled water and 3 Lira Et Döner Dürüm ($1.75 meat wraps) yummy!

More Istanbul

Looking west over Istanbul from Superdorm - you can see 7 mosque minarets in this view if you look closely.

Concrete Turkey

The view from Jill's window onto classic Turkish concrete block construction. This is what most of the buildings in all of Turkey look like - plus or minus some walls.

Outside My Window -

There is a school right behind my dorm for elementary school kids. They play soccer all of the time and run around in uniforms, which is very entertaining to watch - the only thing is the bells start going off before 7 am and it feels like they go off several times every hour until about 3 pm. It's not traditional bells either - it sounds like a very, very loud cell phone ring. At least I don't think I'll ever sleep through class!

The Hill

Amy and Megan glowing on "The Hill"

After dinner in Ortaköy, we were all so full we decided to walk back to school. We went a few miles along the Bosphorus to Bebek, a ritzy neighborhood on the water below the school. Then we took on The Hill. The Hill is about half a mile straight up - or close enough. The only way we kept going was to get to dondurma (ice cream) at the top.

Jill & I

Two American girls in front of Ortaköy Camii.

We walked all the way to Ortaköy from Yıldız Parkı in Besiktas to get something to eat. I walked to Besiktas from Metrocity a few miles away and it took us several garbled phone calls to find each other - it didn't help that I thought a mosque was a palace and a palace was a university.

Ortaköy

L to R: Jill, Erin, Megan, Amy, and Max

Eating Kumpir (baked potatoes with everything) in Ortakoy Sunday night with other American exchange students from UNC, Brown, and U of Oklahoma.

Where I live

This is the Superdorm - I live on the third floor of this beautiful building on Ucaksavar Campus.

The View!

The Bosphorus as I can see it about 500 feet down the road from where I'm living at the Superdorm!

My Room -

I have my own room, in a four person suite where we share the living room, bathroom and kitchen space. My roommates are all 3rd and 4th year Turkish girls who are great!

Day 1: Friday Sept. 15

Today I saw at least four separate iPod knockoffs, spent almost three hours on buses, moved in, registered, got a cellphone, met Americans on the street and slept for the first night in my own room in Turkey!

Turkey Phase II!

So I began my travels to Turkey again today - this is me checking out the inside of my eyelids in London Heathrow airport during my 4.5 hour layover between San Francisco and Turkey.