Free Time Comes to an End... School Begins

Hello!


I have just completed my first week of classes at Boğaziçi University where I am taking three chemical engineering classes and other classes that are yet to be determined given the difficult registration system.   


In the event that you are interested in the University...

Boğaziçi University (pronounced Bow-ah-zee-chi) was founded by the U.S. in the 1860s and was the first American University to be founded ouside of the U.S. In the 1970s it was handed over to Turkey where it has become the primer public university. The college admission system is quite different from the U.S. One nationalized placement test determines where you can be admitted into school and Boğaziçi usually takes the top couple thousand out of over 1.5 million students. Safe to say I am in some smart company!



I will try and upload more pictures of the University later, but I tried not too make the stereotypical exchange student mistake of standing in the middle of campus on the first day of school and taking pictures of all the buildings...

Campus 

Hard to Believe this from an Outlook on Campus

Night View from Campus

The Main Lawn

So since school only started this past week, you many be wondering what I have been up to since I returned from my travels around Turkey on Feb 3.  Essentially I had a week and a half of getting to meet all the other exchange students who arrived at the beginning of February (there are a little over 200 student with about 40% of them being American).

Activities during this time:

1.  Hosting a pot luck at my apartment


Since we have a fairly small kitchen, we made sure that everyone brought a dish!

Potluck!

2.  Visiting the Modern Art Museum

I went with two of my flatmates for a walk along the river to a Modern Art Museum that was staged in an old mansion overlooking the water. While the art itself was beautiful, one of the highlights was looking at the view of the water from the immaculate front lawn and balcony.

Modern Art Museum

Modern Art Museum

3.  Returned to the Historic Pensinsula for Fish sandwhiches and a trip to the Spice Market

Since most of my first month was spent traveling to the Historic Peninsula where many of the main sites are located, I decided to go back to see some of the areas that I missed the first time around. Although traffic makes getting to this area a bit difficult, I managed to visit the Spice Bazar and walk along the bridge where some of the best fish sandwiches I've eaten are fried up for you on the spot.

Stall at the Spice Market

Best Fish Sandwiches

4.  Exploits to Bebek

Bebek is an idyllic town on the Bophorous that is located about a 10 - 15 minute walk from the University - this walk includes a set of 200 stairs down to the water. Once my quads stop burning, I love walking along the water and looking at the boats or sitting down to read in a cafe. I stopped in a Starbucks that was rated the second most beautiful Starbucks in the world - can't say I would disagree.

View of the Water from the Bebek Walkway

Starbucks Window

5.  Erasmus Dinners and Welcome Events

The university put on a series of dinner and events for us to meet other ERASMUS and exchange students. Because there are so many universities in Istanbul, there are also a bunch of city wide events targeted directly at study abroad students.

Me and Some New Friends!

6.  Return trips to Ortakoy 

Ortakoy was the area of Istanbul that I stayed during my first month in Turkey. I still consider it one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city and have visited a couple of times for dinner and afternoon tea and tavla (backgammon) by the water.

Ortakoy

Ortakoy Waterfront

In other news...

I am still not able to leave the country due to the residency permit issue, but I have my appointment in a week. Hopefully all will go smoothly and I will have some upcoming posts about places I've traveled throughout Europe.

I am also planning on trying out for the university soccer team this weekend!

TURKEY TRIP

Sorry for the long delay between posts, but I have spent the last 10 days traveling around Turkey and made the wise decision to leave my laptop in the apartment in Istanbul.

My cultural class ended on January 23rd leaving us with two and a half weeks of freedom before classes began. The possibilities for travel around Europe were endless! Oh wait, Turkey has a strange and unusual visa system the details to which I will not explain. The end result is me not being able to leave Turkey until March 1. Therefore, my past 10 days have been spent traveling around Turkey!

Stop 1: Cappadocia -  Land of the Fairy Chimneys and Cave Homes

After moving into my apartment near the University, I flew to central Turkey to a small town called Goreme. We spent four days making the most of a tourist town during the off season - taking advantage of cheap prices and extreme friendliness.

Town of Goreme

ACTIVITES IN CAPPADOCIA:


1. Hiking - The landscape in Goreme is unlike any I've seen. The rock formations make for some excellent hiking and very interesting buildings.

Example of a typical home in Goreme

A canyon near our hostel that we spent a lot of time exploring!

Fairy Chimneys 

2. Hot Air Ballooning - Worth the splurge for some incredible views over the canyons in the area.

3. Turkish Night Show - We were talked into an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink, dancing Turkish night show. Was it super touristy and a bit cheesy? Yes. Did we have a lot of fun? Absolutely.

4. Motorcycling  - Somehow I was allowed to pay $30 dollars to rent a motorcycle scooter for three hours and ride around the open roads. Am I glad I did it? Yes.  However, I am quite glad I passed very few cars and potholes. Not to worry parents, this was a one time experience.

5. Underground City (Derinkuyu) - A quick bus ride took us to the underground city of Derinkuyu. While it is unclear exactly when the city was built, many presume it was a shelter for Christians avoiding persecution.  It is made up of a series of tunnels and caves that can house up to 20,000 people. The city reaches 8 stories below ground although less that 20% was open to public viewing.

6. Outdoor Air Museum - We spent about two hours exploring the small community of churches and monasteries built into the rocky hillside. 

Cave Churches

Cave Churches

7. Lots of card playing and tea drinking!

Stop 2: Pamukkale

After bidding adieu to our hostel in Goreme, we took a bus to Pamukkale  ("Cotton Castle" in Turkish). We ended up spending a full 24 hours in Pamukkale, although given the off season and the depressing nature of the town, an afternoon would have been sufficient.

Pamukkale is known for a giant, white rocky cliff with many thermal springs. We hiked up the cliff in coats and bare feet letting the warm water trickle over our feet.  At the top of the face we also had the chance to explore the ruins of Hierapous - a roman city that dates back to the 5th c. BC.

Looks like snow, Feels like rock

Stop 3: Selcuk (Ephesus)

From Pamukkale we took another bus to Selcuk, an idylic town about 2 miles from the ruins of Ephesus. We stayed in a great hostel and spent much of the first afternoon wandering the streets of the town.

On our first full day we walked the mile and a half to the ruins of Ephesus. Ephesus is one of the largest Roman ruins of the Mediterranean and housed more than 500,000 people during its peak. It was eventually converted to a Christian city.

Library of Celsus (2nd c.)
 Commissioned as a Mausoleum for Julius Celsus

Ephesus Ruins

Temple of Domitian
Dedicated to 1st century Roman emperor

After spending the morning touring Ephesus, we headed to the nearby Aegean coast for a long walk along the beach. Despite the 55 degree weather, we took a quick dip in the sea!  Glad that Cape Cod has trained me for cold water.

Pamucak Beach (Aegean Sea)

On our second day in Selcuk we walked to St. John's Basilica.  While much of the stone Basilica is destroyed,  if it were still standing it would be the 7th largest Basilica in the world. St. John is buried at the site.

Entrance to the Basilica

Final Stop: Izmir

We were told that Izmir was not a touristy place to visit during the winter because it a modern and liberal city known for its beaches. However, we had a great time wandering the boardwalk and people-watching in cafes.

Waterfront of Izmir

One of the boys I was traveling with is interning with a company that has a branch in Izmir. A women from the company treated the four of us to a nice dinner on the waterfront. Hooray for finding good friends!

Back to Istanbul
The only things I have to say about the bus ride back to Istanbul are:
- very nice bus....but broken AC
- would have taken 4 hours by car..... 9 hours by bus

Thankful for wonderful weather and company during my 10 days traveling!