Mike and I got up early on Tuesday because we wanted to see the AyaSofia museum. We thought we were getting up at 9:00am but since I forgot to change the time on my computer to the local time, we had actually gotten up at 6:30am and were about to check out at 7:00am. The hotel attendant laughed. We left our bags with him and went out anyway.
Since it is Ramadan, a lot of restaurants are observing this religious event by closing shop. Good for the locals, bad for tourists. We found one place that was open and Mike ordered some kind of bean dish. It was actually pretty good. I took a small piece of bread and tried the sauce. We then caught a local bus to AyaSofia which is a small church on the other side of Trabzon. We got there an hour early but sat on the bank looking over the Black Sea. The Sea is really gross actually. At least from where we were. We took about 45 minutes walking around this church before heading back.
As soon as we got back, we went to the tourist office to get information about getting to Ataturk’s summer home. We walked to the bus stop and stopped at the post office along the way. Right outside the post office was the presumed bus stop but we couldn’t see the #4 bus come by. The interesting thing about Turks, we have learned, is that they will never say “I don’t know, sorry,” they are so willing to be helpful that they may lead you in the wrong direction. With that said, we passed by the same old lady four times trying to figure out where the right stop was. Eventually we found it and headed up to Ataturk’s summerhouse.
The bus dropped us off right outside of the house. We bought out tickets and found out that although advertised to be Ataturk’s summerhouse, which is technically true, he actually only stayed there for one summer, a total of 3 nights. Regardless it was a nice house and it had a nice garden.
We waited outside the house for the next bus to come. We were cutting it close because our flight to Istanbul was set for 2:40pm. It was 11:30 and we still needed to get back to the city, hopefully pick up lunch, get our bags from the hotel, and head to the airport. We got back to the city center when the heavens opened. Walking through the rain in my four-year-old rainbows sandals proved to be a horrible idea as most of the leather on the sandal, where my foot hits the leather itself, rubbed off. I still wear them. On our haste back to the hotel, we stopped at the McDonald’s again and got lunch. I must say, in our defense, that we eat at these fast food places because there are no other places to eat. During Ramadan, the local restaurants only serve one item and its just on the heating rack. However, that was the last time we had eaten there.
We picked up our bags from the hotel and went to the bus stop hoping to figure out a way to get to the airport. I asked some older gentlemen at the stop if they could help us out. Airport, is not “airport” with a Turkish accent in Turkish… I acted out an airport for 30 seconds before anyone understood what I was doing. (Interesting because I thought I was good at charades…). We were cutting it close so we paid about twenty dollars to get a cab to the airport. When we got there, we checked in, got on our plane and I passed out.
We arrived in Istanbul ten minutes early, got our bags, and headed to the bus to take us into Istanbul, to Taksim square where we were to meet our friend Ryan. Ryan is a New Zealander who lives with his Turkish girlfriend in Istanbul. I met Ryan about a year ago at Jason’s house. (Too much backstory to tell here). The bus took us about an hour and as we were getting close, Mike told me to look out the window. It was 6:00 exactly and that was the time we were supposed to meet Ryan. We saw Ryan walking away from the bus drop off. We got to the stop and put our bags on the wall to wait for him. However, he had just made a large loop and came back. He thought we were going to take hours so he took a walk to find some bread and came back shortly thereafter. We carried our bags to his house and just relaxed for the rest of the night. Yagmur, his girlfriend, made a nice Turkish dinner, but I don’t remember what it was.
The only downside about staying here is that on the first night, I got three spider bites and a couple mosquito bites, and every successive night has added more mosquito bites. Whatever.
The following morning, Ryan went out with us and we walked around the Grand Bazaar, Egyptian Market, and some other places before he left. We walked through the Blue Mosque, AyaSofia in Istanbul, and other areas. It was not so hot out so it was almost pleasant to walk around. We came back home and helped prepare dinner. That as really good. We ate falafel and salad. One of their friends, Gurgen, went out to pick up his girlfriend flying to Turkey from Istanbul and afterwards came to join us.
Yesterday morning, August 18th, Mike and I woke up and were out the door by 9:00am. We went to the cistern, which was pretty cool. An underground water storage facility which was built hundreds of years ago. After that, we went to the Sultan’s palace and got to see some of the old Turkish royal clothing and jewelry. Also, we got a nice shot of Istanbul from across the river.
At around 2:00 we started walking back, stopping at the post office again, and wanted to find something to eat. We found a place and a face caught my eye. Sitting with his friend at a table was Thomas, Patrick’s older brother. Patrick has been one of my closest friends for years, meeting back in the first grade. It was such a shock to see Thomas at a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey. We spoke for a while and will try to meet another day. Small world.
After lunch, we went back to the house and I took a two hour nap. Following that, we hung out for a while before leaving to go out. There are many street carts selling clams, so we stopped at one and ate a fried clam sandwich and some clams cooked with rice. Basically, they put spiced rice into the clam, cook it, and then you open the clam, and use one side of the shell to scoop all the insides into your mouth. It was really good, and really cheap. We came back and shortly thereafter, passed out.
It seems we have done all the tourist things in this area. Today we are planning on meeting with David, who was a volunteer from my group whom we randomly met on the road while we were walking from the bus stop to Ryan’s. We are also planning on going to a Hamem, which is a Turkish bath. Basically a really big Turkish man washes you and it’s meant to feel really good… Don’t know what else there is in store, but should be interesting. It’s been fun just hanging out and talking with locals. I’ll let you know. Here are some pictures. We are here until the 23rd.
Until next time…
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