The Final Post

Fare thee well, Europe, you have been good to me. Thanks to everyone who kept up with me on this journey. This will be my last post on this blog, though I will maintain it so its still available to browse any time anyone wants to. Take care and stay well.

Thanks Again,
Erik (+ Carin!)

Cadaques and the Spanish Coast + All Good Things...

Last Tuesday morning Carin and I left Barcelona, checking out of one of the coolest hotels I have every stayed in. We headed north, about 2 1/2 hours away, to Cadaques, jewel of the Franco-Spanish coast. As it turns out, this small town (which I find reminiscent of some of the smaller towns on Cape Cod in Massachusetts) was exactly what the doctor ordered: beautiful and breezy with water so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. Our only intension while here was to do absolutely nothing, and we accomplished this with great success ;-).

The first day, we arrived around 4pm or so and spent most of our time just walking around town, getting aquainted with our new surroundings. Cadaques is situated on a large harbor, so it seems almost everyone has a boat parked there. This picture is of the local church, the largest building in town (a very medieval feel). The only other pieces of architecture I noticed were an observatory situated on top of one of the hills (which seemed to be in perpetual cloud cover...this was the clearest pictures I could ever take of it) and a lighthouse we saw on our 2nd day adventure...

That adventure would be the short but impressive boat trip we took up the coast toward France. We booked passage on a small tour boat that took us about 45 minutes north by water of Cadaques, and on the return trip, dipped into some small coves and "hidden places" along the coast. I took so many pictures on the short trip, but none of them really do the beauty we experienced justice. I also have a few cool movies I shot with my camera that are available for download from my website.

MOVIE1 MOVIE2 MOVIE3 MOVIE4

The rest of the day we spent lounging, playing cards and reading. I finally finished the epic novel I had been reading for most of the summer, "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. It was one heck of a story...a little difficult to keep straight, but one of those books I feel like I can go back and read half a dozen times and always discover something new and interesting.

We finished our final day in Cadaques relaxing together on a rock, staring out at the sea. This pic was one of those automatic timer ones that, I guess, came out a little fuzzy. Its still cute though. You can click HERE to download one last movie of what Carin and I saw as we sat and contemplated our return trip to the U.S.

Now that the "Grand Adventure" of this summer is done, I feel as if I owe it some sort of grand summary. It has really been an amazing experience for so many reasons. Not only was it great to just be able to visit so many places and do so many things, but it was great to finally get the chance to really experience such a diverse variety of cultures. This trip has certainly changed my view and opened my eyes to the real richness of having such a variety of people on this planet with their own culture, customs and ways of going about daily life. It has also acted as a bug...a travel bug which has bitten me and made me want to do even more travelling abroad. I'm already starting to convince Carin that a European adventure next summer is absolutely necessary. We'll see how that goes!

Thanks for keeping up with me over the last 2 1/2 months. It has been fun keeping a log of our adventures, and I look forward to going back and reading and annotating it over the years, keeping these great memories alive in my brain for a long time to come. Take care and stay in touch...I know I will. Ciao.

Its 12:42am...Do You Know Where Your Erik Is?

I do...he's back in Portland, safe and sound, no lost luggage, no major catastrophies. My body doesn't know what to think right now. I can't sleep on planes so I've been up for something like 29 hours and I was really tired a couple of hours ago but now I'm not. Second wind I guess. At any rate, Carin and I had a wonderful time on the coast that I will tell you about when I wake up in the morning, but suffice to say I am back home after my amazing adventure. Stay tuned for a last few posts about my grand summer adventure. Maybe I'll try and sleep now...

Cheers.

Architectural Mecca Indeed...and Other Fun

Hard to believe, but Carin and I are done in the city of Barcelona after this evening. We had decided before booking the trip that just a few days would be sufficient to see many of the major "touristy" sites we were interested in. We certainly haven't had time to absorb the culture like we did in Roma and Istanbul, but that's all the more reason to come back here some day. Tomorrow morning we head to the small town of Cadaques, 2 hours or so north along the coast. It should be a great drive and the weather is supposed to be nice, so we're really looking forward to it. For now, I'll tell you what we did yesterday and today.

Carin was good enough to allow me an entire day of Moderniste exploration yesterday, starting with one of Gaudi's most famous residences, the Casa Batllo. This was a residence that Gaudi "upgraded" for a rich client with water and biologically based themes. On the facade, columns reminiscent of bones and curvalinear forms abound. In fact, there are virtually no straight lines in the entire building. Ceilings look like whirlpools or drops falling into water, woodwork curves every which way, and chimneys become works of art, clad almost entirely in mosaic tile. It was really quite a site to see -- no book can do it justice.

