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?