Turkiye 2013 - more on day 1 May 24th

I am embedding links to information sites that have much greater detail available about the different places we visited.

May 24^th (day 1)

We arrived to Istanbul in the afternoon, full of excitement and anticipation. With the exception of Phil, our fearless leader from HCC, who has visited Turkey four times previously, it was our first time in the wonderful country of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, or the Turkish Republic. For one of us, this was the very first plane ride and trip out of the US, a very exciting time indeed.

Most of the photos were taken at the airport, of our group, and first glimpses of the fabled city of Istanbul, on the way to the hotel. Can you tell how excited I was? All of us?

We stayed in the old part, on the European side, south of the Golden Horn. It is a very interesting area, called Fatih, with some of the most famous historical places within walking distance. One of the photos is of Abella, a decidedly unique hotel with loads of character, where we stayed in Istanbul. Its proprietor Hassan greatly added to our enjoyment of the city, with his endless sense of humor and mischief and many wonderful insights and tidbits. The area is full of small hotels and places to stay, eateries, shops, souvenir stands, grocery stores, and small, intimate, and original places, untouched by supersized superstores and megamalls. This is one of the many charms of the ‘old’ part of the European side of Istanbul.

After settling in, we were all eager to explore and head to town. Since it was late in the afternoon, food was high on the agenda as well. J Our first area of exploration was the Hippodrome, a real hippodrome that dates back to the era of Constantinople. Outside of the magnificent view of both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, there are three historical monuments: Serpent Column, Obelisk of Thutmose III, and the Walled Obelisk/. Many of today’s photos and some of the future ones are from this area, with views of the columns and both Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Both of them are within the proverbial stone throw from the Hippodrome and exquisitely beautiful, from different angles and at different times. With the new camera, I was playing with various exposure and aperture settings, that is why there is often several pictures of the same, throughout my photo collection. Bear with the budding photographer. J In addition, the Hippodrome is within walking distances to many destinations in the city and we passed through numerous times, thus adding to my pool of photos taken there.

The group picture shows our gang of 13 or so. J Since the trip was a summer Study Abroad program, most of us are students or affiliated with a student or one of the three colleges – Howard Community College in MD and Northampton CC and Harrisburg CC from PA. We had a professor from each CC and at least one official from the Turkish educational partner – Cankiri Karatekin University – and its Office of International Relations.  Both our professors and our hosts were fabulous and really enhanced the whole experience of exploring Türkiye. I found the opportunity to talk to our Turkish friends and compare what we learned at home, from our news, with their views and opinions. For me, that was one of the most valuable and interesting experiences – the ability to talk to the Turkish hosts, in depth, about a variety of issues, anywhere from US policies, through socioeconomics and social structure of Turkey, to religion and politics. We spent many hours in deep conversation, learning from each other.

Our first dinner was at the Baran Restaurant, in the Ottoman Kitchen style, and it was awesome. As you can see in the photos, we ate outside, watching the night bustle of Istanbul. It was the first of many incredible meals in Turkey, most of them very tasty and healthy, full of quality meat and veggies. In addition, the fruit tastes so different from what we eat in the US. Once you have tasted natural watermelon or strawberries that ripened in the field and are freshly picked, you will forever know the difference. Most American produce is big, colorful, blemish-free, and tastes like plastic; something selectively bred for profit at the expense of taste; picked green, shipped often thousands of miles, ripened artificially at warehouses, and sold at profit. Whenever you can, buy local and organic, visit farmers’ markets and private growers, you will genuinely appreciate the difference between mass-produced, commercially optimized food and fruits of labor of small growers, pun intended.

After the dinner, we saw at distance the Column of Constantine, one of the thousands of historical monuments in Istanbul and Turkey.

And then, a slow walk through the evening streets to our hotel, for few beverages of adult type and evening of excited sharing of first impressions and future adventures. J J J