We continued along the tour suggested by our Moderniste map we picked up on the first day and saw many other good and famous buildings along the route. That's all well and good, of course, but I am primarily here to, of course, see Gaudi. Therefore, what I consider to be our second "major" stop along the way was the Casa Mila or La Padrera ("The Quarry") as the locals call it, a large apartment building by Gaudi. Here, you take an elevator up to the attic to explore that first, where you are greeted by a multitude of models of Gaudi buildings and Gaudi-inspired work. It was really educational, but a bit more extensive than we were ready to trudge through at the moment. We quickly made our way to the roof, where we saw more great tile work on chimneys and a fantastic view of the city in the distance. After the roof, we were shuffled down to the fourth floor to see a "typical" apartment layout from the 1920's. It was interesting, but not half as interesting as I building I thought (of course). To me, Casa Mila didn't hold a candle to Casa Batllo at all. (4799)

Continue, more Moderniste, etc etc etc...but then...the grand-daddy of them all. Before I present this building, I just have to tell you this. This is my desert island building. If I could only take pictures of one building with me to a desert island, this one would be it. If all the buildings in the world were destroyed but one, I would want this one to survive. This building helped change the course of my education when I made the decision to study architecture, and its the only building I've ever been in that almost made me weep -- almost. I am talking, of course about La Sagrada Familia.

For those who may not know, this is an unfinished building of Gaudi's. Before he died in 1936 (or so...not quite sure) he was only able to finish 1 of the facades of what he considered to be his final masterpiece. The building was begun in 1882 and is still not complete. However, I must say, it is the most amazing incomplete building I have ever been in. The interior is made as if you are in a forest, under a canopy of trees. The "famous views" you always see of the "temple" (as he called it...not a "church") are really only a side elevation (pic with me to the left). When complete, the building will be capped with a 172 meter high tower. Convert that to feet and it spells "really freakin' big".

Carin and I took a lift up one of the towers, a trip which really only takes you about half way. She doesn't do too well with heights, but she was really brave for me and I appreciated the opportunity to enjoy this together with her. I took well over 100 photos while here, and many of them came out quite nice. I could post photos all day long of this magnificent piece of architecture, but I'll probably have to save the bulk of them for future slide shows I will share with everyone.

All in all we had an incredible day yesterday wandering around the city, experiencing architecture you can see nowhere else. Carin was a real trooper and I thank my lucky stars for her support of my chosen life-path every single day. THANKS!

Today, our last day in town, we had a great time finishing up some shopping on La Rambla, doing some more wandering around town, and heading up to Montjuic, a large hill in town that was the site of the 1992 Olympics, among other things. I got to see a communications tower designed for the Olympics by another of my favorite architects, Santiago Calatrava. We finished the day with a cable-car ride across the harbor of Barcelona, hundreds of feet up in the air with the best view we had yet had of the city.

I will certainly miss Barcelona, as I don't feel I really had enough time to get to know her. However, I am excited about "getting out of the city" and enjoying some countryside and some good old fashioned beach loafing. I also get to drive a car for the first time in many months, as Carin and I have rented one with a standard transmission for the days we are in Cadaques. VROOM VROOM! I'm not sure what internet access will be like there, but I will certainly post again as soon as the opportunity becomes available. Until then, Adeu!

We Love Barcelona

Carin and I agree, this town is, as my dad would say, "Somethin' Else". So far we are having the time of our lives here, at last on vacation with no more school obligations for the rest of the summer. I struggled with which photo to open this blog entry with, and I decided it had to be the wall o' candy. Yesterday, after getting our hotel situation all figured out, we decided to start our day with a walk down the most famous street in Barcelona, La Rambla. This photo was taken at one of our first stops, La Boqueria, an open air/semi covered market that sells everything from your favorite animal freshly skinned to fresh picked fruit to...well...the wall o' candy. We were somewhat surprised, delighted, and disgusted to see the Dunkin' Donuts right next door to the market. I feel like I'm back in Boston.

