i was in ISTANBUL!!! yeah!!!!

geeeeeeez it's been a while since i last wrote! i am soooo sorry!!
well here i am now. so arent you glad?????? of course you are!!!

MERHABA!!! (hello in Turkish)
it all started last saturday...........

i got on the bus w/jenn and james at 6pm in athens, turkey- bound. yeah!! the bus ride, we were told was 20-22 hours long. at first you think, 'man that is one long-ass ride!!!'. but then you remember how much time you have been spending on buses to and from sites and hotels on field trips w/school and decide that it's not going to be that bad. plus, we have each other to keep us company.
the company we took was a turkish co., so the moment we met the driver and assistants we KNEW we were going to turkey; they spoke NO english and were speaking to us about our tickets in turkish. i knew i was in for a ride now. so we were off on our adventure.
we stopped every few hours to pee and stretch and get food, or pick up/drop off more passengers, so that was nice. one of the bus driver guys was really funny and kept showing us his britney spears album and telling us 'disco! disco!' and pointing at us like we were supposed to just start dancing right there. he was really funny. he even came and sat right next to us, in the open seat next to james and started looking at my British Cosmo mag w/him. he asked our names and when he heard Jenn's he kept saying, ' Jennifer Lopez????' and then he would point at the models in the mag and then point to us w/a funny look in his eye. i know he was just trying to have funa nd communicate, but still, it's funny what foreigners will associated w/americans. please god, make britney go away!!!!
so, we didnt really sleep much that night on the bus and got to Istanbul about noon-1ish, and finally got off the bus around 130 or 145p last sunday. it was the most wonderful feeling in the world to get off that bus...... streeeeeeeetch!!!
that morning was pretty aweseom though, as we were rolling into the city. jenn and james had claimed a couple other seats (our bus wasnt very full) and had been sleeping for a few hours and out cold, or at least trying to be. i was laid back in my seat trying to sleep too, when i must have broken my dozing for some reason and my eyes cracked open a bit to what seemed like daylight. i woke up just in time to see the sun coming up all nice and bright orange/pink over the city. i dont really remember where we were or what time it was, but it was sooo beautiful. i could see sea, town, and a skyline dotted w/the many, many minarettes of the mosques that seemed to start popping up everywhere once we got into turkey. minarettes are like tall, thin, steeples/poles- looking things, which is part of the architecture of the mosques; most seem to have 4 of them. back to the view though, it was like i was still in a dream, or a movie or something; you never expect to see views this beautiful when you travel, they just kinda happen. all i could do was just sit back and appreciate it. there are so many times when i want to take a picture, but i know no silver film, or digital pixels could ever replace what the human eye can perceive; there's something overwhelming about just being there at the right time.
"no more 3x5's......."
after waking up to that, i was pretty psyched to get to Istanbul, but in some calm sort of way. i never felt like jumping up and down, even though i was even going to see Nate; just excited inside and ready to take in what would be thrown at me.
we got to the bus station and only waited about 30 minutes for Nate to get there, which is pretty good considering we got there a lil early and getting through town is pretty crazy. nate led us through town via the metro and tram system to the lil budget hotel we were staying at. its entrance was covered in scaffolding and was in an 'alley' right off one of the main huge roads of our area. it was across from a club and bar, which got kinda loud at night, but that was not too bad, really. the main street was called 'Istiklal' and we musta wandered up and down this street soooooo many times, just shopping, eating, and ppl-watching, which was in fact pretty fun. the men there did not stare at us, me and jenn, NEARLY as much as the greek men in athens do. this certainly was a nice change. i know they did it still, but maybe i just didnt notice as much, or something. i dunno.
one of the first things us american-athenians did was withdraw the local currency: the Turkish lire..... it comes in millions!!! or rather, 'milyons'. i took out 200 milyon!!!!!!!!!!!! which is about 136 american dollars... hahahahha...... plus, turkish stuff is pretty cheap, so that, plus 20milyon more is all i spent pretty much the whole time, including paying for the hotel. and then my 96 euro (aobut 130- some USD) bus ticket- so yeah, i did pretty good! it's strange to see gasoline prices listed in milyons/liter, let me tell ya!!!
