Day 10
So I here you all are having some kind of elections or whatever back home. I should probably get back in the swing of things later. For now, last full day in Turkey!
First order of business today was signing up for classes! Life does go on in Boston, apparently, and when I woke up, it wasn't much past midnight on the first day. Naturally, first the system fucked over my account for some reason, and by the time they sorted it out, the website crashed for a few hours, and all the while I was freaking out about the classes I wanted but were probably going to fill up in the intervening hours, so all in all, it was a pretty stressful start to the day. I did, however, get the perfect schedule in the end, and I am now on the way to a History / Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies major if I can fit it around my study abroad semester, and I'll be finishing my Theater Arts minor in one fell swoop. Hoo-rah!
At any rate, we headed out for the one last sight to see, a 15th century castle built during Mehmet II's conquest of Istanbul called the Rumelihisari Fortress. It was one of a pair built on opposite sides of the Bosphorus Strait to keep the Byzantines hemmed in, and it was one of the coolest castles I have ever gotten to play in. Ever. It seriously looked like a castle straight out of LotR, although more overgrown and in disrepair. See, this is Turkey, so they don't believe in "off-limits" or "safety rails" or "oh god you're going to die in here" rules. There were a pair of police officers hanging out in the central office, but they never so much as spared us a glance, and we had the castle to ourselves. There were a couple of old, rusty cannons arranged in the courtyard, but the amazing part was how we got to run up into the parapets and look around. The towers were locked, but the original stone staircases were in place for us, the kind that run up the sides of the walls to the tops on the inside. No guardrails whatsoever, and in places maybe only two feet wide or less. Likewise, the drop varied from ten to twenty to nearly fifty feet above the stone, and it frequently felt hideously dangerous up there, clinging to the stone to avoid dying to death on the ground. However, in this case, the sheer awesomeness of the place overruled my normal terror of heights, and we ran up and down the castle walls for an hour or more. Took some fantastic pictures, too, because you had a great view of the strait and the city, particular the Turkish flags they had flying in the freezing cold up there. It was awesome, albeit exhausting, and you'd have to be there to feel it.
After that, it was a bus ride home and a stop over a tiny cafe where they served cow intestines (wasn't that bad with all the spices) before we called it a day early. There was packing to be done, classes to be signed up for, plans to be made, and a last delicious Turkish dinner to be had. Lounging around with chocolate cake and TV was a great way to end the hectic trip, and it's past my bedtime by now. Just one quick plane flight and I'm back in the U.S.! Still, I don't doubt I'll be in the area again before long, and it has been a fantastic stay here in Istanbul. The pictures and memories should speak for themselves, but what a way to usher in the New Year, and what an experience.
So, from Istanbul, Turkey, signing off! Here's to 2008!
First order of business today was signing up for classes! Life does go on in Boston, apparently, and when I woke up, it wasn't much past midnight on the first day. Naturally, first the system fucked over my account for some reason, and by the time they sorted it out, the website crashed for a few hours, and all the while I was freaking out about the classes I wanted but were probably going to fill up in the intervening hours, so all in all, it was a pretty stressful start to the day. I did, however, get the perfect schedule in the end, and I am now on the way to a History / Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies major if I can fit it around my study abroad semester, and I'll be finishing my Theater Arts minor in one fell swoop. Hoo-rah!
At any rate, we headed out for the one last sight to see, a 15th century castle built during Mehmet II's conquest of Istanbul called the Rumelihisari Fortress. It was one of a pair built on opposite sides of the Bosphorus Strait to keep the Byzantines hemmed in, and it was one of the coolest castles I have ever gotten to play in. Ever. It seriously looked like a castle straight out of LotR, although more overgrown and in disrepair. See, this is Turkey, so they don't believe in "off-limits" or "safety rails" or "oh god you're going to die in here" rules. There were a pair of police officers hanging out in the central office, but they never so much as spared us a glance, and we had the castle to ourselves. There were a couple of old, rusty cannons arranged in the courtyard, but the amazing part was how we got to run up into the parapets and look around. The towers were locked, but the original stone staircases were in place for us, the kind that run up the sides of the walls to the tops on the inside. No guardrails whatsoever, and in places maybe only two feet wide or less. Likewise, the drop varied from ten to twenty to nearly fifty feet above the stone, and it frequently felt hideously dangerous up there, clinging to the stone to avoid dying to death on the ground. However, in this case, the sheer awesomeness of the place overruled my normal terror of heights, and we ran up and down the castle walls for an hour or more. Took some fantastic pictures, too, because you had a great view of the strait and the city, particular the Turkish flags they had flying in the freezing cold up there. It was awesome, albeit exhausting, and you'd have to be there to feel it.
After that, it was a bus ride home and a stop over a tiny cafe where they served cow intestines (wasn't that bad with all the spices) before we called it a day early. There was packing to be done, classes to be signed up for, plans to be made, and a last delicious Turkish dinner to be had. Lounging around with chocolate cake and TV was a great way to end the hectic trip, and it's past my bedtime by now. Just one quick plane flight and I'm back in the U.S.! Still, I don't doubt I'll be in the area again before long, and it has been a fantastic stay here in Istanbul. The pictures and memories should speak for themselves, but what a way to usher in the New Year, and what an experience.
So, from Istanbul, Turkey, signing off! Here's to 2008!