Go Time

I actually find this kind of funny. I'm sitting in my room on a beautiful sunny day. The window's cracked open. It opens like a door. I can hear kids playing soccer yelling "burada! burada!" trying to get their friends to pass the ball. Wearing cutoff shorts, a tank top, my Red Sox hat, noise cancelling headphones around my neck. Feeling oddly American. Staring at the introduction of a 10 page paper, referring to my outline every once in a while, munching on tortilla and hummus with a cup of çay. Let's hope I stop getting distracted.

Today's caffeine count (21:30):

2 Nescafé

5 Çay

Sleep: Improbable

Final caffeine count (0:30):

2 Nescafé

7 Çay

Sleep: 02:30. 5 pages written. Not bad.

Anarchy in Athens

As time has gone on I have apparently gotten worse and worse about updating this blog, but thats because I've been living my life rather than writing about it. I took a long weekend in Athens a few days ago. Negotiating the vacation was a bit rocky, but it turned out for the best. Met up with some friends who flew in from Edinburgh and thankfully did not get stranded by the ash cloud. Metro was on strike when I got there. Split a cab with two Brits to the city center to cut costs. I always feel like I have to entertain when I carpool.

Got to the hostel. Met up with Courtney and Lilly. I had been complaining about how much we were paying for the hostel till I got there. 6th story suite with a kitchenette, 2 showers, 2 bathrooms and a huge balcony looking out over the whole city and the Acropolis. Checked into the room, got a gyro #1 (with PORK! OMG PORK!) so delicious. Beginning of the culinary adventure of "What came first, the Greek dish or the Turkish dish?" (answer: they all have Ottoman origins so leave nationalism out of my dinner). As a side note, there is no difference between the "Greek" Yogurt Kebab and Iskender Kebap. It's just Iskender. Also, why do the Greeks translate börek as "cheese pie" and "spinach pie"? They're totally missing the potato variation, but that's beside the point. Greek simit (circular sesame bread) is actually a little bit better than the Turkish simit. The Greek version is softer and doesn't have the hard, crunchy pretzel texture that Turkish simit does. Anyway, I greatly enjoyed Greek food and liked confusing people by using the Turkish names (I don't know any of the Greek names besides gyro and tzatziki, also known as döner and cacık.)

Wandered around town, went to what we thought was just a park but was actually where the ancient Greeks thought the Muses lived. Saw the "Prison of Socrates." Took goofy pictures in front of the Acropolis. Wandered back down the hill a few hours later. Got some dinner. Picked up some wine. Sat on our balcony chatting and looking out at the Acropolis in a huge thunderstorm.

Day 2 we went to the Acropolis. I had left the balcony door open to let in fresh air during the night but sincerely regretted that when the church bells started up in the morning. I really forgot how annoying they are. At least the call to prayer is only 5 times a day and beautifully sung rather than bells going off every hour (and half hour in some cases). Acropolis was swarming with people but cool nonetheless. Unfortunately large parts of it are being repaired at the moment. Took the sort of the rocky/adventurous route down. Rewarded ourselves with some ice cream (it was at this point that I realized I missed Turkish dondurma).

Took the metro over to another part of town, went to the Archaeological Museum. I got to play tour guide in the pre-historic section b/c I've been studying the Grave Circles and Mycenaeans this semester. Pretty cool stuff. Exhausted. Went home, showered, passed out for a few hours.

Got up in time for dinner and meeting up with Demi, Lilly's friend from Athens. Thankfully I had a cup of coffee between dinner and going out because it turned out to be a pretty late night. Demi took us to some bars around Monastiraki where we were staying for a night of Greek drinks.

Drink #1: I can't recall the name, but it's a hot liquor with a slice of lemon and a cinnamon stick floating in it. Goes down smooth. Drink it from shot glass sized glasses shaped like mini-beer mugs. Learned the Greek toasting. Clink glasses, touch your glass to the table to honor the dead, then drink.

While we were sitting at this outdoor bar, a fireblower came by. He wasn't looking for tips. He was just really wanted to blow giant fireballs in the middle of the street. Talked to him later. Apparently he's Welsh. Us four girls discussed our strategy/plan for the night. Demi wanted to show us the anarchist quarter, which sounded interesting, so we finished our drinks and followed her past Omonia to the region where cops stand guard but seldom enter.

