Sunday, April 22, 2012

But I'm Turkish...

Merhaba! Greetings from a (finally) beautiful day in Amman!

The last time I left off, I was about to go off on my spring break journey to Turkey! And one hell of a trip that was... there's so much to tell about it, I don't even know where to begin!!

So we set off on Friday, March 30 to go to Istanbul. It was about 8-10 of us on one plane heading there, and about 5 more of our friends in Istanbul already by that time, even though we were all going to stay in different places. I could barely contain my excitement about fiiinally going back home for a little bit. At the same time I was finally realizing my longtime wish to show some American friends around in the beautiful place I call home. I knew it was going to be amazing!

Arriving in Istanbul and leaving the airport to go to our hostel (it was my friend Philip and Liese that were staying with me), the first thing I really noticed was COLOR! It was crazy, but being in Amman, I had forgotten what it was like to be in a city that had buildings in all different sorts of colors. Then there was the water - it was clear and a gorgeous shade of green/blue... it was as if I was seeing colors again after being color blind for the last two months! It was wonderful. Also, the area of the city in which we stayed, the old city called Sultanahmet, is absolutely beautiful. I hadn't been to Istanbul in about 6-8 years, so even for me it was exciting to rediscover the beauty of the city. 

Our hostel was this really really adorable little pink building on a cobblestoned, narrow street. It had gorgeous furnishings on the inside and an amazing homey feeling. The room we got (6 beds cramped into a tiny little space) was a lot smaller than I had originally thought, but it was okay. We also had this bar/lounge thing on the top floor that had an amazing view. 

I think one of the first things I did when we got there is go upstairs and grab a glass of Efes, the local beer in Turkey. It is my absolute favorite beer in this entire world, because no taste compares to it... The weather was also gorgeous, the view breathtaking, and not to mention I could UNDERSTAND what people were saying!! I don't think I had been that excited and happy in a long time. 

On that first day, Liese, Philip and I set off to explore our neighborhood a little. We soon discovered that we legit lived 2 minutes away from two of the most historic and most beautiful structures of the city, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque... both of them absolutely gorgeous and majestic with a little park/pathway connecting them to each other.

Walking around in the neighborhood, we actually ended up running into 3 of our other friends who were staying at a hostel nearby and had taken a different flight out of Amman that same day. It was such a nice surprise! So the six of us walked around together for a bit and then headed over to this street that was filled with restaurants. It was fun and entertaining to have all the Turkish people trying to get us to eat at their restaurants, speaking to us in English, completely oblivious that I was Turkish. It's a reaction I get often, so I wasn't surprised, but it was hilarious to see their faces when they realized they wouldn't be able rip us off because there was a Turk among the tourists. 

We found this nice little place that had a closed off terrace at the top with a gorgeous view of the Blue Mosque. I was so so so happy to be eating Turkish food again! It was absolutely delicious! We had a wonderful time catching up and asking the others what they had done so far that day. We continued the day by going back to our hostel and smoking some nice hookah on the terrace. It was really nice to be back in Turkey.

Over the next few days our adventures didn't stop; we went to all the historical sights (topkapi palace, blue mosque, hagia sophia, etc.) and the big touristy things (grand bazaar, spice bazaar, good restaurants, etc.) and it was absolutely amazing. We all went out a couple of nights in Taksim & Istiklal Avenue, which are huge for their night scene. We met up with a bunch of our other friends and just had  a blast.

I have to say though, being a "tour guide" was extremely exhausting at times. I sometimes didn't have the mental strength to continue to translate. Something that was also a little difficult was to navigate what everybody wanted to do. There were so many of us, it was really quite difficult at times to get everyone to agree on something. But I guess these are just parts of traveling in large groups. They definitely didn't bring us down at all from the amazing time we were having.

After Istanbul, which depleted our money supply sufficiently (that city is soooo much more expensive than what I'm used to), our next trip was to Gallipoli and Troy. Now this was an adventure, because my father's friend who owns a travel agency hooked us up with a private van with a driver who would take us to all the historical places... the only problem was that this guy didn't really know where he was going and it was his first time going to these places as well.

However, we eventually found where we wanted to go. The first stop was the memorials for the soldiers at Gallipoli... now this is where the story behind the title of this post comes from. My friends and I were standing at one of these memorials, which was located on top of a mountain/hill sort of thing. We were enjoying the beautiful view had from on top of there by standing at the very edge of a drop and had our backs turned to the memorial. There were around 50 students there at the same time, my guess would be Middle School students, on a field trip with their class. They, of course, were little meshkeljis (troublemakers) and decided to start talking about the tourists they saw right in front of them.

Obviously, they thought I was also a tourist and began speaking in Turkish about how funny it would be if they all pushed us off the edge at the same time, laughing while they talked about it. Hearing this, I turned around with a smile on my face and looked directly at the kids. At this point, one of the guys stepped forward to me, looking directly at me and said something incredibly rude, which I can't really repeat on here, expecting me to not understand.

I laughed a little and simply responded with, "But I'm Turkish..." in Turkish, obviously, and the calmest voice I could muster. The following reaction was the best part. The kid turned bright red as his classmates fell to the ground laughing. My favorite were the girls who also were keeled over laughing. They later kept coming up to me, being like "holy crap, that was the best part of my day! Thank you so much for telling him off like that!" After I translated quickly to my friends what had happened, they were also very amused. It was definitely a highlight of that day.

That same day we also traveled to Troy, which was also a very cool experience. But by the time we were done with that place, we were all exhausted and ready to get onto our bus to Izmir. The journey there was a little longer I expected, but it was fine. We grabbed the service from the bus station to the area of town where I live and reached my house exhausted but happy.

The following three days were probably my favorite of the journey, just because I was sooo happy to be home and with my family. We had awesome breakfast for the next few days, traveled to a wine-producing little village for some free and delicious wine tasting, visited a hamam (turkish bath), went up to a historic castle with an amazing view over the city, and went shopping in the central bazaar of the city. It was really amazing to have my friends meet (and get along with) my family.

On our last night there, we went to the place where my mother's boyfriend performs (on the traditional turkish instrument called saz), ate some delicious food, celebrated one of my friends' birthdays and just had a really awesome time with my family. When it came to say goodbye and take the overnight bus back to Istanbul, I definitely couldn't help but shed a few tears. It was truly an amazing trip and I was soo happy to have seen my family, but at the same time it was a little bit of a tease just to see them for 3 days. It definitely made me realize how much I miss them.

The bus ride back to Istanbul was long and filled with uncomfortable sleep. We were all happy to get onto our planes and fly back to where we had comfy beds waiting for us. Overall, the trip was incredible and I think we all had an amazing time. It made me miss home a lot and I cannot wait to go back in July!!

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