As we continued down La Rambla we began following the "Ruta del Modernisme de Barcelona" map we obtained at the tourist office. Translated, that means I began enjoying some really amazing architecture you can't see anywhere else in the world. Spain, and especially Barcelona, is famous for the "Modernisme" movement in architecture, which coincided with the Art Nouveau in many other parts of the world. An extremely famous Modernisme architect, Antoni Gaudi, and especially one Modernisme building, La Sagrada Familia, are pretty much two of the major reasons I became an architect. I have waited my entire educational and professional career to experience this movement first hand, and here I am, in my own personal architectural Mecca. The photo here was taken at a building that ended up being my first taste of Modernisme, the Antiga Casa Figueras by Antoni Ros i Guell.

We spent several hours wandering down La Ramblas, enjoying many Moderisme sites and buildings, discovering various "Placas" (in Italian - Piazza) along the way and just having a great time in sunny weather with a light breeze and temps in the upper 70s -- i.e. perfect. Eventually we came back and checked into our new hotel (pic show here to the right of part of the lobby) which turned out to be the best decision we could have made. The place is absolutley stunning and very, very comfortable.

After checking into our hotel Carin and I went for a stroll through our new neighborhood -- the medieval part of Barcelona -- and hit our first museum, the Museu d'Historia dela Ciutat. At, or rather under, this museum are the remains of an excavated Roman town from around 100BC. Unfortunatley, photos were not allowed, but we learned a lot about all of the iterations Barcelona had gone through from a series of Iberian settlements to a Roman City to a Visigoth Republic. The museum consisted mostly of a series of catwalks suspended over the remains of the Roman City so you could actually act as if you were walking through the ancient streets. It was very interesting -- I'll be recommending it to my architecture buddies from Roma and Istanbul for when they come through Barcelona later this month.

We made a brief stop by La Seu, a major gothic cathedral in Barcelona, but there was a mass in progress so we didn't get much of a look (picture here of the giant screen showing the mass while we were there). I'm hoping to make it back there tomorrow but we'll see how that goes -- we have other priorities.

We ended the evening early enough to get a good night's sleep -- just what we need from a vacation. Tomorrow I'll tell you more about today's exploits -- a vertitable plethora of architectural goodness. Until then, Adeu!!! (Pics of the hotel room to follow.)

We're Here!!

And I'm typing this email on the smallest computer I have ever seen in my life...a mini Sony Vaio. We stayed at a little hotel last night that was nice and simple, but the air conditioning was broken and we woke at 6am hot hot hot. We decided to switch hotels to a very nice place for us, the Hotel Neri in the medieval part of Barcelona. After all, we consider this our belated honeymoon, so we might as well be comfortable. Now we are ready for adventures so I'll check back in with you tonight or tomorrow morning and let you know how our first day here went! Adeu!!

We're Ok

If you've been listening to the news about Heathrow, we just wanted to let you know that we won't be traveling through the UK during the rest of our trip. We'll be in touch from Spain. Adios!

All Good Things...

Greetings and welcome to what may perhaps be my last blog post in Istanbul. Internet access here has been spotty lately (I think our good friend "sadie" has finally figured out she was hosting a bunch of illegals...but I digress.) At any rate, I managed to find a new friend, "Airties" who's connection I am surfing now, but it may not last, so I'll talk fast.

When last I wrote I was telling you about a trip up the Bosphorus Carin and I were going to take with my class. Let me just tell you we had an amazing time, and unbelievable dinner, and a sunset not to forget.

Here's a pic of Carin with the "other" wife Lisia, who we would like to give a big HELLO to! We started the evening around 5pm by getting on a bus for a 1 hour jaunt that would take us further north, where the cruise would begin. If you look at this map, you will see there are two major suspension bridges that cross the Bosphorus at its narrowest points. We began our trip on a nice yacht capable of carrying 20+ people by the bridge furthest to the north, rode south for 2 hours, and then turned around and came back to where we started. On the way to our furthest point, we were treated to a variety of traditional Turkish "mezza" or hors d'oeuvres, and on the way back we were treated to a feast of freshly grilled whitefish from the Bosphorus, Turkish salad and melon for desert. It was quite the spread.

The main reason for taking the boat trip was to see the variety of old mansion architecture along the strait, all of which was reminiscent of any waterway's big dwellings. Even though the Bosphorus is really a strait connecting the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, it feels more like a large river, similar to the Mississippi, but with water that is much clearer and salty. We had such a great time with the breezes in our hair and the wonderful water all around, the entire adventure turned out to be a real treat. (To the left you'll see a beautiful pic of the bridge as the sun was going down).