much of the week was spent shopping, wandering around, eating at different greek places, wallowing in the graces that a foreign Dunkin Donuts can offer to a weary American tired of weird foods/coffee, hanging out w/Nate's dormmates from all over the world, etc etc. one day, i think tuesday, i (jen and james stayed and slept and did their own thing) went w/Nate to his work! that was really cool. it took us 2 buses to get there, but only about 30 min.s in traffic. it was definitely an experience in riding in the craziness of Istanbul streets, crazier than say Rome and even Athens. im never really scared of riding in the manic streets anymore; it's just kinda normal. i think sometimes im going to be more scared of american roads again cuz ppl in the states just dont pay attention. here, they just push and shove, but at least everyone is alert. seriously, who knows which is the 'worser' evil. ha....
Nate works at a very nice university building w/a nice cafeteria and office. he doesnt have any windows which is sad and dreary, but at least 2 other ppl have their desks there, if they ever show up. it seems nice to me, but too cubicle-like for my tastes, but i guess computer nerds kinda have to get used to that stuff. it's not like big comp. projects can really be done tiny portable laptops. i went to work w/Nate!!! :)
one night we all cooked 'american' food for a bunch of Nate's roomies and co. apparently it's tradition for visitors of the AEISEC kids (that's nate and friends) to make a dinner for the AEISEC'ers with food from their home country. being that we were 3 american kids, but coming from Athens, we decided to make burgers and coke and make a Greek sauce to put on the burgers called 'tziki'. it's very common in greece, and realllllllly good, so we just combined the 2. i think everyone liked it and we fed about 15 ppl or so for 44milyon!!!! that's about 1.5-2 USD/person. pretty good ay???!!!! that was fun cuz nate's dorm has this huge kitchen made of steel and big pots and pans...and a few cockroaches here and there. did you know that cockroaches are an animal (if not the only one) that can suvive nuclear blasts??? you can chop their heads off and theyll survive for over 2 weeks until they die of starvation. and it takes an exorbatant amount of force to crack their shells. yup, this is what i learned over making dinner in turkey.
god i love boys and their knowledgable selves. woohoo.... not.
another day later in the week we all went down across the bridge to another part of town to see the big mosques: the hagia sophia and the blue mosuqe. we took our pictures and then went on to the HUGE bazaar. it was like a labrynth of tunnels and archways lined to the ceilings w/magic carpets, bags, bejewled clothing, shoes, dancing symbols, jewelry, and most of all turks trying to sell you absolutely everything. 'hey america! come over here!' 'hey lady! come spend your money on my rug!' 'pretty shirt for a pretty lady!' yup, this is what they said. and seriously, i wish i could get away from looking so american sometimes. i try and it just doesnt work. damn these blue eyes sometimes. well, actually i like them. so nevermind. ill just wear my sunglasses in dark places. that's all i really can do. oh yeah, skip the shorts and tank-tops kids- you are sure to be red-flagged for those, no doubt. guys, grow a beard and other facial hair, esp if it's dark....unless of course you are genetically deficient like James..... ;) hehe.....
anyway, the bazaar was incredible, but after a while you can only take so much hassling and run out of money, so we had to leave... hehe.
we watched a few rip off dvds on nate's laptop during the evenings that jenn got from a street vender for 2 mil a piece, which is about 1.36/dvd. they werent all highest quality, but mostly all of them worked fine. but hey! that's about a 15th of the US price!!! at least!!
by the way, do not EVER buy guinness (which i didnt) in Turkey. it has an extremely high import cost attached to it. one can ( and the small ones! not the pint size!!) cost 20 mil!!! which is about 12 USD!!!! no way man!!!!! but the irish stew i had was spectacular. mmmmm.... they kept playing U2 in the bar the whole time.....haha.....
i got some nice souvenirs and had some fun, and then it was time to go home on friday morning, 10am. got home the next day at 530am. slept 6a-1p. first time i really slept since i left. mmmmm....my own bed........flannel sheets............
nate went off w/some family friends (sorta) to the Black Sea right after i left! lucky boy! it's his dad's friend's sister and family who basically adopted him for the weekend. i wish i'd been able to stay for that! oh well.
well, i think ive written quite alot, so ill leave some more for later.
oh yeah, i had the best baby powder fight ever this past week too. pictures to be posted by nate soon........ check out nate's blog this week and his link to his pics for more picture fun.. ;)
take care, l8r