Istanbul Day 3

Friday, unfortunately, was my last day in the outskirts of Istanbul, away from the city center. As you may recall from the last bit of yesterday's entry, I did my 11:30 research presentation on 2 1/2 hours of sleep. It went well, so that was good. I then had lunch at the university with three faculty members, did a bit of work, and resumed the day.

Koc University -  Koc is a private university that was founded in 1993 by the Koc family. Koc Holdings is the only Turkish company in the Fortune Global 500. The family is not poor, nor is the university. The campus is located on a hilltop in a forested area in the far northeast corner of the European side of Turkey, bordered by the Black Sea and the north end of the Bosphorous. The third bridge across the Bosphorous is being built a few miles from campus, although I certainly can't understand why. There is pretty much nothing on the Asian side that far north so it looks to be some sort of stupid political thing or something. The following four pictures feature a representative shot of campus (including the tower), a view north to the Black Sea from the tower, faculty housing (no, I am not kidding), and the in-process Most Useless Bridge on the Planet (picture taken from the outskirts of a fishing village a few miles south of campus). I still think that I prefer Bosphorous University, but I certainly would not mind working either place.

The Remains of the Day

The remainder of Friday was pretty low-key but not one bit less enjoyable than Thursday's action-fest. After a tour of campus, we left Koc at around 5 p.m. and drove through a couple of fishing villages on the way back toward Istanbul (or Bebek / Arnavutkoy, more accurately). I completely choked and didn't take any pictures as we were driving through these places, but they were very interesting -- totally stereotypic forested hillside / super-narrow winding, steep roads through "town" / old women in scarves / kids kicking rocks, chasing each other, messing around with stray dogs. Y'know, people live their lives wherever they are. Ultimately we got back to civilization and parked at Bosphorous University in the usual place-you-would-get-towed-in-5-minutes-if-you-were-at-an-American-university-but-it-is-fine-to-leave-the-car-there-for-10-hours-because-you're-in-Turkey. Dinner was at another rooftop place, this time on the Bosphorous rather than atop OMG street. As usual, both the food and the view (picture below) were amazing.

At Starbucks a few hours later, the girl behind the counter asked to use my name for our coffee order, and she spelled it M-A-Y-K. I told Lale that the girl had intentionally christened me with my very own Turkish name. Lale said that was stupid, that nobody is named Mayk. I told her not to rain on my parade, which gave me yet another opportunity to explain English metaphors. While we were sitting there, an early 20s college student-looking Turkish guy sitting nearby overheard us and asked what we were talking about. I showed him the cup and his response was "it could've been worse." Solid. He then told me that he needed me to help him come up with a name for his new tech startup company. No joke. We talked for a few minutes about what they're doing (apparently it is a bit like Periscope) and I asked him if they had any ideas for the name. He said they were thinking about "Loris," which is a small primate that I'd never heard of . He showed pictures (see them here). I told him that I thought it looked a little like a lemur and he said, "yeah ... a little like a lemur, but cuter." So I told him he should use that as the tagline -- "Loris Technologies - Like a Lemur. But Cuter." He seemed to like that idea, but then again Turkish people are nice ...

After leaving Starbucks (and neglecting to get a promise about royalties on my tagline) we walked back to Bosphorous University to pick up the car. Finals are still going on so the campus, like any college campus, was still hopping at 1 a.m. To further extend my reputation as a native, I drove the 7-8 miles back to the hotel. There wasn't very much traffic and I didn't even get to cut anybody off or use my horn, but I think I should at least get points for participation.

Tomorrow (which is actually yesterday because wi-fi was out at my new hotel last night) I'll be in the Old City and will continue updates from there. I'm anticipating that my last couple of days here will be pretty lame compared to what I've experienced so far, despite the fact that if you were to ask most tourists, I haven't "seen anything" yet. I guess it's all a matter of perspective ...

Cheers,
Mike

Istanbul Day 2

Day 2 started with me waking up at 9 a.m. after sleeping eight hours. So it originally seemed that jetlag is not a thing at all here, which is fabulous. I spent the day doing what the locals do with Lale as my capable guide, and really I'm not sure that I've ever had a more action-packed 12-13 hours.