Today was our last full day in Istanbul. My classes are all over, I've had my sketchbook looked at and approved by the professor, and now its time for some serious vacationing. Carin and I will leave tomorrow around 2:30pm for the airport, where we'll catch a 3 1/2 hour flight to Barcelona. We're really looking forward to this "belated honeymoon", just the two of us enjoying a city we have both looked forward to exploring for a long time. We'll be in the city for 3 days and then will head up the coast to Cadaques, where we'll enjoy 2 more days lounging on the beach, breathing (probably) the cleanest air we've yet experienced in Europe. Ahhhhh.....

So that's it for now. Thank you so much for following our adventures in Roma and Istanbul, and we look forward to telling you all about the "end" of our trip in Barcelona. Its hard to believe the time has gone this fast, but as they say, all good things must come to and end....for now, that is ;-) Ciao.

Work, work, work

Its difficult sometimes with all of the fun things I've gotten to do this summer to remember that I am in school, I am getting credit, and I do have certain obligations to fulfill. Today and tomorrow promise to be mostly "work days" as we finish up our Istanbul school obligations and prepare for the quarter to end.

This afternoon I am finishing drawings from our second assignment, to choose and document a particular mosque, especially with respect to its approaches and how a visitor/pilgrim would experience coming to it. Ron and I chose the Blue Mosque, of which I have spoken in previous posts. We chose it for many reasons (and, primarily, because it was close!) but have found it more and more interesting as we continue to study it. The mosque has many approaches from at least 3 distinct directions, each of which contains a sequence of spaces that make it interesting to look at from both close and far. I am rather happy we are getting close to finishing the drawings though...its so difficult to do work when the weather is so nice and you are in a foreign country, just wanting to see things!

Tonight Carin and I will go with the class on a boat trip up the Bosphorus, the large body of water that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. We will be provided dinner on the boat and the entire trip should last about 4 hours. We'll be taking a bus from our hotel further out of the city than we've ever been to catch the boat, with the hopes that we may make it all the way to the Black Sea. I would love to see it, so I'm hoping for a speedy ride. We're both excited about the trip and are looking forward to getting out on the water for an evening of fun and learning. We'll let you know how it went tomorrow! Ciao for now...

Back from Bursa

Wait a moment...now that I think about it, I may not have mentioned this before we left. Carin and I just returned from a weekend adventure withe my entire class to Bursa, pronounced BOR-sa, a city on the Asian side of Turkey (as opposed to Istanbul, which is on the European side). We left Friday morning bright and early and arrived after about 5 hours of travel on 3 different buses and a water ferry (on which the bus went...picture taken here en-route). We were there until this morning (Sunday) around 10:30am, when we did the entire trip in reverse. I knew even less about Bursa than I knew about Istanbul before going there, but I feel like I have a little bit of an idea of what the place is about now.

Bursa is a city of a little over a million people and was once the capital of Turkey. As I mentioned above, it is on the Asian side of the country, so its "flavor" is a bit different than Istanbul's. We stayed at the Hotel Safran, a cute little "bed and breakfast" in the heart of old Bursa. In this area are a series of hans, which are square donut shaped buildings that now act like individualised shopping districts. The picture the right here was taken in the middle of one of the main hans, showing what I believe is the tiniest mosque I have yet seen in Turkey. All of the hans are sort of clustered in their own "district", which in turn becomes a big shopping area. Long ago, the hans were stops for travelling merchants who would leave their horses on the lower levels and offer goods and services on the upper levels. The second picture here shows what the typical arcade around a han looks like. Carin and I were able to go to the "silk han" and find some things to bring back to the States with us.

Friday afternoon after arrival I went out with the class to the Ulu Camii, the main mosque of Bursa. Carin decided to stay home for the moment and nap off some of her jetlag (basically, she arrived Thursday night and left at 7am Friday to go to Bursa! What a trooper!) The Ulu Camii was beautiful and we were fortunate enough to be there during the call to prayer. It was a little different than the mosques I've seen in Istanbul because it was organized around a large fountain in the middle of the main dome. You can see it here in a "stolen" photo I was able to snap without anyone being the wiser. Friday was also the day we visited the hans to which we would go back to later to do some shopping.

