Week 2: Just Touristy Things

3. Step foot on two continents

15. Drink a glass of ayran

28. Eat Turkish ice-cream

38. Blue Mosque

41. Goreme National Park

45. Visit the Grand Bazaar

47. Yerebatan Sarayi (Underground Basilica Cistern)
70. Eat Turkish Delight

My second week in Turkey has been no less chaotic than my first. We spent the first half of this week learning about class registration and advising--y'know all the academic stuff that is actually the premise for my time here. One thing is for certain, I will never complain about registering for classes at Georgia Tech. I had to "request consent" from the professors for every single one of my classes for this semester, and then we all have to get our schedules approved by our advisors. It was so difficult narrowing down which courses to take in order to feel like I'm making the most of my time pursuing education in another country. But I did successfully avoid Friday classes!

On Tuesday, a group of us made a trip to the Grand Bazaar. The spanse of this market is huge (a few miles long I believe) and the types of goods they sell are uncountable. The best part was probably the vendors and how they tried to catch your attention or lure you in. Many called out to us--the best being "hey spice girls!" And "come here corn friends!" (Because we were eating corn). I even had one vendor threaten to close his shop because he was so sad that I said no when he asked if I liked anything there.

On Wednesday, a larger group of exchange/Erasmus students went to Sultahnamet. We saw the Blue Mosque, the Cistern Basilica, the Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace (though we did not go into the latter two). The weather was perfect for this outing and I am constantly amazed by the architecture that is such an integral part of İstanbul. The detail of the designs and the magnitude of their presence is pretty unbelievable. More than anything, I have learned that it is practically impossible to capture the beauty and wonderment of many of the sights I have seen in a picture. There are beautiful pictures out there, but nothing compares to a first hand account.

On Thursday, we visited the Starbucks with the best view in the world--down in Bebek, right on the water. But almost more impressive than this view were the waffles we had at Ab'bas Waffles. Literally cannot go wrong with a chocolate and strawberry covered waffle.

We spent the majority of Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning on a bus to Cappadocia. My first time in Asia on this trip!

Though the bus ride was not the most thrilling, Friday was crazy busy. We started with a hike through Ihlara Valley and then visited Derinkuyu Underground City. The underground city was used in times of need (war) and could provide for a town of 4,000 for four months. It was seven levels deep and so complex, it's hard to believe they were constructed hundred of years ago. 

Saturday morning brought a very unique experience--a hot air balloon ride over the very picturesque landscape of Cappadocia at sunrise. Whenever we googled "Cappadocia" in the past two weeks, every image depicted hot air balloons and the "fairy chimneys" so of course we had to go on one. This was definitely a great first hot air balloon experience--slightly terrifying but also extremely magnificent. We went up to 1000 meters in the air over our hour long journey. There were some really freaking awesome pictures but here are a few of my favorites:

The rest of the day we went to Pigeon Valley, Uchisar Castle, Goreme Open Air Museum, and a pottery workshop.

Our last morning here, Sunday, we stopped at a "valuable stone" place (it was really just a jewelry shop trying to sell expensive things to broke college kids) and another picture stop at the Three Beauties. Then we hit the road once again for our 10ish hour bus ride.

We've now had two days of classes and it is quite the adjustment after being out of school for two months. Classes are structured differently here, so I am curious and excited to see how the semester goes!

"Uctum." "Sevgili Balon, en iyisini yapmissim..."("I flew." "Dear Balloon, you did the best...")