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.