Serendipity in Istanbul

Dutch Pancakes

2010-06-12T15:53:00.003+03:00

The last few days of living in Istanbul have arrived. It is so weird to realize I will be leaving this city where I have been living in for almost 6 months. At first it was difficult to adjust, but now after so many months it will be really difficult to leave it all behind. Even though I’ll see most of my friends back in Holland it won’t be the same. Because it will be hard to text each other in the middle of the day and meet for a lunch break in Taksim or have a ‘study session’ at Boğaziçi University with one the most beautiful views of Istanbul. Really, these last few weeks especially have been so great. But at least we have this week together before I’ll start my travels to Dalaman, Thessaloniki, Urfa, Mardin and Diyarbakir. Of course I’m looking forward to traveling too, but I wished I could take all my friends with me.
However, I’m not the only one who is so sentimental about leaving, the whole Leiden crew is sad about it. Therefore Esther suggested to have a real Dutch Pancake Evening together before we all go home. Here are some pictures.

Misirli Ahmet

2010-05-23T14:23:00.005+03:00

Friday night I joined Marina, her flatmate, Gaye and her boyfriend to the concert of Misirli Ahmet. Ahmet is supposed to be a very famous darbuka player in Turkey, he got the name Misirli (= from Egypt) because he went to Egypt to study how to play the darbuka there. Funny enough people in Egypt refer to him as Ahmed el Turki. On youtube you can find video's of him playing two darbuka's at the same time! Since I very much like the darbuka I was curious about him. The concert was good but different than I expected though. It was very jazzy with the combination of a synthesizer (by the way, what is it with Turks and synthesizers, they are everywhere!), two electrical guitars, drums and a clarinet. However in the end Misirli Ahmet and the drummer gave a fantastic show...without the other musicians ;)

Edirne

2010-05-23T13:08:00.003+03:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Edirne to make the visa run to Bulgaria. I realized I haven’t written about it, so even though it’s a month ago I would still like to share it with you. Both Mirjam and me needed to renew our visa so we decided to go to Edirne, and Marina joined us 
Once we arrived in Edirne we walked around a bit, ate some delicious and very cheap Edirne döner before we started our adventure. On our way to the dolmuş to Kapikule in Bulgaria we thought it might be wise to check which seats would be available for our way back to Istanbul. We checked the office of the company with which we came; Nilüfer. They informed us that all seats for that day were taken, perhaps we could take the cancelled reservations if we came back at 5 pm. Hmm…a bit worried we took the dolmuş to Kapikule, they leave from the dolmuş station near the city centre. The ride to the border was really nice, slanting hills with beautiful flowers, horses and farmers…the real Turkey to me! After about half an hour we arrived at the border where the dolmuş dropped us off. On foot we continued. We were so lucky that it was a beautiful and quiet day so we didn’t have to wait long in the queue for the first booth. It was so funny we just waited in line between the cars, and the guys at the visa booth looked a bit strange at us. Nevertheless they gave us the stamp and we walked further to the next booth. There it was a little bit more difficult as they started to ask us all sorts of questions, but because we thought it was so funny and were laughing all the time they were just kidding around. Finally we arrived in Bulgaria where we bought an ice cream and walked back to Turkey. Arriving at the booth to buy our visa for Turkey we saw it was the same guy as in the other booth on our way out!! So of course he thought hmm…what’s going on here. So he asked what we did and that we shouldn’t lie to him… So we just said we went to Bulgaria to buy an ice cream and decided to go back to Turkey. It was really funny and luckily he could laugh about the situation too! Then we waited for the dolmuş to pick us up again. So it was really really easy and I think it took us only 1,5 hour back and forth from Edirne.
Back in Edirne we met up with Marina who waited for us there and started to look at other bus companies to check about the return tickets. After asking all the companies in Edirne we found out that all the tickets we sold! The next available tickets were the other day at 2 pm. So we were a bit freaking out! To make a long story short; after we came back to the same office for the third time there was another guy (he seemed like some kind of manager) and after making some calls he arranged us tickets back to Istanbul! Yeah! We were really relieved. So with the tickets in the pocket we could finally enjoy and explore Edirne. And it was worth it! Edirne is such a nice city. It’s not too big, but there are quite a lot of sights to visit and the atmosphere is really good there. Also we were very lucky we came a day before Cocuk Bayrami and could see all sorts of folklore dances, music and parades!
So in the end the visa run wasn’t the tricky part, just make sure you buy return tickets right from the start ;)