Demi works at a Cretan bar in the anarchist quarter so we went over there for a while. By a while I mean that it was probably several hours. Bars in Athens are kind of like most bars in Istanbul. There's a bar, but most people are sitting at tables outside in the street. I like it that way. Its really chill. Her boss treated us to raki (which tastes nothing like Turkish rakı), snails in hot olive oil and rosemary, and a few other Cretan drinks and dishes. All of them were delicious. Especially the snails. After a few rounds, Demi said it was late enough to go over to the club so we followed her over to a rock bar that's apparently well known in Athens. Had a lot of fun, did a lot of dancing, etc. None of us realized how late it was until we finally decided to leave and the sun was already up. Oops. Went back to the hostel. Slept till noon.

Our last full day in Athens was supposed to be a beach day from 9am-sunset. Needless to say, that didn't happen. It was around 3pm by the time we finally got to the beach (waking up, showering, eating a gyro and finding the bus to the beach really does take that long). I am pretty sure we got off the bus too early b/c the beaches were gross. Like worse than Galveston gross. Garbage everywhere. Broken glass. It was overcast. We tried to go further down taking the tram only to find out that it turned away from the coast about a block after we got on so we had to get off and walk back to the dirty beach. Guys were walking by trying to sell us stuff while we were tanning. The whole misadventure was pretty funny tho. On our way home we were talking about dinner. Decided that seafood was in order. I spotted a taverna near our hostel while we were trinket shopping. Went back there for an amazing meal: tzatziki, bread, fried zucchini balls (breaded mixture of cheese and zucchini), swordfish, veggies.

We had picked up wine, cheese and chocolate on our way back from the beach. Decided to make an evening of that on the balcony. Delicious. Also had some fresh fruit left over from the day before when we bought 1.2 kilos of strawberries and cherries. Mmmmm.

Sunday was our last day in Athens. Got up early to clean up the room, pack, and check out of the hostel. Grabbed some coffee and a börek (or cheese pie if you like that name better). Went for a wandering walk trying to find the anarchist quarter again because I wanted to check out what the graffiti looked like there in daylight.

Came back around noon, took the metro to the airport, waited around for a few hours doing schoolwork before my flight and then headed back to Istanbul. In all it was really a perfect weekend.

Revision

I rescind my former statements about Turkish culture being less physical than Texas culture. While there are some greetings that are more polite, there are many others that rival Texas physicality. I cite the numerous groups of friends wrestling on the lawn of South Campus last night during the concert. Wow. Just wow.

Evenings along the Bosphorus

The long-awaited spring break in India post is being postponed. I haven't figured out how to put that into words yet. I think that may be something that's better told in person or simply through photographs. I will say that while I had a good time, I am definitely glad to be back in Istanbul which is the subject of today's post.

I came back from break with two papers and a midterm looming ahead of me. The night before the last paper was due (ie Thursday night), Brent, Deniz and I were in the library attempting to churn out five pages of a halfway decent book review. The problem is, the subject of the book in question, Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul, makes it very difficult to focus on writing when there's so much city to explore. Around 8 o'clock, with me 3 pages into the paper and Deniz 100 pages away from finishing the book, we decided to bounce.

I was just getting over a bout of food poisoning that had kept me on a pretty limited diet since coming back from India, so I was really excited about getting dinner. I stayed completely vegetarian in India so it had been about two weeks since I had eaten meat. Never going veg again. We walked from the library on North Campus over to South Campus and took the winding route down the forested road to Bebek. We walked along the Bosphorus to the best burger joint in Istanbul talking about spring break and summer and life in the city in general. Dükkan Burger was delicious as always. We shared a cultural moment of what to put on fries. Everyone here uses mayo. Gross.

Went over to the Bebek Starbucks afterwards to sit on the back patio sipping coffee and looking out at the ships going by. It was about at this point when I realized how much I loved this city. There’s a particular smell that this city has in May, and June as well according to Deniz, that makes it seem so peaceful. The trees are in bloom. The tulips are in bloom. There’s a cool breeze coming off of the Bosphorus giving the air a crisp freshness. Reminds me a little of Cape Cod in August.

After giving up on the idea of getting any work done at the Starbucks, we took the winding road back up to campus. Near the top of the hill there's a lookout point with some benches. It's usually littered with bottle caps and cigarette butts. I now understand why. Students sit there and watch the ships go by, chatting with friends and having a drink. We stopped and relaxed for a bit and both realized that though we were going to be hard-pressed to finish our papers before class the next day, our souls had really needed an evening with the Bosphorus.