We left our hotel in Athens before 6:00 a.m., and our plane took off around 8:25. We were in Istanbul by 10:00, and everyone was so excited! Our tour guide met us at the airport, and then a bus drove us to our hotel. I'm assuming the teachers wanted to hire a tour guide because it is their first time to take students to Turkey, even though Mr. Paulson lived here for a couple years. I can't remember our tour guide's name, but the fact that she is a female makes me so happy. Women have excellent time management skills, and she must be good at this since she does it for a living. Just by her talking on the bus I've already learned a lot. Istanbul is the only city in the world that is on two continents, however, we will only be visiting the European side because the Asian side is too dangerous. The population of Istanbul is thirteen million, and the city has 23 districts with their own mayors. The main street we drove in on next to the beach is called Kennedy. It was named after JFK when he was assassinated in 1963. The tour guide explained that it is not safe to drink the tap water here, and it is necessary to dress modestly when visiting a mosque. The money here is called the Turkish Lira, and for once the exchange rate is very good. Istanbul is also home of the largest mall in Europe, so if you can imagine I'm very excited. We've learned some very basic words in Turkish, but you should know that their word for stop is "DUR." The stop signs literally say that! Mary Louise and I find this hilarious because dur is sadly one of our favorite words in our vocabulary. We haven't taken a picture of the dur signs yet, but don't worry there will be one very soon.
We are staying in a four-star hotel near Istanbul's most popular historical attractions. They call this area the old city, and the new city is the more modern, urban area. Makes sense huh? Earlier in the trip, Mary Louise had said that it would be very cool if she and I were roommates in Istanbul because we will be here for five nights. Somehow we got our wish, and we have a very cozy hotel room. It has gold crown molding, and kind of has a palace look with fancy chandeliers and tiles. Our tour guide led us to an area to eat lunch that she didn't think would be too expensive. All 19 of us ate a cennet place, which is like a Turkish quesadilla. The food actually tasted really good, but the restaurant itself was weird. The tables and chairs were really short, and it was very dirty. I was pretty disgusted, but luckily the waiters were very friendly and had almost perfect English. Sorry Mom and Dad, but I think I'll stick to the expensive places. The expensive places are comparable to a meal for ten Euros in Greece. That was only my first eating experience over here, so I'm assuming they're only going to get better. During our meal, we heard the very loud Muslim chants. It's part of their worship that they do five times a day. On the way back from lunch we saw them kneeling and bowing in front of the mosques. I plan to get a picture of that too. The mosques here are so beautiful!
After lunch we had time to rest, and then went on a Bosphorus cruise. The Bosphorus is the strait that separates Europe and Asia. Essentially it is the body of water that flows into the Black Sea, and it is four times more crowded than the Panama Canal. We walked a pretty good distance through the city to get on our very own boat. Istanbul is such a crowded place with so much going on that it's pretty overwhelming. I remember now that our tour guide's name is Minay. Earlier in the hotel she told me she liked my hair, and as we were walking through the city she told me she had a new name for me. She said it was Begum, which means queen in Turkish. That provided a little taste of joy for my day! The Bosphorus cruise was so cool! She described all of the buildings we were seeing, and by buildings I mean palaces. Most of them were old palaces that have been remodeled into luxurious hotels. One of them is around $20,000 a night and has guests such as Angelina Jolie, Madonna, and Cameron Diaz. We also saw many upscale night clubs; some are members only. There was one with a pool that had mattresses as lawn chairs. Now that's my kind of sunbathing! We were very thankful no one got sea sick, and our bus drove us back to the hotel. Instead of docking at the same place we started, we finished the cruise at the other end of the city. With rush hour traffic it took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get back. I enjoyed looking around at the scenery, and I noticed the cars over here are a lot nicer than Greece.
Our welcome dinner this evening was amazing! We had wine, bread, salads, meat, vegetables, and fruit! It's kind of like the food in Greece but with different seasonings. I was impressed, but I think anything would have impressed me after that nasty lunch experience. I cannot wait to tell you more about Istanbul. There's so much culture to be absorbed. I honestly feel so lucky to be here! Wheeze and I want to come back and stay in a palace! Maybe one day?.
Love,
Ellie
We are staying in a four-star hotel near Istanbul's most popular historical attractions. They call this area the old city, and the new city is the more modern, urban area. Makes sense huh? Earlier in the trip, Mary Louise had said that it would be very cool if she and I were roommates in Istanbul because we will be here for five nights. Somehow we got our wish, and we have a very cozy hotel room. It has gold crown molding, and kind of has a palace look with fancy chandeliers and tiles. Our tour guide led us to an area to eat lunch that she didn't think would be too expensive. All 19 of us ate a cennet place, which is like a Turkish quesadilla. The food actually tasted really good, but the restaurant itself was weird. The tables and chairs were really short, and it was very dirty. I was pretty disgusted, but luckily the waiters were very friendly and had almost perfect English. Sorry Mom and Dad, but I think I'll stick to the expensive places. The expensive places are comparable to a meal for ten Euros in Greece. That was only my first eating experience over here, so I'm assuming they're only going to get better. During our meal, we heard the very loud Muslim chants. It's part of their worship that they do five times a day. On the way back from lunch we saw them kneeling and bowing in front of the mosques. I plan to get a picture of that too. The mosques here are so beautiful!
After lunch we had time to rest, and then went on a Bosphorus cruise. The Bosphorus is the strait that separates Europe and Asia. Essentially it is the body of water that flows into the Black Sea, and it is four times more crowded than the Panama Canal. We walked a pretty good distance through the city to get on our very own boat. Istanbul is such a crowded place with so much going on that it's pretty overwhelming. I remember now that our tour guide's name is Minay. Earlier in the hotel she told me she liked my hair, and as we were walking through the city she told me she had a new name for me. She said it was Begum, which means queen in Turkish. That provided a little taste of joy for my day! The Bosphorus cruise was so cool! She described all of the buildings we were seeing, and by buildings I mean palaces. Most of them were old palaces that have been remodeled into luxurious hotels. One of them is around $20,000 a night and has guests such as Angelina Jolie, Madonna, and Cameron Diaz. We also saw many upscale night clubs; some are members only. There was one with a pool that had mattresses as lawn chairs. Now that's my kind of sunbathing! We were very thankful no one got sea sick, and our bus drove us back to the hotel. Instead of docking at the same place we started, we finished the cruise at the other end of the city. With rush hour traffic it took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get back. I enjoyed looking around at the scenery, and I noticed the cars over here are a lot nicer than Greece.
Our welcome dinner this evening was amazing! We had wine, bread, salads, meat, vegetables, and fruit! It's kind of like the food in Greece but with different seasonings. I was impressed, but I think anything would have impressed me after that nasty lunch experience. I cannot wait to tell you more about Istanbul. There's so much culture to be absorbed. I honestly feel so lucky to be here! Wheeze and I want to come back and stay in a palace! Maybe one day?.
Love,
Ellie
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| Palace for celebrities. |
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| Mattress Sunbathing |
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