Turkey's Delights

DIS's tagline is "Denmark as your home, Europe as your classroom." So far, I've picked the two least "European" countries possible: Russia and Turkey. (Oh yeah, did I mention I went to Turkey this week?) It was quite different from cute little Copenhagen, though most places are. It was a short trip, we arrived on Saturday and left on Thursday. Finding out the Sociology program went to Turkey was, honestly, one of the main draws of DIS. I was super excited to board that Turkish airline and venture over to the Asian border. This was the trip for my cultural diversity and social capital class so it involved a lot of lectures about tolerance and minority groups within Turkey...and it also meant traveling in a group of 60 people.

Our tour guide (aka the "Jesus of Istanbul" as our professor referred to him) said that at first, we'd be overwhelmed by the city, then eventually start falling for it and by the end, regret leaving. Well, Jesus got it right. It's a lot to ask someone to be taken from their cute Scandinavian city and plop them down in bustling Istanbul but it's really an incredible city. Let the pictures begin!

In addition to academic visits, we of course, did all of the cool touristy historical stuff that I love. Here is a picture of the blue mosque and a cat. That cat is napping with a view of the picture on the right. I don't think she knows how good she has it. This would be a good time to point out that this was the first time I felt the sun's warmth in a good long time which definitely helped me warm up to Turkey (ha, get it?)

Across the way from the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia, a former church when Istanbul was Constantinople. Then it was a mosque and now its been secularized and both Islamic and Christian art is exposed which is kind of awesome. It was finished in the year 537. How freaking cool is that. It's survived several earthquakes. Our tour guide tried to explain to us how old it is and how long it will remain after we're gone, "All of your dreams and fantasies and things you can't imagine. This building will see it." My little history nerd heart was loving it. 

Here's a picture of me being pretty content with life.

Outside the Hagia Sophia

There are lots of cats in Turkey. Lots.

Where we watched this Whirling Dervish performance was in the middle of a huge area of mosques and in the middle of the performance, we could hear the call to prayer of at least ten mosques from the window. It was pretty amazing. 

My groups minority group are the Alevi and so we took a bus to a Cemevi, their place of worship. Istanbul is in two continents so we hopped on a bus and casually drove on over to Asia for a few hours. This city is so cool. Here's a sign welcoming us to a different continent. 

Our trip overlapped with the Muslim holiday Eid.
Heres a bunch of sheep waiting to be sacrificed. 

The view from the restaurant on our last day. 

One of the first questions is always about the food. On the left is our first meal in Turkey which was a cool nomadic-style meal where they gave us a huge plate of different traditional foods and we all shared off the big plate. It was delicious. On the right is my last meal in Turkey. This is the food I was most excited about. Give me a fish straight from the ocean. Unfortunately I got pasta for a few of my Turkish meals which a lot of people were jealous about but no no, I'm in Turkey, what are you doing giving me pasta? I want a meal that says "grrr, you're in Turkey."

Turkey always smells like something. Whether it's spices, roasting chestnuts (which are everywhere), sheep or cats or shwarma, there is always something to be smelling. 

I had to go to Turkey to find a Dunkin Donuts. Needless to say, I was very excited and insisted on a picture. My roommate in Turkey is from Seattle and got excited about the many Starbucks we found (the only ones in Denmark are in the airport) but for me, there's just nothing like those pink and orange bubble letters to remind me of home.

Our last morning, after a crazy night in a Turkish club with our professor until 4am (I still can't believe that happened. Definitely would not happen in America) my roommate and I were packing in our room to leave. Above is the beautiful view from our window. We felt the warm breeze for the last time and listened as someone played some jazz on their saxophone. 

Quick recap: Turkey is awesome. Things I won't miss: getting stared at and yelled at as I walk the street, being given pasta as a meal, and not being able to drunk the tap water. Highlights include going to a Turkish bath and being essentially naked and scrubbed down by a very overweight Turkish woman in a very small set of black underwear and bra, eating about a million samples of Turkish Delights while making Chronicles of Narnia references every time, going to Asia for a few hours, seeing my professor very very drunk, and bargaining in the Spice Market and eating a lot of cool dried fruit (fun fact, I do love me some good bargaining). 

After our final meal, we took a boat tour on the Bosphorus and saw the sun set over the ancient part of the city. Who wouldn't be sad about leaving this place?

You just can't BEET this!

It's getting colder so you know what that means: root vegetable time! In an attempt to be slightly sustainable but mostly just incredible cheap, I bought this giant bag of beets for only 9kr! Yeah, crazy, I know. It was definitely one of those impulsive Netto purchases...like sweet jarred cabbage or mint popsicles. But unlike some others, this one was a success...well if you count having beets with every meal a success. Yes, you read that right. This week has been beets on beets on beets. 

Only 9kr! How could I not? Also, how funky are these long skinny beets?!