Visit to Bosphorous University - Located, as one might gather, on a hill overlooking the Bosphorous (and directly next to a 15th century castle), the setting of this place makes it perhaps the most appealing campus I've ever visited. I've inserted three pictures here: one of the view from campus across the Bosphorous to an Ottoman palace, one of the castle that sits immediately to the right of campus, and one of the School of Business. If you look at the castle picture closely, the faculty club where we had lunch is in the upper left-hand corner. Highlight of the lunch was the dessert, which is called Noah's Pudding. Why? I don't know. Supposedly it is related to Noah from the Bible but I couldn't really understand that because it is a fruit and nut version of bread pudding and doesn't remotely contain two of every animal.

Boat trip to Asia - The Ottoman palace in the first picture in the above sequence, just across the Bosphorous from campus, is in Asia. Many people commute back and forth between the European and Asian parts of Istanbul every day. So ... after lunch and a stop at a cafe, we took a 50-cent, one-hour boat trip with local commuters that included a 10-minute stop in Kanlika (aka random town in Asia that looks just like the other small towns that make up much of European Istanbul). The picture (again, above) of the castle next to the university was taken while on the boat.

Mosque, Lounge, Palace - After returning from Asia, we walked around for a while (noting the 20-billion stray dogs and cats that own the city), did a bit of shopping and people-watching, and ended up randomly visiting a mosque on the waterfront and a fabulous hotel lounge that adjoins another Ottoman palace. The palaces seem to be everywhere you look. It is sort of ridiculous. I rather enjoyed the juxtaposition of crowded courtyards filled with all makes and models of people, the best-situated Starbucks on the planet (overlooking the Bosphorous), the mosque blasting the 5:00 call to prayer, and the Ferrari and Rolls-Royce dealership right across the street. I will also note that at least one guy inside the mosque was totally looking daggers at Lale when she went in with me as the menfolk were ending their services. Dude. Chill.

Taksim, Part 1 - Taksim Square is where a good bit of the rubber bullet, water cannon, and tear gas political protest action tends to take place. If you want to know more, look it up. I suspect it will be rather exciting there during the next week or so leading up to what are some rather important and contentious elections. I took the obligatory picture of Ataturk's statue and then we went for a casual stroll down the infamous Istiklal Street. What many people do not know is that "Istiklal" is Turkish for OMG YOU CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE WALKING HERE. After navigating through the masses for about half a mile (second picture below), we decided to have dinner at a rooftop restaurant owned by Koc University. The views are unreal. In the panaromic picture you can see the Hagia Sophia and, I believe, Topkapi Palace (I could be wrong and probably am) on the peninsula to the far right. I've also included an after-dark, zoomed picture of that peninsula, still from the top of the restaurant.

Taksim, Part 2 - After finishing dinner at about 10 p.m., we crossed OMG Street and located a small bar in an alleyway where some local gents were playing traditional Turkish music. If you've heard me talk about the experience Paige and I had in the small pub in Edinburgh several years ago, this basically was the Turkish equivalent. After we had been there for about five minutes, a woman and her husband bought us a round of Raki (the more-or-less official drink of Turkey, which I rather like because it is flavored with anise). About 10 minutes after that, I noticed that Lale was mouthing the words to all of the folk songs the old-timers were playing. The band members noticed it as well, because they gestured for her to make some requests (which she did). After that, the woman who bought us the drinks came over and said, in very good English, "What is your story? You come in here looking like an American, yet you know the words to all of our traditional songs!" Lale explained her story and the other woman, as it turns out, had a somewhat similar experience, having spent five years studying in London. They are now best friends and I am a semi-official wannabe Turkish compadre as well. My experience in this place suggests that Turks are extremely friendly, gregarious people who embrace those who express an interest in their culture. I took a fair amount of video at the bar. The surviving footage is less than three minutes long and you really should take the time to watch it (although the audio quality is not great).

Unfortunately the band stopped playing at midnight, at which point we found the Metro, traversed probably 500 vertical feet down semi-functional escalators, and barely caught the last train back to Bosphorous University where we had left the car. My research presentation was at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, so I knew I needed to get to sleep pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I couldn't shut my brain off and lay there in the dark with my eyes closed literally from 1:30 a.m. until (at last check) almost 6:00 a.m ... woke up at 8:30, went through my presentation, took a shower, caught a cab to Koc University at 10:30, and survived the presentation just fine. It is now almost 3 a.m. on Saturday and I've slept less than 3 hours in the past 42 hours. I'll pick up from here tomorrow and relate the happenings from Day 3.

And now, the band ...

Please remember that if you want to see larger versions of any of the pictures, simply click on them and they will expand.

