Life's a short trip...

Well it's been a week, quite an interesting week. With jetlag and the time change, the first few days were pretty rough but I settled in and got my bearings and ended up having a lot fun. I saw a good amount of old city including the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar.

Let's start with the basics, Istanbul is huge, larger then NYC. Some estimates say is has about 15 million living in it. But with suburbs, the workforce, and students, the number is somewhere between 20 and 25 million people. The city is a marvel of people, architecture, roads, muesums, buses, Mosques and ferries. Istanbul can be split in three pretty large cities. First, it would be the old city and golden horn, this is the original Istanbul with Mosques, the Palace and cobble stone roads. Second it would the Asian side of the city connected today by a suspension bridge and ferries. Third it would New Europe, developed largely in the 19th, 20th and latter half of the 21st century.

Although I have yet to visit the Asian side, I think New Europe section is rather fascinating. It is where my university is located.  It is home to flashy hotels, the taksim Nightlight, the posh waterfront districts and plenty of neighborhoods. It is has very few signs of Islam or the Middle east. It is may be bigger then Boston but I'm not sure.  In one walk you can go from a neighborhood that looks a little village to place that looks like Time square. Just outside of my University neighborhood is this very Americanized section of town. It has a Chili's and Fridays along with an Italian beauty salon and the 2nd largest mall in Turkey, which only carries designer clothes. Turks go crazy for this place, the women wear fur coats and the men wear suits. They all want to be seated at windows so people will see them.  Hardly any women wears a head scarf. It is a very modern and high sought after area to live in.

It very much reflects in the dorm I live in. Superdome houses all international students and the richest of the turkish students. Evey area is a flat with either 2,3, or 4 bedrooms a common room and kitchenette.  They are ladies that come in during the day and clean the floors kitchens, common room and bathroom. It's bazaar and totally makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Turkerish students believe that is how Americans live...lol. They have a fascination with American culture and a pretty hyped perception of us.

The old city is the most beautiful place, every building is filled with the tiny-est of details. The streets are all cobble and  the domes fill the skyline. It is like entering the time period. Since Istanbul is the European Cultural Capitol (the Turks always remind you) the city has gone through a complete restortion. This section houses the Hagia Sopia, the Blue Mosque, the gated Palace, Hippodome, the Grand Bazaar and many of Istanbul's finest displays of architecture. It amazing how much of the history is christian as well as Muslim. Many building have gone back and forth between serving as a church or mosque.   You'll see women wearing fashionable head scarves here, but the full black on showing the eyes is very,very rare in Istanbul.

As impressive as that is, the most impressive thing about Istanbul is how clean it is. For city that's larger then New York I anticipated a smell, but not in Istanbul. You always a city working picking up trash or empty the city barrels. They do a lot of work to keep every section of the city clean. My only problem with this is that nobody hear recycles. It's odd to throw a water a bottle away, but there is no alternative. Can you imagine if a city of the size of Istanbul recycled? I'm sure the numbers would astonishing.

Well, that's all for week one. Next week it's Asia, a football match and much more! More travels are planned through out the semester maybe even to Syria and Greeece.

More photos can be view at http://www.flickr.com/photos/47744895@N05/ with labels and very long descriptions please enjoy...
lexi