Saturday we both went with the class to the village of Cumalikizik (pronounced JUM-a-LIK-i-zik). This is a very small village that is part of UNESCO, an organization which attempts to preserve various places for cultural and historical documentation. Cumalikizik has essentially been declared entirely a "protected" place where people will, for the forseeable future, live the same types of lives they have been living for hundreds of years in the same types of buildings they have been living those lives in. Our professor, Alison, took us there to see not only old Turkish village life, but also to study a unique brand of architecture that is used copiously there -- wood frame construction with brick infill (seen in the photo here). It is a unique construction because usually brick is used as the structural material. Here, brick is used as the infill and the wood is used as the structural material.

We were led around all day by our "official" tour guide (who's name I can't rememeber right now), an architect from Bursa, and by 2 "unofficial" tour guides, these two boys that decided to follow us around all day. Our entire group of students really split up to walk around the village individually, but somehow Carin and I found ourselves in a group with the 'local' and these two boys (who seemed very excited about the fact that there were tourists in their little town). We had a blast and they allowed me to snap this photo of the two of them before we left.

It was very interesting to see a real "village life" being still lived here in Cumalikizik, although I could not help but feel a little strange about the fact that these people are essentially not allowed to progress with the times. There were almost no young people in town -- most of them move to the city to find better more exciting "modern" lives. In Cumalikizik, time moves at a snail's pace and, while history is preserved quite well, the people are shoehorned into a lifestyle that makes them almost more museum pieces than modern individuals.

The trip to Cumalikizik took about 1 1/2 hours each way via bus and afterward is when Carin and I did our shopping back in Bursa at the hans. We had a nice lazy evening and night, eating breakfast the next morning around 9am and hitting the bus. It was a short but sweet adventure to place we would have never been able to go without the information we had from my professor. Now its Sunday night and we are kind of tired, but a good weekend goes a long way. It looks like the next couple of days I will be working on the drawings I started last week and Carin will be hanging out with Lysia, the other "wife" in the group. Friday my school obligations end and Carin and I go for a few days to Barcelona and nothing but "sun and fun". I'll keep you posted. Until tomorrow, enjoy a few more pictures from Bursa and Cumalikizik below...

Once Again Hearing the Call to Prayer

Greetings all and welcome to the end of my fifth day in Istanbul. Today was a "work day" so I don't have my site seeing stuff to share with you, but I though perhaps I would share a little about my daily experiences.

First of all, let me tell you a bit about our hotel. Basically, the Sultan's Inn is located right at the end of the peninsula of the main part of Istanbul. The map below shows the whole city split into its 3 main parts (sorry it takes so long to download on dial-up if you are using that...I can't shrink it down any more and still have you see any detail). The western end is called "Old Istanbul" and is considered European. The northern peninsula is call Galata and is also considered part of Europe. The eastern side is called Uskudar and is considered part of Asia. Istanbul is the only city in the world that actually spans 2 continents, consequently putting it in one of the most major earthquake zones in the world. So far I haven't felt anything, but there is still time...;-)

As my title suggests, I am now experiencing something we experience here 5 times a day, coincidentally the number of times Muslims are supposed to pray each day. Every day, 5 times a day, loudspeakers all over the city erupt with Muslim chanting, calling people to the mosque to pray. I was able to experience the end of one of these calls the other day and be there to witness some people doing their daily ritual. It was very interesting and enlightening in many ways.

Another interesting thing about Muslim culture is the level of cleanliness that many people maintain. Whereas Rome has fountains all over the city with potable water for drinking, Istanbul has fountains all over the city with non-potable water for washing. (I should mention that I consider the water non-potable, but people from Istanbul drink it all the time. I tried it and it gave me...well...enough trouble I don't want to drink it again). The picture here shows a man washing at a typical spiggot before entering a mosque. At each mosque, you are required to remove your shoes before entering, not allowing your shoes to touch a special rug that is placed in front of the front door. If your shoe accidentally touches the rug, the door person lets you know you've done something wrong. At least they are consistent.

That's all for now I think...its time to go to dinner since sun has gone down. I have definitely gotten used to havig dinner at more of a 8-9pm time instead of a 5-6pm time like we have in the states. Its a European thing I guess. Carin comes in tomorrow so I'm pretty excited about that. Here's hoping her trip is safe and her and her bags all arrive in one piece. Until tomorrow!

Internet is Working Again...Isanbul ROCKS!