Sister Time

2010-05-16T10:40:00.002+03:00

Last week my dearest sweetest sister came to visit me! I really missed her so it was great to be together again. She brought me loads of delicious things from Holland which I missed sooo much. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Especially the ricewaffels and roggebrood were great!! Of course we did some touristic stuff and sight seeing and it was great. It was her first time in Istanbul and I think she has seen most of the highlights now. Also I think I might have completely exhausted her…but I just wanted to show her as much as possible in those couple days. Sorry ;)
Today it’s my parents turn to come and visit me, really looking forward to that too. Even though the thesis stress is rising by the day, it would be good to have a break.
Which by the way leads me to the following. Since I really really want to make the deadline of 15th of June I won’t have a lot of time left to explore Istanbul and share my experiences. I will try to do my best but I guess the coming weeks will just be boring. Or actually I should use a quote by my friend Esther, I think it explains a lot ;) “I love spending my time at home working on my thesis while the sun is shining and the rest of the world is enjoying the good life!”

Hidrellez Festival

2010-05-07T09:24:00.004+03:00

Instead of celebrating Liberation Day on the 5th of May in Holland, we celebrated Hidrellez, the first day of the early summer in Istanbul. It’s a festivity that has been celebrated for many centuries in the Levant and even Mesopotamia. It has been celebrated under various different names, one of them is also the Day of Hızır. Hızır was a prophet who especially during this time of the year would help people in harsh times and would provide them health and prosperity. Besides this it is also believed that all wishes you make on Hidrellez will come true. For this reason there were traditional wish trees all around the festival site. Writing wishes on a piece of paper or a cloth is also an ancient Anatolian tradition which has been practiced by both the Muslim and the Christian population of Anatolia. It was very nice to see this custom being practiced at the Hidrellez festival. And of course for the festival the wish trees were decorated in bright and happy colors.
For us the Hidrellez was about enjoying the wonderful Gypsy music and dance. We were there from the beginning onwards while it was still possible to move around and have an overview of the festival. But when the evening fell it got more crowed and more crowded. On Facebook alone this event was supposed to have almost 16.000 guests!

Fairies, Horses and Serenity on Büyükada

2010-05-01T22:32:00.006+03:00

How wonderful it was to escape Istanbul's kalabalik and take the ferry to the Princes' Islands. We had a perfect sunny day and were even active enough to take the bike around the island. After I found out that cycling in Istanbul is a whole different experience than cycling through the Dutch landscape, we were wise enough to walk all the way up to the top of the island where you can find the old Greek Monastery, the Orphanage and lots of horses! The surrounding was absolutely stunning.
Oh and almost forgot to mention that there are no cars on the whole island!! People/tourists can be transferred in the old fashioned way; by horse carriages.

Queens day in Istanbul

2010-05-01T21:04:00.004+03:00

Yesterday all the Dutch people in Istanbul celebrated Queensday! It was a really fun evening. There was an all orange music band playing and dancers in cool costumes. At 8.30 pm the fanfare left the Consulate and we all marched, danced and sung down the Istiklal! An orange invasion some Turks would maybe think ;)

Latin Dance Festival in Boğazıcı

2010-04-20T13:08:00.002+03:00

Together with Marina, she studies at Boğzıcı, we went to the Latin Dance Festival at Boğazıcı. I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I was really surprised to see how many students came to this event. Even though the theatre was really big, there were not enough seats for all. So it was all a bit messy and crowded and I thought it might be the same for the dancers… but on the contrary. Almost all of them were really good and it was fantastic to see all those Turkish people dancing the samba, salsa, rumba etc. on such a high level! It was a fantastic show!

Concert in an Armenian Church

2010-04-20T12:59:00.003+03:00

Thursday there was a concert in the Üç Horan Ermeni Kilisesi (The Armenian Church of the Three Altars) and together with Sabrina and Hubert we had a wonderful musical evening. There were three youth choirs performing that evening. One from Barcelona, the other from Budapest and the third was from the Armenian church. They were all very very good and I was really impressed by the beautiful songs. Of course the acoustic was absolutely perfect, but the second group treated us with an even more experience of their songs. At one point they spread all over the church, standing all around the church benches and started to sing. This was like a dolby surround sound system and absolutely amazing. Unfortunately my recordings were pretty bad so I can’t share it with you. Nevertheless you can see some pictures.
How to get there: On the Istiklal Cad. you should go to the Çicek Pazari and take the first street: Sahne sk, there the entrance is hidden behind a huge iron door. Just ask one of the shopkeepers on Sahne sk. if you can’t find it.