Beets and beans? Who doesn't love some alliteration? And with a side of Beet chips? Yes please.

   

Beets as soup garnish? Why not?

DISCLAIMER: I didn't make either of these soups, my roommates were just kind enough to share. I can  however, garnish the hell out of anything.

Sure! I can cook oranges and beets together. That's normal right?

Beets in an egg scramble? Okay!

"Hey Molly, what's been in the oven for more than an hour?" "Oh ya know, just some more beets"

I've basically become the crazy beet lady in the house and I kind of love it. Looking up beet recipes and tips has become one of my favorite means of procrastination. Plus I am nothing if not a fan of bizarre food combinations and beets are a perfect opportunity to test this out. My next project will be a nice nod to Russia with some beet soup. Also, get excited, because I've been researching pickled beets. 

Kulturnatten!

Friday night was Culture Night here in Copenhagen! Basically you pay 90kr to get into all of these cool things around the city. All of the major buildings were open for tours, businesses had events and there were cool booths and things happening everywhere. So many people were out and about it was amazing. Definitely the most alive I've seen the city at night - especially since most places close at 6 on a normal night. Because we live in such a great area, the majority of our time was spent walking around, collecting free samples and going into great buildings.

Inside City Hall

DIS had an event in our courtyard. Halloween isn't celebrated here so they did a halloween themed event with pumpkin carving and a haunted house. And of course they sold "American candy" and had a Smores-making stand. (Though without the graham crackers cause they don't exist here)

]

To the left is the Danish design center and to the right is the view of Tivoli from the Roof!

Pretty library right by my house. I got kicked out of there a few weeks ago when I tried to study. But it's culture night. No one can kick me out now! Ha!

And ended my night with the Botanical Gardens which were all lit up. Inside the central palm house there was a band and it was all nice and warm so that's always a plus.

We saw some really cool things. Lots of light shows and weird street performances and some creepy mimes. This post, however, would be incomplete without mentioning the star of the show: Norway. Let's all take a moment to applaud Norway for a great set of booths, free CDs (I'm listening to some Norwegian classical music right now), some delicious fruit and ginger drinks, cheese samples, salmon samples and cake samples. They had a Norwegian band and even a mini ski slope. A friend and I are now trying to find a time to go to Oslo for a weekend. Job well done Norway.

Calm down Denmark

There is no Thanksgiving here. There is no Halloween (though Tivoli has recently started opening up for halloween-themed festivities). No trick or treating, no turkey, and no stuffing. One might expect there to be a holiday vacuum in this time but no no, Denmark just skips right to Christmas. What? Netto is already clearing the shelves for an entire Christmas-themed section. There's already Christmas candies and cookies and wrapping paper. I'm all for starting the holiday season right but this seems a tad bit excessive.

Want some hedgehog wrapping paper anyone?

From Russia, with Lo...ts of Dolls

During our second day in Russia we went to a market where we were inundated with thousands of fur hats, faberge eggs and of course, Russian nesting dolls. When I first saw these dolls I'm not gonna lie, I thought they were a bit gaudy and frankly just ugly. So I bought a cute happy Santa one instead to satisfy the craving. Five days later though, they were starting to grow on me but I told myself I wouldn't buy one unless it spoke to me. And then I saw her. She's me as a Russian doll! So of course I whipped out my bargaining skills and got down to business. I was pretty enamored though and didn't need much convincing.

I tell you this lovely story not to brag about my Russian purchases but to use this doll as a bit of a corny metaphor. Bear with me. When you first get to Russia, it's a bit overwhelming. Nothing says welcome like the death glare of a Russian customs official. When you find out that the city you're in is twice the size of the country you're living in, there's minor cause for alarm. Not to mention the realization that some of the most incredible and turbulent moments in history took place right where you're standing. By the end of the trip, I had learned to have a certain respect for this ridiculously massive country and oddly, a bizarre fondness. 

Now for a nice picture story. PS. I fixed comment settings so it should be easier to comment now!

Statue of Peter the Great

 After arriving in Saint Petersburg and dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we embarked on the first of many walking tours. Our professor gave us all earbuds to wear and he talked in them as we walked which was awesome. He knows basically everything, he was our tour guide for everything. What wasn't amazing was that it was freezing and raining. After a few hours of walking we went inside a Russian Orthodox church which was really incredible. Service was going on and maybe it's that we had to wear headscarves or maybe it was watching people wait in a massive line to kiss an ancient relic or perhaps even the singing but it was really incredible to be there. Then we walked to our "welcome dinner" where we got our first Russian vodka shot courtesy of our profesor. 

The second day was absolutely beautiful! Apparently we really lucked out with Saint Petersburg weather because it was sunny and crispy and fall-y. We took a boat along the many canals (Saint Petersburg is one of the many European countries to refer to itself as the "Venice of the North").

