Sunday, September 7, 2008

hi everyone,

a few pictures again. I am very happy with the park I have just a few streets away. It is such a nice place to sit and study some verbs and vocabulary. This weekend was not too adventures. Went to a party friday, with a bunch of Erasmus students, which was nice. Today I went out to discover another neighborhood on the Asian side of town, since I am hardly ever in that part. It was pretty nice, many small shops and restaurants. I also bumped into this fellow on the right, a genuine Amsterdammertje! The way back was the best though, since the sun had set and the big mosques were lit up, creating a very very beautiful skyline. 
They are still working in my street, building a house from scratch and also putting in new pavement on the street. So it is super dusty and noisy everywhere. I feel sorry for the guys who are building the house, since they live in a little hut on the buildingspot itself. I figured they are maybe from the countryside, or something. They work 7 days a week, start around 8 in the morning and often go on till 11 at night!
Tomorrow all hell is supposed to break lose traffic-wise. Because then, millions of students are starting school and university again. In one of the articles I posted a link of, it explains that the municipalities will offer free public transport for the first 3 days of the week, in order to lift a bit of the busyness.... We will see...
So, that is all really. Iyi gunler! (Enjoy your day)
Sacha

Saturday, September 6, 2008

hi guys,

with my language course half way done already, I am not experiencing many touristic anymore. So not so many pictures and stories, but more the daily life of Istanbul. For those who are interested in that I put some links at the bottom, for some nice articles about how it is here with Ramazan, what traffic is like, etc. etc. I really like them usually. 
Ramazan is quite the experience. Today I walked past my favourite lokanta (small restaurant) and there was a line of 50 people standing outside, because the call to prayer could come any minute, meaning that they could already order and then be right in time to start their iftar meals to break the fast. 
The weather was cooler lately, but today was hot again. Tomorrow I am going to tourist another new neighborhood, and my new housemate (Mia, form UC) will also arive pretty soon. 
Enjoy the links to the right.

x sacha