Summary

2010-04-14T09:33:00.001+03:00

As you may have noticed I haven’t written much lately, so now I will just give a short summary of the nice things I did last 2 weeks.
One of the positive parts of being a Dutch exchange student is that you are invited to all sorts of interesting events. Wednesday the 31st of March were very lucky though! We were invited for a Business Cocktail at the Dutch Consulate on Istiklal. For those who know how the building looks like may understand how excited we were to go there. It was a very fun and interesting evening. Some of us did some networking, others just enjoyed the superb snacks and desserts and the good atmosphere. It was really nice to be surrounded with so many Dutch people all of a sudden.
Later that week I joined Marina and her friends who came to visit her for a walk in the old Greek and Jewish neighborhoods; Fener and Balat. We were very lucky it was great weather, I think the nicest day since I’ve been here. For some reason the sun won’t show itself so often…I can’t wait for the weather to be warmer! But anyway our walk to Fener and Balat started with a visit to the Greek Patriarchate all the way up to the Chora Church and other Byzantine churches some turned into mosques, some not.
The first week of April the first guest from Holland arrived. Well not exactly from Holland, let’s just say he’s Dutch but his last stop before Turkey was Georgia and before that…well…he almost traveled the whole world those last 6 months. We did some sightseeing together but unfortunately I also had to study as well, so in the end I could join him 2 days.
In between the walks, visits and studying I really like to spend time at our nice apartment. I’ve been trying lots of new recipes since I came here. And since it was Easter I thought we couldn’t do without a real challah bread. They turned out pretty well if I say so myself…unfortunately I didn’t taste them because I gave them away to friends. At least I have a good excuse to make them again ;)
For pictures scroll down.

Business Cocktail at the Dutch Consulate

2010-04-14T09:32:00.000+03:00

Fener and Balat

2010-04-14T09:31:00.000+03:00

Sightseeing with Victor

2010-04-14T09:29:00.000+03:00

Homemade Challah

2010-04-14T09:27:00.001+03:00

Easter in Istanbul

2010-04-13T21:48:00.002+03:00

Even in Istanbul it was hard not to notice it was Easter. The city was packed with Greek tourists and in my neighborhood, Şişli, a lot of shops sold matzot, challot, colored egss, easter chicks and bunnies. Even the local municipality hung out banners wishing all the Christian citizens a happy Easter! I also had my share of Easter experience. Normally we don’t do more than a nice Easter brunch with matzot and chocolate egss, but this year I got to experience the religious part of Easter. My Greek friend Marina invited us for dinner at her place and at around 11 pm she took us to see the ceremony at one of the Greek Orthodox Churches, Avia Triada, on Istiklal. It was extremely crowed but somehow we managed to get inside the church and watch the special moment which takes place at exactly 12 o’clock midnight; this is the moment when all the lights go off and the holy light is lit and is passed on by candles which everyone brought with them. Than the patriarch walked outside and did another ceremony, of which I unfortunately forgot the meaning of. But all together it was a very interesting and fun experience! Just to look at the interior of the church was worth coming there. If you’re in Istanbul around Easter really make sure you go to one of the ceremonies.

Another walk in the Historical part

2010-03-31T13:54:00.000+03:00

Tuesday we had another walk in the historical part of Istanbul. This time we started at the Ramazan Efendi Mosque in the center of the Kocamustafapaşa area, in Fatih. The Ramazan Efendi Mosque is attached to the complex which was used to be a Derwish Lodge. You can find several tombes with important derwishes buried there.
Another Dewish shrine and pilgrimage site is the Kocamustafapaşa Mosque. Important leaders of the Hyacinth Derwish order are buried on this complex. It is a very interesting place to go to, relax and drink some tea. You can experience how people use these shrines to ask for blessings or pray as a part of their daily life. However you would never see people pray the same way as they would do in mosques because it’s forbidden to do so. The Mosque on the complex used to be a Byzantine church. Not only the exterior shows typical features of a church, also in the interior you still can clearly see that it used to be a church. For example if you pay attention to the decoration you would find that there are still some crucifixes visible although they tried their best to take most of them out. And of course the interior architecture is focused on the north-south line with the choir as the most important part. In the mosque as it is now, there is of course a focus on the east-west line with its major focus to the east on the mihrab wall; the direction of Mecca.
Walking further to the direction of the Sea of Marmara we reached a very nice area with lots of restaurants, the famous Develi restaurant is also located there. It’s said the best kebab in town in served in the Develi restaurant. Not just the restaurants are worth to pay a visit to this area, also the small streets in the residential part are very nice to see. Here’s a photo impression:
How to get there: from Taksim you can take a dolmus to Kocamustafapaşa, but we decided to take the tramvay leaving from Kabataş to Fındıkzade. Once you leave Fındıkzade take the big street called Kızılelma Cad. on your left. Than take the Hekimoğlu Ali Paşa Cad. to the right where it is very close to the Vidin Cad. It took us about 15 min. to walk from Fındıkzade to the mosque.