Greetings all and welcome to another exciting installment of "What the heck is Erik doing in Istanbul?" My buddy Paul from Milwaukee has been to Istanbul and told me he loved it...and I can now tell you with confidence I absolutely love this city and have enjoyed every single moment I've had here so far. That's a pretty bold statement, because I, somehow, actually feel like I acclimated to Rome a lot slower than I have acclimated here, but that probably has something to do with never having travelled abroad before. Now that I am an "old hat" at it, things are running smooth and could not be better (well, except for the internet connection). Unfortunately, the hotel we are staying with has no internet access, so I have been alternating between surfing the "stolen" connection from an insecure network next door and going to the internet cafe. The internet cafe is not too far away, but it is, of course, sometimes a pain to deal with openings and closings and payings....but enough about that. I may skip a day here and here in Istanbul, but rest assured I will always catch you up. So here is a quick rundown of my exploits the last 2 days I've been here.

Because I do not have my sketchbook with me here, I may or may not remember the exact names of the places I've been recently. I can tell you that the two mosques to which I am closest here at the Sultan's Inn are the Blue Mosque (picture shown to the left) and the most famous one I have already spoken of, the Hagia Sofia. Rather than try and walk you through every single thing we did I will try and hit some of the highlights, especially since its late (about 11:15pm here) and I don't exactly remember the order of things.

One thing we saw very briefly was the Golden Milepost, located not too far from where we are all staying. This stone marker was the symbolic center of Constantinople, the center of the New Roman Empire layed down by Constantine. As you can tell, like Roma, Istanbul has been much built up during the centuries, so the Golden Milepost now is sunken into a pit deep enough to recall the old street level of Constantinople. Pretty cool.

Another place we visited was the mosque at Istanbul University, the main secondary school in town. The pic to the right here is of one of the minarettes, captured with quite dramatic lighting behind. The next picture here is of one of the main buildings on campus, Turkish Flags unfurled. I personally thing their flag is quite stunning with the crescent and star design. Reasons for the flag being designed the way it is are varied, so I suggest if you want more info click on "Turkish Flags" above.


Another major place we visited was the train station that was once the terminus of the Orient Express, a train which many Americans have heard of but few know anything about. The station itself is relatively unremarkable, it is more the nostalgia of it being the end of that particular line that still draws tourists to visit. While the station is still being used as the major stop in Istanbul, our guide told us that things are slowly being moved to the other side of the peninsula, where there is more development happening these days. Times they are a'changin'...

The second picture here is taken at the train station of a monument to Ataturk, the "Savior of Turkey". Many times I have heard Turks and foreigners alike say there would be no modern Turkey without this man. He single handedly united the country and brought about revolutions in politics, language, culture, the military, and religion all in a very short 12 years. His face graces most Turkish Lira and statutes of him abound throughout the city. If you know nothing about Turkey or Istanbul, reading just a little bit about this man is the most important thing you can do to learn more. Enough said...

These walks are actually very difficult to reconstruct for the blog because we are actually deluged with an enormous amount of information in a very short amount of time. While it is certainly one of the more interesting ways to learn about a city, it, at times, is very difficult to take in all the information. Remembering where I have been and what I have done is sometimes the absolute best I can do, this with the hope of reconstructing more meaningful information at a later date. Whew.

That being said, the last place I'll tell you about for the moment was, of course, a portion of the old Wall of Istanbul. This portion of the wall is actually quite rare in town, as most of it was dismantled in the 20th century. At one point, buildings had actually begun attaching themselves to the wall, growing over, through and around what had once been the major defense of the city. If you read your history, you discover there was a period of about 700 years where Istanbul was under almost continuous seige from various other empires, and never did it fall until the Ottomans took it in the 1400's (if I remember right, don't quote me though...its late).

In addition to all that listed about we have also seen a half dozen different mosques, been to the Grand Bazaar , the Historic Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar, seen an enormous amount of architecture spanning from 500 BCE to the modern era, and been to the Fish Market, an amazing little area along the river that sells the freshest fish in town every day. The guys below were just waiting to be purchased and eaten!


Today and tomorrow are "work days" with not a lot of site seeing going on. We will be documenting several buildings in a region of Istanbul that is seen as much more "modern" in its Western influence. Visiting there was amazing today...seeing the differences between different parts of the city changing back and forth between Moslim and Christian, conservative and liberal, modern and ancient...I've learned Istanbul is truely a city that has one foot in many worlds all at the same time. I'll let you know more about my project as it begins to develop, but at the moment it looks like my time here will be filled with lots of "free time" to go and experience the culture that drew me to taking this summer program in the first place!

Thanks for reading and I'm sure after these couple of days of "boring" work I'll have more cool things to share with you as I continue to explore this very interesting and fun city! Take care.