Istanbul and Capadocia, Türkiye

Thanks to the fear and spread of Swine Flu in Egypt, the government closed down all schools and universities. I already had a break for the Eid al-fitr (the end of Ramadan), so my vacation was extended for another week and a half, and therefore my trip to Turkey was also extended for the best swine flu break ever!

Arrival 9/17/09 The first night in Istanbul was spent doing some basic exploring as we stumbled upon a very Turkish free concert seen below:

ate some 1 Lira street corn:

watched the magic of Turkish lollipops which are really a hybrid between lolly and taffy.

and got a sneak preview of monuments we would later visit.

The Hagia Sophia (a church turned mosque, truly beautiful building)
The mihrab (place in a mosque which indicates the direction to Mecca which Muslims pray towards) is off center in the Hagia Sophia because it was originally built as a Church. Many of the icons of saints and Jesus have also been painted over and crosses removed with the outlines still seen.

If you move your hand in a full circle, your wish will come true. My arm is glowing, so my wishes will surely be fufilled!

ראש השנה בטורקיה
For Rosh Hashanah I enjoyed a festive meal at Chabad of Istanbul complete with apples, honey and meat (which I have been doing without as I have not yet found a kosher butcher in Cairo.) Funny enough at the Chabad dinner two other AUC students who were travelling Turkey sat across from me, I guess all the maranos come out during the high holidays. I went to services at a very high security shul in downtown Istanbul where I was given the "are you really Jewish test?" The women's section was barren, but it was nice to not feel as much like a foreigner if only for a few hours. My travel companions and I preformed tashlich on a boat, and threw our sins out into the Bosphorus river.


After a boat cruise on the Bosphorus, we arrived at a small island in *Asia* and on the top we explored a forgotten castle.



The view from the top of the island.

This is me and Moses' staff. That's right, the Moses, Moshe Rabbeinu. We went to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul which is full of Biblical and Quranic relics as well as treasures from the good ol' days of the Ottman empire. To add to Moses' staff (obviously my favorite), I saw Joseph's hat (pure white and in mint condition), John the Baptist's arm, Mohammad's sword, parts of his beard and as seen below, his footprint.
















The Blue Mosque, also beautiful and has a very comfortable carpet that was nice to sit on. Although the mosque was fully functioning, tourists are allowed inside in between prayer times, which gets tricky to time what with prayer 5 times a day. Being Cairo girls, we knew to cover hair, no shoes, no taking pictures of people in the middle of prayer etiquette which was ignored by some of our fannypacking peers.

This is me and a chicken nearby the Blue Mosque.














Restaurants all have basic-English speaking men inviting you to their restaurant and to just look at their menu, this is Natalie saying "sorry we already ate" for the 20th time.

The view from the top of one of our hostels at sunset.














Princes' Islands. One day we took a ferry to an island near Istanbul which used to be a summer get-away for the sons of the Sultan and now is just a get-away for common peasantry such as myself. No cars are allowed so we rented bikes and toured the island as we attempted not to get run over by horse drawn carriages that provide transportation to the less adventurous. Here are my friends/travel companions as we took a rest from biking and watched the sea (from the left: Natalie, Ellen and Brianna)














Capadocia! (location: 10 hour overnight bus ride from Istanbul to central Turkey) What's there? awesome rock formations and caves that people live/d in and an underground city that early Christians hid in during times of persecution.


My fully tourist and fully stylish outfit: Real leather fanny pack (the Grand Bazaar), very cozy and brightly knit socks going great with my leather sandles (souvenir shop), Pashmina scarf/impromptu blanket (Chinatown, NY t-minus 4 years).

A truly breathtaking view.


I am smiling with my eyes, just like Tyra told me.


Another chance for wish making in Turkey! How to: Wrap a napkin or piece of plastic bag to this tree and make a wish. Hope it works :)

Hamam (Turkish Bath)
After 2 consecutive nights sleeping on a bus to and from Capadocia, we experienced the much needed Turkish bath. Although I did not take any pictures, this google image pretty much details the experience. We were washed, scrubbed, massaged and then given tea. I probably hadn't felt more dirty previous to the Hamam experience, but afterwards I had never felt so clean, almost a week later, I'm still feeling sparkling clean. Highly reccomended, especially for the grungy traveller.



The following are some miscellanious fun Turkey pictures from my incredible vacation.

Many times use of these toilets cost money, and toilet paper is not necessarily included.

A butcher with a sense of humor.

Finally, a Jewish doll! (just kidding, I don't know why she has horns).

I'm willing to bet that Obama did not buy a scarf at this stall...

We learned some turkish phrases, such as "how much is this?" (nakeda) without learning the numbers to understand the response, we had our fortune told by bunnies, we went between Europe and Asia on the same day, we drank Raki (the famous Turkish alochol), we made friends at hostels and bumped into friends from Cairo and we ate a lot of bread because it was free at restaurants. One thing I really liked about Turkey was the amount of color seen everywhere on houses, boats, clothes and scarves. It really reflected the livliness of Istanbul.