Kocamustafapaşa Area

2010-03-31T13:41:00.003+03:00

Ramazan Efendi Camii and Kocamustafapaşa Camii

2010-03-31T13:27:00.003+03:00

Ramazan Efendi Camii

Kocamustafapaşa Camii Complex

Walk in the historical part of Istanbul

2010-03-29T23:21:00.002+03:00

The BA's students and our teacher from Leiden University came to Istanbul for a week to explore the city and learn from our experiences for their coming exchange year. From Monday till Friday we will make a tour somewhere in Istanbul. Since everybody should be able to find the touristic highlights such as the Aya Sofia and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, our teacher decided to take us to unknown places where there are a lot of historical sites and interesting neighborhoods.
Today we started in the Şehzade mosque which is across the Istanbul Municipality in Fatih. The Şehzade cami is built by the famous Ottoman architect Sinan and has some interesting facts. It was Sultan Suleyman who ordered this mosque to be built for his son Prince Mehmet. Prince Mehmet was the Sultan's favorite son and not only he built him a mosque he also made sure that someone else made the hajj in his place. Not just because was it a dangerous travel that prevented Prince Mehmet to make the hajj himself, but also he was lame and therefore he was simply not able to. This shows that the Sultan did everything in his power to make sure his son would be able to go to heaven.
From the Şehzade Cami we walked around the neighborhood to look at some very old mosques and churches that were changed into mosques over time. It is an interesting neighborhood because it used to be a place where Muslim Ottoman elite would settle and which used to be very prosperous. Unfortunately there are not so many traces left of this prosperity because Muslims would make their homes from wood and almost all of them are destroyed, burned or in ruins. However there can still be seen a couple of very old mosques which were built almost right after the conquest of Constantinople. The scattered street pattern is also very typical for this neighborhood. And of course a trip to this part of Istanbul is not complete without a visit to the oldest and most famous Boza shop which still produces traditional Boza. Boza is a kind of drink which you also can eat with a spoon. It was used to be food/drink for the poor people because it’s quite heavy on the stomach. It has a kind of sour and tingling taste to it because of the yeast. Well…just try it for yourself, it’s hard to explain.
The wooden houses I mentioned which are hard to find can still be seen in the neighborhood which is called Hacıkadın. Between the total ruins of gecekondu type houses you see beautiful old wooden houses. Most of them are in horrific state but the gentrification process has also started here, so in some parts these wooden houses are renovated and brought back to their former glory mostly by artists and architects who can appreciate the historical value. Perhaps in 10 years from now this neighborhood will look just like Cihangir.
We ended our trip on the not so popular part of the Bazar, near the Egyptian Spice Bazar, where they mostly sell tools, water taps, axes and those sort of things. Mainly a men domain I would say. I know my dad would go totally crazy there... Hidden between all those shops is the beautifully decorated Grand Vizir Mosque with it’s famous Iznik tiles, the Rüstem Paşa Cami. Here are some pictures of the trip.
How to get there: You can take the bus from Taksim, but we decided to take the tramvay from Kabataş to avoid the morning rush hour. Take the tramvay all the way to Aksaray. Than walk upwards along the big street called Atatürk Blv. When you almost reach the top of the hill cross the street (safe option: use the stairs which lead you under the road to the other side). You will find the complex on your right across the Istanbul Municipality building.