Cheers,

Mike

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

A few weeks ago one of my former Ph.D. students from A&M, Lale Guler, emailed to tell me that her university wanted to have me out to present a research paper. Lale has told me on numerous occasions that I really need to visit Istanbul (not Constantinople) and I've always been intrigued by the city, so deciding to make the trip in a heavily subsidized fashion was a no-brainer. I was hoping that Paige could come along but the timing didn't work out, so I'll be flying solo through June 2.

What follows is Round 1 of my Istanbul (not Constantinople) travel blog. As usual, I'll try to keep things entertaining and will focus primarily on stuff I want to remember rather than on stuff you might want to know. I figure if you really want to get the lowdown on Istanbul (not Constantinople) you can use Google and YouTube as well as I can. You might start with the link below as it was my favorite. I told Paige I'm going to try to line up Melisa to show me the sights while I'm here, but she didn't think that would be a very good idea. Whatever.

Before I get started in earnest, I realize that many of my student and former student readers may not know the history behind the naming of Istanbul (not Constantinople). As a public service, therefore, I offer the following two minute and eighteen second summary, capably provided by The Four Lads. I guarantee it will be the highlight of your day. Seriously, kids. This is history. Watch it.

And now, on with the show.

Pre-Arrival Observations

1. While standing in line to get my boarding pass in Houston (wearing a Trinity polo), I was approached by a Turkish guy who said that his son is a Trinity graduate who currently works in the IT department at Trinity. More random ... the guy got his MBA from A&M. He also told me that things probably are going to be sort of crazy during my stay because the general elections are being held on June 7.
2. One of the Turkish Airlines "prohibited items" signs behind the check-in counter features the usual assortment of things -- guns, razors, deodorant spray, etc. -- but also includes pictures of a missile, a propane tank, and a chainsaw. Who knew??
3. Approximately all of the people on my flight have at least one child below the age of three. I am now wishing I had brought my own gigantic over-the-ear headphones instead of opting to steal Hollis' smaller on-the-ear set.
4. At 6:48 p.m., I saw a grown man buy a pair of strap-on roller skates from a Brookstone store inside George Bush Intercontinental Airport. I am not making this up. He then put them on, attempted to skate down the terminal, fell once, and decided maybe he should take them off before stepping onto the moving sidewalk.
5. After further exposure to the rather vigorous "family life" mentioned in point 3, I decided to look into a class upgrade. There was one such upgrade left, so I took it (thank you, recliner-that-magically-converts-into-a-bed). Five minutes after that, I was called back up to the desk where a Customs officer was waiting with a German Shepherd. He said to follow him through the door behind the desk, so I did (duh). I then found myself in the "back room" with three officers: am I really traveling alone, how much money do I have on me, have I ever been to Istanbul (not Constantinople) before, what is the purpose of my visit, what specific hotels will I be using???? The woman officer then led me out of the room and told me that this was just one of their random checks ... so not to worry. I wish my story were better, in a Jason Bourne-type way, but it isn't.

Arrival

After arriving, I took a taxi to my digs for the first three nights -- the Grand Tarabya Hotel, which is about 40km from Istanbul proper via a 2-hour, highly entertaining cab ride. Casual empiricism suggests that traffic lanes are completely optional here and having more than two feet between automobiles (front / back / side) is Just. Simply. Not. Acceptable. For. Any. Reason. I was going to take video but didn't figure it would translate particularly well. Basically, it feels like each of the city's 16 million inhabitants has three cars and drives them all simultaneously ... while texting with one hand and shifting gears with the other (which is what my cabbie and at least half of the people we passed -- meaning crawled / scraped past -- were doing).

I seriously cannot imagine going to the DMV here.

But really, where else in the world can you get a 2-hour cab ride for $40 [inserts random city picture taken from cab because there actually was not another car blocking the view at this point]?

I arrived at the hotel precisely 24 hours after I began boarding in San Antonio. The hotel is right on the Bosphorus and is a little less than halfway (North to South) between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Kudos to Koc University for setting me up in such a terrific place. The view of the marina is very nice and I hope to get some good pictures on Friday or Saturday when the sun comes out.

I'm not yet sure when the calls to prayer will stop, but the room seems pretty well insulated. I suspect I'll be sufficiently dead at 5:30 or whenever the first one is that it won't make any difference.

Good night (or as the natives say, "İyi geceler")
Mike