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
I refuse to believe that the guy at 0:41 in the video is doing anything but showing off for the ladies while he holds that large board over his head.
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