Şehzade Mosque

2010-03-29T23:06:00.006+03:00

Vefa Boza Shop

Historical Neighborhood

2010-03-29T19:23:00.005+03:00

Bazar

2010-03-29T18:56:00.005+03:00

Rustempasa Mosque

2010-03-29T17:04:00.006+03:00

Photo Impression Beşiktaş, Örtaköy, Arnavutköy and Bebek

2010-03-22T14:42:00.008+02:00

Beşiktaş

Dolmabahçe

Ortaköy

Hilton vs Ritz-Carlton

2010-03-20T20:39:00.006+02:00

Finally the sun is shining! Everything looks so different…and with that I mean so much better. Still it’s a bit chilly but Esther and I have found a good place to stay out of the wind and enjoy the sun. Because Esther is doing her research about the Istanbul Hilton Hotel in the 1950s, it was about time she actually went to see it for herself. I joined her for this little trip. We were surprised how easy it was to enter the hotel and pretend we were actual guests of the hotel. It looked so nice and luxurious, probably a wonderful hotel to stay when you’re visiting Istanbul. We walked around in the hotel where Esther took all the pictures she needed to take. We also walked the gardens where there was a big tennis court, squash hall, running track, fitness school and……..a huge outdoor swimming pool. Of course we were almost alone there, just one other crazy man. The sun beds looked so inviting so we thought why not enjoy them. We already felt like major intruders anyway. So I think we laid there for almost an hour…enjoying the sun, the quietness and the beautiful garden. Eventually we left and took a final look at the beautiful view on the Bosphorus. Talking about everything we saw, we also came across the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It looked so ugly from outside and it ruined the view from the Hilton a bit. But than we had a wonderful idea…why not also check the Ritz-Carlton from the inside?! After lunch we walked to the Ritz-Carlton and I must say…it was even more luxurious than the Hilton Hotel. The door was opened for us by this perfect looking door keeper (like the one that you see in the movies). And inside there were these big chandeliers, beautiful furniture and even an old wooden gate/door. Because I’ve read somewhere that the Ritz-Carlton has a very good spa we actually had something to ‘do’ there. So I asked if we could maybe see a brochure about their spa offers and we were directed to the basement of the hotel. We’d better ask it at the office of the spa. As we walked down the stairs our noses will filled with the most delicious aroma therapy oils and everything looked just perfect! We were given a brochure and they offered us tea. Excuse me, Herbal Tea! The best one I’ve been offered so far! And it was served with dried fruits. Of course we felt like we totally didn’t belong there, but we thought let’s play the game and see about the things they offer. The prices were exactly what we expected…a massage for one hour was around 200 TL. Perhaps it isn’t even that high…but with our limited Erasmus scholarship budget it doesn’t work so well. Anyway we drank our tea and asked some information about the massages, they offered us a good discount and would send some extra information by mail. It was such a funny experience!

Hilton

Ritz-Carlton

Supermarket Offers!

2010-03-20T20:20:00.003+02:00

Hmm...this is the most interesting offer I've ever seen!

Dishwasher Fun

2010-03-12T22:41:00.007+02:00

I’m so lucky we even have a dishwasher at the apartment. However you mustn’t forget to buy the special soap for it. We ran out and my flat mate thought it would also work out with just a bit of normal liquid detergent. Well this was the result! I strongly recommend don’t try this at home…

Jazz Festival at Babylon

2010-03-12T22:36:00.001+02:00

Sometimes I feel so privileged to be a Bilgi student. Like last weekend we were invited to go to the Jazz Festival at Babylon. Our name was put on the guest list and we could enter free of charge.. I must say that feels nice ;) I already knew that I’m not the biggest jazz fan, but mainstream popular jazz I can handle. Unfortunately this concert was not the popular type, it was the free and improvising style. Well, that wasn’t my thing but at least we tried it and stayed a while just to watch these jazz geeks doing there thing. On our way back home we came a across a romani playing Roman havasi and some girls were dancing. This music was much better so some good music after all ;)
Another advantage of studying at Bilgi is that its media department is really big and it has some good connections with the Turkish soap operas. They needed some supporting actors for a scene at a ‘Italian’ restaurant for this very popular soap opera: Yaprak Dokumu. We, Erasmus students, were asked to join. Miryam applied for it and she got to play a tiny role as a cook. The funny thing was that they were even paid for it!

Spring at Boğazıcı

2010-03-12T22:19:00.000+02:00

Last week on Friday we went to the Boğazıcı University to celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Sabrina had seen posters all around the campus saying that, that day the 5th of March, there would be a big celebration. It was supposed to involve fire and halay dancing! Of course I was curious about this. When we finally arrived at the campus (it’s quite a journey from Taksim to Bebek during rush hour) it’s was awfully quiet. At first we thought we might be too early but after asking around it was pretty clear there was no celebration at all. When we took a closer look at the posters we saw that on most of them it was initially written 15, but somebody erased the 1! Maybe some kind of joke?? Anyway it wasn’t that bad because being at the campus is really nice and walking around in Bebek is not a punishment either. There are lots of beautiful shops (my favorite Yargıcı too), cute café’s, luxurious apartments and even more luxurious yachts.

Vapur from Kabatas to Kadikoy

2010-03-04T11:56:00.000+02:00

Sunday Breakfast on Tuesday

2010-03-04T11:50:00.000+02:00

My dear flatmate Polina decided to prepare this nice Sunday breakfast on Tuesday. It was such a sunny day we thought it should start good with a nice breakfast.