 The boat dropped us off on the other side of a main river and we saw the main fortress of the city. Here is where Peter the Great built a very European looking church (spire and all) where, after him, the Tsars would be buried. The picture on the right is where Peter the Great and Catherine the Great are buried and to the left is where the last of the Romonovs are. Anastasia is on the far right. As you can imagine, my little history nerd heart was fluttering like crazy.



Hey mom, remember that time we spent hours editing a paper I wrote about Peter the Great's garden? Yup, well here it is! Look how he proves his absolute authority with his incredible control of nature. Okay, I'm done. It was very pretty, I promise. And there was a Russian bride taking wedding pictures. We saw quite a lot of wedding dresses that would make Say Yes to the Dress fans cringe.


 After that, we saw the Church of Spilled blood for the first time, ate some Borscht and had our first encounter with Russian Dolls. I also tried some beef tongue for dinner. (I went by a "When in Russia" motto when it came to the whole vegetarian thing - I refuse to miss out on cultural adventures!)

I still don't quite understand the whole paint important buildings in ridiculous colors thing but here's the Winter Palace which, combined with the Hermitage (a massive collection of European art), took up most of the morning. We saw some Van Gogh, some Da Vinci and Monet. You know, just another average day. Oh, and I held a monkey! Definitely a Russia highlight. After all that walking I was pretty exhausted but the monkey-high definitely got my through the day.

 After the opulence of the Winter Palace, our professor organized a tour he called "Beyond the Facade" where we saw a completely different part of the city. A Russian local took us to the remnants of the post-revolution communal living. Apartments that clearly were beautiful when they housed rich nobility are now falling apart. We went into one apartment that had seven rooms and 11 people. There is definitely no "community" feeling and one of the residents said he rarely knew the other people's names. I really can't imagine.

After that, we walked to a farmers market where I bought pickles! I also got pickled eggplant which was surprisingly amazing. (Meanwhile everyone else on my tour was buying candy). Plus the Pickle lady was so nice! She gave me an extra pickle for free! Our final destination was then revealed to us - another bar where in the middle of the day DIS bought us another vodka shot. Apparently it is normal to chase shots with pickles in this country. Ummm...I think I found a country that understands me. This was definitely a turning point in my relationship with Russia. (In spite of the fact that I was already fairly pickled out at this point in the tour. But ecstatic nonetheless).

 That night, to come full circle, we attended the Russian Ballet at the palace. (How cool is that!)

Catherine's Summer Palace

The next day it was time to wake up very early to go on another walking tour of the city, this time a Dostoyevsky walk to see the major Crime and Punishment landmarks of the city. (This probably would have been a lot cooler if I'd gotten to where I was supposed to in the book...oh well.) Then off the Catherine's Summer Palace in Pushkin which was by far one of the highlights of my trip. The palace was beautiful and very gold but the best part was the grounds. The weather was perfect, the leaves were amazing and the time of day just before dusk made everything that much more incredible.

We then took a super Soviet-looking train to Moscow. I felt a bit like Anastasia taking a night train across Russia. It was great. As a sidenote: you know you're in Russia when you can use the adjective "Soviet" to describe everything from towels to bathrooms to pillows.

 Before we arrived in Moscow I asked on of our teachers what she thought about it. She had lived in Russia for a few years and after thinking about it, she told me that as soon as you get to Moscow, you know you're in the center of an empire. And now I completely know what she meant. It's massive in every sense of the word. Here are some pictures of the Red Square. (Still can't believe I was there!)

Our first night in Russia, our professor organized us to split up and meet Russian students. They made us delicious food and were very friendly! One was an artist and unbelievably talented. Then the next morning we had a meeting with Putin supporters and got to ask some questions. Here's the link from our visit on their website! http://mger2020.ru/nextday/2012/10/05/39167  Then we met with a journalist from the completely other side of the spectrum who talked to us about his own views - which very much opposed the ones we had been told earlier that day. Then a tour of the Kremlin later that day where our professor purposely asked for a tour guide that only spoke Russian so he could translate and filter himself what he wanted us to know. 

Church where the PussyRiot controversy all started - a hot
topic during our discussion with the nationalist group

See! I could totally be a Russian! They say that once you've lived in New York City, you can survive anywhere. I dare any New Yorker to live in Moscow. I personally don't think I can handle it. Especially after being pushed onto the metro and packed together like Sardines. It's like the T on New Years Eve...but every morning. Insanity. Russia is a weird place. It's definitely a place of contrasts. It's European but not, modern but with definitely remnants of the past, and extreme poverty beside incredible wealth. Overall, it was an incredible trip. I loved the other people on my trip, my professors were great and Russia is awesome.

When we arrived in Copenhagen, there was a rainbow outside. How adorable is that? Home sweet home again.