ps: the last two pictures are from a small adventure I had today on the 2nd and 3rd 'Prince Islands'. It was super nice to be out of the city and into a fresh and green surrounding. It was super windy, but it was extremely refreshing and exactly what I needed before school starts again tomorrow.

Hi everyone,

Finally some more pictures and a little story. University has started, and I am enjoying my first week of holiday already this week! This is because the Ramadan has ended. What an experience. Certainly the last three days, when Mia and I joined the majority of people here and also fasted. So, up at a little for 5 and eating as much as we could before it was 5.25. That was when we heard the first call to prayer and went back to bed. Until 7 in the evening, no eating, drinking, sex or smoking and even after the fast was broken with an iftar meal, no alcohol. Since we had no class or major activities it was not as hard as it must have been this month for the other people fasting, but it was still difficult enough, but more during the day then at the end of it. 

But now all is over, and it is Fitr Bayrami (sugar festival) and everyone is either out of town visiting family or with family out in the streets. So, even though many people left it is still very busy at the public places. It is nice to see so many families, much more children and women then normally. People here are so friendly and attentive with children. Most of the students went traveling, but I stayed in town, partly cause I had stuff to do, partly to save money for when Phil, Arie and Anneloes will be here in 2 weeks. I've seen some museums (see pictures), made use of the almost empty roads when running and read some interesting things for school.  It has been very relaxed and quiet. It is far more of a normal life then being a tourist that needs to sqeeze the most out of every minute. But yesterday I went out dancing and we ended up in a club on a open terrace on the 7th floor. The music was of course bad again, but with the lights of 'Istanbul by night' at my feet and a sky full of stars over my head, I could not help but feel so extremely lucky to be here. 

The weather has shaped up again to, it is back to the 'normal' 25 degrees, so that is good, cause Mia and I were a bit intimidated since we did not bring that many cold-weather-cloths.

Anyway, next week the university starts again. I have 7 courses, of which 2 are in drawing and yoga, so these won't be too much work. The teachers are generally very nice and more lively and humorous then what I am used to in the Netherlands, so that is nice. My drawing teacher does not really speak english so that is good to practice my tiny bit of Turkish. Just like today at the hairdresser, who also did not speak a word of english, and if you look at the picture you can judge for yourself if this language barrier lead to something good or bad. 

All the best from this beautiful city,

sacha

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

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

hi everyone,

Phil told me that today it was hotter in Utrecht then it was in Istanbul! Good to hear you have nice weather too. I put up a few new pictures. Yesterday it was 'Republic Day', when the Turks celebrate their victory over the Greeks in 1922, after which Ataturk founded the Republic and started his secular reforms. Everywhere we were, masses of big Turkish flags. I have been meeting more and more Erasmus students, and on Republic Day a big group of us headed for the beach about 1 hour outside of Istanbul. Especially the big group of German students was sensitive for this all this hyper-nationalistic energy. But on the beach itself we did not notice anything at all, and I was relieved that we fitted in perfectly with the locals who were also wearing bikini's. 

Tomorrow my language course starts, and I can't wait to get to know more about the Turkish language, and meet some new people. I am pretty happy in the end that I am not in the Erasmus course, since it is pretty massive, and now I will also meet some non-students.

I hope everyone is doing fine, with starting up there schools and jobs also, although most of you are already working again.

Hope your weather lasts for a bit,

love, sacha

Some more pictures, these are all of sunday.

I went into a beautiful mosque on the older part of town. After that I went to the Basilica Cistern, a water reservoir built in 532, that kept water that came from the Black Sea, via a 20 km aquaduct. It is huge and is held up by 336 columns! It could hold upto 80.000 cubic metres of water. Then I went home with  the boat. If you see the last picture up with a view from a  boat, there is a strip of green on the right, right above the water. The first building then is a little square block, I live 2 streets behind that block (which is a high-school).

So, now you know where I live, and seen some more pictures, hope you enjoyed it.

tea-suger-a-dream: my first Turkish steps

hi everyone,

I made it! my first steps were a bit rough, but now with all my stuff in my perfectly-situated room I feel fully landed.  

My first impression of Istanbul was not such a friendly one. With well over 20 kilo's of lugage, a sticky 35 degrees and no clue of were to go I headed for the metro. Confusingly the tickets are coin-shaped, so it took me a while to figure out that I had really bought them. I was occupying two seats with all my stuff and a older guy made a fuss about in Turkish and made me stand with everything in the middle of the metro for the rest of the busy ride. It took me a while to find a place, ended up in a girls-only dorm-room, that was very nice. 

I quickly befriended a guy who seemed to family to all t he restaurants, barbers, and hotel owners around the hotel. I ended up playing bagamon with  him and his friends. They told me how to say 'thank you' in Turkish. By now I know it should be 'tesjekur ederum', but they thought it was help me to say 'tea-sugar-a-dream'.. haha. Later some other french tourist joined and we danced till 1 and then went for some beers and they sang songs with their guitar. After a few songs I realized I had not even been in the city for more than  10 hours and realized how tired I was, so I went to bed. The next day I visited the impressive Blue mosque, then I packed my stuff and went to my new house. 

My housemate Mahir is a very nice guy, very friendly and relaxed. The neighborhood is very nice and quiet, only they are redoing the streets so that is dusty and noisy. I put some pictures of my room and the view (they took out the road, only one car was still parked on it so they left this one car like an island). I put my stuff in my room and got settled a bit. Then we went out for dinner, I have the feeling that eating out is very normal here, also for lunch. The food is usually not too elaborated, but nice. And I figured out pretty quickly that keeping up with my vegetarian preferences is going to be impossible, definatly for as long as I don't speak Turkish. We went for a drink and the begamon board came out again, and I am learning the 'kneepjes van het vak' so my tactics are getting better by the day. I am happy I knew the basics already since it is a fun and easy way to spend time with people and get to know them, and it is hugely popular around here. 

We ended up meeting the people from the day before again at the 'world (?) famous' Taksim square. That is the place to be at night and it is super busy and big. We saw super nice live Turkish music and had some beers and Turkish raki (kind of like the greek 'uzo').  The musicians were really really good, and first I thought I had a Turkish Stef Bos in front of me, but later when people who requested songs got more drunk it turned into more of a Turkish Andre Hazes. 

Today I have just ventured into the neighborhood in which I will be living: Besiktas. I could not have wished for a  better area to live in. The direct streets surrounding me are quiet (no mosques in the morning at 6 with 'allah alleahakbar'), but lots and lots of nice shopping area and restaurants and bars just three blocks down. Also lots of bus-connections and a ferrydock. The neighborhood's symbol is a eagle, so everywhere there are impressive eagle statues. And they are also the home of one of Turkish best soccerteams: BJK. There is a ringroad that fits exactly around the stadium. Because of all the hills, on one end of the ring you are on 'groundlevel' next to the stadium, on the other side of the ring you can look into the stadium and see the game! So crazy with all the hills in this city. 

Well that is a (maybe too) detailed account of my first impressions. I am going to be a tourist for a week more. Then on the first, like most of the students in NL, I am starting my language course. That will take two weeks. After that the Bogazici university has introduction and my actual courses will start. 

I hope (and am pretty sure) that The Netherlands is less sticky and hot, hope all is fine.

my baklava-love, Sacha