Çinili Hamam in Üsküdar

2010-02-28T18:32:00.000+02:00

Today was the perfect day to have a relaxing day at the Hamam. The weather was not much fun and we had been to Istiklal and the Besiktas Pazari the day before. We choose to go to the Çinili Hamam in Üsküdar because it is supposed to be a good one and not very touristic. We took the vapur/ferry from Kabatas to Üsküdar which was a treat on itself. On the way to Üsküdar we were brave enough to sit outside to make pictures...but it was a really cold day so on our way back we choose the more comfortable and especially more warm inside.
I had never been to Üsküdar before and I must say it was a good experience. It was much more quiet and peaceful. Lots of mosques, old Ottoman fountains, cheap markets and these herb and natural product shops. With the help of two maps we managed to find the Çinili Hamam. It looked really nice and also the interior was not bad at all.
At first we were a bit in doubt what and how to do things..but looking at the other women was a good way to learn. There were women of all ages; old granny's just wearing panties and young girls with bikini's. The atmosphere was really nice and we didn't feel so much as yabanci's! Only when we forgot the take off our slippers in the sauna they were a bit annoyed but when they found out we actually were foreigners we were also quickly forgiven. We let ourselves be scrubbed and massaged after spending some time in the sauna. And a couple of hours later we were totally reborn, refreshed and our skin felt like a baby's bum. Now I'm home and I only feel like sleeping...for some reason it feels as if I have just walked the marathon.
Some info on Çinili Hamam:
- Address: Murat Reis Mahallesi, Çavuşdere Cad. in Üsküdar
- Prices: entrance fee 14 TL, kese (scrub) 5 TL, massage 5 TL, peştemel 3 TL
- Bring your own soap, shampoo, slippers and towels (using the peştemel is unnecessary)

Bike...

2010-02-25T21:42:00.000+02:00

How I really miss my bicycle in Istanbul.

Cultural Week

2010-02-25T18:15:00.000+02:00

This week I've been doing quite some cultural stuff. It started with a theater play at Bilgi. The play was called Kafalar and it was about how your head can be used in so many different ways...or how everybody's head is so different. The play was in Turkish so it was a challenge to understand it. I ended up getting half of it. But the actors were really good and it was quite funny as well. I was really pleasantly surprised about the acting skills because I usually can't stand Turkish movies or soap operas because...well...try to watch it yourself. If you can actually follow the story without being annoyed by the bad acting skills, you are an absolute prof!
Than on Tuesday I went to Salsa class in Cihangir. One of the Erasmus students at Bilgi was taking it and because his dancing partner was about to leave Istanbul in a few weeks, he was looking for new dance partners. It was really so much fun. It was an advanced course, so of course I didn't know any of the steps but the music was so good and the teacher helped me out a lot. I'm still not sure if I will continue with it since it's quite expensive and also a bit unorganized. Also there weren't enough men to form equal couples. But perhaps I could just come by every now and than. I heard that in Istanbul they also have these salsa parties, so I guess I could try that out as well.
Yesterday evening me and Sabrina went to this beautiful classical concert at Bogazici. It was called 'Musica Viva ve bir Opera'. In the morning we tried to call the information desk to reserve a few tickets. So we did but they said that for students it wasn't necessary to make a reservation because there would be enough tickets and if we would come at 19.00 it wouldn't be a problem at all. So they assured us. Being somewhat used to the Istanbul traffic I left home to be at Taksim at 18.00, I thought 1 hour should be enough to go to Bogazici...Well I was wrong. It took me almost 1,5 hour and so of course we were so late to get our tickets. When we were at the ticket desk there was just ONE student ticket left! First they said that we could also buy the normal ticket..which was 20 instead of 5. They saw we were so disappointed and I tried with my broken Turkish to explain that we really want to see the concert and that we called in advance and that they said there were enough tickets..etc...making very sad faces... I guess it worked because than she gave us just a normal paper and wrote two seat numbers on it and said we should get in fast. We didn't even had to pay at all anymore! It was so funny! Than we tried to find our seats but because the lights were already turned off we just took the first seats we saw. I guess they were not even the seats she wrote down for us. So than the concert started. The first hour the orchestra played Handel and Bach and after the break there was a piece of the opera La Serva Padrona. It was soo nice and very professional. After the rush and chaotic bus ride this was exactly what I needed.

an unexpected visitor during the break

Some pictures from the Türkü Bar

2010-02-22T17:19:00.000+02:00

Left or Right!

2010-02-18T17:51:00.000+02:00

People of Istanbul: Please walk either on the left OR on the right side of the street!!!
It's so incredible annoying to pass by all these people who are walking exactly in the middle of the street. When you want to pass them on the left they suddenly move to the left and when you try the other side...they go to the right too. Arrhh, it's so annoying!

First steps...

2010-02-16T22:04:00.000+02:00

Today I made a great start in the Beyazit Kütüphanesi near the Grand Bazar. I was a bit hesitating to go at first because I was alone and all the others had class. But I said to myself this is not a reason not to go. So off I went to the historical part of Istanbul not too far from Sultan Ahmed and Hagia Sofia. Of course when I arrived at the library the staff was having a lunch break and no one could help me out. Luckily there were these Psychology magazines to kill the time. It was very useful...I've found out that I am a 'Negotiator/Explorer' type and that the best match for me is with a 'Director' or also 'Explorer' type. Not long after this enlightening information the staff came back and helped me out to find the women's magazines I came to look at.
To be exact I have scanned through 135 magazines and found a lot of very good information. Most of the magazines had special corners or sections for architecture and interior design. It looks like this.

Now these articles are very important for my thesis because together with the photo's I need to collect, they will form the core of my primary source material. Hopefully I will also come across other types of primary sources, but for now these are enough.

After my visit to the library I thought I would go home walking. It was such a lovely day and I still didn't find time to look at the Sultan Ahmed mosque and walk a bit through the touristic area...and a little further..and further. And than before I realized it I was on Istiklal..so I thought I should also walk all the way home as well. This was my route:

When N gave some t's to M

2010-02-15T10:18:00.000+02:00

This is the evening when N took us to a Greek meyhane and gave some t's to M ;)
If you're wondering why I write like this...I found out you can get in a lot of trouble by posting full names on the internet.

Birthday Song

2010-02-14T16:52:00.000+02:00

I forgot post lovely birthday song video.

Birthday in Istanbul

2010-02-14T16:27:00.001+02:00

Yesterday it was my 24th birthday! I'm getting old...hopefully also wiser. Together with friends we had a nice dinner and party. I prepared dinner at my place and after that we went to a Türkü Bar on Istiklal. Since I've never been to such a place before I didn't know what to think about it. I told Hasan, my flatmate, about it and he suggested we could also go to another place instead. On the other hand Miryam was so enthusiastic about it I thought we had to try it. If only for the cultural experience. It turned out not to be bad at all. There was this lovely Turkish woman singing and two musicians; one with an saz-type of thing and the other with a keyboard. It was a repertoire of melancholic and up-beat songs. The melancholic ones were a bit too much for me in the end but the other ones were perfect for dancing. Even our student coordinator from Holland also joined us to dance some kind of version of the halay.
For now I only have the pictures of the dinner at my place, I'll post the other ones later.

The cupcakes that became one huge cupcake

Happy face, not so happy face ;)

Hasan, Polina, me, Marina, Marina's friend, Esther and Miryam

First class and library trip

2010-02-09T20:36:00.000+02:00

It looks like the registration process is almost coming to an end. I had my first Turkish class yesterday and it was really nice. Both the teacher and students are really enthusiastic so I hope this time I can really really improve my Turkish. I must say that hearing it all day long is a bit exhausting because I really have to focus all the time. But as time goes by I’m slowly getting used to it as well.
Today we had a trip to a few libraries together with our student coordinator from Holland. It was really such a nice trip. Suddenly we’re getting to know a whole different side of each other. Between the visits to the libraries we had ‘sahlep’ at the Grand Bazar and ate ‘kuru fasulye’ near the Süleymaniye Mosque. I’ve copied the pictures from internet because of course I forgot my camera today…

Registration and Fun!

2010-02-06T16:40:00.000+02:00

Last week I’ve been quite busy with the registration at Bilgi. What started so smoothly became a disaster in the end. After I found out that it wasn’t possible to register for MA courses online I’ve been mailing and calling everyone from the International Office to the Faculty Departments. Even our supposed Erasmus Student Coordinator couldn’t help us out and referred us to our actual coordinator...it would have helped if they have given us the right information.
Luckily I had some success at the Architecture Design faculty. Yee! The instructor of a course I wanted to take turned out to be the author of the book I will use as a guideline for my thesis. I’m really happy she accepted me at the course even though she never had a international student in that course as long as she’s been teaching it. I thought this was nice and scary at the same time. Because it means that all the discussions will be in Turkish as most Turkish students don’t speak English very well at Bilgi. Well see how it turns out.
Furthermore I’ve chosen a course at Cultural Studies which Miryam also wants to take, so it’s nice if we have one class together and can help each other out. Unfortunately the department director of Cultural Studies didn’t answer our mails so we still don’t know if we can take it or not. We decided to just go to the first class as if we were accepted at it.
Next to all these registration problems I’ve been having a great time here! Together with Miryam I went to Ikea to get some things for my room. Just going and leaving from Ikea was a little adventure while it was 10 pm when we left and stood in a complete deserted dark parking lot trying to find our way back. The other day we tried to get our student transportation cards. It’s called Akbil and it’s really useful and cheap for students. But since it took us a lot of time getting it I decided to call it Kakbil…I think it suits better. Also we joined the Erasmus Student Club to a trip to Pierre Loti Hill. I still haven't decided if it was nice or not...
Last night we met with the other girls from Holland who will be in Istanbul this semester as well. We had dinner and went for Özsüt where they make delicious deserts. Tonight we’ll go out because there will be several reggae nights to celebrate Bob Marley’s birthday.

At Özsüt with Miryam, Marina and Esther

Marina and Esther

Interesting spelling of croissant

View from Pierre Loti Hill

Istanbul Fashion Week 2010 at Bilgi Santral Campus

There is rain and there is RAIN

2010-02-02T21:11:00.000+02:00

So most people, and especially Turkish people, think of Holland as the place which is flat and that it's raining all the time. Well this actually doesn't make any sense to me at all. Because I have never experienced soooo much rain in Holland as I did here in these last two days in Istanbul. It really has been raining non-stop and in the afternoon we were treated with some wet snow as well. All the streets turn into waterfalls and pools. It's really a challenge to make your way though the city. Luckily I've figured out more or less how the public transport and the university shuttles work.
Today was also the registration at Bilgi. All was ok until I wanted to select and apply my courses online. I found out that there just simply was no option to register for the MA-courses. Also they have placed me in the wrong department, History instead of Cultural Studies and therefore I don't know yet who to contact and fix this problem. So tomorrow I'll give it another try and hopefully we can work everything out.

Cold, Introduction and Party Peeps

2010-01-31T22:12:00.000+02:00

The introduction day at Bilgi is tomorrow and I’m really curious about all the other Erasmus Students. I think it will be a very nice day…and evening. Just received a mail from the Erasmus Student Group with all the plans for the evening. To have an idea: “Right after that, we arranged a club full of joy and nice music for party people! =) You can join the crew after 23:00 for heading to one of the most known clubs in Taksim: Joker” The only thing is that I have a very annoying cold. I think I wasn’t really allowed to enjoy the nice weather on Saturday so now I’m punished with this nasty cold and headache. Well I’ve brought aspirins and tissues with me, let’s see how far it gets me tomorrow.

At least I’m very happy with all the movies I’ve brought with me. Today…they've been excellent company in my warm cozy room. If I don’t make it to the Joker party I will still enjoy myself ;)

At Last

2010-01-29T23:09:00.000+02:00

Yes! I'm in Istanbul! How hard it was to say goodbye to my family and friends, I'm happy that I'm here now. It's strange because I was so busy with preparing to leave I actually had no plans at all for my first days. Luckily I have found the best flatmate in Istanbul who helped me get through the first day. Because...I don't know if you've followed the weather reports; Istanbul was first covered in wet snow and is now thoroughly washed down by pouring rain that goes on the whole day.
But first let me tell you about my arrival. No, first let me proudly tell you that I managed to bring all my winter ánd summer clothes with me in 1...I repeat...1 bag. An enormously big bag of course...but exactly the allowed 30 kg. So when I was picked up by my new flatmate, Polina, we could easily get all my stuff to the apartment. The apartment, which is in Sisli, is very nice. Polina and her friends gave me a very warm welcome-dinner and we've spent a very nice first evening together.
The next day, today, Polina showed me around the mahalle and helped me obtaining my taxmunber. It was a fun and tiring day but I can say that I already feel a bit at home in Istanbul. Now I just need to keep in mind not to try to open the neighbors' apartment's door (they all look the same) and I'm sure I'll survive here.

Ticket in the pocket

2009-12-12T11:02:00.000+02:00

Time is flying these days. The semester is almost ended, one more week of presentations, classes and papers. It means also one more week of stress and hard work. Besides all this I have finally booked a ticket to Istanbul! Yeah! I'll be departing on the 28th of January...47 days from now.

Correction...Acceptance at Bilgi

2009-11-15T22:48:00.000+02:00

Okay, so the first little drama had already occurred. A couple of weeks ago the news was spread nobody could go to Bogazici. !WHAT! Stress! Unfortunately it wasn't just a rumor; Bogazici refused all the applications from the Leiden University. Even though there is an Erasmus agreement. Anyway, after some time it became clear there was a misunderstanding and that our students were accepted, but because of a calculation error there was no place left for me. My second choice was Bilgi so I was assigned to this university. Actually I am pretty happy with this as it turns out. It means I only have to take 1 course in order to get all the ects points I need to finish my Masters. Which would not be possible at Bogazici. This leaves me much more time to explore Istanbul and work on my Turkish....(and do research for my thesis).
Now me and Zeynep are trying to find ourselves a cheap furnished 2-bedroom apartment with internet in the heart of Istanbul. Big wishlist?? Nahh, we will find something ;) But if you have any suggestions...please let me know.

Acceptance at Bogaziçi

2009-10-24T12:42:00.000+03:00

Today I finally got accepted at the Bogazici University in Istanbul! I am really excited. The paperwork will start and hoping it will all go smoothly and fast. At least my scholarship is already granted, so now it's only the visa which I'm sure will take the most time and effort. We shall see...